Preserved Topic: Digital camera question

I'm asking this here since I suppose many of you will already have one...

I'm planning to buy a digital camera. It's not going to be for commercial use or so, just to take pictures with to mess with in photoshop, and to serve as a 'normal' camera. (so no videocamera )

Is there anything I should keep an eye on if I plan to buy one of those? which resolution is good for acceptable pictures? Which kind of saving method is best? (floppies, memory cards, internal HD, minidisc)

I've already read several pages on the subject, but most feature just plain info, not anything user-oriented, so that's why I'm asking about your personal experience.
In short; If you have a digital camera, what things did you find most useful, and what can be done without? Anything I should pay particular attention to?


Edit: I don't really plan to spend more than $200 / ?200 on the thing. Would that be enough or should I better save my cash for a better > more expensive camera?




[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 09-03-2002).]

hi mahjqa

My vather got a canon g2 Shot. The price is not
less but the handling is phenomenal.
He bought even a 1Gb IBM drive which you can connect
with your computer. You can access it just like an
other harddrive :-D

A friend of mine got the canon ixus 300 which is
perfect for your use.
The cam is very small and good to handle. The quality
is more than enough for personal use. There he have
a 256MB flashcard for saving the pictures...

hope it helps

(Hey, there. I'm hovering around a bit as I can get on the computer at work or use my dad's.)

I have the Canon PowerShot Elph (Ixus) S200. Just a few less features than the S300, but I'm not missing anything. I love this camera. Plus, it's quite small, so I can keep it on my hip at all times. (Doesn't come with the little leather case like my APS Elph did, but it slips right into my old APS's case, so I'm lucky there.) Takes excellent pictures. The only real complaint I have is that it doesn't give you a battery status, except to indicate that it's almost dead.

The S200 also doesn't save TIFF files, just JPEGs, but you can set the compression level to low. (I don't know about the S300, but I'm sure you can look that up.) Fine for snapshots. (It's what I've used for all the upgrade-story photos.)

It's typically sold for $350, but looking on Price Watch, I found it for $280.

IMO, get something that supports either CompactFlash or SmartMedia; from what I've seen and read, those are the two that are coming into the lead. Sony's MemoryStick is probably third, but I don't think you'll find that supported by much other than Sony products. (Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.)

I wouldn't bother with anything that uses floppies. I don't know what the draw is to those. Sure, you can pop it right into any computer, but good luck getting very many photos on there unless you're using low resolution and high compression. (Which is fine for e-mailing, I guess, but good luck ever printing anything.)

They pretty much summed it up, but consider the following:

More than 3MP is too much for 'domestic' work - spend the extra cash on a good lens (Canon / Carl Zeis / Nikon)
You'll realise far more of the camera's potential this way.

Compact flash is by far the best storage medium.
It's fast and flexible, and you can get cards up to 1GB thesedays and you can slot into a laptop/pda/etc.

It's worth looking to see if the camera can output the RAW image format.
This allows you to use ALL of the data from the ccd (avoid CMOS if you can) and not just the compressed output.

Just as importantly, have a hold and play with some, see which feels good in your hand.
At you price point, there's little to separate many cameras, so ergonomics come into play.

I recently bought a Sony DSC-F707 and I am in love.

It uses the Sony Smartmedia card and I have two 128 MB cards, that's enough to hold over 100 pics at 5 megapixel rez. If you want, it will also take video clips, the length being determinded only by how much storage is on your memory card. It has a microphone as well so the clips will have sound. It has all kinds of preset modes as well as allowing you to adjust the aperture and shutter speed on your own.

It has a 5x Carl Zeiss optical zoom as well as 10x digital. However, the optical zoom is most important because digital just blows up the image artificially. The pictures this thing takes are amazing. I think Doc and Malin will back me up on that one because they have one as well.

It is pricey, it retails at $999.95 but I found mine online with a bit of searching for only $499.95 with just a little bit of googling. It has definitely been worth it though. If you want to see some pictures I took the other night, take a look here.

I just can't say enough about this camera.

EDIT: Oh, one other thing. I have a decent Canon printer, bought some Canon photo paper, and when I printed these images off, I swear that you could not tell the difference between them and a regular photo. Amazing color and clarity. You have plenty of rez to work with, the unedited photos are 2560x1920.


[This message has been edited by kretsminky (edited 09-03-2002).]

I got me a Nikon 775 with 2.1Mpx and 3x Optical Zoom + 32mb card and Im so happy with it.
It gets me 62 1600x1200 with low compression.If you want I'll post a nice high res image to show what it gets you.
Or something like 320+ crappy 320xsomething pictures. The wee screen on it is brilliantly sharp too. WIth space I dont think its too important because its only untill you download them onto your HD. I wouldnt go with a floppy using cam, it would take too long to save thie image loudly and it makes the camera an odd size. I've never seen a MD or HD cam , but I'd say MD would be cool as MiniDisks are quite cheap and could hold a lot. Internal HD sounds like it would break easy but Im sure its perfected.

Something to look out for: Digital Zoom is silly, and isnt worth jack. It does it after the picture is taken! But they advertise it like its the bees knees and you'll never have friends without it.

My cam cost ?500 (around last March) and that was After haggling ! (I got 32 extra mem, a carry case and a spare battery and it was ?540 ) The haggling was strange because it didnt seem like that type of a shop and its not really done here in Ireland. Also we had looked about in other shops and the same camera was either out of stock due to demand or at least ?550. It also has a great white balance feature and a feature that takes sixteen pics at once with different lighting setttings and picks out the best.

So for ?200 Im not too sure what you'd get theres like a gap between ?250 and ?350 seperating crap-to-ok and decent-to-amazing..

Things that I could do without if the cost was lowered:
Video feature: It takes up to 1minute of silent low res quicktime movie, Ive only used it once or twice to see what it was like.
The 3x Optical Zoom: Just move closer !

I think most things have been covered. Pixel rate is very important. I must agree with Krets. He bought the same camera as I have and I will tell you...as far as I am concerned...it's the best. I posted some photos to the PS forum here that I made with it or you can click my sig and check out some on my photo page. Sony F707 rocks !

don't get a Sony FD Mavica .. they sucks!

I'm looking to eventually get a new DigCam myself .. but I've had no luck so far with money


.::. cEll .::. 513