Carl Zeiss zoom lens with the famous T* covering, ZOOM flash, metal front, integral and spot metering, long time exposures with time delay, self timer for all modes, optional remote control, size and weight.

Limited zoom range 28-70mm, no information about the flash must be used, no warning about long time exposures in low light situations. It means, the camera can be fully succsessfully used only if the photographer possesses the basic knowledges about the technique of the photography and when the photographer can active decide what mode should be used in difficult light conditions. A "normal" P&S photographer can make shots of the Arena di Verona or Niagara waterfalls in the night without tripod and the camera will not protest.

The new Yashica T4 Zoom is a very good P&S camera. Its advantage comparing to Yashica T5 (T4 Super) is a very good zoom lens. This lens is much better as many other zoom lenses for P&S cameras. For a zoom lens very sharp and contrasty (Zeiss T* covering). The lens is of course not as fast as the fix focal lens of the older Yashica T5 (3.5/35mm), but the purpose of a P&S camera is not to make available light photography. For this reason I use my Contax SLRs with Planar 1.4/50 and 1.4/85. The purpose of a P&S camera is, as its name says, to be a small and versatile camera for street or holiday shots. A camera with focal lens 35 mm can be NO versatile camera. The new Yashica T Zoom can be used for shots of night streets, too. For this reason only a small and light tripod would be necessary. The automatical shutter speed can be as long as 2s. Moreover, long time exposures up to 120s are possible, with a very useful time delay for shutter opening to avoid vibrations. As a P&S the new Yashica T Zoom is a very good choice.

Customer Service

Not used.

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Konica Lexio 70 Konica Lexio 110 VP Pentax Espio 135M

n/a

Zoom lens. Slow aperture. Lacks sharpness and contrast of original Yashica T4/ T4 Super.

When the original Yashica t4 Super was discontinued, everybody was pretty disappointed. That camera was awesome because of its fast f2.8, super-sharp lens. It was also small and compact and had pretty decent weatherproofing. Everybody wanted Kyocera (the company that owns Yashica) to bring back this camera. Unfortunately, there is higher demand for variable focal length lens cameras ("zoom") because most camera buyers are unaware of the way cameras actually work. People who know anything about photography know that faster aperture lenses are very helpful, especially for low light photography without yucko flash. They also know that prime/fixed focal length lenses are better corrected, are sharper, and have better contrast. In a compact point/shoot camera, there are also less parts to break if the lens is fixed focal length. Kyocera/Yashica has cleverly attempted to take advantage of the overwhelming praise for the T4 camera by pasting this model name on a low quality zoom lens. I borrowed the zoom model from a friend to see if it was up to par with my original t4 Super, and it most certainly was not. Not as sharp, not as much contrast, and the lens was not fast enough for my tastes to use for ambient light photography without intrusive flash. Pass this one up and go for the Olympus Stylus Epic. It costs less, is smaller, lighter, has a sharper lens with more contrast and a faster aperture. If you can find any of the original, non-zoom t4 cameras, snatch one up.

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Yashica T4 Super, Olympus Stylus Epic, Ricoh GR1, Nikon System, Bronica 6x7 System

Cheap, cheap, cheap...Its unheard of to get such quality for such a low price...Don't be fooled by the Leica, or Contax, and definitely not the Nikon 35ti...This camera will stand up to them all and then some...A lot of people like the image associated with slinging a Leica around their neck...Just like owning a fancy car, you are just paying for the name and not much else...Sure the Leica glass is superb, but this T4 zoom is sharp as any point and shoot I have used...I have only shot 2 rolls through it (black and white and fuji 100) and it has performed wonderfully...the lens, although very slow, as is common in any point and shoot, has no trouble rendering sharp images...i have used it all types of lighting situation, especially natural light, and it has been prefect...the pics are outstanding...A lot of people like to own the equipment, and to say that they have this or that...this camera then, is not for those type of people...it is for a shooter who is interested in actually using his/her equipment, taking it everywhere, and not just putting in a case to collect dust, which unfortunately the majority of Leica owners do...

Slow lens, but not too slow to give sharp images...Body is well designed but wont live through a tornado...Of course titanium would be nice, but for the price you cant expect such construction...slow zoom...doesnt have spot metering...doesnt feature any way of saving settings, such as no flash...

In a nutshell, this camera is unquestionably the best quality out there for the price. When it comes to image quality, the camera brand/body is the least important piece of the puzzle, as it all come down to the glass. This camera has the Zeiss glass...

Customer Service

Haven't had to utilize their services just yet, but I will say that 17th Street Photo was excellent...I had the camera in three days after ordering...

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Nikon D1, Panasonic DMC-20 with Leica lens, Nikon F100, Nikon FM2, Nikon N70, Nikon F5, Canon Sure Shot 120 (also a nice inexpensive point and shoot, though not as contrasty as the Zeiss on the T4), N

Sharpness, Contrast, Color reproduction - awesome for such camera. I expected this from Zeis, but still amazed. I was stunned with first print I saw! Size and weight. Actually, that was main reason for me since I needed camera to carry with me while skiing.

Vigneting and some perspective distortion at 28mm. Vigneting bothers me the most, but more eveluation needed.

Purchased about 2 weeks ago and so far shoot one Fuji Superia 400 roll at high altitude at ski resort. I'm AMAZED with sharpness, contrast, color reproduction and metering. I don't feel any shutter lag so far and camera small and light to carry all around. I do like fill in flash performance, but haven’t tried it indoors yet. However, at wide end it does show vigneting and sometimes heavy vigneting, but this mostly visible on deep sky and almost unnoticeable if any at normal conditions. I'm not sure about metering at full zoom, however I have only one faulty image at high altitude, very bright sun with fresh snow covering 80% of the frame. Again, so far I haven't seen anything of comparable quality from compact camera.

Customer Service

Not needed

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Yashica T4, Ricoh GR1

Vivid Colours and clarity (if you don`t use the flash and Zoom to limit)

Flash symbols in LED hard to read. Anything to do with the Flash i.e. from dark edges to overfilling the picture etc

Not up to expectations given quality of lens and dollars paid. Daylight Pictures (in/outdoor) where great anything with the flash was okey to not good. The camera does not handle (at all) pictures of your pets if they move even in the smallest amount. The night setting gets you the night. If your pictures are outdoors with out a flash or indoors in lots of light this could be your camera. But then again so could 100 others at half the price.

Customer Service

Not used but comes with a 3 year warranty

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Canon 130U. Canon Z155, Pentax 140 espio

Zeiss lens, Tessar lens coating warm tones

the flash too few zoom settings overall sharpness

I am a Zeiss/Contax fan and with a heavy heart must say that this camera is a great disappointment to me. I wore out my Yashica T4 about a year ago. Actually, it was my wife's T4 but I used it as much as her during the past 7 years. About the time it wore out, Yashica stopped making it, and I couldn't find another one. So I tried a few other cameras but none were as good as that little jewel of a camera. Even the luxurious Contax T2 was no better. What a champ! I mourned its passing, I really did. So I was overjoyed to hear that Yashica brought the Zeiss lens back in the T4 zoom, and I bought one as soon as they were out on the street. I've run 100 and 400 speed film thru it, prints only (that's all my wife uses it for) and here are my honest observations. 1) The flash is just awful. It overpowers and washes out faces in close and is weak outside of 8 to 10 feet, even with 400 ASA film. It's like the flashmatic settings don't match the zoom settings, I can't figure it out. It seems like a very rudimentary flash indeed. But the bottom line is, for normal people shots in subdued lighting, watch out. And the flash lighting is often quite uneven. 2) Lots of light fall off at the corners, especially at wide angle. 3) Sharpness: It can be sharp, generally when you force it to step down, when you have plenty of light. All in all, though, the results bear only partial resemblance to that of my old T4 Super. That camera was exceptionally sharp and had an excellent flash. This one...well, it's middle of the road. There are a couple of things I like, though. Outdoor pictures in natural lighting have a very warm tone, almost as if an 81B or C filter was mounted on the lens. I took some shots of fall foliage that turned out quite nice...very colorful and reasonably sharp. And it's got a cute little remote and nice leatherette case that comes with it. However, this camera fails, for me, in the people-shot category...it's intended use. Look for it on Ebay. I give it a solid 3 out of 5. If "flash performance" had a ranking, I'd give it a 1 of 5. Much of this is probably due to the fact that it's simply another slow zoom that tries to do everything...and even a Tessar lens coating can't make up for that.

Customer Service

Fine. They always did well by me with my Contax gear.

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Yashica T4 original (wish I hadn't worn it out!), Contax T2, Canon Sureshot 120, Minox (various), Konica (various), Contax G2 and lenses, various Nikon 35mm

1) Good slide illumination and sharpness when shot at 40mm, 60mm and 70mm. 2) Meter is good enough for slides 3) Has infinity lock 4) Flash can be turned off and film exposed by time exposure (with tripod) up to 2 seconds and even up to 2 minutes manually (started and stopped by pressing the shutter).

1) 28mm wide-angle setting, while sharp, produces slides with terrible light fall-off--essentially as if there was a spotlight in the middle of the image. 2) Just when the shutter fires is a little uncertain, so keep it steady until the film winds.

Bought a Yashica T4 zoom last week from B&H Photo and shot one roll of Fujichrome Astia 100 ASA slide film. Took a few inside images with and without flash, shot some outside images in overcast, bright sunlight and landscapes that were a mixture of shadow and bright portions in sunlight. The camera handles exposures for 100 ASA slide film in all the above conditions very well. The auto focus works well and the slides were pretty sharp. There is a setting that locks the focus at infinity designated by a mountain symbol on the display--which must be reset if the camera is turned off. The focus can also be locked by depressing the shutter button half-way. You can get a feel for this half-way position by playing with the button with the camera turned off. Read the instructions carefully--the sequence of flashes can fool you into thinking you've taken an indoor picture when in fact you haven't. There is no exposure lock function connected to pressing the shutter. Nor is there any means of adjusting the exposure--although the camer did a good job of this on its own. The exposure compensation available is for backlighting or especially extreme spotlight situations--a full 1.5 F stops plus or minus. I have a few complaints, however. The evenness of illumination across my slides wasn't always very good, depending on the lowlight conditions and the zoom setting. The lens has four zoom positions--28mm and three others--about 40mm, 60mm and 70mm. Light fall-off in slides shot at the most wide angle 28mm setting was present in every slide from low light to bright light conditions. The 28mm setting is for all practical purposes a BASKET CASE--I would just avoid using it. The other three settings were so very much better--light fall-off in outside exposures was evident when shooting evenly illuminated building walls in over cast light--and about undetectable shooting overcast and bright landscapes. My camera had what must have been a small lens defect, as a small portion of each slide shot at any of the zoom settings showed a serious demolishion of image resolution in the lower right hand corner--so I retirned the camera to B&H. Had the lens been perfect, this camera would have been fine as a 40mm to 70mm point and shoot.

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none

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Prego 90--didn't like Fuji Super Mini--didn't like Regularly use Olympus and Contax SLR systems as well as large formatl

picture sharpness &contrast size / weight zoom range

-before tripping shutter user is not warned of auto settings -loading film can require multiple attempts -slow lense (f4.5!) - may be hard to hold steady if you have large hands

For me point and shoots are about three key factors. 1-Does it warn me before it will do something that may cause the shot to flop (i.e. flash-on, tripod required etc). 2- Is it small enough to take with me anywhere without being a hassle 3-Is the picture quality high. The camera fails in the first category but passes the others. If you get to know how it works, and what its features/ limitatons are, you may be able to work with / around them. When you finally do get it right, you will be rewarded with impressive high quality prints. I debated exchanging it for something more expensive because I wanted more manual control but decided not to after looking at one particular shot I took of a tall office building. Sharp, excellent contrast - I decided I'd put up with the deficiencies. Besides, the PnSs with manual controls all seemed much larger than the t4. I expect to get more quality shots as I shoot more. I'm on my 5th roll... Suggestion: where possible I turn off the flash and rest it on something, use the auto timer and let the optics do its thing.

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Canon sureshot (circa '88) Canon A1

Lens! Self timer and flash modes separately. Long times up to 120 s with shutter delay. Spot measuring possible. Accurate measuring and autofocus. Date imprint included. Size and weight. Feeling!

Limited focus range. Contrast free surfaces cannot be focused. Under low light conditions the camera fires a flash to measure the distance - very anyoing. In that case possibly three flashes can be fired - distance measuring, red eyes reduction and main flash! Shutter lag. The date imprint too bright and too far from the picture edge. Only one green LED for flash charging and autofocus. No information about the flash will be used (or the flash/long shutter time would be necessary).

Each camera is only as good as its lens. In this case the lens is a true Carl Zeiss lens with T* multicoating. Very sharp, high contrast, true colors, very low distortion even at 28 mm, no vigneting. The camera looks very good and the feeling is very pleasant. The controlling is OK, especially the self-timer can be used for all flash modes. The shutter lag too long, not suitable for action oder childern photography (except of sleeping childern). A very good camera for holiday and landscape photography when the focus range 28mm - 70mm is sufficient.

Customer Service

Not needed

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Konica Lexio 70 Konica 110 VP Pentax Espio 135M

Small size Sharp lens Good exposure (as long as you don't meddle with it) Remote control included

Shutter lag because focussing takes place after the shutter is depressed

I like the compactness and handling of the camera. Have shot 2 rolls of Provia 400F on it during a recent trip and I'm amazed by the results. Night shots in Zurich turned out pretty good and under difficult lighting conditions (shots of ice-capped mountains amongst clouds), the camera did well. I have also taken pics with Velvia (yet to be developed) and would be using Sensia 100 and ELitechrome Extra Color 100 for the next trip. Would update if there're any other interesting findings. The +-1.5EV exposure compensation might not be really useful though when shooting slides which has smaller lattitude. I have overexposure when I tried to compensate positively. Shots turned out properly exposed when I didn't meddle with the exposure compensation. Guess I'll just leave the camera at default in the future. Read a comment on the T4 Zoom not being the same as the weather proof T4 Super. It's not meant to be. T4 Zoom is actually similar in build and looks to the original T4. T4 Super is really the odd one out.

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None yet

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Various Nikon, Pentax P&S