A Goal with Focus

I have a birthday in March. I have a purposefully delayed honeymoon in November. Between March and November, I intend to scratch together enough extra cash to replace my aging Kodak DX3600 with a newer, better, faster, cooler digital camera. (Not a light decision, as the Kodak has done some lovely work for me in the past.)

In preparation, I’ve been shopping. Camera shopping is about as perplexing and self-defeating as computer shopping, but the likely candidate is the Panasonic DMC-FZ3. By brand-name alone, this goes against my belief that one should stick to buying products that fall within the main focus of a given manufacturer. Panasonic makes televisions and radios … what do they know about cameras? But this entry-level member of their Lumix line is getting very good reviews and you can’t beat a Leica lens.

Or can you? If anyone has any digital camera opinions, please share.

January 24, 2005 – 4:43 pm | By Thomas | Posted in Observations | Comments (3)
  • Meg

    Try the Fuji lines. I have an S7000, which ran me around $500, and was worth every penny. I use it for my gallery prints, and have shot several weddings with it. Excellent for outdoor use… buy a few filters, and you’d be good to go. I looked at the Digital Rebel, too, but honestly prefer the S7000. More like an SLR, with perks.

  • http://www.photoneal.com Neal Friedenthal

    Panasonic and Leica have had a relationship on digital equipment for a few years now, Leica has released two models, (D1 and D2), as high end point and shoot digitals which are about half again more expensive than the same cameras under the Panasonic name. I have had the Panasonic equivalent of the D1 for a couple of years and have been pleased with it. You are right about Leica lenses however with only 3 MP the quality probably won’t be that noticable, but the price is a good point. Digital cameras don’t really begin to rival 35mm in quality until you get into the 8 to 10 MP range, however for an uncropped 8×10 the 3MP should be sufficient.

  • Kathryn

    I love my Canon PowerShot S500 Digital Elph. You can’t change the lenses, etc. But I’ve still managed to take some spectacular pictures with it and it easily fits in my pocket with room to spare! It has 5MP and a 4.1x digital zoom. I’ve also got a really nice 35mm, but I use this thing all the time and it rocks! It’s almost always in the side pocket of my purse, in the pocket of my jeans, or in the glove compartment of my car. You just can’t beat it for ease and convenience. It’s the best camera I’ve ever had to travel with. It’s also durable! I’ve dropped it a few times, was even stepped on once, and it’s still going strong. Did I mention the small size? I’d be happy to share some of my pics if you wanna see what this baby will do in the hands of a complete amateur.