Camera Hunting

Ever since I came back from China, I was seriously considering getting a digicam of my own but never had the initiative in looking for one. Last night while browsing through the pages in the newspaper, I saw an advert on a Digital Fest organised by Fotokem at PWTC (March 16-18). So this afternoon I went there to have a look. I was kind of blur as what makes a digicam a good digicam. Besides knowing what megapixels and optical zooms are, I was clueless on the specs. And I still am.

Initially I was looking for a low range camera below RM1k and must have at least 5MP and 3x Optical Zoom. Having scouted around the various brands, specification wise, they're all very similar. The ok ones would cost around RM500-700 while the better low range ones would be around RM600 to RM1k. I did not even bother looking at those above RM1k.

I then bump into an ex-college mate from Diploma, Kok Weng. He's quite a nerdy when it comes to technology, so he makes a perfect person to consult. When we went scouting around together, he was practically asking questions using terms I would never have heard of. So many jargons, so many terms. Before meeting him, I did sent out some messages and made some calls for 2nd opinions. If the choice is right, then I might make an immediate purchase.

We took some sample photos using Canon PowerShot A550 (7.1MP, 4x Optical Zoom, RM599) with and without flash and Kodak EasyShare C653 (6.1MP, 3x Optical Zoom, RM499) with and without flash. I wanted to see the quality from Nikon CoolPix L6 (6MP, 3x Optical Zoom, RM588) but the booth does not have any photo printer. So I could not get to compare it with Kodak and Canon.

For Olympus, they ran out of the photo paper. I did not shortlist digicams from Olympus based on the fact that they uses xD cards which are said to be more expensive compared to the normal SD cards. As for Sony, they have the reputation of having elegant designs but terrible photo quality. So that too is out.

I would have loved to post the photos here, but somehow the photos I scanned did not turn out well despite having increased it's resolution :0( How sad!!! Will try it again with even higher resolution some other time.

Anyway, at the moment, I've shortlisted Canon PS A550 and Nikon L6 though it seems that from the review, PS A550 is a better choice. However Nikon Coolpix P3 and Coolpix P4 seems to have good reviews. The 2 are the same except that P3 supports Wi-Fi while P4 does not. I'm not sure what people might have to say about Kodak cameras but for some reason that I do not know of myself, I just don't trust the brand.

As I was typing this post, I had another thought. Would it be a good idea to stick to the low range or buy the mid range which would definately have a better quality, for a better longer use? I really don't know which would be a better choice at the moment.