talking about latest gadgets. that’s the one i’ve ordered on the same day (thanks to stephan for hints):
sanyo xacti vpc-j1 ex (original page), ordered at byteline.ch with quite an amazing discount. further i’ve ordered the fastest sd-memory card currently available at panashop.ch. using this 256 mb 10 mbyte/s chip the cam will even be able to shoot short movies at 30 fps (vga resolution 640×480, including sound)
the other features are impressing as well:
– fastest camera of its category (wake-up 1.2 s, shutter-interval 1.6 s, playback 0.6 s, shutter delay 0.05 s)
– 2.8x optical zoom using a prism (= internal zoom)
– super-macro mode (2 cm)
– usb direct printing
– cross-platform image transfer (simply recognized as a usb storage device)
– 3.2 mpixel
– li-ion battery (accu) with very long runtime
– durable magnesia case
– last but not least: the first digital cam that actually *talks* to you ;) (-> talking navigation menu system)
the thing i’m rather sceptic about is the quality of the lenses and mechanics. sanyo clearly lacks the reputation of zeiss or leica just to name two. nevertheless i’m confident as i got told that sanyo is actually the world market leader with digital cameras if one also counts the rebranded (oem) cams. i’ll post my experiences regarding image quality. tbc..
How do you like your camera.
Just tested the new (not yet sold in Europe) Panasonic DMC-FZ10 and it’s AWSOME.
12 x zoom with image stabilizer and a brilliant Leica lense.
Feels like you’re taking pix from binoculars.
Especially in the mountains where I’m sure you can pick up a deer or a “bouquetin” on the mountin across from you…
Only drawbacks, the LCD screen doesn’t tilt which makes it useless most of the time… And the normal “viseur” (with true TTL vision) is tiny.
Plenty of manual settings possible to go beyond the point and click use of this nice camera.
Will test the Minolta Dimage A1 next, the only one which also has an image stabilizer.
leica lense.. that’s great :) regarding image stabilizer: i’m not so sure whether this is a desirable feature as afaik most image stabilizers work digitally (which means that picture quality tends to suffer). one reason for choosing the sanyo xacti was the fact that it features an optical zoom (additionally a digital zoom, but i’ve disabled it).
overall, i’m very happy with the xacti. however, if there is a weakness, it’s probably the image quality: the resolution could be better of course (more mpixels), the anti-red-eye-filter isn’t very reliable, exposure in case of very bright/dark scenes could be better and the shutter delay could be shorter (these are general weaknesses of digital cams compared to optical cams). considering the small price tag (= non-professional cam) and the many features, it’s a very good offer imho.