Digital Camera Recommendations?

[iceaxe23]

as to the life of the prints I was talking about...they last just as long as normal photo because they are on standard wet photo paper. Insted of shooting light through the negative they just project the digital image in negative onto the photo paper then wet process. So you get true photos...not dye sub or injet. Oh and they are cheap....29 cents for a 4x6

[Peter_Puget]

Now we are talking. ANy idea of the life of these prints?

[RobBob]

How about a PT?

[rollo]

I've used the Canon S110 digital elph for a year now, and am generally happy with it. 2.1 MP is enough for me (you can get 8x10 quality prints and barely see pixels. 5x7's are photo quality). The movie capability is decent, and it works well in cold weather, and its very compact. The only thing I don't like about it is its ability to capture far off stuff (like distant mountains). It seems to blue alot of them out. Not sure if I can mess with the modes a bit to get them back in. Get at least a 64meg card and an extra battery. The batteries last for lots of pics, if you don't use the LCD to review your pics after you take them. 2X zoom kinda sucks, but once you get used to a 400mm zoom on an SLR, nothing's good enough anymore.

[allison]

The Canon S40 is really tickling me. I like the features a lot, especially the fully manual part, just like a real camera.

 

Any of you guys actually own one of them?

 

I'd love to know what you like and don't like about it, and how they do on the lithium ion batts. I'm thinking about buying this one with 2 batts and 1 128 mb card, and then getting a second card when I can afford one. This package is going to hit my budget limit at $650.

[jeffers]

Take a look at the Olympus C4000Z. 4.0 MP, 3x optical, and your PC sees it as another drive. You can read from or write to the camera from Windows Explorer just like a Zip drive. Lists around $500, but you can get it online for $350.

 

It goes full auto, aperature priority, shutter priority, and full manual. No audio when shooting video clips. You can set up 4 of your own preset modes too, with variable exposure comp, flash comp, etc., and it'll focus down to 2 cm in super macro mode. You can zoom and pan when viewing stored images, and it comes with a cable to output to a TV, so you can save battery power by not using the LCD screen.

 

The image/glass quality is good, color balance is great, 3 white balance modes plus custom white balance modes you can set up too.

 

http://www.in-motion.net/~jefft/mountains/cat.jpg

 

This is about 3/4 (cropped) of a 2280 x 1200 tiff converted to a jpeg, untweaked.

 

I have a pair of 128 MB cards, plus the 16 MB it came with, but I wouldn't buy more than that. It holds 130 2280 x 1200 jpeg images on a 128, or 11 tiffs. You can buy a 5 GB battery powered HD to download the images to, that also runs off 12v from your lighter or a wall socket for $330. 10 GB for $430, and 20 GB for $530.

 

The camera uses two of the twin AA lithiums, about $20 a set. Look into NiMH rechargables instead. Got a 120v/12v charger with 4 NiMH's for $30, and 4 more NiMH's for $10. They won't last but about half as long as the Lithiums, but at half the price and rechargable, you will be better off in the long run. I carry both kinds with me while out, and use the Lithiums last, if needed. The 'use by' date on them is good till 2011.

 

[ 10-18-2002, 11:42 PM: Message edited by: jeffers ]

[allison]

I went with the Canon S40. Anyone in the market for a digital, spend some time reserching prices on the internet, they vary a lot. Maybe that sounds sort of obvious but I was surprised at how MUCH the prices on cameras, and even more so peripherals, varied.

 

[ 10-20-2002, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: allison ]

[allison]

Then I get this phone call this morning, at 7:58 am on a Sunday local time from the shop.... "Hi, so-and-so from such and such shop....The s40 is really a wonderful camera!......is this your first digital camera purchase?" (inserts hook in mouth), "it looks like you ordered the wrong accessory package for your camera" (pull gently) "blah blah blah $399 for accessory pack instead of the $179 one you ordered"......No, that puts me over budget, cancel the whole order (wriggling off the hook)......"wait let me get the manager and I'll se what I can do for you" (puts me in hold for 1 nanosecond)...."we can do the accessory pack for $229" (I've got to get this clown off the phone and go to work it's now 8:05 and we are slammed, and it's worth $50 to do so)......."promise me you'll tell your friends about our shop".....will do compadre.

 

Promise to tell you guys everything you need to know about idealphotoandvideo.com when it's all said and done.

[gregm]

quote:

---

Originally posted by allison:

"it looks like you ordered the wrong accessory package for your camera" (pull gently) "blah blah blah $399 for accessory pack instead of the $179 one you ordered"......No, that puts me over budget, cancel the whole order (wriggling off the hook)......"wait let me get the manager and I'll se what I can do for you" (puts me in hold for 1 nanosecond)...."we can do the accessory pack for $229"

---

this is standard camera dealer schlock. you will see it a lot.

 

if you're shopping for a camera, there are a variety of price compare sites. most of them include customer feedback ratings, as well as an indication of weather the camera you want is currently in stock. i have usually gone one small notch over the cheapest price shown to avoid the above scenero. while you probably want to shop around for your particular model i've had good results from etronics.com and abesofmaine.com.

 

anyway allison have fun with the camera. if you need some digital photo bbs checkout the dpreview.com canon forum

it's actually quite sprayless

[allison]

Well now that I've had time to ponder and research, I'll be returning at least the accessory pack. They can't just take my money like that.

[allison]

Now that is all said and done, I would like to NOT recommend idealphotoandvideo.com.

 

I'll spare you the details, all in all a very shady operation.

[Thrashador]

Belatedly...my vote goes with Sony. Two words: Zeiss glass.

[catbirdseat]

I have an Olympus D-150 Brio that is a little over a year old. It was inexpensive, compact, light and has 1.3 mega pixel resolution and 3x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom (digital zoom is worthless in my opinion). Most of the cameras mentioned above are better with more bells and whistles, but I didn't want bells and whistles. I wanted something I wouldn't be afraid to take on a climb and possibly drop and smash to smithereens. It's great if all you want to do is post on the web or view on screen. If it's art you are after, get a better camera.

[timi]

I have a nikon FM 2 as my 35mm camera (that's real film, and nothing will ever compare, sorry) and I also have a really fun digi Sony DSC-S75 I bought in Hong Kong. The digi has all the manual control that the film camera has and the little movie thingy too. Useless, but fun. I did the usual comparing, since they do have everything electronic there on the street for cheep, and found it to be the only one that had a resonable power supply, an 7.2v Li-ion and looked like it was going to be able to take a tumble. I figure it's a good camera since I've had it for a year and I can break anything. I think I should test watches. It's really easy programing, easy to use and most of all, like mentioned, Zeiss Glass. For the info, you can have high res but if you don't have good glass it's not going to make a bit of difference, it'll still be muddy and grainy. Zeiss, zee Germans, is a few companies that makes high grade motion picture lenses, Panavision being another one, but who cares about them, you can't buy'em. Yeah, and the russians, as well as Cookes, but they only fit on the big motion cameras... I digress.

I agree with the memory thing though, get more then you think, you'll use it all and then some. Seems like there is never enough of that stuff to go around, even with the real thing

[tomdav]

Actually, the lens on the Sony S85, S75, and S70 is really a Canon Lens. It's identical to the lens used on the Canon G2, G1, and several other high end cameras (most of which label it as a Canon Lens). Phil Askey alludes to this in his review of the S75. I'm guessing Sony gets away with labeling it a "Carl Zeiss" lens by having Zeiss throw a coating on it.