Journal: News & Comment

Checking out the big zooms

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Until now I haven't generally been a fan of Hewlett-Packard's digital cameras. Like Kodak's consumer models, most have been aimed at beginning photographers, and so have had limitations in their features, unnecessarily large sizes, ugly industrial designs, and fragile-feeling construction. The new Photosmart 850, however, not only looks sharper than previous HP cameras, it also appears to be an excellent camera (8X optical zoom, 4-megapixel resolution, and a good range of controls) for the money ($500 U.S., or about $800 Canadian).

However, if you're looking at big-zoom digicams, keep the Olympus C-730 and Fuji 3800 in mind. If you can afford more money, the Fuji S602, the ungainly Nikon Coolpix 5700 and Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi, and the Sony DSC-F717 are worth a look. And don't forget the Canon G3, which, while it has only a 4X zoom, still may take the best pictures of any prosumer digicam model.

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