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RSS feedsThe biggest problem with digital photography is the simple matter of quality. The image quality of a digital camera is primarily determined by its resolution.
The higher the resolution, the more detail the camera can capture, resulting in a higher-quality photograph. However, it's only recently that the resolution of digital cameras has begun to match the quality associated with conventional cameras.
A couple of years ago you could expect to pay more than £1000 for a camera with a one million pixel (megapixel) resolution. But the cameras in this Test Drive provide resolutions of up to 4.3 megapixels at prices between £500 and £800.
That's remarkable progress in such a short space of time and digital cameras are now more than adequate for most hobbyists and amateur photographers. Professional photographers still tend to be sniffy about digital kit, but the quality of the latest generation of digital cameras is making some genuine converts.
There's more to a digital camera, however, than its resolution. Features such as zoom lens, focus, shutter and flash controls are all important requirements even for an amateur photographer. But while these features are now quite common, even in very low-cost digital cameras, they're often extremely difficult to use.
Like many computer peripherals, digital cameras often seem to be designed by engineers who are out of touch with the real world and who give little thought to the needs of ordinary users. Clumsy ergonomic design, complex menu systems and manuals that seem to be written in double Dutch are all common flaws in the digital cameras that we review month after month.
So for this Test Drive we found two photographers with different levels of experience and let them loose with some of the latest digital cameras.
Hugh Threlfall is a professional photographer whose work regularly graces the pages of Personal Computer World. Like many pros he still prefers conventional cameras, but he's familiar with digital technology and has used a number of digital cameras in the past. This means he's in a good position to compare digital and non-digital examples.
Niamh Neville, in contrast, is a complete newcomer to digital cameras. However, she's an experienced photographer and knows what to look for in a good camera.
We set our guinea pigs four tasks designed to test the main features of each camera. These included taking an outdoor shot using manual focus control, and then an indoor shot that let the camera's autofocus and built-in flash do all the work.
We also asked them to take some sort of high-speed action shot to test the shutter controls for each camera. However, fancy features are no good if you can't figure out how to get your pictures onto your PC, so a simple download from camera to PC was our final test. And, as you'll see, some of these expensive cameras couldn't even get that right.
TESTING, TESTING
Canon PowerShot G1
Canon's PowerShot G1 proved to be something of a mixed bag. It has a good technical specification, but this is marred by the camera's clumsy design.
With it's 3.34megapixel CCD sensor, the PowerShot's image quality impressed both testers. The camera has both a built-in flash and a hot shoe for adding an external flash. The optical viewfinder is complemented by a small LCD screen that can be rotated, allowing you to take pictures from a variety of different angles.
It's primarily a stills camera, but it does provide a 'movie' mode that allows you to capture up to 30 seconds of video and, thanks to the built-in microphone, your movies will also have sound.
But while the camera's features and image quality were quite impressive, both our testers found the PowerShot difficult to use.
"It's uncomfortable to hold," Hugh said. "And it's the heaviest of the four cameras. I think that's an important consideration in a compact camera." Niamh agreed that the camera was overly heavy, and added that she found its boxy design "uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time".
Both our testers also found the camera's controls rather fiddly to use, mainly because many of the dials and buttons are placed so close together.
Hugh was frustrated by the layout of the buttons. "I particularly disliked the fact that the On button is right next to the Settings dial - it's easy to jog the dial and accidentally alter the settings," he said. "It's rather irritating."
However, the PowerShot G1 does have its strong points. Hugh acknowledged that the weight of the camera reflected its "solid build quality", while Niamh liked the rotating LCD and its easy-to-use on-screen menu system.
The close-up macro function worked well, although it was felt that the 3x optical zoom was rather limited. The comparably priced Fujifilm FinePix 4900 provides a 6x optical zoom.
Both testers were also able to complete the tasks we set them without too much difficulty. Niamh liked the ZoomBrowser software supplied with the camera. She felt that its interface - which looks like an actual roll of film - was "cute", but also made it very easy to download pictures onto her PC.
The various shutter and focus controls also worked quite well, and didn't cause any problems with the indoor and outdoor shots we asked the testers to take.
However, the experienced eye of Hugh, the professional photographer, did notice that the PowerShot's built-in flash tended to focus more strongly on the background area of an image, rather than its foreground. Even so, he felt that the PowerShot was one of the better cameras in this group. "It's quite complex to use, but still a good-quality camera," he commented.
FujiFilm FinePix 4900 Zoom
The FinePix 4900's bulging grip and big fat lens may not look particularly elegant, but the design of the camera drew praise from both users.
"It's really easy to hold and very well designed ergonomically," Niamh enthused. "There's a proper focus ring on the lens and a dial for shutter control. Combined with the well-designed menus this is the easiest to use of all the cameras."
She really liked the 'focus-check' that allows you to zoom in on the centre of the frame in order to check that you're accurately focused. There's also a 'grid' option in the viewfinder that helps less-experienced users to frame shots properly so that they don't chop the heads off people in their pictures.
A camera that appeals to a hobbyist doesn't always appeal to a professional user, but the FinePix's specification drew praise from Hugh. "It had an impressive 6x optical zoom. The macro feature also worked well and was able to focus very close up," he said.
The FinePix outputs a higher-resolution image than any of the other cameras tested and has a quoted image size of 4.3megapixels. However, the FinePix only uses a 2.4megapixel CCD so the image is actually being scaled up to 4.3megapixel levels.
This means it really only matches the 3.3megapixel CCDs of the other cameras on test here. However, the FinePix does have an impressive 6x optical zoom.
The camera's versatile controls and ease of use meant that our testers had no problems completing the tasks. "It's easy to switch between manual and autofocus," Hugh said. "And the flip-up flash is a long way from the lens, which helps reduce red eye."
Hugh did have one serious criticism. The delay between pressing the shutter button and taking a picture was a real problem. "I tried to take a picture of a child jumping out of a tree, but I completely missed it. The child was out of the frame before the camera took the picture."
This will obviously be a serious problem for anyone who wants to take action shots, such as sport events or even a skiing holiday. Even so, the FinePix's high-quality lens, ease of use and comfortable design clearly appealed to professional and amateur alike.
Kodak DC4800
Opinions were divided over the DC4800. Hugh felt it was "a nice, simple camera", but Niamh struggled with several of the camera's controls.
Initial impressions were quite favourable. The camera's shape is a little odd, bulging outwards on the right-hand side, but Niamh quite liked its feel. "It's lovely to hold. The curved edge fits nicely in my hand," she said.
Hugh was also keen on the camera's layout. "I liked the simple, uncluttered design. There aren't too many buttons," he said. But there were problems when it came to taking pictures. Both testers pointed out that the On/Off button is where you'd expect the shutter button to be. As a result, both reported that they had accidentally turned the camera off several times.
The first task we set was simply to download some pictures onto a PC, but both Niamh and Hugh hit problems straight away. "I couldn't transfer pictures at all," said Hugh. "I installed the software with no problem, but I couldn't get the software to recognise the camera."
Niamh had similar problems downloading pictures, as the software on her PC failed to display the pictures stored on the camera.
Our second test also fell by the wayside as the camera lacked the manual focus control required to complete the test. The remaining tests were more successful, though, and Hugh was complimentary about the fold-away flash unit. "I like having that control. There are lots of shutter and aperture settings available too," he said.
However, Niamh found it difficult to locate some of these settings. "The menu is difficult to navigate and a lot of controls are buried in there. It's a bit of an effort to change the shutter speed," she complained.
The camera's 3.3megapixel resolution produced some good pictures, but the overall feeling from both our testers was that the DC4800 was under-specified compared to its rivals, and that the poor software support was very frustrating.
Nikon CoolPix 880
For the most part, our test drivers liked the Nikon CoolPix 880. Its 3.34megapixel resolution and built-in flash produced some very good pictures, but both our testers came across one or two specific features that they disliked quite strongly.
The camera's compact design and light weight met with general approval. Hugh praised it as "very light and easy to use", while Niamh also liked its "nice compact size".
Both users were also impressed by the rapid response when taking pictures. Many digital cameras suffer from a slight delay between pressing the shutter button and actually taking a picture, but as Hugh pointed out, "it's got a fast response. There's no delay between pressing the button and taking the picture."
However, they both struggled with the NikonView software used to download pictures from the camera onto a PC, and Niamh was particularly scathing about this aspect of the package.
"When I tried to download images onto the computer I couldn't find the instructions in the manual," she said. There are some Help files on another CD, but Niamh couldn't understand how Nikon could hide away important information relating to the camera's USB drivers in a ReadMe file on one of the CDs.
Hugh was irritated by another basic fault. "The lens is situated right on the left-hand edge of the camera, so every time you pick it up you put your finger on it," he said.
As a professional photographer he found this a particularly clumsy design flaw. The LCD screen is also right on the edge of the camera, which means that it quickly gets smudged by thumbprints. The mere 2.5x optical zoom is also something of a disappointment.
However, the CoolPix 880 performed better on our other tests. "The pictures all came out particularly well using the flash and autofocus," Hugh said, while Niamh liked the fact that the LCD screen allows you to quickly compare several pictures at a time.
The CoolPix 880 is therefore appealing and maddening in equal measure. Its image quality and controls earned genuine praise. However, the poor documentation irritated our novice user, while the clumsy positioning of the lens earned scorn from the professional.
SENSOR RESOLUTION
A digital camera is a bit like a scanner. Both devices have an electronic sensor called a CCD (charged coupled device). This sensor converts light from an image into a series of electronic pulses that can then be stored as data on the camera's internal storage device.
The resolution of this sensor determines the number of pixels in the resulting photograph. The higher the resolution of the CCD, the more detail the camera can capture. You can buy cheap digital cameras for around £100, but these generally have a resolution of just 640 x 480 pixels, which amounts to a total of about 300,000 pixels for the entire image.
That's nowhere near the quality you'd get even from a cheap conventional camera, but the more expensive cameras in this test all provide many times that resolution.
While the FinePix 4900 Zoom would seem to have the best resolution of any of the cameras on test here, it actually only uses a 2.4megapixel CCD and then scales the image up to 4.3megapixel. So the FujiPix only really matches the 3.3megapixel CCDs used on the other cameras.
LCD VIEWFINDERS
All the cameras here have a small built-in LCD display, the basic function of which is to act as an alternative to the standard optical viewfinder.
It's handy if you wear glasses that might bump up against the optical viewfinder, and it allows you to take pictures while holding the camera at arm's length as you can see the screen from a distance.
Some cameras have a screen that can fold out from the body of the camera and be rotated.
The LCD also displays the menu system that allows you to adjust settings such as image resolution and flash controls. Ease of use is important, as a poor menu system can make the camera hard to use.
DETAILS:
CANON POWERSHOT G1
Price: £800 inc VAT
Contact: Canon UK 0800 616 417 www.powershot.com
Pros: 3.34megapixel resolution, good build quality and bundled software
Cons: Heavy and uncomfortable to hold. The cramped control layout proved particularly irritating
Overall: The PowerShot G1 is technically impressive, but Canon could do much to improve its ease of use
FUJIFILM FINEPIX 4900 ZOOM
Price: £799.99 inc VAT
Contact: Fujifilm 020 7586 1477 www.fujifilm.co.uk
Pros: Good lens; well designed and easy to use
Cons: Delay between pressing shutter button and taking picture
Overall: It's not perfect, but its lens quality, comfortable design and ease of use make this clearly the best of the bunch
KODAK DC4800
Price: £499.99 inc VAT
Contact: Kodak 0870 243 0270 www.kodak.co.uk
Pros: One of the more affordable cameras, with a comfortable ergonomic design and uncluttered control panel
Cons: Lacks manual focus, and the bundled software was difficult to use
Overall: The DC4800 has potential, but is marred by its poor software and the confusing layout of the controls, which frustrated both users
NIKON COOLPIX 880
Price: £649.99 inc VAT
Contact: Nikon UK 0800 230 220, www.nikon.co.uk
Pros: Very good image quality and fast response times
Cons: Clumsily positioned lens; poor documentation and software support
Overall: A schizophrenic camera - it provides good quality images but has design flaws that make it a touch annoying to use.
REVIEWERS' VERDICTS
Niamh
She may be new to digital photography, but Niamh had no doubts about her verdict. "There's no way I'd pay £500 for the Kodak - or for the Nikon. They just don't have enough features. The Canon has more features, but it's complicated - it takes a lot to get your head around it," she said.
That leaves the Fujifilm FinePix 4900 Zoom as her clear first choice, but it's not perfect. "The screen isn't that good," she said, but Niamh liked its design and its ease of use. "The curved grip fits nicely into your hand, and you can move between the screen and the viewfinder at the flick of the switch." Ultimately it was the combination of features and ease of use that appealed to Niamh.
Hugh
Hugh wasn't quite as dismissive of the Kodak and Nikon cameras as Niamh. "They're all good cameras and they all have advantages," he said. The lens quality and versatile settings of the Canon PowerShot G1 drew particular praise. But, like Niamh, he had little hesitation in choosing the Fujifilm FinePix 4900 Zoom as the best in the group. "This was my favourite. It had the best lens, with a 6x optical zoom. It was very light and comfortable to use."
Hugh was critical of the camera's shutter delay, but still felt that the camera's lens quality and ease of use were superior to those of its rivals.
CONCLUSION
Now they've captured the sights, what do Naimh and Hugh think about the cameras they tested?
After testing all four cameras, our two photographers came to pretty much the same conclusions. The two issues they were most concerned with were features and ease of use, and they were in clear agreement about which cameras fared best in each area.
The Kodak DC4800 was clearly not as fully featured as the other digital cameras we looked at here. Its lack of manual focus meant that it was unable to complete at least one of our assigned tasks, and both photographers had trouble with the simple job of downloading pictures from the camera to their PCs.
To be fair, the DC4800 is by far the cheapest camera in the group, and does well to provide its 3.4megapixel resolution so inexpensively.
However, it was felt by both our testers that the Kodak had sacrificed some important features in order to keep the price down, and Niamh in particular felt that this was an unwise compromise.
When it came to the Nikon CoolPix 880, both testers struggled to download pictures from the camera onto their PCs and the manual wasn't much help in this area. Both the Nikon and Kodak cameras also highlighted the issue of ergonomic design.
The fact that two experienced photographers kept turning the Kodak camera off by accident, because the Off button is where they expected to find the Shutter button, leads you to wonder what Kodak's engineers were thinking.
Nikon's engineers also seem a bit unclear about basic human physiology. Their decision to place the lens of the CoolPix camera right where you want to rest your fingers is inexplicable.
Ease of use also proved to be the weak point of Canon's PowerShot G1. This camera had all the features required to complete our various tests and Hugh, the professional photographer, appreciated its many control settings.
However, even Hugh had to admit that the camera was quite complicated to use, while Niamh found it uncomfortable to hold and fumbled over the layout of the various buttons.
In contrast, the Fujifilm FinePix 4900 Zoom scored well both on features and ease of use. Niamh got right to the point when she said that this digital camera came the closest to working just like the ordinary SLR camera that she is used to.
As a result, she felt more at home with this camera than with any of the others. The FinePix also impressed both of our testers with its range of features and the high-quality lens. Its 6x optical zoom and close-up macro mode drew praise even from the demanding professional.
It wasn't surprising, then, that both of our Test Drive photographers chose the Fujifilm FinePix as their favourite camera. So the lesson is clear: don't skimp on features just to save money.
But when manufacturers are building features into a digital camera it's also vital that those features are presented in a way that makes the camera easy to use.
See also:
Digital photography should be easier. Kodak is trying to make it as painless as possible. 27 Feb 2002
A higher-resolution CCD in this Camedia C-4040 Zoom has a lot going for it. 17 Oct 2001
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