Digital Camera's

[Jon]

Ok I do recall a ways back some talk about digital camera's so let us try and cover it a bit more.

Say I wanted to buy one but limit the amount I am willing to spend to around $350 to $450 plus tax.

What brands do you guys/gals use, would you recommend it or do you wish you did not buy THAT camera?

I have looked at some, I like the Kodak DC3400 bundled lens kit (wide angle and couple others)
.
DX3500 and DX3600,(DC3400 almost same as DX3600)
all are in some ways the same but one has a few extra goodies.

All come with a USB docking station for uploading and stuff.

Ok what do you people have, why did you buy THAT one?

Throw out the pro and con and names with model numbers please.

I might part with some bucks yet!

 

[Larry L.]

<b><font color=green>Hey Luckyboy better find someone to show you how to work it cuzz it want make no differents how much it cost ifen you cann't use all of it.

I just bought A Sony MVC-FD75,FD Mavica don't know if its a good one or not,it cost 397.67 plus tax.Its fairly easy use but I cann't seem to get the resizen figured out as to post on the bbs,yel I can resize but.

You can do all kinds of things with it,if you can figure all that stuff.I think its pretty neat to take a picture and if you don't want it just delete it either in the camera or pc,I like the mirrow effect too.Hey man don't set around go get ya one they worth the money ifen you do have to buy a cheap one as I did.

 

[Aplus]

For overall best value, I like the Kodak digital cameras. About two years ago, I bought a 1 megapixel, which was pricey back then. However, I can't print quality photos any bigger than about 4x6, because they start to get grainy. Based on todays environment, a 2 megapixel camera would likely suit you fine, and would fit right into the budget price you mentioned. There are too many areas to cover in this forum, but there is a plethora of information available on the web to assist you. If you need more personal help, go to a camera shop, not a discount store, and you will likely find sales people who know what the heck they are talking about.

 

[Jon]

Tony,

Guess I should have said more in my post but wanted to try and keep it short, I have been to a few camera stores, each carries different brands or models of same brand, I expected that.

Each claims what they stock is best, not a good way to compare, went to different manufactures web sites including Kodak and all it did was get me more confused.

I ruled out the Sony Mavica's as I did not like being limited to using floppy disk, seems you would be storing hundreds of them if you took as many before and after pics as I do, I overkill, I mean a roll of film sometimes, 24 -36 is over kill but I do it.

Bigboy is probably right, should just go buy it already instead of continuing to shop and compare, they all seem to offer several item as standard equipment, then a few offer different things for more cost.

I like the idea of being able to zoom in "before" taking the picture instead of doing it after the fact, also come to see doing it after makes the pic. more blurry, or as you say grainy.

Beth, guess your saying since prices are dropping now on Kodak it might be the time to buy, not so much theirs but a good camera period. I already know not to buy one of those $169 or so camera's and the stores even admit the quality is bad. Now not going to pay $700 for one either and I got a shock out of the price of one, it was over $3500. yes you read it right, THOUSAND, can take a nice trip with that money, go back to Arkansas and visit my hillybilly buddy and let him take me cat fishin! YUCK, cat fish.

"To many digital camera's for the buck, which to buy is the question?".

 

[Beth]

When it comes to certain things, cheaper is not better. Do your homework, and do get something of quality. Watch the prices. When newer technology is about to be released or has just been released, you can get some great deals on really good equipement.

Don't expect to pay dirt cheap (no pun intended) prices and get a wonderful piece of hardware. Learn about the life cycles of the products, and when the prices drop, it's a good time typically.

Beth

 

[Larry L.]

<b><font color=green>Hey Luckyboy you can delete the picture while still in the camera,it zooms also,you can even play back all the pictures on the floppy while still in the camera and dete the ones you don't want as in useing the same floppy over and over if you want.,heck it does alot of things.You can make pictures in Muti mode,Bitmap mode,e-mail mode or normal mode,You can even make albums.I've been clicking and clicking and clicking but not saving done or just one or two that is,its fun go get you something man and never miss with that roll again...C-ya

 

[Dan Flynn]

I really took a long time on deciding what was best for me. I tried the Kodak 4800 I think and it was a junker in my opinion. I thought I just got a bad one and had Kodak send me one from the factory and it had the same bad picture quality. Strange enough it did get a good review.

I finally decided on the Nixon 880 which is the same as the 990 but a different style and cheaper. It is absolutely awesome. It retailed at around 900. 00. I searched around and found it for 699.00 or less, can't remember. I justified the camera because it has all I will need for a long time. 3.3 mega pixels blah blah blah.

Get a good camera like Beth said. The digital cameras are wonderful and if you buy a higher end camera you wont need another. Get some good image editing software and start learning and asking your questions right here. I will try and help Beth the best I can. I am pretty good with technology. I have about 6 years of time invested. Beth has been in the industry since 1988.

Plus I'm sure there are plenty of others on the board that have some good insight.

I also bought a compact Flash memory card with 64mb of space. It cost 180 bucks at the time, but is well worth it. I take the second best quality pictures my camera offers. The reason I do this is because, if I want to get god quality prints made from a camera store I know I will have a large enough image to produce them.

The higher the quality the more space it will take up on your card. My card will hold around 100 very large images. I transfer them to my computer, then delete the images I don't want. When I want to put a photo on the net I use Photoimpact to edit the image size to suit the internet. When you take a high quality image. It is about 28 inches by 24, at least that is with my camera. I knock it down to a 6x4 and reduce the file from 1 mb to 20,000 to 40,000 kb. Which is pretty amazing. Figure there is 10 x 100,000 kb to make 1mb. I then save the small image. Now I have the original and the web shot.

You can also get a cd burner and put the access images on a cd to save space on your computer.

However if you are only interested in photo's that look good for the net, and possibly have professional 6x4 prints made. You can do pretty well with a 1.0 Mega Pixel camera. That will put you in a very reasonable price range. But before you decide. Think hard about your interest. If you think you will really get into it and use it often. Go for the best camera you can afford as Beth said in her post.

I also just found a really good photo album software. It's free to download and very easy to use. I have a album that came with Photoimpact but it is confusing. The album I am talking about is free. But the site wants you to use there servie. I wont and you probably wont either. Just download it and never go back. Unless you need help. They have support for it on there site. here is the link. Foto Time

Happy Hunting
Dan Flynn

 

[Beth]

For image editing, I love Fireworks by Macromedia. As I mentioned before, I also use Dreamweaver by Macromedia. Their software is excellent. They are the developers of Flash, and Shockwave, and seem to alwyas be on the cutting edge. You can download trial copies of the software for 30 days from their site. I'll warn you though, it was enough to hook me, and it is not inexpensive software. But on the other hand, it blows Adobe right out of the water....in my opinion, that is.

 

[Mike Hughes]

I have a Sony Mavica FD-88. I like the floppy disks, because when I am doing before/after shots of some jobs, it may be a week or more before i can take the after shot. I simply have a seperate disk for that job, so I can view the before shot prior to shooting the after shot.

Anyone who doesnt have a digital camera and likes before/after shots should seriously consider one. My after shots almost always look exactly like my before shots (same angle/zoom, etc)........because you can look at the before shot right on the camera.

You might also consider buying a used camera off ebay........

 

[Dan S]

Dan you said kodak 4800... mine is a kodak dc 3400 2.0 megapixel and it takes wonderfull pic.s.... i wonder what the dif. is..... cost around 400.00 ............... the only thing i hate about it is BATTERIES......it really sucks the life outa 'em..... this camera can do any thing ..... > add frames > dif. color > zoom > timer> and many others that i havent tried yet ....... maybe all dig. do what this does.... im not sure.........
the pic. below works to post as you can see but when i post another pic.the same size and even smaller it tells me nothing bigger then 300x0.......i just dont get it..........

 

[Dan S]

Dan i downloaded that foto time ...... how do you size your pic.s .... i kinda like it .... but it dont have the options like the one i have..... with the one i have i can do all kinds of neat stuff with it .......like frames,clone,retouch... etc... but with the foto time it looks very limited.......... what can you do with it "foto time"......

opps i think i answered my question it's only an album.....10-4

 

[Dan Flynn]

Sorry about that Dan,

I just checked and I had it set wrong. If you want to upload a picture to the board it 's now set to a maximum 400 x 400 pixels.
Which means that's the largest you can go up to.

If you have a picture on the net and want to link it to the board there is no limit in size. I just hope people keep it to a reasonable size so the picture isn't so big it messes up the tables in the bulletin board.

Thanks for for spotting that

 

[Jon]

Dan S.

That is one of the camer's I am looking into buying, but before I do want to check out the new Kodak DX 3900, if it has all the stuff and more might be worth the extra cost.

When I add up all that extra camera not so inexpensive.

But like Mike said, if we take lots of before and after it is the best thing to have. Why I felt it is time to buy digital.

Remy can use the 35 mm, she enjoys that camera anyway.