[professor_k]

Hello there folks,

I'm going to be purchasing a digital camera very soon and have narrowed down my choices to the Nikon 7900, Canon Ixus 700 and Casio Exilim Z750. I'm after any opinions any owners may have of these cameras to help me make a decision.

My use for a camera would really be for taking pictures at parties, weddings etc but with the capability to produce good quality large size prints (hence 7 MP camera). It also needs to fit in a pocket quite nicely! My budget is around £250-ish.

From the reviews I have read, the Casio seems to be the "dogs danglies" in terms of features and ease of use but seems to let itself down with the need to be placed in the docking station to charge or view recordings, which would be a pain if taking on holiday (which i plan to do).

The Canon Ixus 700 seems to be a popular choice but a fair number of reviews mention a significant potential for the "purple fringing effect" and also there seems to be increasing occurences of an error code "E18" which appears to be almost terminal if encountered although I suppose this can be mitigated by warranty.

Nikon 7900 appears to be feature laden especially with regard to focusing controls, d-lighting etc etc. It seems quite ergonomic and is able to zoom in recording mode. However, it appears to suffer from focusing problems in low light conditions.

I am erring towards the Canon IXUS 700 but still see benefits in the other two. Would anyone like to make a recommendation on any of these cameras based on their experiences?

Best regards,

Professor K

Recently got my wife a Nikon 5900, very similar to 7900 apart from sensor size and zoom control for video.

It's excellent but not great at focus in low light (very dark room) unless close enough to subject for assist light to work. An ancient Oly 2MP we had was actually miles better at autofocus in poor light - it never had a problem!

But the red-eye reduction in 5900/7900 works great, so if the focus does lock...

You would need to weigh both factors but if you plan to do a lot of low light work then maybe 7900 not for you. The Sony P200 is reputed to be excellent in low light to add to your decision!

fwiw she used to have an Ixus 400 and we wanted to change because that had awful low light focus (Nikon a big improvement) and skin tones for flash were poor (shockingly orange). For outdoor use it was a lovely camera though - great build quality compared to current offerings.

Maybe Canon fixed these problems with the 700, but in my experience certain things seem to remain in digital camera manufacturers' 'DNA' for years.

Adrian

[professor_k]

Hello Adrian,

Thankyou for your reply. I had initially looked at the sony DSC-P200 but was put off by comments concerning the relatively poor picture quality compared with the DSC-P150 and the relatively more expensive Sony memory stick.

Looking at some more reviews, the Nikon Coolpix 7900 has increased in my estimations and I have noticed that it has won the 2005 TIPA award for best Digital Compact which I suppose says something. I won't be doing lots of night work but I want to be able to adequately take pictures in low light or nightime if the situation occurs.

Bit concerned about Ixus line potentially turning people orange! I have seen some day shots from the Ixus and it does seem to produce generally good results. It certainly is sleek!

Still undecided , but thankyou for views, much appreciated.

Well I use MS in my Sony F717. Yes it's a little more expensive than most other flash memory, but if you buy a big enough stick (say 256MB or 512MB - 256 has been on sale for under £20 recently) then it's a one-off purchase really. I think you should choose based on the camera and regardless of media, unless you have a huge investment in existing flash media!

Take a look at the dpreview.com site if you hadn't already for forums based around specific brands you're interested in, and more importantly user reports which for me carry a lot of weight (user reports are under the 'cameras' link on main page).

Adrian

[captainH]

I purchased a Z750 and I have to say it's an incredible piece of kit. It takes gorgeous photos (I have recently had one blown up to 20"x30" and it looks great) and has so many superb features. It is tiny (almost exactly the size of a credit card) and the build quality is excellent. Oh and the MPEG4 Video is also damn impressive for such a camera.

Also the battery life is ludicrous. I have never known a battery to last as long as this. Quite frankly if you are on holiday for a week don't even bother taking the charger with you...Seriously!! I have taken hundreds of photos using the LCD and viewed photos and played around for ages and only then did one bar of the battery meter disappear. God knows how they managed this.

However your point about the charger cradle is a valid one. It's the ONLY downside to this camera IMHO and is a bit of a shame but nothing's perfect. I think for a longer holiday yes you will need to carry the cradle but it's pretty small so I guess it's not the end of the world.

I could go on about how great this camera is but to get a full idea have a look at:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/casio/exz750.htm

[Dr.Rock]

Hi CaptainH,

Can you please tell me, how well can the Z750 cope with photographing in poor lighting conditions, compared to how bad people keep on saying about the Nikon Coolpix 7900? What other features, exposure modes, etc, does the Z750 have? And what type of memory card does it take? I was thinking of getting the Nikon until I was thrown by the reviews commenting about it couldn't focus well in poor lighting conditions.

[captainH]

Hi Dr Rock, I have found photos in subdued lighting come out well if you play around a bit. There are lots of "Best Shot" settings for all kinds of conditions and these generally produce very good results. If you're into playing around with Manual settings then pretty much everything can be tweaked. Also I have found the auto focus in low light is perfectly acceptable. If you do use the flash there is an optional feature that artificially brightens the background as if you have used a proper flashgun. It does cause a little noise in this part of the picture but I find the results are generally excellent.