[muglo] Cameras - Canon A70 & Fuji 3800

Hi ya'll, I wrote something (not fully edited ;) to Sue & thought I'd post 
my thoughts here as well.

Eric.

RE: Getting a digi camera (I have a Canon PowerShot A70 3 MP)

I love having my digicam at my beck-and-call. Once you get used to it your 
photo shooting behaviour changes fundamentally. I don't think twice about 
snapping a shot (or 10) now. It also means that you can take photos of 
things that you'd normally write down or simply look at and hope you'll 
remember (e.g. a billboard or piece of info affixed to a monument (as a 
tourist), etc.). It also doubles as a *very* quick scanner for items where 
the information is more important (e.g. visa bill) than perfection (i.e. an 
illustration). I now take valuable documents with me on the camera's memory 
card so I have an emergency backup if anything happens (VISA, MC, Passport, 
V's passport, travel insurance docs, etc.).

There is only one real drawback to digicams and that is that you generate *a 
lot* of pictures. Since we're Dunbars it means we eternally fight a losing 
battle with our pack-rat gene. Digicams require a VERY disciplined strategy 
to DELETE pictures.

With film cameras there's a "rule of thumb" that says you ought to keep only 
1 in 10 photos. With digicams, I would advise *arbitrarily* upping that 
number to 1 in 20 (if you're anything like me and fill up a 256 MB card in 
no time flat it's a necessity ;).

Of course, I only delete 1 in 2 pictures (I now have >1400 pics in iPhoto 
after our trip to the Netherlands... 300 of them will be arbitrarily deleted 
by the new year b/c they're low-res (shot with an older camera) and of no 
relevance to me anymore (research pictures) and I will probably cull a lot 
more once time has passed (& you can judge what is important and what is 
not)).

As to choosing a camera:
1. What do you expect to use your camera for?

Computer-only photos?
You only need a *high quality* (you can't buy these new anymore) 1.3 MP+ 
camera. 2 MP will be overkill in that situation.

4"x6" photos? A *good* 2 or mediocre 3 MP camera will give you prints 
adequate for putting on a fireplace or in a photo album (especially if 
you're far sighted ;).

Blow-ups of (sizeable) parts of your pictures to 4"x6" photos? A good 3 MP 
or 4 MP camera should be sufficient.

Blow-ups to full page? A *good* 4 MP or better.

2. What kind of photos do you intend to take?

People pictures? 2 MP
Landscape/animal/plant? 3 MP high quality/controllable lenses!
Photos where you can blow up 1/4 of the pictures to 4"x6"? A good 3 MP will 
work, but I'd advise 4 MP or higher!

1.3 MP = ~1280x960
2 MP = ~1600x1200
3 MP = ~2048x1536
4 MP = ~2200x1800

There is a MP consideration: figure out what max pixel size you'd like to 
use regularly with best results (i.e. Sharp pictures) and get the camera one 
MP class up. I.e. If you see yourself using 2048x1536 (good for 4x6 and 
minor blow ups that are virtually indistinguishable from 35 mm pictures) get 
yourself a 4 MP. 1600x1200 is good for 4x6 that are near 35 mm quality but 
not for major blow-ups.

The reason I say this is that I've noticed that digicameras seem to give the 
clearest pictures when they're operating at least one step down from their 
*maximum* pixel count.

I only have experience researching the Fuji 3800 and the Canon PowerShot 
A60/A70 (now also A80). I looked at others but those were the ones the 
choice boiled down to (in my price range... $400-600).

Canon PowerShot A60 (2 MP) / A70 (3 MP) / A80 (4 MP) are a nice series of 
cameras with outstanding manual shoot features. I always shoot with some 
level of manual operation: Av (aperture priority), Tv (exposure), M (fully 
manual... Exposure, f-stop, ISO/ASA). It has a respectable macro feature, 30 
seconds of 15 fps 640x480 video with audio (200 sec at 320x200) and is a 
*small* camera given its versatility. The major drawback for *me* is 
something that will come back to haunt me in a year or few: the lens 
retracts every time its turned off.

All in all it's an excellent design for the casual photographer who likes a 
small body and requires a fair degree of versatility (you can do nearly 
everything you can with a decent SLR and then some).

The battery life on this camera is *stunning*. I shot nearly a week's worth 
& ~ 200 MB of holiday pictures & videos on one charge of 4 Energizer 1850 
mAh AA NiMH rechargeables. I ran out only on the last day and my backup 1300 
mAh AA no-name batteries (from Jessops... a UK camera store) finished the 
trip (an extra 30 MB of pictures). And I wasn't overly battery friendly 
either (b/c I brought a back-up set :). I nearly always shoot with the view 
finder on and regularly reviewed and deleted pictures & movies.

My favourite feature (when I know I don't have to be frugal with memory 
space like on an extended trip ;) is the "rapid shot" feature. I can shoot 
up to twelve 3MP (2048x1536) photos in a row (2+/second) and the camera is 
nice enough to allow you to continue shooting if you let off the shutter for 
a second or two to allow the camera to write some of the photos to the 
memory card.

The one *slight* irritant is that a picture is shot at a slight delay from 
what you see on the LCD (~0.1 second).

It does have a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to use it properly 
but once mastered will give excellent pictures.

The Fuji 3800 (3 MP) is a larger and more $$$ camera than A70 (much larger 
when you consider the lens doesn't retract), but it has a view finder that 
mirrors the LCD (saving you battery power), and has a stunning lens 
(A60/70/80 are 3x zoom; 3800 is 6x zoom). It has fewer manual features than 
the A60/70/80 (I wouldn't say no to one (*nice* lens) but the size of the 
A70 and its outstanding manual features are what I like about it over the 
3800) and from what I understand a much more limited "rapid shot" feature 
but the 6x zoom lens gives you a *lot* of photographic flexibility.

I can't comment on the video features of the 3800. The A70 isn't as good as 
a camcorder (yet) but it does make pretty good videos of little events. You 
can't change the zoom of the lens once you've started shooting a movie.

Someone on MUGLO has experience with the 3800 and was very happy with it. 
It's a *marginally* larger camera than the A70 but it is still quite light. 
You may find that it fits your hand better than the A70 (the A70 is nearly 
*too* small for my hands).

Depending on your needs, I would recommend the 3800 over the A70 or A80 if 
you're willing to drop the extra $100-150. Most people don't require the 
nitty gritty manual features of the A70/A80 and will really appreciate the 
high quality zoom lens on the 3800.

The 3800 should come in at ~$550+ tax, the A70 ~$400+, the A80 ~???. 
Additionally, the 2800 is the 2.x MP version of the 3800 (& should be <$400) 
and a good camera in its own right.

PS Canadian retailers should be boycotted until they start including tax in 
the price. It's so much nicer having it included and it stops the incessant 
whining of "tax payers" (while they wait for their tax-funded coronary 
bypass because they're so indignant about the taxes they pay ;). Shopping in 
European shops is so nice when you don't have to worry about adding tax to 
the price (unfortunately, customer service & opening hours are the pits in 
the UK compared to Canada so shopping isn't as much fun here... shopping in 
the Netherlands was fun though... opening hours to 18:00 and one or two 
nights a week until 21:00 or 22:00 (plus customer service was outstanding... 
even in the smallest of towns stores were open to 6 and clerks spoke and 
especially understood English (which was good for Veronica) (it was funny... 
immigrants to the Netherlands usually spoke better English than Dutch) 
depending on the city/town/village).

PSS As an aside (at the risk of raising the ire of the 
franco-/anglo-/francoanglo-philes) -- the Dutch have no qualms about 
providing services in whatever language is required by the local populace 
(same with the British (less prevalent in UK since most people speak English 
anyway and the Dutch are at least bi- and often tri- or tetra-lingual)) yet 
Canada, a much more multi-cultural society has far too large a segment that 
is hyper-franco/anglo only (I get the feeling when we return to Canada I'll 
have to do a little political agitating to get "official bilingualism" to 
transend the xenophobia of French-English official bilingualism... I'm 
starting to recognise that Canada's approach to official bilingualism is 
susceptible to valid human rights challenges (it may be strong 
constitutionally but that doesn't make it *right*). Official bilingualism 
was relevant in the 1970s but it is no longer. It's time for Canada to adapt 
and transcend bilingualism and work towards a truly inclusive, multilingual 
society (besides, French hasn't been the lingua franca for a century now... 
Mandarin & Cantonese are far more important now on the world stage... I 
would've preferred to learn German, or Cantonese in highschool than 
French)).

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