1 post tagged “camera”

I bought a pocket camera for a friend for her birthday in May earlier this year.  Let's call her Lulu.  I got her the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FX01.  She promptly lost it on her recent trip to Europe.  She was sitting on the steps outside the Sacré Coeur, musing, as one does, about life.  Her handbag was lying next to her and crying out, "Grab me!".  A kind passerby obligingly did.  Lulu was freed of her wallet, cash, credit cards, and the FX-01.  Talk about travelling light.

Fortuitously, Lulu had the lucidity to get travel insurance (the first time in many years) before the trip.  She's hoping to get some compensation from the insurance.  Amen.

So Lulu's in the market for a camera replacement.  What should she get?

Back in May 2006
In recent years, I've been rather partial to Canon cameras.  When I bought the FX-01 for Lulu, I was looking for a small compact,  sort of pocket size, camera for her.  Something you can put into a handbag without weighing a ton, but not one of those ultra-thin ones which would get lost in her handbag.  She already had a Sony but that was a few years old and she could do with a new one.

I quickly limited my choices to Canon and Panasonic.  Panasonic was the first to introduce image stabilisation into this class of cameras, which really comes in handy for small light-weight cameras, as camera shake, in less than ideal lighting conditions, is a common problem.  Panasonic also introduced a 28-mm wide angle lens in some of these cameras.  Personally I've always found the 28-mm wide angle far more useful than a long zoom (the latter being much easier to get in digital cameras).

The FX-01 had a range of 28-102mm, image stabilisation, and looked nice enough.  Image quality had apparently improved from a previous 28-mm model - the wide-aspect 16:9 LUMIX DMC LX-1, although there was still complaint about noise control in anything higher than ISO 100 in certain reviews.  By the way, although the LX-1 had a 28-mm wide angle, you would only get that if you took shots in the 16:9 aspect ratio.  If you chose the standard 4:3 for most digital cameras, you would get effectively a 35-mm angle.

The alternative was the Canon IXUS series.  They had a good design, looked cool, were easy to handle and operate, and had pretty good image quality for cameras of this size, especially the more recent models.  In May 2006, Canon had just started introducing image stabilisation to one of their models, the IXUS 800 IS, but none of them had a 28-mm wide angle.  That was the big reservation I had.

The only other camera of this class I could think of which had a 28-mm lens was a Ricoh, which actually had a super range (28-200mm).  Possibly because it's not available in the States, I had never been able to find any reliable review of that camera, and so couldn't really take the risk with it.

Canon of course also had the PowerShot S80, 8 megapixel and a lens range of 28-100mm.  Although still compact, it's a much bigger and heavier camera and was really outside the class of cameras I was looking for.

In the end, I went for the FX-01 for its 28-mm lens.  It was a very popular camera in Hong Kong, and despite professional reviews that it had noise problems, I hadn't heard of any reports of major image quality complaints about it in Hong Kong.  I preferred it to the Canon IXUS 800 IS.  Sometimes you have to take these camera reviews with a pinch of salt.  Professional reviewers set a standard which is perhaps much higher than that of the average user.  Anyway, I gave Lulu the FX-01 and she seemed pretty happy with it.

Recent Models
Since then, the models have been updated.  These days it happens about every 6 months.  Panasonic has come up with 2 replacements, actually.  The FX-07 and the FX-50.  The lens range remains the same, but the pixel count has been increased from 6 megapixel to 7 megapixel.  A newer version of the Venus image processor is used.  The FX-07 has a 2.5in LCD, whereas the FX-50 has a 3 in LCD.  That, as far as I'm aware, is the only difference between the 2 new models.

But Canon has also come up with something new.  Again 2 new models worth looking at.  There is the IXUS 850 IS, an increase of 1 megapixel from the 6 megapixel of the 800 IS.  Image stabilisation is retained, the new DIGIC III processor is used, but the big plus for me is the new lens range of the camera.  The 800 IS was 35-140mm, while the 850 IS is now 28-105mm.  Much shorter at the telephoto end, but I much prefer the 28-mm angle at the wide end.

There is also the IXUS 900 Ti.  The epithet stands for Titanium, the alloy used for making the camera body.  Looks really smart.  It's got a whopping 10 megapixel count, but strangely image stabilisation is not included.  I would have thought that with a bigger pixel count, any camera shake would be more noticeable.  It does have a few other features which are better than the 850 IS, such as a higher frame rate in continuous mode and an LCD with a higher resolution.  But its lens range is a disappointing 37-111 mm.  The pros and cons average out, so that the 900 Ti is only slightly more expensive than the 850 IS, about HK$200.

If I have to choose between the 2 Canons, it's a no-brainer for me.  The 28mm wide angle and image stabilisation of the 850 IS are way too important to be missed.  To me, the 900 Ti is a silly model, especially when the 850 IS is released at the same time.

What about the FX-07 and the 850 IS?  Same pixel count, almost identical range.  Although I haven't seen Canon's implementation of a 28mm wide angle in a camera of this size, I would bet that the image quality of the 850 IS would at least be on a par with the FX-07, and most probably better.

So, if Lulu gets paid by her insurance, I'll be suggesting the Canon IXUS 850 IS for her.