A few days ago I have bought a new “notebook”, or better to say, walk-around camera. I’ve spent a couple of hours reading about newest offers from the leading point & shoot digicam manufacturers and found that the market is pretty hot. There are a lot of good little cameras today. Sony W200 and Panasonic FX100 both built on the the quite good 1/1.72″ 12 Megapixel sensor, and they are both not the newest models in the range so could be found pretty cheap – less than $400 in Europe. Canon A650IS has the same 1/1.72″ sensor as Sony W200 plus swivel LCD and much better lens but costs more – over $500 here. Fujifilm F50FD 1/1.6″ 12 Megapixel SuperCCD ultra compact is also could be found for around $400.
I have almost prepared to spent four+ grands for my new day-to-day companion but my attention was caught by Canon A720IS 1/2.5″ 8 Megapixel point & shoot which is priced less that $300 today. It has all the same manual settings and the same zoom range as the Canon A650IS but lacks of swivel LCD and powered by two AAs – not four. Also it’s 20% smaller and just a little bit lighter.
I have downloaded a dozen of full size samples from the both cameras and found that the real difference in image quality (in terms of details and dynamic range) is not worth the almost twice price difference. It’s even hardly noticeable most of the time. So the Canon A720IS became my final choice. And here is my own quick review of this nice and cheap compact digicam.
(more…)
