I’m a gadget junkie.
I mentioned last month I didn’t need a new camera. As much as I would like image stabilization and video recording capability, as much as the price for this 7.2MP Digital Camera is ridiculous, I simply didn’t need it.
Then my mom asked for a simple to use digital camera. I showed her my 5 megapixel, told her about the new one.
Her answer? “Too bad they didn’t make the old one anymore.”
Boom!
Here ya go, mom. I gave her mine, and bought the new one.
It was too wicked cheap: $134 at Amazon (w/free shipping).
Casio Exilim EX-Z75 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Anti Shake Optical Zoom
Next toy on my list? Tivo with HD!
apparently amazon is suffering from a liquidity cruch as well – you just pushed the price up by $10 ! lol
way better deal?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830124035
Are the Casio cameras any good? I keep meaning to buy a digital camera, but it’s not like I’m some pro photographer. I’d just want one that can take some quality pictures and videos when I travel.
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BR: I’ve been very happy with the Casios — this is my 3rd one. They take abuse well (its been in my briefcase or coat pocket for two years.
Check out the first set of photos I took with these in 2005 — everything set on automatic, before I really had played with it. Its basic point & shoot.
Old Westbury Garden Antique Autos
Damn Deflation
http://bensbargains.net/category/30
Buy.com has it for 110.
Barry, check bensbargains before you purchase any electronics. Usually comments section has good insights, additional deal info, etc. I am reviewing and shopping for a new LCD so I bookmarked this and cnet to finalize and time my purchase.
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BR: Ben’s bargains is a good find — thanks !
But the Buy.com price has a $20 mail in rebate — they are headache inducing wastes of time.
Hey Barry, serious question. I’m watching CNBC, and would love to go to Dubui, but I have a pass-port that is stamped by Israel. Have you ever heard whether or not that could be a problem? I am not a Jew, but dad was an orphan, and I have been told, a few times in my life, that there is a possibility – Mom is full-blooded German.
Justin,
Dubai is pretty agnostic about that issue these days. It’s still a problem in most of the Arab states, but not UAE.
They refer to this (without specifically mentioning Israel) on their consular page:
http://uae-embassy.org/html/Consulate/General_Info.html
“All Americans with a valid US passport are welcome to enter the UAE. This includes those with visa or entry stamps from other countries.”
“Other countries” being shorthand for “countries we don’t officially recognize, thus can’t mention by name,” aka Israel.
-btc
You would have been better off with this new toy.
Rutters
Los Angeles, Calif.
March 17, 2008
In a surprise move, Hasbro Corporation has offered a half-ownership stake to Ben Bernanke for his new product, “Silly Dow”. A new company will be formed, HasBen, to market the new product.
According to product brochures, Silly Dow can be hammered, shaken, burned, crushed, deleveraged, annihilated, tortured, shocked, stomped on, and masticated, but will always bounce back to its original shape at the end of the day.
Beginning April 1, Silly Dow will be available at fine toy stores everywhere.
Florida,
I’ve tried the Casios and find that despite the megapixel count, the Casio cameras don’t generate the greatest images. They’re fine for snapshots and family photos in situations that aren’t particularly demanding. If that’s your desire, I say go for it.
If you want to be able to make larger prints of good quality, or to use it frequently in demanding situations like snow, heavy backlighting, etc. then it’s probably not for you. There are a lot of things that go into making a camera better or worse, and megapixels (just like megahertz on a computer) are just one of them. In many cases the megapixel count may be far less important than other factors like the quality of the lens, the quality of the sensor, the quality of metering/exposure system, etc. In some cases (this Casio included) some purported “features” can have unforseen impact.
Personally, Barry’s last thread on the subject intrigued me and I checked the Casio out. I found that for my purposes I was a bit better off spending a bit more for the Canon SD750. It doesn’t have the image stablization of the Casio, but is better in all other respects.
(The Casio’s image stablization is a software algorithm that attempts to correct the image for camera shake. It is not the same as actual stablization of the optical components that is available on pricer models. I found that it tended to increase noise in the images in some cases. To be expected from this kind of system.)
Keep in mind that this is the opinion of a very demanding user.
-btc
BelowTheCrowd, (but perhaps above it.) thanks! Just remembered passing through costomes and they asking whether I wanted my stamp on my pass-port or a separate piece of paper, and I saying what? How isolated we american’s are…even after 9/11…what really would happen if we had several terorist strikes on our territory? If I’d be in charge of a terorist group now might not be a great time to strike – Democrats blame Bush…but the world really doesn’t care about our little world. They just want U.S. to realize their misery. This is why some times I feel that Obama, might be worth the try – show the world that we are truely the society that means equality. Now if only genetics thought so…why did not God make genetics 50/50. Obviously it is because symetry, although being perfect is not whole, and self preserving.
you are a very good son!
I definitely agree with BelowTheCrowd. I did the same research, ConsumerReports, etc. and came to the same conclusion. I was torn between the Canon SD750 and the Sony DSC W90. I went with the Sony and am very happy.
Winston, I think it reacts to the heat disseminated by the engine room of the money presses.
This silly toy is most likely made of Nitinol (i.e. memory metal, smart metal)
You bend, twist, deform….then get the printing presses cranking and as soon as the printers starts heating up…Voila! back to original form! nice…
Best quality is in the best glass. Nowadays, some lenses are actually carbonate – coated glass with aspherical elements being better, generally, as well as being the best suited to zoom lenses. Sensor size and resolution are useless without good optics.
OTOH, unless you’re getting enlargements, the casual viewer won’t notice a difference on a 4×6 print.
you’ll be quite unhappy when you take it outside… the lcd is impossible in bright sun… i got ride of mine and got a canon a570 that has a decent viewfinder…
Marcus,
The glass is one of the key items to worry about, and one of the reasons I pretty much stick with the Canon and Nikon cameras. Virtually all of my important photos are with a Nikon SLR, but it’s nice having something compact that can fit in a pocket for those occasions when you’ve just got to grab the image.
Like I said, there are many other things that go into it. Sensor size and density matter, as does the megapixel count. And of course there are different types and quality levels among the sensors. And some cameras force you into using higher levels of jpeg compression than others. (Virtually all point and shoots require some degree of jpeg compression.) In addition, the metering, focusing, etc. vary widely among brands and individual cameras.
Bottom line to me is that you do get more for more money, and the question then becomes “what do you need?” If you’re shooting for online display or small prints, the answer is often far, far less than even the least expensive cameras can deliver. In which case something under $150 like Barry’s camera could just be perfect.
-btc
I have been thinking about buying a digital camera for my wife, girlfriend, and lover. Wouldn’t be a camera with a higher zoom capability, like 5x, better than the 3x zoom? What’s your experience?
Thanks.
Take care not to have your finger in the way when the lens opens out. This will basically break this camera – “lens error”. Personal experience speaking…
Rootless,
There are pluses and minuses.
A 5x zoom of the same quality will be bigger and heavier and make the camera bigger and heavier.
A 5x zoom fit into the same space is necessarily a lower-quality lenses in most cases.
It also can make a difference what the zoom range covers. Most lenses start at about a 35mm equivalent focal length and extend out to 105mm equivalent (more or less). Some cameras start out from a slightly wider point, The Canon SD870 makes a point of having a 3.8x zoom, but it’s pretty wide at the low end and doesn’t extend out quite so far. More practical in my experience, but also tougher to make, which is why it ends up being a more expensive camera than most in its class.
As with anything else, there are infinite variables which are balanced with each other.
For normal use, most of the 3x zooms are pretty adequate in terms of focal length.
-btc
There are a number of apparently good 7 MP “snapshot” cameras. My only complaint is that presumably for reasons of restricting the image size (flash storage and USB download speed, not so much capacity?), at least some of them apply far too high JPEG compression ratios, negating much of the benefit of the image resolution, which introduces very noticeable blocking artefacts in images with low-light noise or particular detail textures.
My old trusty 2MP camera has 1 MB image size at the “high quality” setting. My wife’s new 7MP model makes 2+ MB images — even though the image area is 3.5X as large. (At the same quality setting, file size should scale roughly with image area.)
The net result is, sharper looking images than my old one, but noticeable artefacts once you zoom in. I’m rarely doing prints, so I have not compared on that basis.
I suspect with even higher sensor resolutions it will become worse.
But then those are snapshot models — I’m sure the fancier or semi-pro models have uncompressed “raw pixel” modes.
CM,
Exactly. My Canon point and shoot has four different “quality” (aka compression) modes. The highest quality setting is very good. They go down from there.
Some of the cheaper cameras offer fewer modes or have a “high” setting that still compresses a fair amount and leaves noticable artifacts.
The reason typically is that the real slowdown tends to be in storing the image to the card. Forcing smaller images allows you to claim shorter times between shots.
Most of the SLRs (at least from Canon and Nikon) have 3-4 jpeg compression settings, as well as a “raw” setting in which uncompressed data from the sensor is captured and needs to be translated to jpeg by software on your computer.
Some cameras give you an idea of what the compression levels actually are. Very good quality jpegs are usually around 1:4 compression. At that level losses are insignificant for most purposes.
-btc
Don’t get a TivoHD, get a Vista Media Center with HD (like an S1 Digital or VidaBox). You’ll like how it handles music, pictures, etc.
Ted
Vista?
I’m a Mac guy at home, and an XP guy in the office.
Besides, Tivo has the best interface and usability of any DVR I’ve pputtered with, bar none.
you might want to check this article, which argues that 6mpixel is optimal…:
http://6mpixel.org/en/
Great feedback on this thread! Thanks all!
return it!!!!!!!
i just bought the canon sd750 for $150 from office depot…brand new!
Canon = best point shoot camera’s period
watch slickdeals.net should come for lower now that the sd870 IS came out…the sd1000 should be even cheaper
BelowTheCrowd,
Thanks!
I bought this camera at your recommendation and have been loving it. Great find, thanks.
Zo,
Great little camera.
Doesn’t have the anti-shake software of the Casio, but as I’ve noted, the Casio’s anti-shake isn’t all that great. And the Canon fits my hand better, which things less shakey in the first place…
I thought it was worth the extra $$$.
The 6mp article is interesting. I think it’s probably fairly correct. I’m up to 12mp in my SLR, but that’s with lenses that each cost several times what a small P&S camera costs and with a much larger sensor.
-btc
Barry,
Tivo is cool, but I think interface easily tops it: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/default.mspx
Check out S1Digital and VidaBox, they’re in NY.
Ted
The HD TiVos are great bets; Barry, if you’re a current TiVo user and looking to upgrade, call their support line to cancel and they may offer you the TiVo HD at $200 instead of $300 to get you to stick around. I’ve loved their software since my first one in 2002, and it keeps getting subtly better.