According to most reviews and IM the Oly 450Z is a great buy. However if you look at the image quality and compare it to the Fuji MX-2700 (using the Comparometer) the Oly looks washed out and the Fuji looks GREAT. I'm confused. The 450 seems to be a higher rated camera and I would buy it (I want a camera that can uses SM with an FDA) but what it comes down to is Image Quality. Is the Fuji really that much better????????????????????????? Help............................................ Thanks

-- M Needell (needell@nji.com), December 28, 1999

Answers

I have owned a few Fuji digital cameras over the past few years, the most recent being the MX-600. I have also owned four Olympus cameras including the 450. I feel that Olympus manufacturers a better digital camera. I will stick with Olympus, as a matter of fact I just received my 2020. Incidentally, the image quality of the 450 is excellant for a 1.3 million pixel camera - it also includes features like spot metering and uncompressed TIF format, which I do not think are included on the Fuji 2700. Good luck!

-- Bill Kap (kap@funtech..com), December 28, 1999.

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is why we go to so much effort with the comparison shots. OTOH, the cameras you're asking about are really apples and oranges. The 2700 (as noted in the previous post) is a 2.3 megapixel model, whereas the 450 is 1.5 megapixels. But, the 450 has a 3x optical zoom lens and more-sophisticated metering options. Decide on the minimal set of features you need (optical zoom vs fixed focal length could be one such issue), set a price range, and then compare the images. Rely on your eyes, since you're the one who's going to have to live with the results, but also keep in mind that the side-by-side comparison tends to highlight differences pretty strongly. - Our eyes are great at adapting to variations in overall color and tone, so an image that looks over or under-saturated next to another photo may look just fine when viewed by itself...

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), January 03, 2000.