Testing cheap digital camera

[patrickg]

Bought an RCA CDS1005 at Walmart for $50. Comes with a cable to review pix on a TV and two cables to get pix into computer, a serial cable for a com port and a USB cable. Just plug the camera, in my case using USB, into the computer (camera is powered parasitically by USB, serial would not and camera batts would supply power). On the desktop, click on My Computer then My RCA camera and voila there are all your pictures as jpeg files. You can click/drag them to anywhere, or print them or whatever. The down side of the camera is that it has no removable media. But downloading to a laptop, desktop or whatever is fast and dead simple and yu can then erase one or all of the pix in the camera with a couple menu choices and yoiu are ready to take another camera full of pix. Standard resolution is 640x480, there is a fine res too. Since I got it primarily for sharing pix on the net and having instant "developing" as in printing the pix on my color printer, I can deal with the less than state of the art resolution.

Has flash and runs on two AA cells. Internal mem holds 32 pix at 640x480. Fine res gives 16 pix capacity.

Works great.

Patrick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Patrick,

What a buy... it does look great for $50! Especially with USB...Yow. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[patrickg]

Sorry, wrong pix, but delicious peaches. Hmmm I can see each camera full of pix has same names, image 1, 2, 3etc. some potential confusion/management issue. I intended to post this pix of Kubota unloading overhead fuel tank after returning from auction with it sitting high above trailer behind super modified Dodge.

Patrick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Patrick,

I just called our local Wal-mart and they have the camera on clearance...............for $90. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[DFB]

Sounds like a good deal. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Nice pics too! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

DFB

 

[HR_Mutt]

patrickg
Great looking pics/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.Wishing I had the cab model today, it was HOT out there!
regards
Mutt

 

[jinman]

Great pictures, Patrick, especially considering the price of the camera and its built-in USB. I'm sure you have already developed a file management technique for the files having the same names. I just make a separate subdirectory for each download set and give it a unique name related to the picture set. If I need additional sub-sub directories, I often use dates like 7082001 and I can quickly find the files by major subject and date. This is a pretty low tech method that's easily explanable to others who may not be as technically astute as you are.

JimI

 

[RobS]

Good pictures Patrick! I tried a cheapie from AOL and it wasn't nearly as clear as yours. Maybe I'll head to Wally-World soon /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[skent]

When I started digital photo last year, I set up a CAMERA directry, with sub directories of 2000, 2001, etc and then had JAN, FEB, MAR, etc, sub-subdirectory for each year subdirectory. Also included (within the year directory) events such as Graduation, Vacation, 4H fair, etc. Whenever I need a reprint, Its REAL easy to find the needed pic. When I get 500 or 600 Meg of photos on the hard drive, I burn em' into a CD rom so I got em' archived. It would be nice thou to step up to a faster computer. (now using a P100)

Steve

 

[patrickg]

Wow, thanks for the deferential bordering on reverential treatment. Ain't waranted. I uniquely ID each camera's worth of pix by naming the sub-folders Roll-001, Roll-002, etc. I figure unique and in ad seriatum order would be enough. Might just want to name the rolls something like the date "010709" (old computer types put slowest changing number first, like hundreds, tens, units. Seems consistent and makes math like "borrowing" to do subtraction real easy. Civilians (non geeks) would use 070901. B U T what about when you do multiple rolls per day, it just gets more and more complicated and I'm sooo laaaazy. Maybe if I wasn't soooooooooo laaaaaaaaaaazy I would include a little info file in each "roll" folder with any useful info about the shots.

Oh by the way,mine was on closeout at Walmart. Don't know why one would sell for $50 and another store ask $90. Maybe ask at different stores or approach the manager and tell them you would like to do business with them but their pricing policy scares you. Don't know if this model is being dropped so it might show up on sale somewhere else or if it was a pre=inventory thing. Store shelves around here are getting bare as preinventory manipulation, I think.

Patrick

 

[jinman]

...now let me see if I remember this correctly from the days when I worked on a Univac 1218/1219. If the machine has only the capability to subtract, you complement and then subtract and it's the same as adding. Hmmm, breathing diesel has made my brain a little fuzzy on this. Perhaps for remediation I need to go run an IBM card sorter for a few days to clear out the cobwebs./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Patrick, I think the reason your camera sold in OK for $50 and in NY for $90 is obvious. OK $$$ are worth almost twice as much as NY $$$. Don't you agree?/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I'm sure John Miller III will agree....NOT!

As I had guessed, it seems you have your file management under control. It will just get worse. With some things I lose interest over time, but with digital photography, I take more pictures as time goes on. I also burn many CDs like SKENT. It's surely nice to not have to deal with a processing lab./w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

JimI

 

[patrickg]

John,

Lets see, is it better never than late or better late than never? My $50 camera was originally $80 at Wallmart not $90. Wonder why? That is over 10% difference. I wonder if Wallmart has a policy like some stores to refund the diff or diff plus if you find it cheaper elsewhere and would another Wallmart qualify as elsewhere?

Patrick

P.S. Interestingly my step-grandfather on my mother's side was John Miller.

 

[s1120]

John,
Thats one of the joys of living in NY.

 

[JohnMiller3]

Ok Patrick, See what you started.../w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

My cheapo $50. digital camera by DLink DSC-350 @ Staples...

"You are what you eat, drink, think, say and do..."

 

[JohnMiller3]

"You are what you eat, drink, think, say and do..."

 

[JohnMiller3]

JD Telescopic draft links...

"You are what you eat, drink, think, say and do..."

 

[JohnMiller3]

That's all folks.../w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

"You are what you eat, drink, think, say and do..."

 

[patrickg]

Most cool, John, a real working tractor not some light weight sheet metal in the silouhette of a tractor wrapped around a lawnmower. Please give full details on camera, pixels, resolution, removable media, fixed or auto focus, batts, down load interface(s) and so forth. Was it a closeout or special or can I reliably direct someone there to get one?

I'm more gladder all the time I started this thread. Previous pix were using "fine" res, here is one using "normal", which alows for 32 shots (rather than 16) New house for my mom. Water to right of house is same pond as immediately to the left of house. Look closely about 2/3 way up end of house. If you see the blue patch even with the eave of the house on the back side, you are seing yet another pond. Farther to the left is a much smaller pond, maybe 1/2 acre but produces 6-7 lb bass.

The crop circle looking thingie was me and the box blade reducing the size of a hill that doesn't show up as a hill so good. We need 3D or aerial photo to see the place. On the other side of the crop circle going toward the house it is about200-250 ft to house from the crop circle (15 -20ft above grade at front door, near center, but on camera it looks like it is right there. Between crop circle and house is large swale I cut with box blade. It drains this area from left to right exiting off camera.

Strange perspective. Looks like a doll house in the picture. It is 70 ft by 26 ft., a 3 Bed 3 Bath 1820 sqft. Trust me I didn't put a tiny model house out in front of the camera on thin monofilament to fake this shot.

Patrick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>… full details on camera, pixels, resolution, removable media, fixed or auto focus, batts, down load interface(s) and so forth. Was it a closeout or special or can I reliably direct someone there to get one?…</font color=blue>

Digital Camera-On sale this week @ Staples for $99. with a $50. rebate = Net Cost $ 49.00

The D-Link DSC-350 Dual-Mode Camera is a multi-purpose Digital Camera with a high speed USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. The DSC-350 is a three-in-one solution that combines the features of a digital still capture camera with a digital video camera and a PC WebCam wrapped into one convenient pocket size device. With twice as much imaging memory as any other digital camera in its class, it can store up to 145 still images at a resolution of 640x480 or up to 4.5 minutes of video. The USB interface makes it easy to connect the DSC-350 digital camera to a PC to download stored images or video for later editing. Then the user can switch to WebCam mode and capture images, create video e-mails, videoconference directly from the PC.

The D-Link DSC-350 includes 8 megabytes of Flash memory, and has multiple still capture resolution settings, which range from up to 1024x768* resolution for high quality digital still images to 640x480, 320x240, and 160x120. The DSC-350 also supports video with 24-Million colors at 30 Frames per second by using the high bandwidth of USB and advanced light-sensing technology. As a fully contained unit, no video capture card or additional hardware is necessary. The unit simply attaches via a standard USB type A connector to a PC or downstream USB hub, and sits on the monitor or desk top with its tilt-swivel base.

Complete Digital Camera Spec’s
{spec’s from the Web}

 

[RobS]

I don't know John, the image is a little... muddy /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif