I got the Fuji A330 for my wife back in May for her birthday not knowing that much about it, but man were we impressed! I got it as a mother's day newegg special for $180 including a 128MB xd card.
Even though I'm not in the market for another camera, I would have liked to see a couple more compared.
Zepper, the Ricoh Caplio RX can be had for €129 in Europe, which is not that far off $150.
As for not having it in the US, well, that's a bummer. Having to settle for plastic toys that take almost a whole second to actually shoot sucks, especially when one has to pay roughly the same price as the RX.
Both Ricoh and American residents are losing big time from this, the former loses a huge market, the latter loses some really cool and innovative cameras, but since Ricoh can't handle the demand in Europe (at least in the UK and Germany they can't), I bet they have a good reason to wait with a US launch.
"Nice article... would have been nice to see it BEFORE the holidays though ;) "
what i was thinking (although i have 6 or 7 digicams and ain't gone buy another one for more than a hundred)
Almost no Ricoh product is available in the USA as Ricoh has chosen not to compete here in the consumer market (perhaps you weren't aware that AT was an American web site). I guess it's not too hard to get their copiers here though.
. Not to mention that the price of the few Caplio RXs I've found such as on eBay is about twice that of the units under test - apples and oranges...
.bh.
...geez everyone!! Get off their back. It would be an impossible job to do all of the cameras at this price point! Kodak, fuji and olympus are big names, which people will often go to straight away....so its allowing the customer to make an educated choice on popular brands. I sell a large range of cameras at my shop, and I most always recomend the a330. Its a beautiful little camera, and IMO the best bang 4 buck at this price!!
I'm on my third Fuji digital camera and they have all been great performers! They all still work too! The latest model I purchased last year just before Christmas was the FinePix S5000 with 10x optical zoom. I've found that the xD-Picture Card memory helps lengthen battery life to where I can shoot well over 100 photos without recharging the batteries. Also, the Fuji cameras all appear to have better jpeg compression that other cameras because my photo files at 3.1 or 4.2 Megapixel take less space than other cameras. When my family got together and compared photos after our Christmas party last weekend, my Fuji consistently took better photos than the other cameras. Even the Canon Digital Rebel that my nephew didn't really know how to use.
Unfortunately, when it comes to digital cameras, it is impossible to cover every camera at a specific price point. We had to make choices when picking which cameras to use and ended up choosing three cameras at $150 with very similar features to make the comparisons more relevant.
I did not mean to imply that this article will determine the best camera at $150. The article was meant to compare these three cameras to each other. I have amended the title accordingly to reflect this.
We always encourage people to do as much research as possible before buying a camera. There are so many different things to consider when reviewing digital cameras and each review site focuses on different areas.
I'd take the Minolta DiMAGE X31 over any of the cameras reviewed any day; it's a lot more compact than them which is what many people desire when out and about, is reported to give a good picture for it's price and size, has lots of features, and at $150 is just as cheap as them. My DiMAGE X20 is a lovely little camera that does everything you could ask of it, and from what I've read the X31 makes a good thing better.
I will reiterate a point I made when digicam reviews first appeared on AT, which is that unless you can review *every* model in depth to find which is the best in that category, then you are doing a dis-service to your readers by potentially not even looking at what might be the best camera in that range.
Specialist digicam websites review all cameras so that they can give an informed opinion on any new models, even if that means buying one themselves like AT might do for a computer product that free review samples weren't available for. What AT is doing with digicam reviews is just picking two or three models out of the many available and saying one of them is the best, when better ones you didn't even look at are available. AT does excellent reviews of computer components, but I'm afraid you'd have to be a fool to only use your recommendations when buying a digicam.
The best digital camera at this price point is the Ricoh Caplio RX. 28-100mm zoom. Metal body. Almost no shutter lag. These three don't even come close.
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16 Comments
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akaristos2 - Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - link
Any sources in Europe where it could be had for 129 euros? Much appreciated a reply. Thanksakaristos2 - Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - link
Where can I gt a Ricoh Caplio RX and at what price point. Thanks for a reply.cryptonomicon - Wednesday, January 5, 2005 - link
the a340 will probably enter the price point soon too, i got it for $161 at ritz's / wolf's.tmim16 - Monday, January 3, 2005 - link
I got the Fuji A330 for my wife back in May for her birthday not knowing that much about it, but man were we impressed! I got it as a mother's day newegg special for $180 including a 128MB xd card.Even though I'm not in the market for another camera, I would have liked to see a couple more compared.
orenb - Monday, January 3, 2005 - link
Zepper, the Ricoh Caplio RX can be had for €129 in Europe, which is not that far off $150.As for not having it in the US, well, that's a bummer. Having to settle for plastic toys that take almost a whole second to actually shoot sucks, especially when one has to pay roughly the same price as the RX.
Both Ricoh and American residents are losing big time from this, the former loses a huge market, the latter loses some really cool and innovative cameras, but since Ricoh can't handle the demand in Europe (at least in the UK and Germany they can't), I bet they have a good reason to wait with a US launch.
unclebud - Monday, January 3, 2005 - link
"Nice article... would have been nice to see it BEFORE the holidays though ;) "what i was thinking (although i have 6 or 7 digicams and ain't gone buy another one for more than a hundred)
Zepper - Monday, January 3, 2005 - link
Almost no Ricoh product is available in the USA as Ricoh has chosen not to compete here in the consumer market (perhaps you weren't aware that AT was an American web site). I guess it's not too hard to get their copiers here though.. Not to mention that the price of the few Caplio RXs I've found such as on eBay is about twice that of the units under test - apples and oranges...
.bh.
spug1 - Sunday, January 2, 2005 - link
...geez everyone!! Get off their back. It would be an impossible job to do all of the cameras at this price point! Kodak, fuji and olympus are big names, which people will often go to straight away....so its allowing the customer to make an educated choice on popular brands. I sell a large range of cameras at my shop, and I most always recomend the a330. Its a beautiful little camera, and IMO the best bang 4 buck at this price!!Souka - Sunday, January 2, 2005 - link
Title should be "Three $150 digi-cams compared"Z80 - Saturday, January 1, 2005 - link
I'm on my third Fuji digital camera and they have all been great performers! They all still work too! The latest model I purchased last year just before Christmas was the FinePix S5000 with 10x optical zoom. I've found that the xD-Picture Card memory helps lengthen battery life to where I can shoot well over 100 photos without recharging the batteries. Also, the Fuji cameras all appear to have better jpeg compression that other cameras because my photo files at 3.1 or 4.2 Megapixel take less space than other cameras. When my family got together and compared photos after our Christmas party last weekend, my Fuji consistently took better photos than the other cameras. Even the Canon Digital Rebel that my nephew didn't really know how to use.Jeff7181 - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
Nice article... would have been nice to see it BEFORE the holidays though ;)stephencaston - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
#4,Unfortunately, when it comes to digital cameras, it is impossible to cover every camera at a specific price point. We had to make choices when picking which cameras to use and ended up choosing three cameras at $150 with very similar features to make the comparisons more relevant.
I did not mean to imply that this article will determine the best camera at $150. The article was meant to compare these three cameras to each other. I have amended the title accordingly to reflect this.
We always encourage people to do as much research as possible before buying a camera. There are so many different things to consider when reviewing digital cameras and each review site focuses on different areas.
PrinceGaz - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
I'd take the Minolta DiMAGE X31 over any of the cameras reviewed any day; it's a lot more compact than them which is what many people desire when out and about, is reported to give a good picture for it's price and size, has lots of features, and at $150 is just as cheap as them. My DiMAGE X20 is a lovely little camera that does everything you could ask of it, and from what I've read the X31 makes a good thing better.I will reiterate a point I made when digicam reviews first appeared on AT, which is that unless you can review *every* model in depth to find which is the best in that category, then you are doing a dis-service to your readers by potentially not even looking at what might be the best camera in that range.
Specialist digicam websites review all cameras so that they can give an informed opinion on any new models, even if that means buying one themselves like AT might do for a computer product that free review samples weren't available for. What AT is doing with digicam reviews is just picking two or three models out of the many available and saying one of them is the best, when better ones you didn't even look at are available. AT does excellent reviews of computer components, but I'm afraid you'd have to be a fool to only use your recommendations when buying a digicam.
orenb - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
The best digital camera at this price point is the Ricoh Caplio RX. 28-100mm zoom. Metal body. Almost no shutter lag. These three don't even come close.Prog.
Joony - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
The Canon A400 should be in this review...cosmotic - Thursday, December 30, 2004 - link
Again, Kodak EasyShare is turned into an ad link and blends into the background of the table cell.