When starting to search for a digital camera the only limiting factor I had put on myself was to look for a camera made by a traditional camera manufacturer rather than one made by a technology company. This is due to a much higher quality of generic camera parts flash and crucially lens are better made by the best.
With this in mind and a budget of roughly £500 placed on the purchase I began the search for a camera. At this stage I recommend heading to a camera store and talking to an expert and actually getting a feel for all the cameras you are considering. This dismissed many others. After this I continued my search by reading online reviews easy to find and if you read enough you start to get a clear image of the products concerned. Finding a site that offered photos taken with all different cameras was a bonus too.
With the choice made to purchase this camera I feel the increased resolution made this worth the price increase over the 740- made after price checking I keenly awaited the arrival of the camera.
Upon receiving it I set the batteries charging and was ready to shoot in just over an hour.
The first thing to note is that to start with taking good photos is extremely difficult on the auto mode. Pressing the button to take the photo makes the camera auto focus take control. It then readjusts the focus. In this time it is crucial the camera is held perfectly still or a very blurred image will be the result. Pressing it again firmly takes the photo.
Once youve got the knack of this though it takes about 20 photos practice but after that youll rarely go wrong again- it is largely plain sailing. Menu options are slightly confused but soon become second nature. The software provided to move onto the PC is basic but simple to use.
The best thing about the camera is the zoom 10x optical means that the lens adjusts as in a non-digital camera- rather than digital zoom which takes the image and then moving closer to it (this is also available to 4x magnification). This results in photos that are of the same quality whatever zoom level. And at maximum image quality this camera takes tremendous pictures. Truly breathtaking quality this was the major consideration when choosing a camera. To enhance this the camera can be fitted easily to a tripod, and comes with a remote to take photos without even slightly nudging the camera. Ideal for long exposure shots. Also a small benefit is that the camera can take video as well as photos but this is not the biggest asset of the camera although it does perform well still.
On the downside the memory card that comes with the camera is simply too small splash out for a 64mb card in addition to the one that comes with it. The other annoyance is battery life it does run out reasonably quickly. Again extra pleasure will be gained from investing in a battery charger.
All in all though the gripes with the camera are few and far between the two major problems can be solved by spending a bit more money. All in all I cannot recommend this camera highly enough it takes superb photos.
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Jan 16th, 2004
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