Olympus mju(stylish in us) 1010 vs. Sony Cyber-Shot w320

[hunterish]

First of all, I'd like to say hello to the CiC community, it's a great thing u guys built here .

Well, the thing is that I'm a beginner at photography, till now I was obsessed only with photo manipulation/editing/etc. in photoshop, and I guess tweaking all those photos gave me a taste for taking some.
That's why I decided to buy my very first digital camera next week, thus I managed to get a hold of about 180$ and started searching the interwebs for some camera review's, tips and such; I finally found the best products for me in my price range ( I think ) and they are:

Sony Cyber-Shot w320(in the link it's the w330 because I didn't find the w320 in their product page, it's exactly the same camera except the different size in the display, the w320 has only 2.7")

Olympus Mju 1010 (the camera is called Olympus Stylish 1010 in the US and some of Asia, it was released with the name "Mju" in Europe)

What bothers me is that I couldn't find a proper review for either of them, I mean they both get only compliments but no cons, or opinions after let's say, a month or more of usage; the only thing I found is that after ~1 year the display on the Olympus darkens and gets blurry.

Anyway, I would be very grateful if someone could guide me to which of the two is better. Thanks in advance for the advice, meanwhile I'll be learning a bit more about photography in the "Tutorials" section (and excuse my eventual bad writing, English is my second language :P ).

[Dave Humphries]

Hi there and welcome to the CiC forums,

Even in a camera such as this, I would definitely advise getting a camera that shoots RAW (not just jpg) and one that has manual controls, especially if you already know how to PP images.

Also, of these, personally I'd go for the one with the widest optical zoom range and the widest angle setting, which unfortunately is niether of them (or both).

Any chance we could know a first name?

Thanks,

[hunterish]

hey there, thanks for the fast reply (I updated my profile ); the thing is, I love tweaking raw photos, but what digital cameras in this price range(200$) can save images in raw format? I tried to find one, but no luck...

[Peter Ryan]

You might find you can pick up a good second hand one (search on eBay) in your price range to get you started. I have bought seond hand before with good success.

[hunterish]

Even sh dslr cameras are too expensive (keep in mind that I'm a student ), my only hope is the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H10, which I don't know yet if it has raw format capability, from a local store with a fairly cheap price tag. If this camera does't store pictures in raw, and will not be out of stock till the 16th of this month, I will, most probably get the Sony Cyber-shot w330 (if I encounter no other suggestions ) .

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Cristian,

You can still take good shots with your camera of choice. Equipment is one thing but seeing light and composition are more important than equipment. While you are a student you can concentrate on these aspects and later update your equipment if needed.

What are your studying?

I have not been to Romania so please post some images and showcase your country for us.

[hunterish]

Well thanks for the encouragement, I'm a student at the Faculty of International Economical Relationships ( part of the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest ), and I'll be shure to post pictures from Romania once I get my hands around my new digital camera :P.

[Dave Humphries]

A google threw up this link
Compact Cameras with RAW

I agree, finding new with RAW is likely to be beyond a student budget, but s/h is a possibility, I think most earlier Canon G series can, with a software hack called "CHDK" (or similar), later ones don't need it - and they are good cameras (I'm told).

I believe the Canon Powershot S90 does too and also some Fuji Finepix models may - I have a bridge camera that would have been within that budget; the S6500, but it is long discontinued now and may also be too big for you (it certainly won't go in a pocket).

Cheers,

[hunterish]

Thank you Dave, but I already read that thread (those cameras go for around 300-350$ or more, i checked ). I consoled myself with no raw capability , but meh, it will be that much funner to tweak my photos (and I can load jpegs as raw with "open as" function, but it won't give me the same capabilities) .

[hunterish]

Ok, I found what I think is a super good buy : Panasonic DMC-ZX1EP-K (i couldn't find a proper link). The thing is I want to know if this Panasonic is better then a Sony Cybershot w350 (my "almoust" final choise)