3. Point-by-point Comparison

The reader should not forget that all four of these cameras claim to offer completely "professional" resolution, yet the image quality remains well below what one can legitimately expect from a genuinely professional six-million pixel reflex camera. Obviously, it is ridiculous to seek to compare a compact camera to an SLR. Those presented here are above all simple compact cameras, which, due to their compactness pose limitations. This being the case, users still demand superior quality, and Kodak, Fuji and Olympus are perfectly well aware of this. In fact, these four cameras are good compacts, sometimes with a few remarkably apt improvements. As for the images, they can all be printed in A3 size, even if certain details or some areas may be better or less well rendered, depending on the manufacturer.

Ease of use, sturdiness, and construction

If you are worried about sturdiness, consider the Olympus C-60. Its elegant metal housing is extremely robust and its sliding front cover (which also serves as a lens cover) protects the lens very effectively. In fact, it is the metal casing that distances itself from its competitors, which are stuck in the plastics age. It must be said, however, that the Fuji and the Kodak may not be as robust but they are not easily breakable either. The FinePix F710 combines metal and plastic successfully, the Kodak DX70 does the same and only the F610 lags a little behind, though it doesn't look "cheap" by any means.

All four cameras have an excellent finish. Nothing has been left to chance, but once again, the winner is the Olympus C-60, whose compactness and construction is far ahead of the others.

As for defects, it must be admitted that none of these four cameras has a zoom lens that is easy to operate. There is minute cleat on the Olympus that is meant to be pushed with the index finger, a rather impractical cylinder for both the Fuji models and a ring around the shutter release button on the Kodak, so no system is really appealing, although the DX7630 turns out to be much better than the others. One has the clear impression that the manufacturers were determined to miniaturize the zoom control to the max, meaning that you need to be quite dexterous to be able to easily manage to get a good shot. It's nothing to worry too much about, however, because practice will help a lot and the initial irritations will soon be forgotten.

All four cameras are generally easy to work with, but personal preferences may dictate choosing one over the others. In all cases, the menus are easily accessible, the wheels and buttons well arranged and the casing design is faultless.

The Olympus C-60 may be a little more delicate to handle than the others, especially because it has a very smooth casing. The same applies to the F610, whose vertical "philosophy" may be a little disconcerting at first. The Kodak wins hands down in this category, since it includes a small rubber grip that makes the device much easier to hold. But here again, this is just a detail.

At the risk of repeating ourselves, we insist on the fact that there is nothing to replace holding the camera in your hand firs at the store before making a purchasing decision. Ask to be allowed to handle all four of the cameras, and you will immediately see which ones you like and which you don't. It's that simple and there's no substitute.