I am currently undecided about purchasing a Digital Camera. Do to cost concerns, and reviews ...i am undecided about which one to purchase, currently it looks like i can get either for right under $400.00 I want a camera that will take good pctures, from a distance, so which is better the Olympus offers: 1.3 megapixel vs the toshiba's 2.14

the olympus offers: 3x optical zoom vs toshiba's 2x digital zoom

Im a lil confused about these zoom options. Which is Better??

-- Ron Hill Jr (ronhjr@mindspring.com), December 05, 1999

Answers

You want to take pictures from a distance. The Toshiba PDR-M4 has resolution of 1600x1200 while the Oly 450Z is 1280x960.

Taking only the horizontal dimension, the Toshiba's 1600 pixels is 1600/1280 = 1.25 times more pixels than the Oly's. To my mind this means as long as the zoom on the Oly is 1.25 times or greater, the Oly will be able to take better shots of detail on distant objects IF YOU ZOOM IN.

So get the Oly, since, in fact it offers 3x zoom.

-bruce

-- bruce komusin (bkomusin@bigfoot.com), December 06, 1999.

You want to seriously consider the Fuji MX-1700 too.

-- bruce komusin (bkomusin@bigfoot.com), December 06, 1999.

Digital zoom is "fake" zoom. The camera selects a portion out of the middle of the picture and discards the rest. You can do this with image-editing software on your computer, too. When you do this, you throw away pixels, thus reducing the resolution of the final picture. I, too, recommend the Oly of these two choices. If you can wait and save some more money, the Epson 850Z now sells for about $650 and has 1600x1200 resolution and a 3x optical zoom. It also has supports USB for faster downloads (if you have Windows 98). If you get the Oly 450Z and want downloads to your computer that are faster than cold molasses, you'll have to spend extra money on a card reader or floppy adapter.

-- Barry Bade (bkbade@mexicomo.net), December 06, 1999.

Someone else suggested the Fuji 1700. It costs a little more than your range, however, it comes with a longlasting Lithium battery. Consider, that your other choices will end up costing you over $400 because you will need to by Rechargable batteries and Charger.

something to think about.

-- David Erskine (davide@netquest.com), December 07, 1999.