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I bought Fuji E550 around New Year's, based on my research on Google.

Great camera .. while it lived. Was dead 2 months later with lense
stuck midway. Google revealed it to be a common problem with Fuji
cameras. Luckily, I bought it at Costco and they took it back without
me having to go through the warranty nightmare.

My second choice was Canon A95, until I found out about the E18 error,
which seems to be the same exact lense problem that Fuji has. Poop.

So, can anybody recommend a good 5 - 6 MP digital camera in the $350 -
400 range, with good picture quality, fast focus, preferably
replaceable batteries (eg AA), and no known quality issues ?

Thanks !

Have a look at the HP 707 5.01MP.
While its not an iconic camera like Canon and others it performs well in all
occasions.
You should read all the specifications and compare them.
I have compared photos taken with the HP 707 and other well known cameras
and I had nothing to envy at all. You should compare the photos taken from
various cameras before buying. As for Fuji I had the same problem as the
one you had.

"Amamba" <> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> I bought Fuji E550 around New Year's, based on my research on Google.
>
> Great camera .. while it lived. Was dead 2 months later with lense
> stuck midway. Google revealed it to be a common problem with Fuji
> cameras. Luckily, I bought it at Costco and they took it back without
> me having to go through the warranty nightmare.
>
> My second choice was Canon A95, until I found out about the E18 error,
> which seems to be the same exact lense problem that Fuji has. Poop.
>
> So, can anybody recommend a good 5 - 6 MP digital camera in the $350 -
> 400 range, with good picture quality, fast focus, preferably
> replaceable batteries (eg AA), and no known quality issues ?
>
> Thanks !
>

On 24 Mar 2005 12:01:33 -0800, "Amamba" <> wrote:

>I bought Fuji E550 around New Year's, based on my research on Google.
>
>Great camera .. while it lived. Was dead 2 months later with lense
>stuck midway. Google revealed it to be a common problem with Fuji
>cameras. Luckily, I bought it at Costco and they took it back without
>me having to go through the warranty nightmare.
>
>My second choice was Canon A95, until I found out about the E18 error,
>which seems to be the same exact lense problem that Fuji has. Poop.
>
>So, can anybody recommend a good 5 - 6 MP digital camera in the $350 -
>400 range, with good picture quality, fast focus, preferably
>replaceable batteries (eg AA), and no known quality issues ?
>
>Thanks !

I can't meet all your requirements with this recommendation, but I use
a Canon S60 (with a spare battery) and find it a very capable camera.
It always goes with me either as a stand alone camera or backup to a
more "professional" system. Either way it gets a lot of use, often
provides my only 28mm equiv fov lens and strobe. The strobe is
adequate for close work and has some nice features such and
independent exposure compensation and bracketing. This is a feature
rich camera with a few scene modes. So you can use it as a P&S or
configure it to your heart's content and save the settings in a custom
mode for future use. I use the custom setting for a street,
hyperfocal, snapshot mode that requires minimum focus time.

I'm an equipment junkie but I haven't thought about another P&S
digital since I bought this one. As far as the battery goes, it gets
very good mileage out of a singe rechargeable battery. The charger
that comes with the camera is very compact and with a spare battery I
can recharge at nearly any shaver outlet in the world and have a day's
worth of shooting in the fresh one and another days backup in the
second.

The camera can record images in RAW mode. Just a very, very capable
camera. I'd be pleased to have this kind of control in a DSLR with of
course a bit better lens.

Regards,
Roger

Amamba wrote:
> I bought Fuji E550 around New Year's, based on my research on Google.
>
> Great camera .. while it lived. Was dead 2 months later with lense
> stuck midway. Google revealed it to be a common problem with Fuji
> cameras. Luckily, I bought it at Costco and they took it back without
> me having to go through the warranty nightmare.
>
> My second choice was Canon A95, until I found out about the E18 error,
> which seems to be the same exact lense problem that Fuji has. Poop.
>
> So, can anybody recommend a good 5 - 6 MP digital camera in the $350 -
> 400 range, with good picture quality, fast focus, preferably
> replaceable batteries (eg AA), and no known quality issues ?
>
> Thanks !
>
Sure, and I'll toss in a car that goes 100,000 miles on a tank of gas,
and costs less than $10,000 too.

You might check out the Kodak 4530, if you can still find one. Comes
pretty close to your list, but NO camera exists with 'no known quality
issues'. They are all made by human beings, they WILL fail.


--
Ron Hunter

Well, there are different "quality issues". I'm referring to ones that
are known to be rather persistent and widespread. Like "zoom error" in
Fujis and "E18" in Canons , or the "digitizer bug" in early iPaqs. To
the point that if you buy the product you are almost guaranteed to have
this problem.

My experience with Kodak digitals was rather limited (I didn't own one,
but a few of my friends did). They all seemed to suffer from slow
startup and focus.

I will check out HP 707. I also looked at Minolta G600 but I read that
its battery doesn't last long enough.

While checking the HP 707 look at the panoramic functions,adaptive lighting,
white balance
and red eyes removal build into the camera.

"Amamba" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> Well, there are different "quality issues". I'm referring to ones that
> are known to be rather persistent and widespread. Like "zoom error" in
> Fujis and "E18" in Canons , or the "digitizer bug" in early iPaqs. To
> the point that if you buy the product you are almost guaranteed to have
> this problem.
>
> My experience with Kodak digitals was rather limited (I didn't own one,
> but a few of my friends did). They all seemed to suffer from slow
> startup and focus.
>
> I will check out HP 707. I also looked at Minolta G600 but I read that
> its battery doesn't last long enough.
>

In message <g2O0e.8938$>
Ron Hunter <> wrote:

> Sure, and I'll toss in a car that goes 100,000 miles on a
> tank of gas, and costs less than $10,000 too.

Sold! What's the address and total price?

(You can keep the camera...

ô¿ô

Amamba wrote:
> Well, there are different "quality issues". I'm referring to ones that
> are known to be rather persistent and widespread. Like "zoom error" in
> Fujis and "E18" in Canons , or the "digitizer bug" in early iPaqs. To
> the point that if you buy the product you are almost guaranteed to have
> this problem.
>
> My experience with Kodak digitals was rather limited (I didn't own one,
> but a few of my friends did). They all seemed to suffer from slow
> startup and focus.
>
> I will check out HP 707. I also looked at Minolta G600 but I read that
> its battery doesn't last long enough.
>
My Kodak DX6440 starts up in about 4 seconds (about medium for similar
cameras), but I have never noticed any slow focus in about 1700 pictures
I have taken in the past year. Most newer camera models have much
better battery life than the ones of just a couple of years ago.


--
Ron Hunter

It',s probably a small gasoline-powered model about the size of a match
box. He'll sell it for $9,999.00.

Well, the now-deceased Fuji E550 started up in just about a second, and
there was virtually no delay between pressing on trigger button &
actually taking the shot (of course, once it was focused). The Kodaks
that I've tried had some delay, long enough that taking pictures of 2
year olds running around was close to impossible. The 4 sec start up is
about what I've experienced with them, too. Now I'm sure they are great
overall cameras, but taking pictures of active little children requires
pretty quick reaction time from both the operator and the eqipment.

Really, what I am looking for is the camera with E550-like specs and
picture quality but without that lense design flaw. I will definitely
check out HP R707; so far the only drawback seems to be its proprietary
battery.