Hi,

I'm an international student in U.S. and looking for a good digital camera for around $500-$600. So for what I found is Kodak DC265 and Agfa 1680.

Kodak's one has more features and come with 16MB CF card. But the Agfa 1680 has high resolution than Kodak DC265. I read both have good reviews and I can't decide which one to go with. HELP PLEASE...

Thank you very much for your time!

Chew

-- Chew (cwtalk@hotmail.com), January 28, 2000

Answers

I had the Agfa 1680 for about 4 weeks. It's a nice camera, but shot- to-shot cycle time is very slow, and it only really has a 1.3 megapixel sensor. The Kodak has more real sensor elements; the Agfa achieves its 1600 X 1200 resolution through interpolation. The interpolated photos don't look much better onscreen, but they print with less pixellation at large sizes. The Agfa also cannot support SmartMedia sizes bigger than 16 MB (~24 shots in 1680 mode), if capacity matters to you.

I'd wait just a little longer if I were you, as Casio, Nikon, and Olympus have announced 3.34-megapixel cameras; that should drive down the prices of the 2-megapixel models in time. However, if you need a camera right now, some 2MP models can be had for under US$600. Both the Nikon Coolpix 800 and the Casio QV2000-UX are going for about US$500 at buy.com. Keep in mind the added expense of batteries, a charger, and extra memory cards.

As always, check the comparometer and try the cameras out in the store.

-- Martin Quiazon (mquiazon@mindspring.com), January 30, 2000.