Excellent, innovative and quirky camera systems made and marketed by a gigantic disinterested corporation.

I've got a significant amount of Contax equipment myself, including the G2 system. IMHO the image quality out of these little cameras is unbeaten in the 35mm world. An inexpensive film/slide scanner such as one of the Dimage Scan Dual-series gives a good and relatively inexpensive into the digital realm. It's worth a look if you're not worried about getting your prints or postings the same day.

The attractions of digicams are their instant gratification and their unparalled macro capabilities. Most seem to scrimp on the lenses, meaning you can narrow down the field pretty quickly if you want Zeiss-like quality. With the Sonys, I've not seen any of their very compact models supplied with T* Zeiss lenses. If there is one, I'd recommend a look
(although I've not heard whether their digicams have inherited Sony's typical mediocre dependability). Panasonic are putting Leitz lenses on their better models, and of all companies, Kodak uses Schnieder lenses on their better models. My wife just ebay-'d a Kodak LS443 4 meg with a 3x Schneider zoom and a docking port for less than three hundred bucks. The quality is very good and it's a reasonably small camera.

Shutter lag, slow startup time difficulty seeing the screen outdoors, lack of true manual focus, lack of true wide angle optics, weak flash, poor optical finders...are some of the frustrating shortcomings of digicams I've used. Some of these areas are being addressed, others not really.

Don't get overly hung up on megapixels. A 4-meg low-noise chip will give better images than a noisy 5-meg chip, and as a consumer it's very difficult to make a useful comparison.

If I were buying today, I'd seriously consider the Camedia 5060 because of it's (very rare) wide angle zoom. But it is neither inexpensive nor compact.

--Rick Contaxes and Saabs since the '70s

posted by 12.72.15...

• Digital camera advice?, Chris, Fri, 27 Feb 2004 19:26:52
  • Re: Digital camera advice?, baggsly , Sun, 29 Feb 2004 10:35:53
  • Contax, the Saab of the Camera World, Rick D., Sun, 29 Feb 2004 09:32:16 <-- Viewing This Message
  • Olympus, Nikon, Canon (long), Tim B., Sat, 28 Feb 2004 16:05:18
    • if you like design look at a nikon coolpix, tturboboy, Sun, 29 Feb 2004 05:01:18
  • Re: Digital camera advice?, JasonS, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 09:39:59
  • Per NY Times review, Stephen Goldberger, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 09:16:32
    • ooops, Stephen Goldberger, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 09:18:34
      • Re: ooops, kgoetz97, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 12:39:14
  • Not small, but awesome nevertheless, TG, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:53:08
  • One of the smaller Nikon CoolPix models n/m, Noel, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:22:25
  • We're happy with our Cannon......, Crispin, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 06:47:37
    • Canon A70!, MJM , Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:35:46
  • Re: Digital camera advice?, mudpuppy, Sat, 28 Feb 2004 06:04:30
  • We have a Nikon Coolpix 775 and it is just 2.1mp and, KB88900T, Fri, 27 Feb 2004 20:18:47
  • Re: Digital camera advice?, john, Fri, 27 Feb 2004 19:51:11

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