Digital Camera advice needed

[+ssarc]

We are looking at purchasing a digital camera, it would be nice to upload caching photos etc.

 

The trouble is there are soooo many different cameras to choose from.

 

I dont want to spend a fortune, am thinking about a camera with around 2megapixel capability. My printer isnt the greatest so a really good camera would be wasted I think.

 

What do you think, what megapixel quality is best for all round use and what is a good brand??

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers, Steve

[+BigNick]

I went through the same dilemma in June. I decided that 2 megapixel was going to be fine, if you are posting on the web you are going to have to reduce the resolution anyway, and 2MP will let you take an image up to 6x8" or 8x10" when printing.

After looking at a number of different models, I decided that size was the determining factor for me - I wanted something that I could carry everywhere so ended up with a Minolta DImageX. Having had it for 3months I am very happy with it. My suggestion would be to look at batteries and memory cards. The DImageX uses a special battery, and SD cards. The special battery means that if you want spares, you need to buy an expensive second battery (contrast this with a camera that uses AA like your GPS). The SD cards are currently about twice the price of compact flash cards, so I almost died when I purchased a 128Mb card (you will find that you will probably want to buy a big card so you can take lots of photos, normally the cameras are supplied with 8Mb or 16Mb, so you will only get 8 or 16 photos in the cameras best mode)

So to summarise: Primary consideration: Size and comfort to hold, battery type and memory card.

Secondary: Zoom, Closeup + extras (software might be important, but I use iPhoto rather than the camera SW)

Hope that helps

Cheers

Nick.

[+tgsnoopy]

I bought a Fujifilm Finepix 2300 for only $420 which I'm very happy with. It's a 2.1 Megapixel camera which 2.5x digital zoom. It was sold by a student as second hand?? It was immaculate, not a mark on it, the USB cable and driver disks weren't opened and the book was unmarked. As the student selling it has since advertised others for sale for $450 (I talked him down) I'm of the opinion he's importing them and selling them to assist with his finances. He advertises classifieds in TradeMe as opposed to the usual Auctions, He's hamilton based. Might be worth keeping an eye out. I can also Vouch for Design_Design in Hong Kong, he's awesum, both Pricing & service. Drop me a message if you want their e-mail address etc tgsnoopy@xtra.co.nz

[+rediguana]

I can recommend Olympus digital cameras if you can find one. I'm on my second now and have found them to take excellent pictures!

 

Cheers Gav

[+ssarc]

Well, under advice from a few people I am looking for a 2megapixel camera, just a matter of looking for a good deal now.

Interesting about the memory cards and batteries- great advice Nick.

Hope to get some photos of our Nelson caches on the geocaching page in the next few weeks!!

[+BigNick]

I forgot another point: USB, USB, USB - make sure you don't end up with a camera with an older serial connection unless you plan on buying a external card reader. USB (especially USB2) is so much faster to download the pics off the camera.

If you can get a camera that is a "USB Mass Storage Device/Class" then you don't need any special software to get the pics off the camera - it will just show up as another drive on your computer (good if you are round at friends and want to give them pics) - cameras that are not mass storage usually require you to install drivers.

Cheers

Nick.

 

[This message was edited by tgsnoopy on September 20, 2002 at 09:38 PM.]

[+tgsnoopy]

Good point Nick, I couldn't agree more! It's just got to be a USB Mass storage device, it certainly makes life a lot easier.

[ikayak]

I used to have an Agfa 1280, it took great photos for a 2.1. Much Much better than the Kodak digicam I had at work at the time. Wanting to upgrade I went for the Nikon 880 close to 2 years ago. Excellent photo quality for a 3.4 megapixel. I think great quality again because the two companies use good optics in their cameras.

 

I download the files on a 128mb CF thru a PC Card Adapter turning the CF into a PC Card. I insert the card into the adapter and it becomes a "plug and play" memory card compatible with any device with a PC Card slot(see http://www.sandisk.com/consumer/pc_adapter.asp) .

The computer thinks it is another drive and the copying is instantanious. I also store some of my favorite tunes on the CF cards and pop it into my Pocket PC to listen.

 

Time Flies like an arrow. Fruit Flies like a banana

[The Pet Posse]

We just got a Sony Mavica CD250, it takes pics on a small cd disk, 100's of pics per disk!! We LOVE it!! You just pop the cd into the computer & upload the photos!! Waaay Cooool!! It's easy to use & takes very nice pictures!

 

Dogs Have Owners....Cats Have Staff!!

[kiwitonita]

This site has excellent info and reviews on all digital camera. It does't make up your mind for you but helps sort through them.

 

www.dpreview.com

 

I agree with the others - battery type/life & memory card type are very important long term. Get the more generic memory cards which can be bought cheaper without the camera makers brand name.

 

Cheerio - Tony

[xWaterLilyx]

I really went hog wild when I got my digital camera...it's actually a dvd/video-camera. It uses mini dvds to record video and/or pictures - I can get over 1000 on one r/w dvd - which is really nice because the most I've ever used before deleting them was 200++ which was for a family reunion. Once I got home and d/led them I have space for that many again.

 

It was A LOT, but there was a special going on at a new circuit city where you got a coupon for a percentage you paid, and since I've ALWAYS wanted a video camera, and wanted a digital camera for my business I combined the issues and went all out.

 

Whats really nice, is when the mini dvd-r is full (30 min. - approx) and you 'finalize' the disc it's playable in any dvd player that plays mini disc!

 

---my parent's have a digital camera my mom has had for a few years now, wish I could remember the information your looking for to let you know it. But with all the memory cards and etc out now, you have tons of choices! They also have a video/digital camera and love using it because you can flip between the two so fast.

 

They also have a pair of binoculars that can take around 500?? pictures. Really good quality and cost under $200. Found at radio shack, they were having a special at father day...

 

anyway, I know I wasn't much help - but I just had to say something.. =-)

 

**Try something 3 times before giving up on it! The 1st time may be bad weather, the 2nd may be dead GPS batteries, the 3rd you may spot that hiding spot!!**

[+Ttepee]

Personally I like Olympus... I have first hand experience now with the D360...D420..D480 and the C700... The images are top quality in all of them... the biggest differences in them is zoom and manual function capability... C700 is what I have now and I love it... 10X zoom... great for catching the wildlife you don't want to get too close to disturb. This camera adds in lots of manual programing options and I don't have the indoor nack worked out yet... but outdoors it's the best!

[+Ttepee]

oops...forgot to say they take smart media cards and AA batteries.... perfect for stashing up on the rechargebles and rotating.

[+nandor]

It's so funny reading all the comments in this thread - seems everyone wants to endorse their camera! Well - here's my 2c! I can fully recommend a Canon A200 - 2 Mega-Pixel - perfect introductory camera, takes fantastic pictures, is loaded with features and is the cheapest 2MP camera around. You can put it in point-and-shoot mode and use it like a normal snappy camera, or put it in manual mode and start playing all the cool settings/features. Runs for ages off two Ni-MH batteries and uses CF storage cards - which aren't the expensive ones! Best of all, it's only $580 (NZ) and you can get a cool underwater diving case for it! Only minus is there's no optical zoom.

[+Plank]

Casio GV-10. It's water and shock resistant. Small too.

[+swanny]

Hey, since everyone else is in on the action I thought I'd chip in too:

Fujifilm 2800z

USB - shows up as a removable drive, can copy anything using explorer. (but I think that it still uses drivers?).

My main emphasis was to get a decent zoom (it's my only camera so I needed to try and cover all bases) so I went with 2MP (rather than less zoom more MP). Teamed up with a set of 4 NiMH AA's (NiMH is the only way to go for AA's ) and 128MB smart media it's served me well , 6+ months so far.

 

Along with dpreview (lots of detail) Steve's Digicams provides some pretty good input too.

 

Finally, a quick note to digicam users: I found out that one should format their mem cards in the camera semi-regularly as my file system became corrupted (possibly low batt situation or a result of letting XP near it ).

[Baldeagle]

Does anybody have any views on the suitability or otherwise of a Jamcam 3 for this type of application. I got mine new off Trade Me for $100 plus $40 for an MMC card that allows me to take 69 photos instead of 8. It's water resistant and I have no problems letting my 10 year old grand daughter loose with it, she gets good shots too.

[+BigNick]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Baldeagle:

Does anybody have any views on the suitability or otherwise of a Jamcam 3 for this type of application.

---

I just had a look at the specs for this on the web, and by the looks of it, it will be perfect for geocaching - it's 640x480 resolution is what most people would drop their photos to for posting on the web, so it does save you a step And the price, you can't beat that!

Looking forward to seeing some photos on your logs.

Cheers

Nick.

[+swanny]

Hey, they do look pretty cool, good for places where you don't want/need anything fancy. Might look into getting one. When/where are we going to see some pics?

[+tgsnoopy]

Well, that camera sure looks reasonable. I want to see sample pictures please. Interesting no-one seems to provide any that I could find with a quick look. I suspect it's imaging sensor is CMOS not CCD hence the low price (and usually low quality pics), someone please prove me wrong! CMOS are ok in good lighting, but are lousy in low light conditions, the automatic flash might compensate for this, but I'm keen to see a picture of a cache taken under bush canopy with the lower light level there. If it takes good pictures, then I'd seriously consider buying one to keep in my pack all the time. I look forward to feedback from someone with their hands on one of these. Demo pics to tgsnoopy at xtra dot co dot nz please

[+tgsnoopy]

Well, an interesting link has been provided to me re this camera by a NZ Geocacher. I was looking mainly for sample pictures on the net, technical specifications of the imaging sensor were also of interest. I didn't pay a lot of attention to detail about the cameras manufacturer or feedback from customers. If anyone else is interested, here's the link I was provided with. I'm still keen to see some samples taken locally though

 

The link

[+ssarc]

Thanks everyone for all the input, most people had different ideas which is normal

I ended up buying a sony dscp51 camera, it is 2 megapixels which appears to be ample, also has a neat 2xoptical zoom. A handy feature is that it uses aa alkalines if your nimh batteries run out, I can see that being useful, we always have plenty of batteries with the gps.

If tomorrow is fine I will go out and take some photos of our caches around here and upload them.

Cheers, Steve

[Baldeagle]

I've got some shots but don't know how to get them onto this page to show you??

[katmom]

Whats this? A web site? Do you have the URL for it?

quote:

---

got mine new off Trade Me for $100

---

[+tgsnoopy]

TradeMe is New Zealands version of eBay. Check out TradeMe

[+BigNick]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Baldeagle:

I've got some shots but don't know how to get them onto this page to show you??

---

You can't upload photos directly to the forums, you need to host them somewhere (eg if your ISP provides you with a place to host a homepage you can put them there) you then use the UBB code (see buttons at bottom of the 'post a reply' page) to put in the required code to display the photo. If you don't have anywhere to host them, and they are not related to the cache (if they are, you can put them on the cache page) email them to me, and I can host them for you.

Cheers

Nick.

[+BigNick]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steve & Ruth:

If tomorrow is fine I will go out and take some photos of our caches around here and upload them.

---

I look forward to seeing what some of the landscape is like for when we finally get a chance to come up and hunt some (all ) of your caches.

Cheers

Nick.

[+ssarc]

I have taken a few snaps today for our caches- rabbit, dammit and bullseye nelson.Easiest found using Buxleys page or my geocaching page.

 

Because of the size restriction I took them in email mode & 640x480 size.

Was going to hide another cache but we ran out of time.

[+BigNick]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steve & Ruth:

I have taken a few snaps today for our caches- rabbit, dammit and bullseye nelson.Easiest found using Buxleys page or my geocaching page.

---

They look good, I can't wait to hunt them (just have to find the time )

I got a sore neck looking at the spillway

Cheers

Nick.

 

[This message was edited by BigNick on October 04, 2002 at 01:17 AM.]

[+ssarc]

yep I know what you mean, the photo had to be taken like that, I just have to figure out how to get it upright.

I can rotate it in the camera lcd display but when it goes to f drive it comes out sideways.

 

If all else fails read the manual!!!

[+papa & the bears]

I purchased a Kodak DX3900 ten months ago . I have taken in excess of 1800 photos with it which i download to CDRs .I purchased the camera dock later which facilitates the copying process . The prints are excellent (8x10 are the largest I have done).

The camera contains a rechargeable battery , can use AA batteries or a CRV3 which comes with it .I have also purchased an additional memory card which gives me 65+/- picture capacity . Canmera has lots of features , easy to use , light and compact .

my wife and grandkids also are quite comfortable using it and the kids are age 5 & 7 .

papa & the bear ;

[+BrentC & Pam]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steve & Ruth:

yep I know what you mean, the photo had to be taken like that, I just have to figure out how to get it upright.

I can rotate it in the camera lcd display but when it goes to f drive it comes out sideways.

 

If all else fails read the manual!!!

---

 

Download Irfanview from www.irfanview.com then you can push L or R to rotate left or right also resize etc etc.

[+tgsnoopy]

Well, I'm not to happy with my digital camera after yesterdays event's, something I'll be careful of in the future. My camera has a Macro Mode, which alters the focal length of the lense to allow really close photos. Somehow the Macro switch got knocked (In my pack ), and it sat halfway between the normal and macro setting. I never noticed as the LCD screen isn't high enough resolution, and took a large number of very blurry pictures. I never noticed until I downloaded a whole days worth of blurry pictures! Darmit, all the pictures of a new cache that isn't pleasant to get to (and the resulting blisters) for blurry pictures, dadgum! I'll be checking that switch regularly in the future. Oh well, live and learn!

[+ariwa]

Since we're all on the bandwagon I have a really really old digital camera that I bought, like, in 1998 for about $800.

 

It is a megapixel but I'm not sure how many, I think 1.2. It's very basic by todays standards but hey it still goes (just) even after my thrashing of it! Taken about 3100 photos.

[+ssarc]

Thanks Brentc for the download advice, it seems to be a user friendly program.

 

I have replaced the offending photo on my dammit cache page.

 

Nick- no more sore neck for you!

[+BigNick]

Have a look at this fuji camera. Now that would be easy to stick in your pocket and take caching! ($220NZ)

Cheers

Nick