Camera, what to buy

glennmac · Dec 18, 2001

I'm going to buy a good one after the New Year. It's probably down to the G2 and 995. The Canon has a few features that I prefer, but I do like the swivel body on the 995. Plus I've always wanted a Nikon (had just about everything else in film cameras), and the price is sure good.

huckflynn · Dec 19, 2001

I've received it. I ordered it on 12/10 and received it yesterday, 12/17.

MikePA · Dec 19, 2001

I've heard both good and bad stories about buydig, hence my question.

I've purchased from State Street Direct and vanns and have been very pleasd with their service. Their prices were a little higher but I could find no complaints about them. I've had to return an item to vanns (a Tivo would not work on my phone lines) and there were no problems.

huckflynn · Dec 19, 2001

Yeah, I read a few negatives about buydig.com too -- but there were many,many positives. I decided to give them a try. I got a little nervous when Friday rolled around and I hadn't received any correspondence aside from the initial order confirmation.

Then Sunday night I received an email with a tracking number on the shipment which went out on Friday -- and Monday morning the camera was at my door.

I'd give them a B+ -- their prices are great. The customer service is light.

Buck · Dec 19, 2001

Chillimau,

I have a Kodak DX 3600. I also have a DC 290. There is a huge difference between the DX 3600 and DC 290. The DX is far more "consumer" friendly. Just put it on it's mount and the batteries are charged and the pictures unloaded. I haven't seen this feature on any other make. This may make a world of difference to you. It can be a real pain getting the pictures on your computer. Also is a pain is batteries. The DX series addresses these needs uniquely.

Hope this helps...
Buck

TonyC · Dec 19, 2001

After a $100 rebate........... you should be able to get it for $600

Dang! I can buy a box blade for that! I'll just stick with my Olympus 460. For $300 it takes pictures like the attached and I can still buy another tractor implement!

GrantMO · Dec 19, 2001

Try looking at the reviews on Amazon.com under electronics. We got a Kodak DC280 this year and really like how easy it is to use. We also got a 64Mb card and it came with rechargeable batteries. I'd probably get a card reader too while you're at it.

Anonymous Poster · Dec 19, 2001

Mike,

How is the low-level light aspect on the C-2100, especially like indoors as a basketball gym with poor lighting...? Any graininess of the pictures?

Does the 1.7x teleconverter screw on..., can you use other 35mm lens with an adapter...?

Yes, I think that stabilizer circuit would be the nuts, especially not using any tripod. Do you have some sample pictures, both in reg. and high resolution you've posted to direct me to and compare...?

CVHoss · Dec 19, 2001

Sorry to hear about Bird's problems with Sony. I've had two of the Mavica cameras and have had no problems with them. I bought the first one, an FD-7, when Sony first brought them out. Last year, I sold it to a friend and purchased a FD-95. While other cameras are less expensive and may have a higher pixel count, the selling point on the Sony was it's use of 3.5" disks. A camera with a memory card requires close proximity to your computer if you plan on taking a lot of pictures. Not a problem for birthdays, holidays close to home, etc., but one of my criteria was to replace my 35mm on vacations. Purchasing enough memory chips for a two week vacation (or a laptop to take along) can add a considerable amount to the cost of the camera. I can buy a LOT of 3.5" disks for the cost of one chip. The mode I use mostly on the FD-95 takes pictures in a 1600 X 1200 format. Muhammad would shoot me if I uploaded one at this size, but here's a link to one on my website just to give you an idea of the size and quality at that pixel count.

Also, be leery of "digital zooms". While they are better than nothing, picture quality degrades rapidly when in "digital zoom" mode. Both of the Sonys had a 10X optical zoom and the FD-95 has an additional 2X digital (for a total of 20X) but even Sony recognizes the problems with digital zoom and gives you the option of turning it off in the setup mode so you don't accidentally get into it in "the heat of battle"

Good luck in your search.

Hoss

Anonymous Poster · Dec 19, 2001

...selling point on the Sony was it's use of 3.5" disks. A camera with a memory card requires close proximity to your computer if you plan on taking a lot of pictures...

I always thought I was gonna get a Sony for the floppy disk reason... until I bought my first "el cheapo" digital and compared it to a friend's Sony I had been using...

Downloads with USB and memory cards are far faster and definitely more convenient than floppies... picture storage is extremely poor using a floppy, standard Compact Flash and Smart Media memory cards are dirt cheap, small, holds a zillion shots versus the proprietary Sony memory stick that end up costing a premium price...

I'd recommend to anyone just "getting into this digital camera thing...", is to buy a bargain basement, el cheapo digital camera with minimum requirements of USB, standard memory card usage{Compact Flash or Smart Media}, and a 3X optical zoom, 1 Mega pixel CCD resolution {2 Mega pixel preferred for larger 8x10 stuff}... Mandatory options are rechargeable batteries {2 sets} and charger, ac adaptor, and cheap memory card reader... and at today's pricing with the changing market...~under $200. for all the above {and cheaper as time marches on...}

Then after some time is spent with “this beginners camera package”, with some experience under your belt, you can eventually buy that “ultimate” digital camera with exactly the features you’ll know you need and want and truly use… /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Anonymous Poster · Dec 19, 2001

...For $300 it takes pictures like the attached ...

You've got me sold... very impressive.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

MikePA · Dec 19, 2001

How is the low-level light aspect on the C-2100, especially like indoors as a basketball gym with poor lighting...? Any graininess of the pictures?
If you let the camera pick ASA 400 there can be graininess, so I usually force ASA 200.

Does the 1.7x teleconverter screw on..., can you use other 35mm lens with an adapter...?
The 1.7x teleconverter is actually a Canon product originally meant for a video camera. With a step up adapter, it screws onto the front of the camera. Vignetting starts if you're at less than 8x zoom. No, no other 35 mm lenses will work. Although, Nikon and other 35 mm camera makers are making digital bodies to allow people to continue to use their existing lenses. However, if you have to ask the price of the digital body, you can't afford it. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

To give you an idea of the effect of 10x zoom plus the teleconverter, attached is a composite picture taken at the field house on the campus of Univ of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. We were sitting in the very top row. The pictures are not of the same scene on stage, but the pictures show how close you can get.

I'll look for some reg and high resolution. I normally take in the medium resolution which results in a 400 - 500k file. These print nicely up to 5 x 7.

Anonymous Poster · Dec 19, 2001

Mike... that difference blows me away....

Just moments ago, I received an e-mail from Olympus concerning their new products to be released after Jan 2002... They politely said "to keep checking their web-site for "release information" as "pre"release information was not available... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

I am sold on your quick demo in med resolution mode... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
{I end up taking everything now in hi-res mode so I can crop them for best results and for my needs...}

Chillimau · Dec 19, 2001

WOW, Guys!!

Thank you very much for all the suggestions and ideas. I will check out those web sites. My new 'puter has a USB port, haven't used it for anything yet. You all have some really good pictures for reasonable $.

Our pictures will probably be mostly of the kids around the house, and progress on the land. I could really see using this more than the 35mm.

I didn't realize these were like computers in their development cycles.

We had planned on waiting till after Christmas, sounds like that may be a good time to be looking. Will let you know what we find and I'm sure we will have some detailed questions.

Sounds like a good place to start would be about 2 meg pixels with good optical zoom and some type of standard memory stick.

Back later...

MikePA · Dec 19, 2001

The composite I posted was created by using two pictures that were each reduced to 640x480. This takes each original 500k file (middle quality) down to 50k. Then I saved the composite using a jpeg compression of 45% to get them under the TBN size recommendation. So there was a whole lotta compression goin' on! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I always copy the original files from the camera into a folder and never edit these originals since each saving into a compressed file format, like jpeg, results in loss of quality. Any picture I need to edit, I save as a .tif file (a non-compressed format) first and perform the editing. If the picture is destined for the web or one I want to email, I convert the .tif file to a 640x480 jpeg file. While to describe the process sounds convoluted, the software I use, Thumbs+, performs the saving and resizing with batch processes.

Until I bought the Olympus C2100, all my digital cameras had been Sonys, from the original floppy disk version up to an S70 which records to a memory stick. I was very pleased with the Sonys but the limited optical zoom and the media they used was frustrating. I did not want to get the Sony model that recorded to CDs because of the size of the camera as well as the size of the media. So, I went looking around for an alternative and learned of the C2100 on dpreview. The C2100 uses SmartMedia to record to and while SM isn't my first choice for the recording media (I prefer Compact Flash), I was willing to use it to get the 10x optical zoom. The C2100 is getting hard to find, but the E100 is available for about $500. The tradeoffs for the E100 are the lower resolution (2.1 versus 1.3) to get 15 fps plus it uses SM, CF or a PCMCIA card. If the next generation of the C2100 has 10x optical plus 4 or more meg resolution, I will think about buying it. If it doesn't, I'll stick with my C2100.

Bird · Dec 19, 2001

Hoss, that 3.5" floppy was the primary reason I wanted the Sony; didn't want to have to get to the back of the computer to hook up cables to transfer pictures. However, when I bought the Olympus (came with cables), I also bought the Flash Path adapter, so I've still never used the cables. A bit expensive, but it's worked very well so far.

Anonymous Poster · Dec 19, 2001

My Kodak uses the Compact Flash, but I'll jump ship as soon as Olympus releases the "E2100"? {my dream camera} or it may end up be dual-media as the E100 {started out @ $1495!}

It's so hard/time consuming to keep up-to-date on alot of this stuff... what are the major differences between the Compact Flash & Smart Media...?

I've said it before, I've got a number of Photo editing programs, but no time to sit down and really learn any one really well... I keep bouncing around using certain features from each I already know...

MikePA · Dec 19, 2001

It's so hard/time consuming to keep up-to-date on alot of this stuff... what are the major differences between the Compact Flash & Smart Media...?

Compact Flash cards tend to have greater capacity sooner, i.e., there was a 64 meg CF before a 64 meg SM. I also think the CFs are sturdier.

Anonymous Poster · Dec 19, 2001

Well then... whats so smart about Smart Media?... {I can see this turning in a George Carlin moment... /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif}

MikePA · Dec 19, 2001

But seriously folks.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I think they were called Smart because initially (and still can) they could be used in different electronic devices, e.g., cameras, MP3 players.