Modern Vespa

Very funny. You are pretty funny. VERY IMPRESSIVE This really is amazing. Something I've been reading about is whether the cases are metal or plastic. Is yours metal? Was it in a case? Our Sony has a neoprene case which I've loved. It's really small. Only holds the camera and an extra battery, not even an extra memory stick.

Moped, your pictures are really wonderful too. And with a reviled Sony. Actually, all this time I liked our Sony. I just couldn't figure out how to do stuff with it. When I ran into a problem, I turned it off and turned it back on. And it has lasted for six years, which is a lifetime or two in digital cameras. The Sony A700, though, is a DSLR and is about $1300 on the Sony website. I just noticed the kayak picture was with the Cybershot. That's fantastic. How old is that Cybershot? Someone said that with a newer camera we'd probably get better pictures because they're faster now (first-shot delay is shorter) I've missed pictures because of the delay.

oldhighway7, I like rechargeable batteries, too. We've had two for our Sony and have used them over and over. We just plug in the camera to recharge. The Canons seem to use AA batteries. I know they can be recharged, but then you need another gadget to recharge them, I think.

Your wikipedia quote does not in any way answer my question, which was asking for support of your claim. If you allow me to continue this after work, I'll copy some other parts from wikipedia that, I am sure, will rave about the image quality of Zeiss lenses. Until then, this must suffice:

An optical lens, its parts built and assembled under tight quality control, will be equally good if made in Germany, China, the USA (actually, I'm not so sure about USA ), or elsewhere. Zeiss mandates tight quality control for lenses bearing its name, built under license agreements.
An optical lens will not be better or worse, depending on where it is built or made, it will be better or worse depending on its optical design. Pretty much every Zeiss lens ever designed and built is superior to pretty much every other lens (with Leitz and a few other exotics being the exception). Nikkor or Canon lenses, despite being assembled in Japan with parts from China and elsewhere , are pretty good too, and the fact that they cost a few dollars less makes up for their lower performance. Somebody said it: you get what you pay for.

Quality proof: Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar 3.5-4.5/16-80. The envy of many a Nikon boy. On my α700, its never-failing sharpness amazes me at any FL and any f-stop.

BTW, Bavaria and Germany are one nation. Austria is another nation. Those are areas. Pre- post- and cold war are eras. I think you meant to use areas (places of origin), not eras, to undermine my lens performance claim.

post deleted by Salima

I recently bought one of these (the Panny) for my wife. Beautiful camera. If you can find a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30 Digital Camera - Blue - 7.2 Megapixel - ... still available it can be a great deal. Buy.com (not a seller I particularly like, but YMMV) has it here

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204319832&listingid=23258636&dcaid=17902

for $165.00.

It has a 28mm equivalent Leica lens and built-in image stabilization.

How is the battery life on the Canon? I have a 4 mp Canon that I bought back in 2004, and it eats Duracell AAs. The battery life is awful.

Aside from that, I like the camera.

C

I'm not trying to bust your balls on this. It's just that this has been an argument that has (and still is) been around for the last 10 years. It has been a topic of quite humorous debate. When Sony started putting the Zeiss name on everything (including sub $100 point-and-shoots), owners of Contax mount Zeiss lenses started crying foul. Zeiss has always stated that their name would only be on the "best" products, but many in the industry have questioned that.

By "best", they mean compared to similar priced items. The tiny plastic lenses in point-and-shoots are all of similar quality, regardless of who made them. Cosina is a very good lens maker, why not use the Cosina name? Brand recognition. The Vario Sonnar 3.5-4.5/16-80 is very good lens. (and yes, they make them with mounts for Nikon and Canon also) Would you feel less about it if it said Cosina on it?

BTW, that a700 is a damn fine camera. The new a900 is going to be amazing - to be announced at Photokina this fall (if not sooner).

i got mine from b&h with a 3 year extended warranty, an extra battery, a 4gb sd card, and a camera case for $495. the camera itself is only $359. the leica with the same package was $700.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/472978-DEMO/Panasonic_DMCLX2K_Lumix_DMC_LX2_Digital_Camera.html

i was going to wait until the lx3 came out, but who knows when that will be. eventually i'm going to get an slr like a nikon d80, but right now i love my little lx2.

Salima Draghetta, Your picture is beautiful (I love the West). And your camera looks familiar. I think my father had one of those years ago. I don't know what became of it. We're looking for a digital camera. I still have my Nikkormat somewhere, and my husband has his old SLR too.

eenie816, thanks for posting that link. I didn't know about it, and it was interesting to see.

masssheltie, I think we're sticking to lithium batteries. In the 6 years with our Sony, we've only used the same 2 batteries over and over, and we've taken some 4500 pictures.

I want to look at the Panasonic Lumix and the Canon Powershot G9.

Thank you for the kind words.

That Cybershot must be over five years old. I don't remember exactly when I bought it but I remember, it was around $400, so it must have been long ago

About the shutter delay--yes, that is a problem, and there are ways around it. Like, for the kayak shots, the situation was this: I knew they would be coming (I saw them scaling up-creek), but I didn't know when. So I set the camera to as much manual as I could. No autofocus, but preset focus. Pre-select the focal length for what to frame. Screen turned off, so it wouldn't use battery while on. No auto shut-off to save battery (that's what I turned the screen off for). So, when they came, all I had to do was aim through the optical viewfinder and click. I got all three kayaks that were coming down.

The newer P&S don't have a viewfinder anymore, but the other stuff I did you still can do, and lots more. You just need to know "how to use the pot", to use that very good analogy

On most digital cameras that don't have interchangeable lenses, the zoom range starts at "normal" and extends to telephoto with no wide angle. If you don't want the added size, weight and expense of a high-end camera, like the Nikon D40, for example, look for a camera with an equivalent zoom range of 28mm to at least 135mm -- 24mm is even better.

Optical zoom is a very good thing -- "digital zoom" is a myth amounting to cropping in the camera and bad picture quality. The newer Panasonics, such as the DMC-TZ4K, come with a 10x optical zoom by Leica, another excellent German lens maker, that starts at 28mm and goes up to 280mm.

You also want low-light sensitivity to shoot indoors without flash and outdoors in early morning and evening when the colors become rich and/or interesting. That particular Panasonic has a "high sensitivity mode" that goes all the way up to ISO 6400, for example. You can shoot by candlelight.

Regardless of the manufacturer, be sure to get a 10x wide-angle optical zoom and the ability to shoot in low light.

The shutter delay found on most point-and-shoot digital cameras is a real pain. Paying the extra $ for a digital SLR is a solution.

Here are a couple of my functioning cameras. The one to my right is a Kodak camera that shoots 11"x14" negatives. The one to my left shoots 8"x10" negatives. If I have the time, I really use my 4"x5" camera the most. Nowadays, they primarily collect dust. My cheerished camera is an 1860's wet plate camera that is also still functional. I have a few 1800's lens that is supposed to take beautiful pictures that digital can't reproduce. I say "supposed to take" because I never got around to using them. The glass is in great shape for its age. Perhaps after I'm done farting around on my Vespa I can find time to taking pix again...yeah, one day.

Would that camera also work for BBQs?

sfarchie, those are beautiful cameras. I remember we used to have a camera that opened with an accordian sort of thing. We used it for Christmas pictures.

We bought a camera tonight: The Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ5. The battery is charging. Although I kept harping on Best Buy, we bought it at Circuit City. It was on sale and they threw in a 2 GB memory card. With camera, memory card and a case, it came to $333 before tax. It has the 10x zoom from 28 to 280. The kid at Circuit City who was helping us was actually very knowledgeable. The instruction book is over 100 pages. We want to get another battery and a neck strap.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

I'll post some scooter pictures in the next few days.

Thanks, bud! Look forward to see some pix of your bike!

.......See, that is just no fair....... ........ata boy or girl

godoggo ~

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