Back From My First Solo Trip

dmandavids · Post by **dmandavids** » Jun Tue 13, 2006 6:09 pm

Welcome Back foldmama

SimonTemplar · Post by **SimonTemplar** » Jun Tue 20, 2006 3:55 pm

Sounds like you had a great trip, foldmama. I've been surprised by the number of negative things I've read about Magical Express, but at least you had a great trip otherwise. I know I'll bypass the Magical Express experience on my next trip.

Gizmata · Post by **Gizmata** » Jun Wed 28, 2006 7:13 pm

Before my last trip I got the Casio EX-Z850 which had just barely been released. I had looked up the previous model at the www.dpreview.com and such sites and felt that it was a winner for the optics, speed and size. I was not disappointed. From pushing a button to wake up to taking a picture is very quick and it has a feature where it takes the picture as soon as you push the button (doesn't quite focus sometimes) so you have to remember to let it focus first. At 8.1 mega pixels its got plenty of depth and looks great.

I was on a plane a few months back and could see Yosemite from the air, we were probably 10 miles away but zoomed in I got a pretty decent picture of Yosemite Falls. This was with the full 3x optical zoom through a dirty window. The orginal is 3264x2448 so I cut it way down to just the falls. If you click the link you can see it turned out decent for that far (a lot better than my eyes could see).

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/3649 ... air8ch.jpg

foldmama · Post by **foldmama** » Jul Wed 05, 2006 11:06 am

Gizmata: That's an amazing pictures under those circumstances. I definitely need to check into this camara. Thanks a bunch!

Post by **Dr. Ravenscroft** » Jul Wed 05, 2006 1:48 pm

I have already been researching since the post. Gizmata, can you change the shutter speed manually or are they preset? That is pretty much the only thing holding me back from getting it as my back up camera. I have a awesome canon now and would just use this one as a carry around and take a pic of something cool camera.

If you want to get it I found a couple of site that have it.

the 8.1:

http://tinyurl.com/kxypr $271 with no accesories.

http://tinyurl.com/z7slv $292 without acc. but if you buy 2 or more you get 15%
off of them

the 10 mega pixel:

http://tinyurl.com/jqrq7 $310 for just the camera and $330 for the camera and
case.

These are the lowest prices I have found so far but I am still looking, I will keep all of you updated on it.

Gizmata · Post by **Gizmata** » Jul Fri 07, 2006 12:16 am

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/casio ... 50-review/

That site is supposed to review the 850 this month (July).

Thats where I decided the 750 was to be my next camera as I love his reviews and how he posts actual pictures of some preset scenes he does for every camera. Unfortunately it was not in stores anymore and the 850 was just hitting shelves so I took the chance on it instead. Its really nice to get full resolution pictures to compare deeply and look at the sharpness and quality.

The 850 lets you set everything, though I have yet to play with it. For some reason I felt less willing to try it during my disneyland trip last time as I had with the Canon I had before. The camera has a bunch of preset scenes which can be hokey, but the standard shot mode works really well.

I made a partial movie of "Remember", and for me its definetly watchable but its pretty grainy and the colors dont come though very well. I recorded it in "Fireworks" movie mode and kinda expected the colors to come through better. Like the Tiki Room pastels are tough to make out. Fireworks are not an easy subject though.

I also made an audio recording of the Billys which turned out decently. I sat in the back upstairs center and its I think really good for the size of mic and where I sat.

It excels in time to pictures and the screen is huge. The flash can be controlled for its brightness level, and is LED based so you can actually use it to take movies without light.

The really bad part about it is the two buttons that turn on pircures or review. If either get bumped the lens pops out so if its in a tight pocket it won't be happy. It souldn't be in a tight pocked though.

To me there are two main factors in a camera. Battery, which when special means you have to recharge and might run out at the wrong time. Lens, if your pictures are sharp it really doesn't matter how many megapixels as the picture will look good.

-edit: It sounded like I had the 750, but I bought the 850.

foldmama · Post by **foldmama** » Jul Fri 07, 2006 11:00 am

Gizmata: What a great site for reviews. This is so helpful in my search! I am looking for ease of use, sharp pictures and good battery life!

Thanks again.!

Post by **Dr. Ravenscroft** » Jul Sun 09, 2006 12:12 pm

Thanks for the info Gizmata, I will hopfully get one by the end of the month for my DL trip. When I get it I will let you all know about it in my own review.