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Camera Envy
As soon as you buy a digital camera, you'll want a newer one. But these three can hold their own
Alan Cohen
The Mobile Lawyer
December 11, 2001
Two fundamental truths about digital cameras: They're nifty gadgets; and two weeks after you buy one, something even niftier is hitting the market. Hardcore digital photography fans are often well acquainted with eBay. They'll shoot a bunch of pictures, then quickly auction off the "old" camera to buy a new one. It's not uncommon to find photographers who have owned a dozen digital cameras over the past few years. There's often a fine line between a hobbyist and someone in dire need of mental health care. Fortunately, the models now on the market are so good you'll want to hang on to them -- even after they're supplanted next week.
That's because today's baseline digital camera -- the 2-megapixel model -- can shoot snapshots that are virtually indistinguishable from those taken with a film camera. Indeed, even at an 8 x 10 enlargement, it's often hard to tell digital from film (sure, pros can tell the difference, but chances are, you and Grandma won't). Megapixels are like money: the more, the better. But you can get by just fine at a certain level. Depending on your needs -- and how much you want to spend -- you'll find that level at either 2 or 3 megapixels. Don't worry about the 5-megapixel models recently announced (the technology is advancing so fast we'd have to come to your office in person to give you the latest update). Sure, they're even niftier. But we're talking $1,000 worth of nifty. The cameras in this roundup range from $350 to $800, and will likely drop once the newer models hit the market.
Should you go digital? There are compelling reasons to do so. You'll be able to manipulate images (zoom, frame, even delete), and instantly view them on the LCD screen or on a television (all the cameras in this roundup include the required cables). You can upload images to your computer (once a hardship, now a painless process, thanks to USB connections and more user-friendly software) and print them on a color printer. Or you can send them to a photo-finishing Web site (such as Ofoto.com) for prints and enlargements. Memory cards -- where you'll store your images as you shoot them, the digital equivalent of film -- have fallen drastically in price. And you can store the images in an online photo album or e-mail them to friends and family. On the other hand, you do pay a premium for all this (a $300, 35-millimeter camera will offer more features and better quality than a comparably priced digital camera). And some digital cameras take the technology a bit too far for the casual shutterbug, with overly complicated menus and enough buttons and switches to fill a recording studio. But, should you decide to take the plunge, one of the following models should fit the bill. Each gives a different bang for a different buck.
KODAK DX3600 ZOOM
Street price: $350 ($80 extra for camera dock)
Lift Kodak's DX3600 out of the box, and you're likely to think you've just been taken. The cheapest camera in this roundup, it certainly looks -- and feels -- the part. Even the pieces that aren't plastic look plastic. Indeed, the camera is about as snazzy-looking as the $50 point-and-shoot models you can buy in a drugstore. The DX3600 is low on features, let alone frills. And it doesn't even come with a memory card -- just a puny 8 MB of internal storage space (you can add a card on your own dime, of course). There's just one saving grace here: The camera takes stunning pictures.
For casual photographers, the Kodak is ideal (if you're not too embarrassed to show it in public). Prints were sharp -- even at 8 x 10 size, details were clear -- and colors were vivid (more saturated, in fact, than images taken by the Olympus 3040 Zoom, which costs twice as much). We had exceptional results with indoor flash portraits, though the camera fared less well when we took flash shots at greater distances (here, the Olympus earned its keep). Controls are easy to handle, simply because there aren't many of them: If you want manual-exposure modes, multiple compression options and exposure compensation features, look elsewhere (though the Kodak does have a self-timer and, like the other cameras here, the ability to take short -- and crappy -- videos). The menu system -- overly complex on many digital cameras -- is a breeze here, thanks to cartoonlike icons that make the few settings intuitive. You can safely ignore the user's guide. The optional "EasyShare" docking station doubles as a rapid-battery charger and image transfer device. Place the camera in the dock, hit a button, and your images are automatically uploaded to your computer (you can ditch the dock and upload the images yourself via the USB connection -- not a particularly onerous task).
A couple of caveats, though: The lens's zoom range is limited (both the Olympus and Fujifilm models have a greater telephoto range), and you'll quickly want to cough up cash for a memory card, as the 8-MB internal memory can hold just 16 photos at 2-megapixel quality (the DX3600 uses CompactFlash cards; a 64-MB card costs less than $50). The maximum aperture of the lens is just f3.5, which greatly limits its ability in low-light conditions when you can't or don't want to use the flash. But ease of use, generally stellar photos and a low price tag make the DX3600 an excellent choice if you don't need to fiddle with every setting.
OLYMPUS C-3040 ZOOM
Street price: $700
Now, if you do like fiddling with every setting -- and we mean every setting -- Olympus has a digicam for you: the 3-megapixel C-3040 Zoom. There's a cost for all this, of course (beyond the literal, $700 cost): The user's manual looks like a Bar/Bri study guide. And it's required reading. The camera's menus are long, code-laden and hard to follow without the tutorial. Options are staggering. You can take the camera off automatic and select your own aperture (handy for manipulating depth of field) or shutter speed (useful for shooting moving objects). You can control the power to the flash, override the automatic metering (say, if you want overexposed or underexposed shots), and set the white balance for sunny or cloudy days, or for fluorescent lighting. This is the only camera in the bunch that lets you shoot TIFF images as well as JPEGs. (TIFFs, unlike JPEGs, are uncompressed, which -- to expert eyes -- makes for sharper images and larger files sizes; unfortunately, only one fits on the 16-MB SmartMedia card that ships with the camera). You can select from multiple resolution/compression combinations (up to 20 3-megapixel photos will fit on a 16-megabyte card), so that you don't have to waste space if all you need is an e-mail-quality image (there, even 1 megapixel is fine). When you view images on the LCD, a wealth of information can be displayed, including shutter speed, aperture, and resolution. The Olympus' big internal buffer means that you can keep taking pictures as previous images are being saved to the memory card.
The camera's chassis is smartly designed, too. The magnesium alloy case gives the Olympus a solid heft but comfortable feel. The zoom toggle is placed in the most logical location: right on the shutter release button. You can use a single finger to manipulate the zoom and take the shot. That said, there are a couple of miscues. You must manually remove the lens cover before turning on the camera. Otherwise, the lens will be unable to extract itself, and you'll hear a troubling grinding noise. And while the camera lets you record voice annotations to your photos (nice), it has no built-in speaker (lame).
Considering its versatility, photos taken by the Olympus left us somewhat disappointed. Images were crystal-clear -- indeed, even small text in enlargements was razor-sharp. But photos always seemed a bit too dark and colors not particularly vivid -- both the Fujifilm and Kodak cameras create more vibrant prints. Photo buffs refer to the Olympus' images as "accurate" color saturation -- we're not as vivid in life as we like to think. You be the judge, but personally, we missed the poetic license. On the plus side, the camera's super bright lens (f1.8) is ideal for low-light photography. It also did the best job at longer-distance flash photography.
FUJIFILM 6800Z
Street price: $800
If the cheap Kodak looks cheap, the expensive ($800) Fujifilm 6800Z at least looks expensive. Indeed, its slick silver body was designed by F.A. Porsche -- giving this 3-megapixel camera an eye-catching profile. While it lacks some of the bells and whistles of the Olympus -- and for its price, it shouldn't -- the 6800Z took extraordinary photographs, at least under ideal lighting conditions.
In bright daylight, the Fujifilm turns in sharp, vibrant images -- as sharp as the Olympus and more saturated. Yet the automatic exposure system had trouble with backlit subjects, frequently overexposing them. And in low light, the auto-focusing sometimes conked out, resulting in blurry, dark images. If you take this camera on vacation, double up on the outdoor attractions.
Settings are fairly easy to master, with easy-to-follow menus, and, as is the case with the Olympus, you can annotate your photos with voice (unlike the Olympus, this camera does have a speaker). There's also a handy cradle that, like the Kodak dock, charges your battery and lets you load images directly into your PC (here, however, it's included in the price). But a few design choices gave us pause. You use the same cursor keys to navigate the camera's menus as you do to zoom in and out. Unfortunately, the cursor keys are placed on the back of the camera, not near the shutter button, and a bit too close to your face as you frame the shot. This takes a bit of getting used to, and you should expect a few pokes in the eye. The camera suffers, too, from its lack of aperture- and shutter-priority modes. You can manipulate the flash for different effects, and the internal buffer is large, so you can keep taking shots as the camera saves previous images to the memory card.
As with the Olympus, there are a multitude of resolution and compression combinations. Don't be fooled by the "6-megapixel" setting. This is marketing talk. Under this setting, the camera takes a 3-megapixel image, then uses processing tricks to double the number of pixels in the file. Stick with the 3-megapixel setting: It looks great and it takes up less room on your card (we were able to fit 26 3-megapixel images with normal compression on the included 16-MB SmartMedia card). Sometimes more just isn't better, after all.
Alan Cohen is a free-lance writer based in New York. E-mail: alanc31@yahoo.com.
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Kodak's DX3600 |
