Digital Cameras - what to get?

Hi Captain
I was going to buy the Olympus but my local camera shop showed me the Ricoh instead. He was selling both but he stated that the shock resistance wasn't as resistant as they stated.
I have had the Ricoh R5 now for 8 months and I must say I am extremely happy with it. It is extremely user friendly, boots up really quickly. I think it was under 1 second from switch on to shoot, the quickest on the market at the time, christmas last. You can view pictures with out turning the whole camera on, only turn on the viewer and it has a rechargeable battery that just won't go flat. I just did a two week simpson desert trip and only charged it once. The battery can take 360 photos without a recharge.
There is a new model out now, an R6 I think so well worth a look.
120scruiser

We went to Rick Hart today and bought a panasonic Lumix Tz-3. We almost bought an Olympus camera yesterday but didn't like the 4 AA battery set up. The Tz-3 has a wide angle lense and 10X optical zoom that is equivelent to 18mm -280mm in 35mm speak.

For prices, consider U-Mart (Umart ?) in Brisbane.
Strange world eh.Perth offers attractive prices/postage on comms, and Brisbane counters with camera/IT items.
Will mm the address Capt. so you can compare.
Jeff.

From what you say you like in a camera, I would be looking for the following features. A lens that goes down to 28 mm wide angle (most compact cameras don't go this wide, but some now do) Panorama overlap feature with a good stitching program in the package with the camera to join them together. In image anti-shake feature. I also like to have an optical viewfinder as well as an LCD viewing screen because I find I hold the camera steadier when it is up against my head rather than held in outstretched arms and also it saves lots of battery life when the LCD is off.
Panasonic/Lumix are good but have noisy image problems, This is only an issue if you start to blow photos up to 10X8 or bigger and it doesn't sound as if this is an issue for you. I liked the Ricohs as well, but they have a couple of other issues.
Try this site www.dpreview.com/
Read the different reviews of cameras at the site and if you go to the forum columns you will find lots of reports from the owners of various cameras.
If you do a google search for les numeriques you will find a place where you can compare shots from any cameras you choose, side by side. Amazing site

Personally, I would be looking at a Canon IXUS 850 (also called SD800iS) which has all the features you are looking for and great images.
One other thing, check a product called invisi-shield, (You will have to google for this.) Amazing stuff Quite invisible but practically bullet proof and you cover the camera (or ipod, or mobile computer) in it. Bit fiddly to put on, but really works. You have to get it from the USA. It's the stuiff that gets applied to the leading edges of helicopter rotors to protect them. My experience with it has been so good that if they don't have a kit of invisi shield that fits the product I am looking at, I'm likely to buy a competing product they have a kit for. If you are going bush a lot and keep the camera in your pocket, it's worth every cent.

HI,
we have the Olympus mui770SW and it's been great for happy snaps on holidays when we didn't want to take all the lenses and big bag of our Canon EOS camera.

I've taken the Olympus to Jamberoo with the kids, put it on a lanyard around my neck and taken pics while we were swimming. The firmware is very intuitive and the Olympus package software for storing images on your PC is better than others we've used. I've dropped it a couple of times and it still shoots well. The video capabilities are fairly basic (it is a still camera after all). I bought a little camera bag for it as it doesn't come with one so it's got somewhere safe while knocking around in the bottom of my wife's bag. The battery is a rechargeable one that is quick to charge up and it has lasted a good couple of days of shooting and viewing slideshows on the tv before topping up again. It's pretty tough - instructions say to swoosh it about in a bucket of water if anything gets under the auto lens cover and repeat until clear. The kids have use ours and it's still ok...
Bought ours from DSE at one of the sales not long after it was released (it's the blue one - making a fashion statement too here) .... we like it, does everything we want. Has some easy settings for 'party','portrait' etc and the instruction book was easy to follow too.....

hope this helps. Haven't tried the others mentioned above just did alot of research on the web and decided in the shop after playing with some others.. I think the selling point for me was the waterproofness (is that a word??), toughness and size.
happy shopping.
:-)

In the compacts..........
Mainstream brand
6 megapixels minimum
At least 3 X ridgy zoom (or more)
Easily obtainable batteries (common AA batteries require a bulkier camera casing - compact special lithium batteries allow for a smaller case but AA is available everywhere if you are stuck for power - has saved me once or twice).

Digital back SLR is the best I'm told, but = $$$.

Hi there Captain,

I have a digital camera buyer's guide that you might like to look at on my website - I have also contributed it here somewhere but I can't find it ;-)

http://www.vividadventures.com.au/VAchecklist.pdf

If you are buying in the US is it is a good idea to buy a Mack Warranty with it - not only does it extend your warranty but ensures it will be fixed anywhere in the world.

I have rather high expectations of my stitching, so I like to use a Digital SLR and stitch it professionally using Panotools - a piece of very good free software.

As Mike Fewster has said, a wide angle lens helps for panos, and he didn't say that holding the camera in Portrait mode rather than landscape makes for more interesting shots and better quality images... although I have never tried using the point and shoot camera's stitch functions in this way.

I also think the AA batteries are a nice way to go - cheap, and you can get some really good high quality 2700mAh batteries these days.

If you can afford a digital SLR, and live with it's limitations, you will probably find it even better - if you like Olympus, they have a good camera as do the other manufacturers - Nikon, Canon and Sony to name a few.

In the US, if you have an address to ship to or are in New Jersey B&H is a reputable seller doing huge volumes, but there are also large electronics stores in almost every city.

Cheers,
Andrew.

Thanks guys for all the tips. I have checked out all the models mentioned above and as usual all have some great features the others don't have and not one has all the features. Also checked out the websites for tips and reviews

At this stage the Olympus 770SW is still my prefered choice mainly because of the waterproofness and "top pocket" size. No other compact digital camera seems to offer waterproofing (did I miss any?). While its lack of wide angle (only 38-114mm) and non AA battery use are against it, I keep coming back to the waterproofness of the Olympus and think I can live with those disadvantages.

But if you have any more suggestions I am all ears (eyes?)!

Cheers

Captain

We bought a Fuji F30 and it is great. It is easy to get hung up on gimmick type features and ignore image quality.
The Olympus gives you water resistance but it's optics are inferior. If you really love your photos, keep this in mind. If you just want happy snaps anything will do the job.
AA batteries are great but digital cameras chew through them something shocking.
We get about 400 shots I think from a charge.

We were looking at the Canon 850 too, but more than one dealer seemed to think it wasn't worth the extra money.

Fuji gives you ISO3200 with less than expected noise, which can be handy.

We have the 720SW model, great little camera, gets pretty rough time over the past year or so, has been dropped form around the 1.5m onto bitumen on more than one ocassion, gets plenty of dust etc.. no problems so far. wide 28 lens would be a bonus but like most things you have to take the best compromise that suits you.

Ahoy captain we purchased a Kodak EasyShare C743 early this year because we were told it was easy to use because we are new to digital cameras and it is easy to use. 3x zoom 7.1mp also does video 2.4" screen with a 1mb card "I think that's how you say it". It was a good buy for us happy shopping.

"Nearly 3 years ago now I purchased a Canon A85 from advise on this forum and have been extremely happy with it. However the auto focus has started to play up (need to turn off/on to work occasionally)"
Have you tried removing the CF card & cleaning the contacts? Same thing happened to me a while ago & that was the problem. If you can't do it yourself, it may be necessary to get it done by a pro camera shop, but may save you the cost of a new camera .