RunningClam

A few days ago I have bought a new “notebook”, or better to say, walk-around camera. I’ve spent a couple of hours reading about newest offers from the leading point & shoot digicam manufacturers and found that the market is pretty hot. There are a lot of good little cameras today. Sony W200 and Panasonic FX100 both built on the the quite good 1/1.72″ 12 Megapixel sensor, and they are both not the newest models in the range so could be found pretty cheap - less than $400 in Europe. Canon A650IS has the same 1/1.72″ sensor as Sony W200 plus swivel LCD and much better lens but costs more - over $500 here. Fujifilm F50FD 1/1.6″ 12 Megapixel SuperCCD ultra compact is also could be found for around $400.

I have almost prepared to spent four+ grands for my new day-to-day companion but my attention was caught by Canon A720IS 1/2.5″ 8 Megapixel point & shoot which is priced less that $300 today. It has all the same manual settings and the same zoom range as the Canon A650IS but lacks of swivel LCD and powered by two AAs - not four. Also it’s 20% smaller and just a little bit lighter.

I have downloaded a dozen of full size samples from the both cameras and found that the real difference in image quality (in terms of details and dynamic range) is not worth the almost twice price difference. It’s even hardly noticeable most of the time. So the Canon A720IS became my final choice. And here is my own quick review of this nice and cheap compact digicam.
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…well, sort of. Just Flickr mashup. Bat very useful one.

Sigma has shown a stylish brown leather case for DP1 camera in Seoul, Korea. Here you can find the photos of the DP1 in that case at Aving Nertwork. It reminds me the old rangefinders’ cases. They were very useful and comfortable.

Imaging Resource have posted two Sigma DP1 samples. The one with the test scene (indoors) and the one with multi target. As expected, sharpness in the center of the image is exceptional. Though, a little fall of to the edges is visible. Look at the brush and the scale on the right side.

Sigma has published 37 full res samples from its coming soon compact DP1. Astonishing. Dynamic range is far better than that of the most entry-level DSLRs. Resolution and details are better than that of 6mp CCD DSLRs and comparable with 10mp CCD like in Pentax K10D and Nikon D200.

But the price is yet too high: $1040 in Hong Kong (March 24) and 870 Euros in Ireland (March 19). Hope it will fall below the $1k till summer.