I'm Chia Wald and this is my blog. Here is where I share my thoughts and my art. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it isn't. That's life... and that's me. 
My Sony Mavica CD-300 is dying so I told Recliner Man that I would like a new camera for Christmas.
I have a little Fugi A360 that I keep in my purse. It’s a nice little camera and I’ve gotten some very nice pictures with it (all the house and yard photos in the last few days have been from it) but it was an inexpensive camera and sometimes it is a case of getting what you pay for. I have also gotten lots of blurry photos from it.
I still like my Fugi but I want a “nice” camera to use for the important shots. I’m not a photographer so “nice” doesn’t mean top of the line or even close to it. I’m not sure what it means and that may be where my problem starts. The only things I am sure of are that I want digital and I want a better zoom than the Mavica’s 6X.
Recliner Man has narrowed his search to the Nikon D40x and the Olympus Evolt E-410. I think it is because he likes the idea of being able to change lenses. Maybe it is just because he got a sale ad from Costco for these two cameras.
He has forwarded me several website reviews of both cameras and asked for my opinion. Hmm.. maybe this is where the problems really starts… I’ve tried reading all the pages but my head is starting to spin. They both seem like nice cameras and have similar overall ratings. The points that jumped out for me were that the Nikon does a better job with auto focus and auto exposure. I’m no expert but those seem important to me. The thing that jumped out for Recliner Man was that the Olympus has an on board image stabilizer. In a side by side comparison of photos taken with both cameras I thought the Nikon was the clear winner. Recliner man thinks it is really great that the Olympus has on board image stabilization.
In the end I will probably get the camera Recliner Man likes best so it is hard for me to keep reading through all the reviews. What’s the point when he dismisses my comments? Are you a camera know-it-all with some insight to share? Do you have a favorite camera? Recliner Man doesn’t always listen to my opinion but he is pretty good at listening to other people.
Stumble it!
11 responses so far ↓
1 Shannon // Nov 27, 2007 at 4:52 pm
You may be able to buy one and try it out a bit and then return it if you don’t like it. We were able to do that when we were looking for a camera… I forget the details of how that worked out…
2 chia // Nov 27, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Now his top pick is the Nikon. He read a review where someone else said they thought it was better than the Olympus. Who knows.. It’s all a lot fancier than I was expecting. Hopefully it will help me take better pictures
3 Shannon // Nov 27, 2007 at 4:57 pm
You should know by now that your christmas presents are always fancier than you were expecting.
4 chia // Nov 27, 2007 at 5:01 pm
You’ve got that right! One year I asked for a new CD drive for my computer. He went tot he store to get one and came home with a new state of the art laptop!
5 Shannon // Nov 27, 2007 at 5:08 pm
So, is that an example of him never listening to you, or of him being great?
6 chia // Nov 27, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Could be both.
7 Shannon // Nov 27, 2007 at 5:30 pm
More certainly: we both appear to be nerds who live in front of the computer.
8 Suzanne // Nov 27, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I have been looking for a new camera myself. I can’t tell you anything about the Olympus. You can get a D40 which is the same camera as the D40x for less money & the only thing you lose is 4 mp. Unless you will be blowing photos up to more than 16×20 you really won’t miss the 4 mp. Also with the D40x & the D40 neither has an autofocus motor in the body so to use autofocus you will have to buy AF-S lenses. You can use other lenses, but they will have to manually focused. I’m looking at the D40x and the D80 for myself.
9 Wendy // Nov 27, 2007 at 10:36 pm
definitly give the image stabilization some serious thought. the digital at work is a top end Canon of last year. the stabilization has made a big difference in may situtations. maybe Kira will come by with some thoughts. she got a new Nikon this summer.
10 Judy B. // Nov 28, 2007 at 6:00 am
I have had 3 Olympus cameras and loved each one. The current one, Stylus 810, has the image stabilizer and I highly recommend it! No more fuzzy pictures for me. Plus I wanted more pixels for clearer images. It also has the ability to take wide angle shots as well as movies. The photo editing program that comes with it is good — but I use IrfanView or Photoshop for better editing. I bought the 810 off eBay after careful research. I recommend Olympus.
11 New Camera // Feb 10, 2008 at 8:04 am
[…] occurred to me that I never got around to letting you know which camera I ended up getting as a Christmas gift from Recliner […]
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