18X Ultra Zoom Comparison + 50$ Fuji Rebate

Last week I heard about the amazing 18X optical Zoom Cameras from Fuji (S8000fd), Olympus (SP560-UZ) and Panasonic (DMC FZ-18) and ooh I want one. It took a while to figure out which one to get and I just ordered the Fuji today from my new favorite online store Buydig.com

Here’s why I chose the Fuji. The Olympus was immediately out because it only supports XD cards. I already have a bunch of SD cards which I can use. Also the Olympus and Fuji are mostly identical except for the fact that the Fuji also supports SD cards.

Selecting between the Panny and the Fuji was a tough one. The price difference was about 20$ (Buy.com for the Panny and buydig for the Fuji). I also have a 10$ off 200 coupon for buy.com and now I have to pick the better camera.

Advantages of the Panny – Leica lens with almost no distortion, Manual Focus Ring (?able advantage for me), Faster Start (not significantly), Lighter Weight (making for more flimsy build), RAW mode (not important to me), no purple fringing, SD card

Advantages of Fuji – Very little distortion (little more than panny but not noticable to my eye), Better build quality, AA batteries (big one), SD card, fantastic flash, super macro (focus from a distance of 1cm!! – a big one for me), better colors (arguable)

Disadvantages of Panny – flash not as good as Fuji, propritary battery (big one)

Disadvantages of Fuji – slight purple fringing (only noticable when viewing picture 1:1 on screen so I don’t care), may or may not be possible to use filters (again don’t care), max 4s exposure (even my old Minolta Dimage F100 has more than that)

In most other respects the cameras are very similar.

But what made Fuji the obvious choice is this secret 50$ rebate which is really hard to find.