Casio QV-8000SX

Opinion: I did a lot of research before getting my QV-8000. This is the third digital camera I've owned; the first was a Sony Mavica FD7, the second a Kodak DC240.

I wasn't sure I wanted to spend over $500 on my next camera, and the Casio name wasn't one I would have labeled as high quality. However, even having high expectations, this camera continues to surprise me.

Some features that made me decide on this camera are the 8X zoom, shutter range, and movie mode. The zoom is very useful, and I would think it'd be hard for me to go back to 3X zoom. The shutter speeds range for the incredibly quick 1/2000th to 64 seconds (infinite with remote). With a tripod, the quality of the slow shutter speeds is excellent and can make for some very interesting effects. The movie mode has also been a great feature for me. It's more of an entertainment function; I use it for filming R/C cars, pets, etc. Nevertheless, the quality is good for viewing on the PC.

All special features aside, I am also very happy with the quality of still pics. The resolution is high enough for 5"x7" photos, which turn out well. There are too many other details I could go into such as night mode, white balance, etc.

The features list speaks for itself. I could have purchased an Olympus 2020Z for the same price, but even at a lower resolution I know it was the right decision.

Opinion: This is my second digital camera. The first being a Canon Powershot 600. I've only had the camera for 3 months but I find its ease of use and functionality enable my taking it with me everywhere.

I would consider myself a novice and in the past have taken good photos by accident rather than design. Surprisingly this camera has enabled me to take a lot more "good" photos and I take full credit for simply pointing and shooting. ;-)

I love my new toy and I'm getting considerable value for my hard earned money in terms of my enjoyment using it.

Opinion: I'm a tech geek, programer by profession, and into math. This is my
first camera, but I spent a full weekend doing research on the
web. Basically, i want one about $500 for scientific kind of purposes:
i.e. high picture quality, lots of features in terms of (real)
photography, mininum of whiz-bang fluff features (such as digital zoom
or Sony's floppy or cuteness). Now i had this
camera for half a year, bought a tripod, and am very happy with
it. Sure, it's only 1.3 Megapixel, but that's quite sufficent if you
don't plan to print. The 8x optical zoon, the manual controls
(aperture, focus, shutter speed, white wash...) all are indispensible
if you want to start doing scientific photography as a curiose buff
(like, dropplets of water, hummingbird, remote zooming, macro (2 cm)
shoot...etc)

This camera is a battery eater. Normal high quality akaline will only
last 10 or 20 min. You MUST buy those Metal recharable battery as
others have suggested, from Radio Shack for about $40.

Xah, http://www.xahlee.org/

Opinion: I purchased a QV-8000 in March, 2000, due mostly to the great zoom lens. The lens is great, it's the rest of the camera I had problems with. I had several concerns: 1) Outdoor shots had a greenish tint. 2) Eats batteries (got only 43 shots with 4 new duracells... almost as expensive as film!... even the rechargeables didn't last) 3) LCD is useless in daylight 4) Shutter lag (time from pressing shutter to actually taking photo over 1 second... bad for action shots) 5) Blurry indoor action shots.

The green tint was so bad I brought it in for warranty service in June. Almost two months later, they still had backordered parts. Casio worked with me and agreed to buy the camera back. I just got the check today (five months to get this handled!). I'm now the proud owner of an Olympus C2100 Ultra Zoom.

If you must go Casio, you might do better with the new 2800. It has a smaller LCD, which might be a little brighter and may be kinder on batteries!