Digital camera
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I am thinking about buying one also, and a friend of mine that knows alot about cameras pointed me towards the website www.dpreview.com. He said that it has everything that you want to know about digital cameras and then some.
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3,787 Posts
One thing I REALLY like is mine has a docking port. The docking port stays plugged into the computer. To charge the camera or upload pics to the computer you set the camera in the docking port and press a button.....VOILA! Pics on your computer that you can now email to people.
It is worth the extra bucks though to get one of those like the Sony Maverick too. Mine is "slow" when taking the pic. Has a couple of second delays and that is the difference between a puppy sitting and a puppy running full speed at you.
WRL
It is worth the extra bucks though to get one of those like the Sony Maverick too. Mine is "slow" when taking the pic. Has a couple of second delays and that is the difference between a puppy sitting and a puppy running full speed at you.
WRL
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8,415 Posts
I'd love to know if there are any digital cameras out there that don't have the delay on the shutter?! I love my digital camera, (Some Olympus model) other than that darn delay.
I'm afraid I'm going to smash the shutter button. I find myself holding that button down REALLY HARD on action shots, as if it will make the camera fire more quickly.
We really realized how much of a hassle this was when my wife was trying to get a shot of the boy riding on a merry-go-round. She had to start pressing the button before he was even in view and then swing the camera on him as he went by! What a hassle!
Are there digital cameras out there that pop when you push the button? Like a film camera? That would be a feature worth having unless you're always shooting willing subjects who are still and know to stay still..... Seems those are rarely the type of shots I want to shoot.
Chris
I'm afraid I'm going to smash the shutter button. I find myself holding that button down REALLY HARD on action shots, as if it will make the camera fire more quickly.
We really realized how much of a hassle this was when my wife was trying to get a shot of the boy riding on a merry-go-round. She had to start pressing the button before he was even in view and then swing the camera on him as he went by! What a hassle!
Are there digital cameras out there that pop when you push the button? Like a film camera? That would be a feature worth having unless you're always shooting willing subjects who are still and know to stay still..... Seems those are rarely the type of shots I want to shoot.
Chris
Chris,
I have the same camera that you have, love it. It is a C4000, price about $400, the only problem with it that the menus can be confusing till you get use to them and it is only 3X optical zoom. I would suggest though getting a 128 meg card for it. With this card you can shoot 135 photos at the highest JPEG resolution. TIFF is a different story.
Skip C
I have the same camera that you have, love it. It is a C4000, price about $400, the only problem with it that the menus can be confusing till you get use to them and it is only 3X optical zoom. I would suggest though getting a 128 meg card for it. With this card you can shoot 135 photos at the highest JPEG resolution. TIFF is a different story.
Skip C
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8,415 Posts
What about that shutter delay thing? Any way to make it fire faster?
Skip...I bought the 128 MB at the WalMart in Brinkley, AR last year before the World's. I like taking them on high resolution .jpg format. For emailing, I'll just decrease resolution...but still have the really nice ones for printing on paper.
Skip, I think there's a way to set it up so that it will keep firing shot after shot while you hold the button down...ever tried that?
Chris
Skip...I bought the 128 MB at the WalMart in Brinkley, AR last year before the World's. I like taking them on high resolution .jpg format. For emailing, I'll just decrease resolution...but still have the really nice ones for printing on paper.
Skip, I think there's a way to set it up so that it will keep firing shot after shot while you hold the button down...ever tried that?
Chris
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13 Posts
Your going to have some delay on any digital camera unless you go with a DSLR which is a higher end camera much like the pro film cameras out that you can change lenses on...the problem is that they aren't real cheap.
Canon came out with a Digital Rebel recently which gets great reviews and the shutter lag is minimal...it is $899, but that's without a lens.
But that's probably as cheap as you could get a new digital without the lag problem.
Canon came out with a Digital Rebel recently which gets great reviews and the shutter lag is minimal...it is $899, but that's without a lens.
But that's probably as cheap as you could get a new digital without the lag problem.
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323 Posts
Heck, mine was given to me by my Father in law. It is cheap, but does a great job for me. It is a Polaroid PDC 640 (I've seen them for under $70). It uses a smart media card, you can use USB to upload them or you can do what I do and use a smart media converter (converts smart media to a 3.5" disk) There is no real noticeable delay with it, the main negative is that it does eat batteries. The good thing is you don't mind takin' a cheap camera duck huntin' or dog trainin'. You would cry if you dropped a "Rebel" digital in the drink.
The only way to really get rid of shutter delay on a digital is get a digital SLR, which run close to $1000. They are really nice cameras, but still on the expensive side. I too have tried to picture my daughter on a merry-go-round, and had next to no luck.
I use and love my Canon A-70 and would recommend it to anyone. Takes great pictures, is small, and very easy to use. For a simple point & shoot, it is perfect. I did not get a more expensive camera because I have a lot of money invested in my film camera and lenses. The dpreview page is a great resource.
JMAC
I use and love my Canon A-70 and would recommend it to anyone. Takes great pictures, is small, and very easy to use. For a simple point & shoot, it is perfect. I did not get a more expensive camera because I have a lot of money invested in my film camera and lenses. The dpreview page is a great resource.
JMAC
[b]PIXELS , OPTICAL ZOOM , STORAGE TYPE[/b]
Noah,
I'm guessing you probably already purchased a camera by now, but here is my opinion/advice. When you shop around I would focus mainly on these 3 things:
1) PIXELS: In basic terms this is the measure of picture quality/resolution. The more the better, buy the most you are comfortable spending. If you don't think you are interested in actually printing many pictures out for framing/viewing you don't have to spend a ton to get nice pics. If you think you may print enlargements than you will need LOTS of pixels to avoid grainly/poor resolution prints.
2) OPTICAL ZOOM (ex 3x optical zoom): optical zoom is the true zoom; like a zoom on a traditional SLR film camera. When you are looking through the camera before taking the photo it allows you to zoom in and out on your subject. OPPOSED TO DIGITAL ZOOM, digital zoom rating on camera (IMO) means nothing. Digital zoom is zooming in after the photo is taken... while it is on the cameras screen, which is the same thing you can do on your PC when you edit it... it is really just blowing the photo up after it is taken and you lose resolution/picture quality (opposed to optical zoom before snapping photo).
3) STORAGE TYPE: There are various types of media storage available (smartmedia etc.). Be careful about cameras that have a system that is specific to their brand or requires their software to use. You can now buy "CARD READERS" that plug into the PC's USB ports and will read multiple card types (i.e. pretty much any cameras media storage card). They are great, small (fit in a front jeans pocket) and allow you to easily read, share, download etc. pic files. Once you plug them in it just appears like any other drive on you computer and you can quickly review pics and delete/email/save to HD etc. It also allows you to easily to these things on various computers (home, work, lapton, spouse's etc.) - they are CHEAP too. **** Transfer rates (time to upload pics to your PC) are MUCH faster using a card reader than the typical cables from camera to PC - ask/compare transfer speeds when shopping.
Couple other thoughts:
I like ones that use normal batteries (ex AA's). Mine came with rechargeable AA's (w/ charger) which is great, but if I forget the charger or am hunting away from an outlet I can just pack along (or buy) some regular batteries as needed.
The comments about shutter speed and associated frustrations are common and sharged by me. My recollection is that when you start wanting/needing fast shutter speeds and more of the features of traditional quality SLR (35MM) camera the prices go through the roof, best to shop around or get advice from someone far more knowledgable than I for those cameras.
Hope this helps you or someone considering a digital camera.
Noah,
I'm guessing you probably already purchased a camera by now, but here is my opinion/advice. When you shop around I would focus mainly on these 3 things:
1) PIXELS: In basic terms this is the measure of picture quality/resolution. The more the better, buy the most you are comfortable spending. If you don't think you are interested in actually printing many pictures out for framing/viewing you don't have to spend a ton to get nice pics. If you think you may print enlargements than you will need LOTS of pixels to avoid grainly/poor resolution prints.
2) OPTICAL ZOOM (ex 3x optical zoom): optical zoom is the true zoom; like a zoom on a traditional SLR film camera. When you are looking through the camera before taking the photo it allows you to zoom in and out on your subject. OPPOSED TO DIGITAL ZOOM, digital zoom rating on camera (IMO) means nothing. Digital zoom is zooming in after the photo is taken... while it is on the cameras screen, which is the same thing you can do on your PC when you edit it... it is really just blowing the photo up after it is taken and you lose resolution/picture quality (opposed to optical zoom before snapping photo).
3) STORAGE TYPE: There are various types of media storage available (smartmedia etc.). Be careful about cameras that have a system that is specific to their brand or requires their software to use. You can now buy "CARD READERS" that plug into the PC's USB ports and will read multiple card types (i.e. pretty much any cameras media storage card). They are great, small (fit in a front jeans pocket) and allow you to easily read, share, download etc. pic files. Once you plug them in it just appears like any other drive on you computer and you can quickly review pics and delete/email/save to HD etc. It also allows you to easily to these things on various computers (home, work, lapton, spouse's etc.) - they are CHEAP too. **** Transfer rates (time to upload pics to your PC) are MUCH faster using a card reader than the typical cables from camera to PC - ask/compare transfer speeds when shopping.
Couple other thoughts:
I like ones that use normal batteries (ex AA's). Mine came with rechargeable AA's (w/ charger) which is great, but if I forget the charger or am hunting away from an outlet I can just pack along (or buy) some regular batteries as needed.
The comments about shutter speed and associated frustrations are common and sharged by me. My recollection is that when you start wanting/needing fast shutter speeds and more of the features of traditional quality SLR (35MM) camera the prices go through the roof, best to shop around or get advice from someone far more knowledgable than I for those cameras.
Hope this helps you or someone considering a digital camera.
G
Guest
·In many cameras the shutter delay you describe is caused by the cameras focusing and setting the exposure. This is true of both digital and film cameras, although the delay does seem longer in digitals. In many cameras you can lock in focus and exposure by partialy depressing the shutter release button. At that point when you fully depress the button
the delay is much less. I worked for many years as a motorsports photographer covering the CART Indy Car series. Shutter delay was an
important consideration. Although small, the delay varied from camera brand to other brand and sometimes between models. It took some getting used to.
I recently purchased a Pentax Optio 33WR, my first digital camera. With all my old high end equipment around I just couldn't bring myself to invest in a digital. This camera does have a rapid shutter release if you halfway depress the shutter release button first. I bought this model primarily because of the class 7 water resistance( waterproopf to 2 feet).
I do a lot of kayaking and waterfowl hunting and this was an important feature to me.
The camera has 3.2 Megapixels, and cost about $270 at an internet discount house. Different memory cards have different write speeds as well as capacity. Buy a highs peed/ high capacity card of whatever medium your camera uses to reduce the recycle time between shots.
This is my first post on this board, I'm sorry it was so lengthy.
Chip Pitcairn
the delay is much less. I worked for many years as a motorsports photographer covering the CART Indy Car series. Shutter delay was an
important consideration. Although small, the delay varied from camera brand to other brand and sometimes between models. It took some getting used to.
I recently purchased a Pentax Optio 33WR, my first digital camera. With all my old high end equipment around I just couldn't bring myself to invest in a digital. This camera does have a rapid shutter release if you halfway depress the shutter release button first. I bought this model primarily because of the class 7 water resistance( waterproopf to 2 feet).
I do a lot of kayaking and waterfowl hunting and this was an important feature to me.
The camera has 3.2 Megapixels, and cost about $270 at an internet discount house. Different memory cards have different write speeds as well as capacity. Buy a highs peed/ high capacity card of whatever medium your camera uses to reduce the recycle time between shots.
This is my first post on this board, I'm sorry it was so lengthy.
Chip Pitcairn
G
Guest
·I see U already bought your camera, but...just incase others are looking into a digital I decided to post also.
I just bought the Olympus 3.2 this past summer and I wouldn't let this one go for anything. I just love the size of it compared to my Sony Mavica and the picture quality is top notch for a little point and shoot camera. Prints are as good as my SLR camera as well. The only bad side to the camera is its slow shutter speed but outside of that...the Olympus is a GReat little point and shoot at a good price.
I just bought the Olympus 3.2 this past summer and I wouldn't let this one go for anything. I just love the size of it compared to my Sony Mavica and the picture quality is top notch for a little point and shoot camera. Prints are as good as my SLR camera as well. The only bad side to the camera is its slow shutter speed but outside of that...the Olympus is a GReat little point and shoot at a good price.
I'm a Canon person. I have 2 Canon print cameras, an old AE1 that I love more than anything and a Canon EOS Rebel. My digitals are Canon S30 and an older A10.
Either a Canon G5 or a Digital EOS Rebel are on my wish list for my next camera.
Whatever you buy, I do recommend a flash drive which plugs into your USB port on your computer. You basically just remove the media from your camera (saving the batteries) plug it into the flash drive and edit your pictures. I bought mine and extra CF cards on ebay brand new for about 1/4 the price of retail.
Either a Canon G5 or a Digital EOS Rebel are on my wish list for my next camera.
Whatever you buy, I do recommend a flash drive which plugs into your USB port on your computer. You basically just remove the media from your camera (saving the batteries) plug it into the flash drive and edit your pictures. I bought mine and extra CF cards on ebay brand new for about 1/4 the price of retail.
G
Guest
·Laura, I'm a Nikon guy. It's kind of like Labs and Chessies, you usualy like one or the other. Chip Pitcairn
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