Rangefinder Magazine
November 2001/Columns

Digital Photography: A Crop of New Digital Cameras by John Rettie

An array of point and shoot cameras include (left to right) the Nikon Coolpix 995, Olympus C-700UZ, Sony DSC-S85, Fujifilm 6900Z and Samsung 210SE.

Upon reflection, it seems there was quite a lull in the ongoing introduction of new and better digital cameras in the past few months. I did not realize it until I started writing this month’s column. As you’ll see below, I reviewed a handful of new and not so new point-and-shoot cameras that can meet the needs of many photographers. Two of these cameras Sony DC S85 and the Fuji 6900Z offer more than 4 megapixel CCDs giving them potential resolutions matching that of much more expensive cameras.

After trying out the Sony and the Fuji, Nikon suddenly announced its new Coolpix 5000, which as its name suggests has a 5.24 megapixel CCD, which looks like it will handily eclipse both the Sony and the Fuji, although it costs more. The Coolpix 5000 is essentially an upgrade to the popular Coolpix 950/990/995 models but it uses a more conventional point-and-shoot body with a rotating LCD screen instead of the revolving split body on the 900-series. It comes with a 3x optical zoom (28–85mm equivalent) and finally has a hot- shoe for an external flashgun. Nikon promises that it is much faster in operation, which has been the bane of almost all-digital cameras under $2500, restricting their usefulness in many shooting situations. Considering how many professionals use the Coolpix 990 for work that appears in printed publications the 5000 should also be popular, judging by its specifications.

In the same week, Olympus announced the E-20—a 5.24 megapixel upgrade to its successful E-10 SLR digital camera. A year ago the E-10 was the first 4-megapixel camera on the market for under $2000. Its pro-like specifications and 4X optical zoom (35–140mm equivalent) has made it a popular digital camera with many professionals who cannot justify the expense of a digital camera based on film camera. The major complaint with the E-10 was its slow operation, especially in playback mode. Olympus says it has addressed this with the E-20 as well as improved the quality of the final image.

Nikon's new Coolpix 5000 takes the Coolpix range to the next level in image quality with a 5.24-megapixel CCD and a 28–85mm equivalent zoom lens.

Surprisingly, both these new cameras will cost more than their predecessors when they go on sale in November. The Nikon Coolpix 5000 will retail for $1099, while the E-20 will retail for $2499 but is expected to cost around $2000 on the street. It’s a shame the makers are charging more as electronic goods are supposed to get less expensive as time goes on. It tends to show that professional equipment has a more limited market and that the demand for top notch digital cameras is still higher than supply.

The third and most exciting major announcement was made a week later. Yes, Canon finally announced details of its pro digital camera, the EOS-1D, which goes on sale in December. Canon users have been patiently waiting for this camera for a long time. With the camera coming to market two years after the Nikon D1 and six months after the two upgraded Nikon bodies (D1H and D1X), expectations were that Canon’s offering would knock the socks off Nikon’s two digital cameras.

Canon's new EOS-1D digital camera should prove to be a great camera for sports and news photographers, especially when equipped with the new 16–35mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

The EOS-1D is aimed directly at sports photographers and photojournalists. It has a 4.1 megapixel CCD and can shoot at 8 fps for up to 21 frames, depending on ISO settings and compression. The camera body is based on the EOS-1V film camera, so its photographic capabilities are all but identical. On the digital side its design is closest in functionality to that of the defunct Kodak DCS 520. The EOS-1D offers an enormous range of custom settings for improving the workflow for news photographers. For example, apart from exposure bracketing, also included are white balance bracketing and ISO bracketing, whereby the shutter speed and aperture remain constant but the ISO rating changes.

The CCD is physically slightly larger than that in other cameras so the multiplier factor is only 1.3X. This will make PJs who need wide-angle lenses much happier. Furthermore, Canon has also introduced a new 16–35 mm f/2.8 wide-angle zoom in conjunction with this camera. On the EOS-1D it effectively becomes a 21–46mm lens, which is probably sufficiently wide enough for most users.

Despite the impressive specifications of the new EOS-1D, the camera has met with surprisingly mixed reviews among many Canon users. They were hoping for a camera that offered a much higher resolution and/or a lower price compared to Nikon’s offerings. Of course at the time of writing this column nobody has had a chance to put a production camera through its paces so the quality obtained by the camera may be exceptional enough that the naysayers will have to eat crow.

The EOS-1D specifications beat out the D1H in the area of speed and resolution, although the retail price of $6500 is $2000 above that of the D1H. This is unusual as Canon equipment is usually more competitively priced than Nikon equipment. Against the D1X, with its 5.4 megapixel CCD, the EOS-1D’s 4.1 megapixel CCD is not quite as good on paper, although its speed of operation is better. The price of the D1X though is $1000 lower than that of the EOS-1D.

Hopefully I will be able to try out each of these important new pro-level cameras within a few weeks. In the meantime I have been sampling the results one can obtain from a selection of the newest point and shoot cameras. Here are my brief reports.

Sony's DSC-S85 compact camera sports a 4 megapixel CCD and a 3X optical zoom.

Sony DSC-S85
Sony digital cameras have been among the most popular cameras on the market in the U.S. but from a professional point of view they have been hampered because they have relied on using floppy disks for storage as they’ve been aimed at the mass market. Last year Sony introduced the 505, which coupled to a Zeiss lens, was a serious camera. However, I found it awkward to use because the body was too small relative to its physically large lens. It’s now been updated and renamed the 707 with a 5.24 megapixel CCD and improved ergonomics, so it may well be a much more useable camera.

Earlier this year Sony introduced the S75, which had a very traditional point-and- shoot camera design. This was quickly followed by the S85, which is essentially the same as the S75 but with a 4 megapixel CCD.

It is a very solidly built camera with a metal body and a 3X f/2.0–f/2.5 (34– 102mm equivalent) Carl Zeiss zoom lens. The camera is fairly compact in size when closed but the lens does extend by just under an inch when it’s powered up. It offers plenty of manual settings, it can shoot video and also animated GIF files that create a clip of images. Unlike other cameras, the S85 uses Memory Stick storage cards which are unique to Sony. It comes standard with a 16 MB stick that is only good for about 8 images at the lowest JPEG compression setting (2272x1704 pixels).

Manual focusing has limited usefulness, as it so difficult to see the image on the LCD unless one is in a darkened room and the optical viewfinder cannot be used for focusing. There are lots of different format settings, such as B&W, text, e-mail, etc. that can be used for capture. It is also possible to capture sound with the movie setting and store voice notes. In the final analysis image quality obtained by the camera was good. I had some trouble at times with the autofocusing system, which seemed to be slow and had difficulty focusing in dull weather. At a street price of $800, it is priced competitively with 3-megapixel cameras.

Fujifilm's 6900Z comes with Fuji's unique 3.3 megapixel SuperCCD, which the company claims is equivalent to a regular 6 megapixel CCD

Fuji FinePix 6900Z
Fujifilm has produced many good digital cameras in the past few years. Its newest 6900Z has pretty impressive specs and the camera looks purposeful with its 6X optical zoom (35–210mm equivalent). The camera comes with a 3.3 megapixel CCD but can produce 6 megapixel files thanks to Fuji’s uniquely designed honeycomb Super- CCD.

Although the body, with its large lens barrel and small camera back takes up more space than a conventional point- and-shoot camera, it is very comfortable for holding while shooting, thanks to a large grab handle. Despite the large lens barrel, the lens still extends out by another inch or so when the camera is powered up. There are two sets of zoom switches on the camera—one on the back and one larger rocker switch on the left side of the lens barrel. There is also a button to switch to manual focus, which is then easy to turn via a large ring on the lens barrel. In addition, because the camera has a LCD screen in the “optical” viewfinder, its possible to manual focus in most lighting conditions.

The LCD screen on the back is larger than usual and particularly bright. The camera includes most of the standard features one has come to expect in a camera that costs around $800. It does have a couple of interesting unique features such as a magnifying setting where the center of the image can be blown up to show more detail in the preview mode.

Like so many cameras the 6900Z only comes with a 16MB SmartMedia card which is very limiting, as it will only hold 8 images at the best JPEG setting. Because of this I was never able to use the camera for a real shoot, as I couldn’t capture enough images! Of the pictures that I did capture, the images were good, if a little on the bright/contrasty side.

Olympus’ new E-20 SLR camera with a 5.24-megapixel CCD and faster operation should encourage more professionals to get into digital photography.

Olympus C-700UZ
Olympus continues to offer a wide range of digital cameras that cover a great range of capabilities. The C-700UZ is interesting as it features a 10X optical zoom (38–380mm equivalent) lens which could prove useful for those who need a long lens in a compact camera body. Unfortunately, Olympus has chosen to only equip it with a 2 megapixel CCD which limits its ultimate quality. Other than that the camera is quite pleasant to use. It suffers from the dreaded delay between shots and its LCD “optical” viewing screen is not as good for framing as a real optical viewfinder. Of course with such a long zoom, a rangefinder-type viewfinder would be difficult to use and if it were a true SLR it would cost much more. At a street price of around $600 the Olympus C700 makes sense for anyone needing a long zoom lens.

Samsung 210
It’s difficult to get too excited about this camera. It only has a 2 megapixel CCD and a 3X optical zoom (38–115mm equivalent). Fortunately it uses the more common Compact Flash storage cards and AA batteries. It is aimed at amateur photographers so it could make a decent camera for a beginner if it were priced low enough. However, it’s street price of $500 puts it in much the same price league as models from Olympus and Nikon that offer a more sturdy build quality and potentially better images.

John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. He has been using a camera as a professional for 31 years, a computer for 21 years, and has combined his knowledge of both for the past eight years. Readers can contact him by e-mail at john@johnrettie.com or by snail-mail c/o Rangefinder.

Further Information:
Sony DSC-S85
Sony Electronics
16765 West Bernado Drive
San Diego, CA 92127
(800) 222 7669
www.sonystyle.com

Fujifilm 6900Z
Fuji Photo Film USA
555 Taxter Road
Elmsford, NY 10523
(800) 800 3854
www.fujifilm.com

Olympus C-700
Olympus America
Two Corporate Center Drive
Melville, NY 11747
(800) 622 6372
www.olympus.com

Samsung Digimax 210SE
Samsung Opto-Electronics America
40 Seaview Drive
Secaucus, NJ 07094
(201) 902 0347
www.samsungcamera.com