Australian PC Authority (February 2004) have just announced their digital camera winners for the year. They rated 10 cameras in three areas - features, quality and value - with an overall score of 100 points being the average. Here are their winners:
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-F717 110 points They rated it highest due to excellent image quality and exceptional list of features. It didnt rate as highly as other cameras when it came to value. The DSC-F717 is a 5 megapixel camera with a 5x optical zoom.
Olympus C-750 108 points The C-750 was runner up by scoring above average in all areas. It is exceptional value for money especially considering it has a 10x optical zoom. It falls behind the Sony mainly on design issues and having a 4 megapixel sensor.
Canon Powershot G5 104 points Like the Sony the Canon G5 scored very well in the areas of Features and Quality but fell behind when it came to value for money. It has a 5 megapixel sensor and 4x optical zoom. Canon are renowned for making quality cameras with beautiful colours. This is no exception although as the magazine says it is not the most stylish of their cameras and has a boxy feel.
HP Photosmart 945 103 points This and the next camera tied for fourth position. It has one of the bigger optical zooms at 8x. It has a 5 megapixel sensor and is apparently very easy to use. It falls down when it comes to slow speeds, lack of image sizes, noisy zoom and some image sharpening issues. It comes in above average, but no comparison to the above cameras.
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-V1 103 points This camera is compact and easy to use. It has a 5 megapixel sensor and 4x optical zoom. It has a night shooting mode, excellent movie mode and a good 1.5inch LCD. Image quality is good but not the the level of some of the other cameras it also has some minor design issues including a pop up flash where fingers naturally fall.
Nikon Coolpix 5400 102 points The Coolpix 5400 has a 4x optical zoom and 5 megapixel sensor. It has a 1.5 inch swivelling LCD which has some issue in bright daylight. Its wide angle lens makes it unique as does its very fast shutter speeds. The Nikon is rated as the best featured digital camera in this test but it doesnt quite match up on quality and falls below average on value.
Fujifilm F700 Zoom 98 points The F700 has a 3x optical zoom and 3.1 megapixel sensor able to shoot with an effective 6.2 megapixel output. It is a very useable camera yet falls down on issues of resolution.
Pentax Optio 550 94 points The Optio 550 is the cheapest 5 megapixel (5x optical zoom) camera in the study yet it falls down in the areas of features and quality. It has a small LCD (1.4inches), slow start up time and has some image quality issues. On the up side it is an easy to hold camera and comes with Li-Ion battery and charger.
Fujifilm S5000 90 points The S5000 is an SLR style digital camera and certainly has a great and professional look to it. It has a 3 megabyte sensor which generates 6 megabyte pictures through interpolation and a 10x optical zoom. It has issues with noise in low light conditions but is a lot better in outdoor settings.
Casio QV-5700 88 points The QV-5700 rounds out the bottom of this study, rating below average on all areas but coming close to average on quality. It has a 5 megapixel sensor, a 3x optical lens and a 1.8inch LCD. In controlled testing this camera did very well but fell well behind in real life use with slow menus, slow start up time and real focusing issues.
Posted by Darren in our News category on February 03, 2004
