On the weekend, Claire and I ventured down to our local Harvey Norman and Domayne super stores to investigate buying a new portable digital camera. Claire and I first dipped our toes into the world of digital cameras about three years ago when we purchased a Canon Ixus 400. At the time, the Canon Ixus 400 was one of the upper models within the Canon portable range and we paid approximately AUD$1150 for it including some simple accessories.
After a lot of use and wear and tear, the Canon Ixus 400 is still in perfect working order; it just seemed like a good time to upgrade to something a little more current. After investigating what sort of features the current range of compact digital cameras have, we came out with a short list:
- 6.0+ megapixels
- 2.5+ inch LCD screen
- 3x+ optical zoom
- Physically about the size of a pack of cards
- Very light
The two serious contenders where the Canon Ixus 65 and an Olympus FE240. On paper, the two cameras have an excellent feature set:
| Canon Ixus 65 | Olympus FE240 | |
|---|---|---|
| Megapixels | 6.0 megapixels | 7.1 megapixels |
| LCD Screen | 3 inch | 2.5 inch |
| Optical Zoom | 3x | 5x |
| Dimensions (mm) | 90.3 (w) x 56.8 (h) x 20.2 (d) | 93.5 (w) x 56.0 (h) x 23.4 (d) |
| Weight (g) | 145 (chassis only) | 115 (chassis only) |
| Image Size (px) | 2816 x 2112 2272 x 1704 1600 x 1200 640 x 480 |
3072 x 2304 2048 x 1536 1920 x 1080 (16:9) 640 x 480 |
When you look at the above list, both digital cameras have an excellent feature set. However, considering its a portable camera – the numbers are not the be all and end all of buying. It’s important to actually try and use the camera and navigate through the menu options to do other actions as well. When navigating through the menu options, the Canon Ixus 65 had a superior navigation system, there is no doubt about it. The buttons on the camera were easier to use and I personally thought that the on screen display was easier to understand as well.
Both cameras have a feature called image stabilisation, which essentially means its meant to deal with you moving the camera around while taking a photo. It turns out, holding a camera that is only 100-150gm perfectly still while taking a photo is quite difficult and without the image stabilisation technology, all of your photos will turn out blurry because you’re moving (without realising it). After taking a handful of photos, it seemed that the Canon had the goods over the Olympus. What I’m not totally sure about is whether being indoors may or may not have had any impact on that.
Both of the portable cameras have large LCD view finders – especially when compared to the 1.5″ LCD on the Canon Ixus 400. The Olympus FE240 has the smaller of the two LCDs and unfortunately it also lacked the clarity of the larger Canon display. The colour through the Olympus was pretty reasonable, however you could see what appeared to be grid lines from the crystals in the LCD. It wouldn’t have bothered me particularly, knowing that it wouldn’t have an impact on the image quality of the photos – however Claire thought it was quite important since you quite often end up showing people photos which are on your digital camera.
In the end, both of these compact digital cameras were more than capable of taking your happy snaps. We ended up going with the Canon as our existing Ixus 400 has been such a reliable little unit. The image quality on the LCD on the Canon was clearly better than on the Olympus and the Canon Ixus 65 also had quite a few different photo filters (such as sepia, black & white, black & white with feature colours, ..).
I can’t wait to take it for a run when we’re out and about next and report back with some, what are hopefully, some nice photos.
Ian,
On the durability front, we’ve had our Canon Ixus 400 since about 2003 and it is still in perfect working order at the moment. I expect it’ll keep on giving as well, it has an aluminum chassis.
The warranty is new for old and we extended it to five years; which we also did with our existing one.
While we there, we also picked up a 1Gb memory card and a colour photo printer and the lot still only cost ~$650.
You’ve got to love three years in the technology industry: smaller, faster, cheaper!
Al.
Did you get an extended warranty? I am not usually up for them but I think with camera’s they are definitely worth it.
Digital cameras are in my bad books at the moment, EVERY single brand my family has had (I have had Cannon, my sisters have had Sony and another Cannon) have all buggered up just outside their warranty and within. Non of which were low models or cheap either.
I swear the manufactures do it on purpose. The best life I have seen is probably my father’s work one which was a first generation Kodak that thing is like 10 years old and is still going. So I am starting to think I should just buy the cheapish with a 1 year warranty and buy one every year after it breaks down!
Good luck with yours anyway sure it will do the job nicely, at least for a year :).
Ian
Glad to see you DIDN’T buy the Olympus FE240. I have one, and am totally disappointed with it. My old Kodak DC4800 is still (just) going and takes good quality and excellent colour reproduction. The FE240 has been tossed in the bottom of the cupboard.
With the FE240 I have huge problems getting a non-blurry photo, and the colour reproduction is abysmal. One purpose I use my camera for is taking photos for items sold on eBay, which need the colour to be a correct representation. My Kodak was great for this, but with the FE240 I’ve given up… the colour is nothing like the actual thing, and also has a rather bleached look to it.
As for the shutter speed – terrible. I’ve tried taking photos of my tiny grandchildren, but by the time the photo actually “takes” all I get is the back of a head or an ear, as the subject has moved on… or the smile I wanted to capture has gone.
My daughter has a Canon Ixus 65 and is very happy with it, so I’m thinking of getting one too. However, I’m wondering if perhaps it might be better to go for a larger camera to lessen the likelihood of that blurriness… I wonder if the image stabilisation feature would be enough to avoid it. It certainly hasn’t helped in the case of the Ixus, though having to hold the camera still for so long due to the SLOW shutter speed contributes to the problem.
Chris,
Funny you should mention the non-blurry photos, as while I was in the store I really struggled to get a non-blurry photo out of it. At the time, I thought it might have had something to do with the low lighting, since Olympus advertise an advanced stability control with it.
To hear you say that you have trouble with it (though unfortunate for yourself), now makes me very happy we didn’t end up purchasing it.
Going forward, I think my next camera purchase is going to be a digital SLR; they produce amazing photos and have come down so much in price in recent times.
Al.