jeaston

There are several out there, I quit reading because can't seem to remember what I read by the time I get to the camera. Think Hydrocruiser may have some good recommendations, seems to be very well informed of the digital world.

Hydrocruiser

The left pic is with the a TL-5 and the right with the Olympus TCON-17.
The Canon has the least amount of distortion. The purple fringes on the Olympus lens are bad. The Canon pic can be fixed using Photoshop but you can't get rid of all that fringing on the Olympus lens.

The Olympus has a bit more magnification but it is flawed. The only lens bettef than the Canon is the Sony which is twice the price unless you go for the Panasonic/Leica at $ 600.00.

jeaston

What was the distance?

Hydrocruiser

I believe it was zooming in on a newspaper that was against a wall 50ft away using only optical zoom no digital. All it shows is which lens is less likely to distort. Every lens extender out there excet for the Canon and Sony cause lots of distortion and purple fringing at full zoom. The Canon is 1.4x for $ 89.00 and the Sony is around $ 200.00 at 1.8x. If you have the moeny and need more Zoom go with Sony. I am very happy with the Canon if you can eget no distortion on newspaper print from 50 ft away you will get "normal" zoom shots in clearly. You may sacrifice a bit of zoom but it's a cleaner picture.

Kind of crazy

Hydrocruiser

Most Canon and Nikon D-70 owners say that they don't get the vivid colors some digitals are getting.

The top left picture is taken with the Nikon D-70 and the right picture taken with the the SLR Canon Rebel EOS 6.3 while the bottom is the Panasonic/Leica FZ-20. All three pictures had camera settings that were equal with equal lighting conditions taken by a professional digital camera tester.

The Leica/Panasonic combo has the absolute best white color balance of the group. That is an indicator of how accurate the colors will be and how well the CCD performs. All pictures taken with studio lighting at iso 100.

The Panasonic/Leica has the best performing lens in sharpness and exposure control from what I see here. The Panasonic/Leica and Nikon have the sharpest lenses but the Leica is sharper than the Nikon if you look closely at detail. The Panasonic/Leica has the most vivid colors. The Canon had the least vivid colors. Only very expensive Canon ED glass lenses can touch the Nikon. These 3 cameras are considered the very best of what is on the market. You decide.

Oh..fyi the Nkion costs 3x and the Canon 2x what the Panasonic/Leica costs. That is why it is being touted ( except by stores looking to make a larger profit) as the best Zoom digital of 2004.

jeaston

I will try that tomorrow with ambiet light canon 28/135 and see what happens. Interesting

Hydrocruiser

Those zoom pics were taken with the Panasonic/Leica at a total optical zoom of 650mm.

Zooming only to 135mm is not an "apples to apples comparison" as 650mm is extreme zoom. 135mm is a portrait zoom.

jeaston

I just want to see the difference, may try it with 400 and 2x to see the difference. Never really have compared, most of my shots are moving and the 8 fps sure help.

Hydrocruiser

Give it a go and see what you get. I have taken about 2,000 "practice" digital pictures with the FZ-20 to get to where I am at and I consider myself about at a pro level with this camera now.

Hydrocruiser

This is the new Minolta/Konica priced at $ 900.00. It is actually about as good in these tests as the D-70 Nikon but not as good as the Panasonic/Leica. My conclusion is that the right Digital SLR is still under development. A picture from the Nikon $900 Coolpix 8800 on the right.