Digital Camera Dilemma - Help me decide!

[JRez]

I just received a second digital camera that I somehow won from a contest today - the Canon Powershot A75. Two months ago, I bought a Fuji Finepix A340. I've compared the specs here.

In some respects, the Fuji wins (i.e. resolution, weight, # of batteries, etc.). In others, the Canon is better (i.e. greater control over ISO levels, digital zoom,). My previous camera was a Kodak DC5000 which was the true definition of 'point-and-shoot'. I've been very pleased with the pics taken with the Fuji thus far (girlfriend snapped some shots during my b-day last week - printed out wonderfully). However, there's simple features in the A75 that I wish the A340 had (i.e. sound in movie mode, various ISO settings).

I'm not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd appreciate any feedback about which one you would keep if you were in my position and why you would.

Thanks in advance for all replies!

 

[vegetation]

I'd sell what you won since, I assume, it's brand new and you have so far only fiddled with its controls. Then use the money to buy memory cards, lenses, tripods, or wahtever to make your existing camera better.

 

[JRez]

Originally posted by: vegetation
I'd sell what you won since, I assume, it's brand new and you have so far only fiddled with its controls. Then use the money to buy memory cards, lenses, tripods, or wahtever to make your existing camera better.

The existing camera does not have provisions for additional lenses . I haven't even played with the new camera yet.

 

[LED]

Try em both and keep what's comfortable for you and the GF

 

[mysticfm]

Originally posted by: JRez
In some respects, the Fuji wins (i.e. resolution, weight, # of batteries, etc.). In others, the Canon is better (i.e. greater control over ISO levels, digital zoom,). My previous camera was a Kodak DC5000 which was the true definition of 'point-and-shoot'. I've been very pleased with the pics taken with the Fuji thus far (girlfriend snapped some shots during my b-day last week - printed out wonderfully). However, there's simple features in the A75 that I wish the A340 had (i.e. sound in movie mode, various ISO settings).

Digital zoom is a non-feature. I wouldn't count that as a plus for the Canon. ISO level control is nice, but generally only if you are taking photos under a wider variety of circumstances, especially low light or action shooting ... if you're mainly shooting still pictures of people at parties like last week, then ISO control isn't that important. Same with the Canon's longer maximum exposure time ... if you want to try any creative photography rather than simple pictures, that can be fun to play with, but otherwise you don't really need it ... anyway, most CCDs tend to get noisy at long exposure times, so their utility is somewhat limited.

I do see several undeniable advantages to the Canon: manual focus, a variety of metering choices, exposure compensation, and aperture priority/shutter priority modes. All of those can be very useful (even if you are never attempting to shoot anything more complex than what your GF did last week). But the Fuji does have a slightly higher resolution, as you've pointed out (although how crisp of a picture that translates into may be a different story ... high resolution can be wasted if the pixels all run together).

The quality of the lens isn't really described by the comparison sheet you linked to, and that can be critical. If I were you, I'd try shooting the same scenes with both cameras and then do a direct comparison of the picture quality. Not for resolution, in which the Fuji apparently wins by a hair, but for crispness, color saturation, lack of fringing ("glowing purple edges" when dark objects are silhouetted against a bright background), minimization of barrel distortion at the corners, etc. You might be surprised to find a clear winner there, and picture quality is what a camera is supposed to be all about, so I'd recommend making your decision based upon those results (as well as considering the advantages I mentioned earlier).

(Note that I'm not partial to either one of these camera makes. Mine is an Olympus C-3040.)

 

[JRez]

I guess I'll be testing both during dinner tonight then . Should be a wide variety of sample subjects and conditions to use. From what I've seen, outdoor pics are very comparable and it's kind of hard to botch those. It's indoor where some of the challenges will be. Thanks for the feedback all!

 

[shilala]

I think the Canon is going to be the better camera. They make damn good stuff.
You could make a gift out of one, being it's Christmas and all
Neither camera does it for me, but were I in your position, I'd opt for the Canon.
Mysticfm hit the nail on the head. Take pics with both cameras and pick the one that looks best. My guess is that the optics in the canon will blow the fuji out of the water.
Congrats on the prize