On The Net - Computing News

with Chris Goh

Picking a Digital Camera

I've been spoilt by my Sony FD95 digital camera, with its combination of 10x optical zoom, stabiliser and the image quality that only a Carl Ziess lens can produce. It was only 2.1 Megapixels, but over the last few years, every camera under $2000 that I tried didn't live up to the Sony Mavica.

It was one of the few to offer a stabiliser and for reasons I don't understand, it was a function that didn't seem to appeal to camera makers. It was a boon for me - I could take night shots with a 2-second exposure without the need for a tripod. The others were blurring with full zoom at 1/30 sec.

Digital cameras have offered a level of accessibility to amateur photography that never really existed with film cameras. Suddenly taking a snap has gone from being a hit and miss affair when you wait for the film to be processed only to discover your mistakes, to the instant feedback of digital.

It's also offered room for people to experiment with little cost (except batteries). I know my photography is now more adventurous and I take more shots. It's made photography fun.

And the one thing that was very apparent when comparing digital cameras for this article is that the number of megapixels doesn't determine the quality of the picture.

Digital photography took a major step forward last year when Canon released the first affordable digital SLR camera. The EOS-300D offers 6.3 Megapix sells for under $2000, and anyone who has Canon EOS lenses can use them on this camera. It's taken the market by storm, selling like hotcakes, despite the fact that it's around three times the cost of a similar film camera.

Yet the 300D offers value-for-money, compared with the $7-10,000 you'd normally spend on a digital SLR - and it's certainly left Nikon scrambling to catch up.

But if your budget is around $1000, then a number of top quality cameras are within reach. It depends on what you're looking for.

My search for a new one ended with a Panasonic Lumix FZ10s with x12 Optical and image stabiliser. The Leica Lens is top quality, and the features are similar to a normal SLR. A digital SLR with a zoom that converts to about 420mm would normally set you back around $3000 for just the lens.

But the Lumix has some quirks. The LCD reproduction is hard to see in dark conditions, although the quality is fantastic. It works best on manual mode when you're using the full focal length, but has a clever feature that uses the automatic focus to help you find the right settings.

There are too many functions to list, and even though you can get a 5 Megapixel for the same price, the lens itself is worth the money.

During the day, the shots are magnificent, rivalling the colour depth of the Olympus 5050 UltraZoom and Minolta DiMage7i.

The FZ10 is now available at Retravision for $1100, but the price should come down very soon. I'm also keeping my eye on Canon's new PowerShot S1 IS, which is under $1000.

If you're looking to keep the budget around $500, consider the PowerShot A70. This little camera has features including manual aperture and exposure levels with a 3x Optical zoom, usually only found in the $600-1000 price range. I'd recommend it to anyone getting in at the beginners level and with its new brother, the A75, due out soon, a bit of discounting is likely.

Hotsites

www.origami.com

For the life of me I don't know why I didn't discover this sooner. As a kid, I loved origami. This is one of the most comprehensive listings of all things to do with paper folding. It's an exceptional site - and you can search the diagram database for PDF files of the folding instructions.

www.cheesenet.info

Okay, so this is a weird one, but I'm sure there are plenty of Echo readers who love cheese. This site aims to catalogue all the world's cheeses (and but ignores the Southern Hemisphere) and also features poetry about them. Things don't come much cheesier.

ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

I don't think my grammar will improve, but this is a site for those of use who lack the necessary dexterity in how we form our syntax. Check this great site to help your grammar burdens.