Advice

After many years of 35mm/medium format photography I am coming to digital
with very little knowledge. I am looking for a subcompact, with a decent
lens, smallness/portability a major factor, 5MP or greater, an optical
viewfinder, and at least some form of manual or override control. I have
done some comparitive web browsing and handled several models in store.

A couple I like are the :

Casio Exilim EX-Z850 - nice metal build, Pentax (?) lens, in camera
editing, user friendly controls, 3X zoom, 8.1 MP.

Canon Powershot SD 700 IS - also good build. Image stabilization
technology, 4X zoom, 6MP. About $100 more expensive than the casio.

Anyone out there used either of these? Opinions? Other possibilities?

Thanks

NF

Haven't used either. Had the SD400 Canon, which had somewhat soft
corners in its images. You'll find most credit-card size cameras have
few controls and some lens softness at the corners. Tiny tiny buttons,
and the viewfinders are just this side of a pinhole.

If you go just a little larger, you get much more film camera-like
flexibility, such as aperture/shutter priority, hybrid AF system, and a
battery that lasts much longer. I like Kodak's DX7630 (now Z760) for
this better feature set. The Canon S70 and S80 are slightly larger
still, and offer a 28-100mm lens that's hard to find in a camera in
this class.

-CD