Steve'sDigicams

rtlloyd · Sep 24, 2005, 10:07 AM

I am buying an inexpensive digital camera for my daughter and have narrowed my choices down to the Fuji Fine Pix A345 and the Olympus CamediaD545. Do any of you camera experts have a recomendation as to which camera is better? Also, I considered the Olympus D425, but thought since it doesn't have an optical zoom that it might not be a good choice. Would you agree that that would be a serious deficiency? Thanks for any help that you might offer.

curiousity54 · Sep 26, 2005, 10:56 AM

A sample size of ONE, a survey does not make...

However, I will state that I bought a 2.1MP camedia about 6 yrs. ago and after a couple of years, the zoom mechanism broke. Had it repaired at a huge cost and that lasted just over a year and now you can zoom but it's not reflected in the viewfinder.

Needless to say, I've been very dissapointed with the reliability of this camera from Olympus and as a result have excluded them from my current decision making process. Also not a big fan of the xD cards.

Norm in Fujino · Sep 26, 2005, 11:16 AM

Well, to add a bit more meaningless anecdotal evidence, I've had three Olympus digital cameras, including my current dSLR (e-300), and I've been highly pleased with all of them. No problems at all, great color, great optics, so I include Olympus in all my current and future decision making processes (at least, regarding purchases of cameras :G ).

tclune · Sep 26, 2005, 11:23 AM

Consumer Reports did a survey of brand repair history from its users in 2004. They got 167,335 respondents. I'm not sure whether the results are available in the "free" section or not. Anyway, the Olympus had a 4% failure rate and the Fuji a 6%, with a note saying that differences of less than 4% were statistically meaningless. Given the great range of differences in individual models of camera, I am far from convinced that lumping all models of a given manufacturer into one group makes sense at all. But, FWIW, this survey shows the two manufactuerers to be in a "dead heat" in this regard.

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Sep 24, 2005, 10:07 AM	#1
rtlloyd Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 2	I am buying an inexpensive digital camera for my daughter and have narrowed my choices down to the Fuji Fine Pix A345 and the Olympus CamediaD545. Do any of you camera experts have a recomendation as to which camera is better? Also, I considered the Olympus D425, but thought since it doesn't have an optical zoom that it might not be a good choice. Would you agree that that would be a serious deficiency? Thanks for any help that you might offer.

Sep 26, 2005, 10:56 AM	#2
curiousity54 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 19	A sample size of ONE, a survey does not make... However, I will state that I bought a 2.1MP camedia about 6 yrs. ago and after a couple of years, the zoom mechanism broke. Had it repaired at a huge cost and that lasted just over a year and now you can zoom but it's not reflected in the viewfinder. Needless to say, I've been very dissapointed with the reliability of this camera from Olympus and as a result have excluded them from my current decision making process. Also not a big fan of the xD cards.

Sep 26, 2005, 11:16 AM	#3
Norm in Fujino Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 824	Well, to add a bit more meaningless anecdotal evidence, I've had three Olympus digital cameras, including my current dSLR (e-300), and I've been highly pleased with all of them. No problems at all, great color, great optics, so I include Olympus in all my current and future decision making processes (at least, regarding purchases of cameras :G ).

Sep 26, 2005, 11:23 AM	#4
tclune Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1,093	Consumer Reports did a survey of brand repair history from its users in 2004. They got 167,335 respondents. I'm not sure whether the results are available in the "free" section or not. Anyway, the Olympus had a 4% failure rate and the Fuji a 6%, with a note saying that differences of less than 4% were statistically meaningless. Given the great range of differences in individual models of camera, I am far from convinced that lumping all models of a given manufacturer into one group makes sense at all. But, FWIW, this survey shows the two manufactuerers to be in a "dead heat" in this regard.