Epson PhotoPC 3100Z

I own the PC3100z Epson Camera. It has to be one of the best cameras I've ever used, as far as digital goes. The manual settings are accurate, speed and color are fine, and the body shape is perfect. The black and white setting captures a gorgeous tone, and I've successfully printed photo-quality 11x14's using it's interpolated, uncompressed tiff setting. I have used many of the other cameras in the 3.5-5 megapixel range, and this is my favorite. The sensor is Sony made, the lens is rumored as the Carl Zeiss, I would agree with this (see write-up on dpreview.com). I fully recommend this camera.

Ergonomics, Black and White resolution, flash, lens, quality vs. price.

Occasional problems in focus. Usually fixed by completely turning the camera off and then on again. Kind of like "rebooting" the sensor.

All 49mm Tiffen lenses work great with this camera.

Never needed to use it through Epson.

I had my eye on this camera for months and finally saved up enough to buy it. The camera has so far exceeded my expectations and produces gorgeous images. It works perfectly with my (external) Sunpak 433D flash. Relatively easy to use but not totally intuitive. It would be nice to have the "camera setup" menu available when you''re shooting (which lets you change modes from manual to program, etc), but that has to be decided before you shoot. Comes with a nice carrying case. Battery life seems adequate. Sometimes have trouble getting files off the camera. Might be my computer though. If you don''t have enough memory space left on the camera''s flash card and you take another picture, it will cut it off. I guess that''s better than no picture at all. Hard to tell when you have actually taken a picture in compressed-jpg mode. Takes about 30 seconds and gives no (well, a green light flashes, but it''s impossible to see it in bright light) indication other than you can''t take another picture. All in all, GREAT pictures but somewhat slow to use.

Great pictures. External flash works perfectly. Good batery life.

Price. Image storage. Somewhat quirky USB tranfer. Shot lag time in compressed-jpg mode.

Other digital cameras from Kodak and Fuji.

Not used