Digital Camera Advice Sought
 

I am shopping around for a digital camera.

If you have any recommendation (not too expensive one, though), please let me know.

Thanks folks

I have a Canon powershot S5 I'm very happy with it, now superceded a couple of times, the later ones must be even better.
Had a play with a Kodak 280, its cheaper,and better, gets some brilliant reviews too.
Try and get one with USB as serial takes forever to download, and choose one with compact flash (CF) media, its more popular and more versatile IMO.

Have had a Minolta DIMAGE 1500EX for just over a year. It produces far better photos than I ever got with my various film cameras - mind you, I'm a useless photographer. :) It WAS about a grand when it first came to market but you can now get them for about 300 GBP. One thing though, invest in a larger CF card - the supplied 8 Mb card will only give you about 5 shots at best resolution.

I have the Kodak DC280 and run it with 16 MB chip.
Overwhelming that is my impression. The zoom is working fine and probs with it. USB works fast, the Adobe software with it is useful.

Thanks for your advice everyone. Could anyone tell me where the best place to buy them are (which country...), and a rough price of Kodak DC280?

I've used a Toshiba PDRm/4 for over a year now, with excellent results. There are now better (higher resolution) ones available, but this one does me fine.

I use a Kodak DC210 and for two years am very pleased, anything with 'mega pixel' appears to be OK.

Bird Strike,

We're clearly all pleased with digital cameras. I'll never go back to a film camera for primary work as my photography is very much in the low/mid amateur category. It doesn't end there, though. Put some cash away for a good sized monitor (17"+), some good software and a printer at least as good as the Epson Stylus Photo range. Special paper in that printer gives you prints better than Boots or BonusPrint.

For software, Adobe do the full range so you can rectify major glitches with the picture and even (within limits) sharpen a slightly out of focus shot.

I'm so pleased with my Olympus C-1400L that I would happily buy the latest Olympus featured as Editor's Choice in the PC Magazine Article at the link below. The only grumble I've had is that when I take a shot, it takes a few seconds to write the data to the card and therefore I can't take a succession of shots quickly. And it only has a serial port so data transfer to the PC is slow but that isn't a problem if you have several cards. Both of these drawbacks have been fixed.
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/pcmag/labs/2000/06/digicams/

My favourite trick is to take a series of shots of an occasion and make a collage of the relevant parts of each shot on one print. Saves wading through a lot of individual shots.

Unfortunately, the article prefers several other cameras to the Kodak DC280. 'luck, fobo.

DIGICAM, get the best you can afford, but it will be outdated by next week,
the ones with LS120 drives are good, or go for compact flash, you can get floppy disk adapters for them, dead easy.

The Olympus C920 is now available in the UK for £299, having recently had a LARGE price drop - shop around though, as many places will still ask an (unreasonable) price for it.

Whilst it is not anywhere near the leading edge of digital cameras, it is still a superb bit of kit. I've had one for a couple of years and am very pleased with its performance. It stores its pictures in JPG format (which can be opened in just about ANY graphics program....and you get a cut down version of Adobe PhotoDeluxe with it)and picture sizes vary from 640 X 480 to 1280 X 960 pixels. It also has a superb Macro mode where you can take pictures from as close as an inch or so from your subject.........and loads of other features too numerous to mention here.

You would be very hard pressed to find performance like this at THIS price. BirdStrike, if you want any more info then please send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to oblige.

Thank you everyone for your advice. I'll bear all these things in mind before parting with the money!

If you want to spend $3-4K USD then try the Nikon D1 digital SLR. 2.7Mpixel plus all the Nikon lenses work with most features. I had a go at one today and am still drooling over it. Mind you it will be out of date after Xmas. No I didn't buy it, I'm going to get a second hand D2 in 2002 !

Unless you want to spend a fortune, go for the latest 2.1 Mpixel version of the excellent Olympus C900 Zoom series. I have the 1.3 Mpixel C920, the C960 is more or less the same, but the very latest C990 Zoom at 2.1 is the one to go for!! And they look so stylish as well!!

[This message has been edited by BEagle (edited 23 September 2000).]

Bought an Olympus D620L 1.4 in New York just over 12 months ago, cost 900USD, with an extra 32Mb memory card. Great resolution for 6x4's.

The only thing not discussed by anyone here is the real point of the matter-Resolution!

What do you want to use the camera for? Just to put pictures on the internet? For the best quality print you can get?

The above answers will determine what resolution of camera you need. A 6x4 photo printed on a good quality inkjet with the proper paper will look better at 1024x768 than at 800x600 resolution. This relates into the "Megapixel" hype. The lower the pixels, the lower the resolution, the lower the price!

If you want the best photo prints at A4 size, you get the most pixels your money can buy. Remember, while the quality of 1024x768 is OK at 6x4 photo paper size, it degrades as you enlargen the print size, as the information for the extra space is 'filled in' using algorithms of the software.

Generally, 1024x768 (1.4/1.6 MegaPixel) is good for a 6x4 photo, but if you want larger prints, go to a 2.1, 2.5, or even a 3.0 for A4 prints. Photo prints look pretty ordinary at 800x600 and below compared to proper developed prints, believe me.

Hope this has cleared the mud some.

------------------
When all else fails, read the manual!

I have an Olympus C2000 Zoom. A brill camera that got even better when the C2020Z came out as they sorted the manual override on the external flash output. When you consider all these great new cameras think about these at the back of your mind:

1 How much are the batteries? If it takes the new 'chewing gum' packs they are big money.

2 How much are the memory cards with a card reader for your PC? PCMCIA readers are the *best* way of getting the little piccies into a notebook PC as the cards 'appear' as another hard drive to the Op system, Instantly. USB is OK, but who want's wires everywhere?

3 Do I need to use an external flash? Some cameras are not too good at handling an external flash gun.

4 Battery life / number of pics you can take on one memory card / how many do I want to fit on one card?

5 Make sure if your camera uses Smart Media cards that you use the Olympus version (3 Volt) cards as they are more popular than the 5 Volt Minolta et al. Flash cards are OK as well, and there's only one type of them.

6 What am I going to do with all these pictures once I have them on my PC? CD writer (even more expense!).

7 Does the camera have digital zoom only (naff)?

8 Does the camera need the TV screen on to take pictures? (Kills batteries in no time) Does it have the option of using an optical viewfinder?

9 If I buy the camera and it has a TV out facility, will it work on my TV? Far east cameras are set up for NTSC TV and UK TV's only talk PAL (normally).

The C2000 is a 2.1 Megapixel jobbie and pics generally come out at 1600 x 1200. About 64 of these on one 32 Mb Smart Media card, about 500Kb each one, Medium quality mode piccies are good enough to blow your socks off. Battery life depends on flash and TV screen use, but normally a set of (cheap) 4 x AA NiMh cells lasts longer than I can be bothered to take pics for.

Good luck with your shopping. I've just been through Amsterdam and their airport prices for Olympus are no better than UK inc VAT. Dubai prices are no good either as sterling took a dive against the Dirham.

I too confess to being more than happy with the Olympus C900Z. Although it's by no means the latest thing around, the results are superb. It's quick, takes excellent pictures, has good battery performance and most importantly, the features are quite easy to master. (It also looks like a "proper" camera :))

I particularly like the MAUS2B USB card reader, that quickly accesses and downloads the pictures. It's MUCH quicker than the serial cable and floppy adapter, and you can upload pics too. A definite "must have" for any camera I'd say, along with a set of good quality rechargeable batteries.

There are gallons fo online review sites with comparative photos so you can see the performance, but in the end, as someone said above, shop according to your budget. There's no point whatsoever in getting the latest thing with the biggest pixel count as it will be outdated soon. (Unless money is no issue.)

My offering would be latest equivalent of the C900Z, not sure what it is but it looks similar and improves on the C920Z that in turn improved on the C900Z :) :)

Have fun.

Oops - Forgot to mention that my chum uses the Canon Powershot S10 and raves about it. After playing with it, I'd have to say it's also a good piece of kit. More pricey though being Canon, but worth a look now that it's been out-dated by the S20. It also has onboard USB which would rule out one of my "must haves" !


[This message has been edited by Squiddley (edited 12 October 2000).]

Bird Strike, if you have not purchased a digital camera have a look at the Fujifilm 1400. (1.3 Mega Pixels) 3x Optical Zoom. Purchased one last week in the UK at £299 and the results are wonderful! Camera comes complete with a built in USB socket.

We purchased a new Sony DSC-S50, 2.1 megapixel, digiatal camera the other day. Has 16.5 m colors, 6X zoom, up to 10 secs of movie image and up to 2500 stills depending on resolution and the capacity of "memory stick" RAM that gets crammed inside.

USB downloading and editing software is a snap. Fabulous pictures in both daylight and night images. Never be without it again.

I have a DC290 by Kodak and I have been VERY impressed with it.
I can take pictures with it that can be printed at A4 size without loss of image quality.
It's not the cheapest camera, but to my mind it's well worth the price.

Combine this with a HP P1000 digital photo printer and it gives you the ability of printing of 8x6 or even A4 photopaper and you can't tell that it's not a real photograhic print.
The printer & camera both use digital film memory cartridges as well, which means that you don't even need a computer to print your photos. If you do have a computer, obviously you can use this as well and use the printer normally.

To my mind, well worth it.
The printer cost me 200 pounds and the camera about 500 pounds.

[This message has been edited by SevenFiftySeven (edited 02 November 2000).]

Have to agree with the previous poster regarding the Fujifilm 1400-superb camera + reasonably priced. If you want to put your prints on photographic paper, you could use a service like www.fotowire.com , haven't used it myself yet but I've heard good things.

Only thing to remember (as I forgot DOH!) is that NT4 does not support USB ports so you would have to install 98 instead (sorry, don't know if 2000/NT5 does)

Regards

Try http://photo.askey.net and you will be confused with all the info given, I went to this site as it is independent for reviews, and is honest and informative on all types and models. I jumped into a Nikon Coolpix 990 and it is fantastic in all modes. The yanks seem to be having some trouble with this model but have not seen or met any unhappy users in Aus. Bobster.

Great info, thanks. Anyone know a link to an image and details of the Olympus C920Z? It’s not included anywhere I’ve searched.

JB

I didn't get round to handling one, but the C920Z looks just like the C900Z. It is/was also marketed/sold as the D450Z, but is the same camera. The difference is Pal or NTSC I believe.

Try using http://www.google.com to search, there are plenty of results. Try these for size:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/comp...hod=sidebyside
http://www.nomatica.com/photo/c920z.htm
http://www.dpreview.com/news/9910/99101901olyc2020z.asp (scroll down halfway)

I'd better stop looking at these pages or I'll develop a sudden "need" to get a new one :) :) :)

Cheers!
Sq

Squiddley, many thanks.

Some more links; the first is to today's Sunday Times "Doors" review. Can you believe that the Web version hasn't got any pictures in it!

The second and third are to PC Magazine's reviews of June and December 2000.

The Technology is advancing rapidly. The lens is the first thing to consider and you only get what you pay for. Once the light is inside the camera, it's down to electronics and the number of features and enhancements provided. And, the more pixels the better (and the more pennies).

For proper zoom, you have to have some optical zoom (Say 2x or 3x). Pure electronic or digital zoom is done at the expense of resolution.

My two-year old Olympus 1400 still delights; the next step must be to a digital camcorder, so keep contributing to that thread, please, folks.
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/p...rdor02014.html
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/pcmag/labs/2000/06/digicams/
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/pcmag/labs/2000/12/dc/02.html

(Edited to remove finger-pigs)


[This message has been edited by fobotcso (edited 19 November 2000).]