For the past six months, I have been on the market for a good point-and-shoot camera which I can stash in my purse for everyday situations. Bringing along any of my three digital SLRs just proves to be too cumbersome and bulky for daily use. I needed something handy and quick for those gone-in-a-flash-an-eyebat moments at home, and for funny life scenes on the road. I always believed a good photographer has a camera with her ALWAYS. And ever since my Olympus mini [mju] died a natural death, I was on the prowl for the perfect P&S.
Research, research. My usual source for camera reviews are www.dpreview.com and of course, other photographers.
But man, choices seemed vast and never-ending. I had always been a solid Nikon & Fuji person but other brands were tempting. One evening for dinner, I had met up with some photographer friend enthusiasts. Everyone was showing off their cameras. Vic Icasas had the Canon Ixus. Now this $400 camera is attractive: tiny about the size of a credit card, with a stainless steel body and sleek design. He showed me this feature which allowed you to take a black and white photo, with only one color of your chosing. Sorta like selective black and white. Coolness.
On the other hand, my other friend Horace Posadas was showing off his Leica D-Lux 3. Now I had always been lusting for a Leica but with the M8 totally out of budget reach, the Leica D-LUX seemed utterly attainable. I had handled one at Palo Alto’s Keeble and Shuchat and had been tempted ever since. Horace said the camera was worked well under low-light, had great optics and was of course, a Leica. But at $600, it still seemed like a lot of money. I felt I was really paying for brand recognition for that one. However, Vic said Panasonic has a clone model out for $200 cheaper.
Choice, choices.
So totally I finally decided to bite the bullet and bought myself a Fuji Finepix E900. What made me decide on this model? I read a great review about it in my favorite UK magazine, Digital Photographer. I love Fuji’s colors. I love the fact that it can use AA batteries. Reviews say this has great images at high ISOs, plus it had the flexibility of shooting in manual modes and RAW. These three things are SLR features I feel I can’t let go off, as a professional photographer. While it’s sensor is slightly smaller than the Canon and the Leica, it’s price tag is more wallet friendly at $192 for a 10 MP point-and-shoot. I’m anxious to see how it will fare against my demands but I figure, if I needed something heavy duty – I’ll just whip out my Fuji S3 DSLR.
I can’t wait to get my grubby hands on the camera! For now…I’m waiting for the UPS guy.