never knows best...

dry as toast

Yesterday, I picked up a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 camera for Amy because Fry's had it for probably the lowest price it is every going to get to. Naturally, I went to Circuit City and price matched to get that extra $5 off. I was almost afraid that they didn't sell it anymore because it doesn't turn up on their website anymore, but I grabbed the last one (maybe I should have tried to buy the display model too for cheap).

Why the FZ-3? Cause it's cool, but I thought I'd take some time to evaluate my thoughts on some digital cameras.

Canon PowerShot A510
Updated Canon A75 with a smaller body and 4x zoom. Good picture quality and all the manual features I would ever use. Only thing against it is its average performance (in terms of speed). Another plus is that it is relatively dirt cheap, there was a time when you could get it for $150 from Staples, but those days have passed and it's now going for around $170-200.

Nikon Coolpix 3700
Smaller than the Canon A510, and made out of metal. Outside of that it doesn't have as many of the manual controls as the A510 (only white balance if I remember correctly), but it is smaller and it had a better movie mode (not that I would ever use it). Was really cheap with rebate, like $120, but I think the rebate is over, so it's not much of a deal anymore.

Fuji FinePix F700
Fancy technology that apparently doesn't do much and fast performance. Plus, it is pretty compact and has all the manual controls. But, it is really more like a good 3 MP camera, so it is not worth the price premium. If it fell under $200, I would consider it, but at $250 after $50 rebate from Costco, it is still too pricey.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1
Sure it cost $600+ when it came out and has atrocious battery life, but it has laser based autofocus, how cool is that? Plus it's compact and has manual controls (see a recurring theme here?). Too bad it is discontinued, I should've jumped on it and got it at Sears when it was $300, now you can only find it at relatively pricey levels or refurbished. Lasers!!

Casio Exilim EX-P600
Compact 6 MP with good performance and manual controls (plus a whole mess of other settings as reviews seem to indicate). I was taking a real serious look at this, and if the price drops some more this looks like a real steal. I think Amy actually would have been happier with this camera, but the FZ-3 sale came up and I went with that instead.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3
12x zoom and image stablization, and relatively small. Plus something about it's lens being f2.8 all the way through, which I don't understand but it seems to be cool whatever it is. Only problem is that it is only 3 MP, but that's mostly good enough, unless Amy goes and wants to make a huge poster of something.

So, I guess I didn't really look at that many different cameras, but I blame the manufacturers for not making cheap cameras that have manual features (except for Canons). So, I end up looking at a lot of discontinued cameras that are now being discounted (i.e. FZ-3, V-1, F700, and somewhat the P600).