Hi,
Originally posted by mostlydave Hi - When it comes to a compact camera with great image quality, the Fuji F10 gets my vote. I din't realize that the XD format is dead. Doesn't really matter to me, as I have used the same 1GB card since I bought it 4 years ago, and the thing has never let me down. The camera is slow compared to today's standards (it will not replace a DSLR in the speed category), but it takes great pictures, even in low light. The things still stands up to whatever competition.
Thanks, but unfortunately the F10 is out of the running as it has no viewfinder, and that's my #1 reason for not keeping the old Nikon L1.
The xD format is not completely "dead", but with capacities topping 2 GB, it's going to be dead rather soon unless Olympus or Fuji comes up with larger cards. The Fuji E900 I had for a day could actually shoot RAW files - 18 MB each. That's only about 100 pictures on the largest available xD card of 2 GB. Not really practical ! On a trip it would mean having to carry a bunch of xD cards. And even for the available capacities, the xD cards cost about 2-3x as much as SD. Hell, Fry's Electronics sells 1 GB SD cards for $4.99 with $5 rebates ! No such deal on 1 GB xD. Oh, and my computer didn't have a built-in xD reader either, but it had an SDHC one. I can replace it, but it's one more annoyance.
I could not in good conscience invest in a new camera with that severe of a storage limitation. That was my #1 reason for not keeping the Fuji E900. But I had others. #2 is the fact that the viewfinder was only 77% coverage. And at wide angle, you could see the lens through the viewfinder ! That made it very hard to compose pictures that way. #3 was that it barely qualified as compact. There were other smaller annoyances. Like no inclinometer. I didn't keep it long enough to have a really good opinion of it. I am sure it was a great camera 3 years ago, but it was not good enough to buy in 2009. I got a bit carried away after buying the QSX9502 tripod at Ritz. Now that's a purchase I am really happy with.