Best digital camera

[adrian]

Re: Best digital camera

SEE I TOLD ALL OF YOU PORN SHOTS GALORE!!! Have you ever heard of C-6 color print processing? It's a Kodak film processing kit to process your Kodak 100-400 ASA color print film into negatives. All you need is that kit, a tank (to hold the reel of film) and a stainless steel reel (to spool the unexposed film on), a good color darkroom thermometer and a decent timer.

Once you process the negatives, buy a negative scanner at CompUSA or whatever and print till your pornographic eyes pop out. Or just buy a digital camera and a good color printer.

I'm not into that kind of stuff. Its a pain to capture family photos and wait an hour at the photo processing place to get pics and making sure to have enough copies for everyone.

I have some photography experience, but we don't have an extra room to turn into a dark room for the processing of negatives.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Best digital camera

You know to have to wait one hour for your prints and feel like it's taking too long for you just wreaks of sad violins

When I was a kid (okay here comes the old fut lecture) you took your roll of film and dropped it off at Longs Drugs where it would be shipped to California for processing. You'd get it back in about two weeks and there were no double print specials either. When the Kodak building was built on the corner of Kapiolani and Kamakee (now demolished) turnaround time dropped to 3-4 business days. Then Fox One-Hour Photo opened up in Waikiki and the rush was on for one hour waits. If you bribed the photo technician/cashier she'd put yours ahead and you'd get it as fast as the machine could spit it out (thanks Debbie!).

Now one hour is too slow!? Well thank goodness for digital photography and portable color printers. Any faster and I think you'd have to go back to those Poloroid One Step cameras from the 70's, that still is about as fast as you can get to have a physical color print in front of your eyes seconds after taking the shot.

I think that'll be the next advancement in digital photography: built in color printers in your 10MP 5-inch active TFT display digital camera for on the spot prints. You watch it'll happen and probably by next Christmas!

[adrian]

Re: Best digital camera

You know to have to wait one hour for your prints and feel like it's taking too long for you just wreaks of sad violins

When I was a kid (okay here comes the old fut lecture) you took your roll of film and dropped it off at Longs Drugs where it would be shipped to California for processing. You'd get it back in about two weeks and there were no double print specials either. When the Kodak building was built on the corner of Kapiolani and Kamakee (now demolished) turnaround time dropped to 3-4 business days. Then Fox One-Hour Photo opened up in Waikiki and the rush was on for one hour waits. If you bribed the photo technician/cashier she'd put yours ahead and you'd get it as fast as the machine could spit it out (thanks Debbie!).

Now one hour is too slow!? Well thank goodness for digital photography and portable color printers. Any faster and I think you'd have to go back to those Poloroid One Step cameras from the 70's, that still is about as fast as you can get to have a physical color print in front of your eyes seconds after taking the shot.

I think that'll be the next advancement in digital photography: built in color printers in your 10MP 5-inch active TFT display digital camera for on the spot prints. You watch it'll happen and probably by next Christmas!

Well, sorry for being so impatient.

With fast computers, the internet and DSL and Cable modems, I feel that photography should jump into the 21st century and make everything available within reach.

Heck, if I could, then I wouldn't be taking the pictures for the family, and I'd let someone else do it.

Either I have to save money to get a good digital camera, or use my uncle's "free digital camera" (that came with his printer) and use 4 AA batteries in a few minutes, take only 6 pictures, run upstairs, download them on to my computer, reformat the memory, run back downstairs, and repeat.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Best digital camera

sounds like that free camera needs some memory upgrading and some lithium-ion batteries.

I bet you're using the built in memory for those shots and probably alkaline batteries for power.

First upgrade the batteries to at least 2200Ma (2.2A) lithium rechargable batteries (AA). Longs or Radio Shack can probably set you up with a good rechargable set of batteries and wall charger for under $25.00. This will at least get you more shots per set of batteries.

Second upgrade your memory. If you're using SD I suggest Sandisk as they have some pretty good transfer times as opposed to bargain brand SD cards. Go to at least 256mb. If you can afford 512mb that's even better. Cost wise it's better to go 512mb as cost per mb goes down with higher capacity cards.

If your camera is less than 3MP then maybe you should consider upgrading the camera itself. For around $200 you can get a fairly good 3MP camera with medium resolution video as well.

[helen]

Re: Best digital camera

The typical cheap digital camera can't hold that many images in the very hi-res mode.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Best digital camera

but can you expand with a memory card?

[helen]

Re: Best digital camera

For the most part cheap digital cameras don't have expandable memory to store the images. They are great for quick photos but I wouldn't take one on a trip. And if you did just buy more of them.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Best digital camera

Oh well, sounds like you're going to have to upgrade, have you considered ebay? they have good deals on used equipment. But for under $150 you can get a brand new pretty decent digital camera with expandable memory. I paid $150 for my 3.2Mp Kyocera with a 2-inch LCD screen. It takes two AA batteries and expandable SD cards. It also takes medium res video with sound! That's a great deal for $150.

[ili_g]

Re: Best digital camera

things i've learned from 3 years of digital shutterbugging

- compact flash cards rock. their rugged design with nothing important exposed on the outside is brilliant. two incidents come to mind: one of my cards found its way into the washing machine. i let it dry out, and i was able to get the pix off it. the other happened on vacation. the family and i parked in pa'ia, and walked around town. when we got back to the car, i looked at the ground behind the car. "wow, that sucks, somebody's memory card got ran over!" when i checked my camera bag to discover my card gone... well, i was a little upset. but when i got home, i just bent it back into shape so it would fit in the reader, and was able to retrieve my pix.

- for light users, AA/AAA batteries work fine. i appreciate the ease of dropping into the 7-11 and getting some batteries when you're out holoholo-ing. but if you're a heavier user, like me, it's just too expensive. and the rechargable AA/AAA batteries never seem to last very long. i usually get about 100 pix on one charge of my battery.

for $150, though, you may not have too many choices. once you go up to the $200-250 range, your options open up. personally, i like nikon and canon.

-ili_g

[j3rr3y]

Re: Best digital camera

I would recommend the Canon A70. Clear, sharp images.. and you can upgrade the memory.
I do a lot of photography, so I have a very nice camera. The Canon D20 8.4 Megapixel... SLR. This thing is beautiful! I have a 512MB and 1GB CF cards (80X Pro), and a Sigma 50-500MM Lens, 50-200MM, and Sigma 28-70MM... If you ever get into serious photography, this thing is a serious camera!