The Amazing Camera Hunt

My good ol' Canon Powershot A420 camera decided to give out on me a month ago. The CCD blew, and so these nasty white lines would appear on my pictures after I took them (happened during Accenture's Annual Dinner and Dance, so I shall blame it on the funky bright lights they had there...might've overloaded the CCD). When I sent it for repair, it turns out the price to replace the CCD was RM215. So I thought, why spend so much to fix my camera when I can use the money and get a much better one? My A420 was limited in the kind of shots it could take, especially funky close-up shots which I love taking. And so I embarked on a hunt for the perfect camera for yours truly... which is not as easy as it sounds considering there are so many different camera brands and models out there. At least when I was phone hunting, I had already fallen in love at first sight with my Sony Ericsson W660i, and just did some online research to make sure it was a good buy and there was nothing else better (haven't regretted it since!). This time though, I really had no idea what camera to buy, so I had to research from scratch.

At first, I considered buying a DLSR (one of those big@$ cams that professionals use), but quickly decided that's not a good idea since I also want to be able to carry my camera around everywhere, and lugging around one of those buggers is quite a bit of work. And I didn't want to spend more than 1k on a camera, so DLSR's are way out of my budget, especially since I won't be earning anything from my pics (though I think I might try putting my good pics on those photo stocking sites and see if I get any buyers. ^_^). So I figured the best cam for me would be a point and shoot with certain manual functions that I can tinker with.

Thankfully, I had plenty of time during my period of extreme boredom to ask my shutterbug friends for recommendations as well as read up on reviews of certain camera models. I also had a pretty good idea of what criteria I wanted in my camera, which were:

1) It MUST be able to take very good close-up shots.

2) It MUST have image stabilizer, to reduce blurness in pics due to hand shakiness.

3) It MUST NOT be more than 8 megapixels. High resolution pics are nice, but the file size per pic would be a whopper... I don't need all my pics to be over 2 MB in size... my hard drive would fill up way too fast! And I don't want to pay more for a camera with more than 8MP.

4) It would ideally have a high optical zoom, as I like to taking pics of animals too and it would be good to take nice shots from a distance since they usually run off when I get too close.

5) Of course, image quality must be VERY GOOD, if not GREAT.

It would also be nice if the camera was red, but that wasn't really a big deal for me coz' I was more interested in a cam that would fit those criteria and usually the really good cameras don't come in choices of colours other than silver or black. Yes, sad but true fact. *sniff* Some photography freaks like OTHER colours, you know!!

*Ahem* Anyway, I came across a few models that I thought were pretty good and were seriously considering, such as these:

1) Panasonic Lumix Tz5

Lumix is apparently famous for good image stabilizing capabilities, and it has a whopping 10x optical zoom... which is very high for a compact camera. However, it's 9.1 MP (more than what I need), and when I tested it out in the shops, I found it couldn't take good macro shots. Plus, lots of reviews said pictures tended to be noisy. And it costs over 1k. So it was off my list pretty fast, and so were all the other Lumix models due to the noisy pics problem.


2) Canon Powershot A590 IS

This one has 8 MP and quite a few manual functions to play with. But the optical zoom is a rather paltry 4x, and the closest focal range is 5cm... still not enough for me to take really good close up shots. But because it's 'relatively' cheap at RM890, I still considered it.

After shortlisting these two cams after much online researching, once I headed to the stores to try them out, I also asked the store assistants to recommend me a camera that is less than 1k in price and takes very good macro shots. I got some interesting recommendations below.


3) Canon Ixus 80
Ooh, they come in colours! But unfortunately red isn't one of them. Still, I was surprised at the good macro shots I could take when I tested one of these little buggers, which is why I seriously considered it. Plus it's very compact and looks pretty cool. On the downside though, it has few manual functions and an even lower 3x optical zoom compared to the A590. And it's priced at a higher RM999. Still, the good macro shots made the Ixus 80 a reasonable contender...


4) Pentax Optio W30
Yes, I know. Pentax is not a very well-known camera brand, and I didn't think to look at the weird unknown brands until a shop assistant shoved this baby into my hands to test out. And I was VERY surprised that it took excellent macro shots... could focus even up to 1cm! Plus it's a waterproof camera, which was quite tempting considering it would be fun to go snorkelling with it and be able to take underwater pics. However, after checking online reviews, I found that general image quality and flash isn't very good. And after much consideration, I decided that good general image quality is more important than being able to dunk my camera underwater.

At this point, I was getting a bit exasperated as all the cameras I found so far didn't really meet my criteria, and I had already visited 3 camera shops in KLCC, 3 in Pyramid, 2 in Subang Parade and 2 in Summit. All that walking around gets quite tiring! Then I visited Digital Mall in PJ and saw one shop advertising a promotion for a...

5) Ricoh Caplio R6

7.2 megapixels. 7.1x optical zoom. 1cm macro focal range. Has Vibration Correction (which is pretty much the same as Image Stabilization). And priced at only RM799! Looked too good to be true. Even after testing it, I wasn't totally convinced. So once I was home, I got round to reading up reviews on it... all the reviews said it was an excellent camera. One even gave it a rating of 9/10 on several points... better than for any other camera I'd considered so far. And the reason why it's priced so low is coz' it's a old model. It came out in May 2007, and the camera shops are trying to sell off their stock so it's priced pretty cheap. How wonderful! I decided I was going to get it. BUT this is where the female in me kicked in. I also wanted to check out the prices in other shops and look for a better deal than the one in Digital Mall, as they did not include any memory card in their package, and I was hoping to get it with at least 1G memory card for the same price. Yes, we ladies always want to get the best deal for our money. :P

The problem was that most of the shops I went to don't sell Ricoh cameras, since it's not a popular brand. So on my next camera hunting trip to Mid Valley Megamall, I prayed that I would find this camera (I know, it seems to be a silly thing to pray for, but never hurts to try! :P). In the first 3 shops I visited, none sold the camera I wanted. Then I went to Jusco, and lo and behold... I found a stall selling all Ricoh cameras! And the model I wanted was going to for RM800, including a 1G memory card. Yay! Only problem was....

The stall assistant wasn't there!!!!

Apparently he was out for a break or something. I waited for a while, then decided to come back later and went out to scout a bit more. And strolled into yet another camera shop, which... lo and behold... also sold Ricoh cameras. Woo hoo!! And for the same price, they were offering a 2G memory card!! *GAWK* That was it. My hunting was over. I whipped out my wallet and bought a brand new Ricoh Caplio R6 on the spot. Also managed to weasel in a free screen protector for it too. *Grin!* All in all, an excellent buy if I do say so myself.

Oh, OH. And that's not the best part. The camera comes in other colours! And guess what colour I bought mine in? Just take your wildest guess before scrolling down..... :)



































If you guessed RED, you are KOREK! Am I really that predictable? ^_^

I really should learn to spend my money on expensive girly things like makeup, branded clothes and facial products instead of gadgets.... but really, I don't see it happening anytime soon.