Leica Digilux 2

A beautifully crafted metal body and M-System styling make Leica’s Digilux 2 stand out from competing cameras – as does its high price tag. Unlike many high-end digicams, where zoom, aperture and focus are accessed via lever/rocker switches or menu settings, on the Digilux 2, these settings are the same as on a film camera. Metering options (centre-weighted, multi-field and spot) are selected via a ring surrounding the shutter button. Click-stops minimise the risk of accidental setting changes. The DC Vario-Summicron lens is big, very fast and distortion-free and its aperture range is much wider than most digicams provide.

Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200

Although it has the same sensor, lens and ‘Anti-Shake’ image stabilisation as the DiMAGE A2, Konica Minolta’s new DiMAGE A200 is smaller and lighter, and its price is substantially less. Its build is also different, with a full vari-angle monitor replacing the A2’s hinged LCD, a fixed, diopter-adjustable EVF with no eye sensor and a redesigned pop-up flash.

Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2

In our tests, the A2 did somewhat better than the A1. We recorded an average combined shutter and focus lag of 0.9 seconds, which reduced to 0.45 seconds with pre-focusing. However focusing was occasionally inaccurate and shot-to-shot times remained at 0.5 seconds in the standard continuous shooting mode and 0.4 seconds in the high-speed mode. Start-up and shut-down times were almost instantaneous, and shot-to-shot times in single frame mode were under one second. Noise reduction processing for shots taken in low light took almost a minute but while shots taken at ISO settings of 100 and 200 were clean and noise-free, noise could be detected in 30-second exposures at ISO 400, and was very obvious in ISO 800 shots.

Kodak EasyShare P880

8 Rating

Plenty of enthusiast features plus good picture quality but dynamic range restrictions and image processing artefacts may reduce user satisfaction.Kodak is targeting enthusiast photographers with its 8-megapixel EasyShare P880 camera. Sporting a fast, 5.8x mechanically operated zoom lens with both zoom and focusing rings and a large, bright LCD it provides most of the controls and functions keen photographers require. The angle of view of this lens starts at the equivalent of 24mm in 35mm format, which is wider than most digicams offer and it extends to 140mm, which will suit many users. [ia]

Kodak EasyShare P850

The P850 is the first of Kodak’s new series of ‘Performance’ digicams and the first model with a 12x optical zoom lens. Made by Schneider-Kreuznach, this lens includes an optical image stabiliser and has a threaded mount for fitting optional wide and tele converter lenses or a lens filter. The lens is reasonably fast (f2.8 at the wide position and f3.7 for tele) and covers a focal length range equivalent to 36-432mm in 35mm format.