can anyone give me a review on this camera? I'm looking for a sturdy camera that has a strong zoom/ >4.2MP, and offer a microsoft xp friendly software that won't really cause problems when i download pics into my computer. Price range shouldn't be any higher than $250. The Z3 was reviewed as pretty average - and that was almost 3 years ago:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_revi...
Last year's Canon S3 is a better mega-zoom camera. It still retails for about $310, but you can probably find it for under $250 on eBay (from people that upgraded to a digital SLR). Here are some reviews:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons3i...
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
As for Win XP compatibility, both should work. Don't worry about it though... whatever you chose. If a specific camera doesn't have XP drivers, you can simply use a $5 card reader. I use XP myself, but with our latest Nikon dSLR and Panasonic point & shoot I never took the camera's usb cord and CD out of the box. I have posted a link to dpreviews look at the Z3.
All current, mainstream point and shoot cameras are friendly toward both Mac and XP computers.
The Z3 has a few drawbacks, however for a camera with such a large zoom, it should be a camera that you enjoy for many years to come.
This camera has all the features you say you are looking for and it uses memory which is standard for most point and shoot cameras ... an SD card.
I am sure you will have many hours of pleasure using this camera. | 