Optio SV

Has anyone any experience of the SV or SVi? I need/want a small P&S for when the other half gets upset with me carrying an SLR. Up to now I have been using an Espio 120SW which has been fine but I would like a digital as well. I can't get on with looking at the back of the camera and wanted one with a finder. This seems to fit the bill but would be interested if anyone has any opinions.

Kim

I dont have direct experience of the SV or SVi but can tell you that there are marked picture quality differences between cameras in the Pentax range. The 5mp S5 is a terrific little camera that cost around £150 when new. I damaged mine on holiday when I didn't close the back of the marine housing properly well I thought it was either fully closed or open, apparently not! A couple of weeks ago I picked up a brand new S5 on Ebay for £16 plus postage.

I bought an 7mp M20 from SRS for my 12 year old daughter for £59. Although she is delighted with it, it only turns in decent results in the macro setting. Everything else is truly awful - I should have read the reviews first but suffered from brand loyalty. I think you get what you pay for.

I have never owned any of the Pentax brand P&S but i have seen the the results of a couple (sorry the model names escape me) and i was less than impressed with them. I own 2 Fuji finepix P&S the Finepix S3000 3.2mp with 6 x zoom and the smaller and more compact FinePix A700 7.3mp with 3 x zoom both of which i found to be excellent in thier picture quality. In fact i still prefer the S3000 over the A700. You can pick up these cameras on E-bay for the price of dirt
So if you don't mind going away from the Pentax brand i would go for the Fuji every time.

Oh i forgot too add the 3000 has a view finder but the 700 does not. I also prefer a view finder over the LCD screen

The BIG disadvantage of Fuji is the poorly supported xd memory card. My laptop has a built-in SD card slot and I have a tiny USB SD card reader that I use other times. All my other cameras are either SD or CF. Were it not for that, I'd take a good look at the Fujis.

I've used a number of compacts in recent years including Sony (spit!), Canon, Casio and Pentax but, after quite a lot of research, I have just this week bought a Casio Exilim Z850. The key considerations for me were: SD card, 8Mp+, 3x+ zoom, manual exposure controls (that limits the list somewhat), <£180, control over image quality and good reviews.

I've only tinkered with it so far but I'm quite impressed.

That will replace the Optio S5i as my take-everywhere camera.

I've noticed several recent Fuji cameras have dual SD and xD slots. A tacit admission that xD does not attract buyers?

Hmmm i never considered (or found) XD memory cards as poorly supported. I had no problem purchasing them and my card reader supports them also. And i have never had one fail
Maybe they are more abundant in Aust than in EU :

Capacity, price and availabiliy of xD falls somewhat short of SD.

The largest xD I've found is 2GB. The largest SD is 8GB.

The price of a 2GB xD card is the same as a 4GB SD card.

My normal supplier has 24 different SD cards - all but one in stock. They have five xD cards of which four are ordered to requirement.

On top of that, I know of no device other than Fuji cameras that use xD cards and no other manufacturers of xD cards than Fuji.

I'm not knocking them technically, I just don't see they have a future.

And, as John says, some of their latest cameras are either dual format or just CF.

Can I put in a word on behalf of my own digital P&S, even though it's not a Pentax?

I would heartily recommend the Contax TVS Digital, new copies of which are still available on ebay for around £170 including p&p from a number of far east sellers. You might even find the odd used one but most who bought one when they were in production (like me!) are keeping a firm grip on them. Let me explain why...

I'll start off with the bad points; firstly, it was launched in 2002 with a list price of £700 and offered a fraction of its competitors' features for triple their price - not a sales pitch that endeared it to the public at large and was probably the last nail in Contax's coffin. The lens was a modest 3x zoom (35-105mm equivalent), the buffer rate was non-existant, the macro mode was nothing to write home about and it featured what was probably the very worst LCD screen ever to find its way onto a digital camera. Add to all that a counter-intuitive menu system and a lack of any "scene" modes and you could easily have named it the Contax TVS Doomed.

But then there are the good points...

Firstly, the build of the thing: it really is as solid as a tank with its all-titanium body and sapphire glass shutter release. It feels like the sort of object you'll be passing on to your grandchildren. It's almost perfectly weighted, easy to grip and just slips into any pocket - even when it's wearing its (supplied) leather case which also holds the tiny (supplied) infra-red remote. I can never get bored of just switching mine on and off so I can watch the lens retract fully into the body and the little titanium curtains closing over it - no chance of ever losing a lens cap!

Then there's the operation: I mentioned the clunky menu but the good news is I never feel the need to delve into it. The controls you need (mode dial, zoom control, flash mode, shutter) are all mounted onto the body and are well weighted with positive feel. The rubbish LCD is generally blank as the camera features an excellent, clear optical viewfinder - this also means the supplied Li-Ion battery seems to last literally months between charges. Things such as white balance, manual focus, etc can be accessed and overridden if need be but I've never found the camera to found lacking when it comes to its own choices.

The resolution was a ground-breaking (in 2002) 5 megapixels, small fish by today's standards but actually perfect for printing up to A4 size and far less noisy than many of today's 8 and 10 MP compacts.

The main selling point though is the wonderful pictures this camera is capable of taking. The Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* lens is simply sublime! Colours are rich and full of detail - I've taken a lot of pictures with many digital compacts (Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Minolta, Fuji, Kodak) and the ones from the Contax are simply the best, bar none.

In summary, it's a quality over quantity thing. If you want whistles and bells with speedy operation look elsewhere. If you want truly top-notch pictures and a piece of engineering excellence that will probably outlive you, then the Contax TVS Digital is the camera to buy.

Oh, and it takes SD cards...

I must admit that my first choice for a small P&S would have been one of the Panasonic FX series, probably the 07 or 30. My daughter has a )7 and the pictures are quite superb with the added advantage that the zoom goes out to the equivalent of a 28mm lens. Unfortunately most of the current small cameras (it must be very pocketable or I can take the SLR or indeed the Leica) is that they no longer have a direct finder. I use glasses for reading but not normal sight. Whereas most people have a problem with glasses with a direct finder, I find the other way round. I don't need glasses for a direct finder but do fo looking at the silly screens on the back!

Anyway many thanks for the advice.

Kim