A good review of current crop of tiny digicams out there.

wxwax

A member of our sister site, advrider, is buying a new, ultra-small digicam. He's written a nice, concise review of a large number of cameras.

Here's the thread.

knary wrote:

We like the z850 so far, though testing has been minimal.

What we learned in my exhaustive search:

Sony W100
Pros: comparable image quality to the rest, decent feature set, great pricing (could be had for $315 locally), took decent photos in our rudimentary tests
Cons: felt flimsier than the rest, menu and controls a little fussy, proprietary memory cards, a little too big to be considered "ultra compact", and, most important, my wife didn't like how it felt

Sony W70
Pros: small, good image quality, affordable
Cons: proprietary memory cards, limited feature set, felt flimsy

Fuji F30
Pros: incomparable lowlight and general shooting images... or so all of the reviews suggest, phenomenal battery life (500+ shots)
Cons: proprietary memory (xD cards), battery charged in camera, as big or bigger than the Sony W100, supposedly awkward menu system, and, worst, no one had one in stock for us to handle.

Canon SD700is
Pros: the image stabilization works.
Cons: too expensive

Canon SD630
Pros: beautiful little machine, great LCD
Cons: expensive, limited feature set, photos taken in store were blurry

Canon SD-series, the rest of the line up
Cons: reportedly fragile LCD's

Canon A620
Pros: great bang for the buck. Good photos, great features.
Cons: It's HUGE and only compact when compared to a full DSLR

Nikon P4
Pros: best aperture priority of the lot. easy to use menu system, image stabilization
Cons: a little bulky, shutter lag, no shutter priority

Panasonix FX-01
Pros: small, great price
Cons: noisy images

Casio z1000
Pros: best LCD, best ergonomics, great menu system
Cons: at 10 MP, this is the penis extension of little cameras. Photo quality less and fewer features than its 8 MP brother. Uses a dock to charge the battery and connect to the computer

Casio z850
pros: widest feature set, great ergonomics, easy to use menu system, solid construction, best in store photos, nice and small, 2nd only to the z1000 in ease of use (very close), maybe the fastest focus, good flash control, essentially no lag when shooting without the flash, slight hint of lag with flash, good battery life (300+ shots).
Cons: uses dock, aperture priority very limited, lower rez LCD than it's bigger brother, default settings produce overly sharp and crunchy images.


We tried many many many cameras. In this category of camera, there is no clear winner. Each one is a compromise in some way. If they'd put a Canon sensor and IS into the Z1000, dumped the dock, and include some of the Z850's manual controls, it would be the best of the bunch by a good margin. As it is, we settled for the what we felt was the best compromise.

The final paragraph in the Dpreview.com review of the casio...
<blockquote>In the final analysis, however, the EX-Z850 has more to recommend it than many sub-compact models - not least for the huge feature set (which will give you months of fun), and the comprehensive photographic control. It's beautifully made, fast, has a stunning screen and is really enjoyable in use. It's frustrating that Casio has come so near - and yet remained so far - from creating the perfect 'serious' sub-compact in both this model and its predecessor, but the fact remains that - in experienced hands - it still comes closer than any of its competitors. We can't give it a Highly Recommended for all the reasons mentioned above, but I have no qualms about recommending it to anyone wanting something that offers a lot more than just 'point and shoot' functionality in an attractive, and truly pocketable package</blockquote>

source

Of course, as with any camera, once you get something better than a marginal tool, it'll be up to the operator to make good images.

p.s. there are reports of some software/firmware tweaks for the Casio that help minimize its noise reduction that can be intrusive at high ISO's.

p.p.s the Casio's use a Sony sensor.

wxwax

Let me spoil the ending: he got the Casio z850.

wxwax

A final thought from knary.

knary wrote:

One more note: As you know better than me, virtually any of the current crop of digital cameras will take a good photo outside in bright light. So we took photo after photo under the store lights - usually murky odd colored lighting at best and often very dim. If the camera didn't willingly produce a reasonably sharp image then, it fell off the list. While the LCD's varied widely, a quick zoom on a photo could tell us if it caught enough detail to please us.

TylerW

wxwax wrote:

A member of our sister site, advrider...

Sister site? I'm an occasional lurker over on AdvRider - what's the connection?

ziggy53

TylerW wrote:

Sister site? I'm an occasional lurker over on AdvRider - what's the connection?

Tyler,

SmugMug hosts a number of communities, among which are:

Military
DigitalGrin
ADVrider
flowers-flowers-and-more-flowers
Sportshots
dpreview
DSLRusers-D70Users
AlmostFamousPhotographers
Birds
EuropeanTravelers
WorldTravel
BabyPhotography
Wedding-Photographers
4-Your-Top-50-Photos
Macro
ArtistsFineArtandDigital
PanaUsers
Airplanes
Worth1000
BMWSportTouring

ziggy53

P.S. What is not well know are the communities which didn't make it:

"Dirty-Diapers", they were just stinking up the place.
"Former-Spouse/Lover/Disease", see above.
"HousePlants I Talk To", we had to refer those folks to therapy.
"The Muscician Formarly Known As ...", nobody remembered, ... or cared.


C'mon folks, help me out. I must be forgetting some that "didn't" make it!

ziggy53

Owen

SmugMug hosts dpreview?

wxwax

TylerW wrote:

Sister site? I'm an occasional lurker over on AdvRider - what's the connection?

Same site owner, Baldy.

ziggy53

Owen wrote:

SmugMug hosts dpreview?

Yes, there is a "community" called "dpreview". (Not the "Site" called "dpreview".)

Check them out here:

http://www.smugmug.com/community/

ziggy53