For a few days now I’ve been actively looking for a digital camera. More specifically I’ve put my attention onto the Fujifilm FinePix F31fd. But it’s not so easy to get my hands on this cam since it’s a discontinued model which was introduced 2005 or 2006 and has now reached its end of production.
Which is a pitty, because from almost all of the reviews I’ve been digging through and sample images I’ve compared, the F31fd leaves the arena as winner. It produces better images than many of today’s high MP-cameras and has excellent picture-quality even in low light situations. (Example Review)
I’m trying to get it from eBay, but the bids there easily reach far over 300EUR.
Not that cheap for a 6,3MP camera it might seem, but given today’s megapixel-craziness people are fooled into thinking that more pixels mean better pictures. To the contrary, more megapixels on smaller sensors mean that they have to be more sensitive to catch enough light for image recognition. But this also raises the noise which then again has to be fought by the camera logic, effectively using some sort of blurring which again lowers the final resolution of the image.
If you’d like to know more about the megapixel-hype and what’s the reality behind it, head over to 6mpixel.org for the technical reasons.
In the meantime, I’ll keeping an eye on eBay…
Update 2008-01-24:
Just about today, Fujifilm has anounced some more cameras I’m keeping an eye on, these really look promising and don’t cost too much. Damn, now I have to wait and choose wisely: