Digital picture question

Buck · Oct 8, 2002

Sorry, Farmhouse, I meant to address the above message to you.

Buck

Jeff396 · Oct 8, 2002

I tried importing the same picture that Buck posted into Word. It came out just as grainy. I then shrunk it to about half that size and it had the exact same texture but looked worse because it was smaller. That doesn't make sense to me./w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

Jeff

Buck · Oct 8, 2002

Jeff396,

Boy, I bet this is frustrating! The photo that I posted was intended to prove to the posters that the quality issue was not due to your camera. I printed your photo and got good quality -- then I scanned it-- and posted the scan so that you could see what I mean.

The issues you are having make me wonder if you have the right print driver. When you print does the print dialog explicitly indicate the model of your printer?

Buck

Anonymous Poster · Oct 8, 2002

Buck, thanks for the quick response. I've looked at the Kodak line and all of the reports on various forums have been quite good. A question-What kind of removable memory storage does the Kodak use?At this price (around $150-$200)can I get some sort of zoom lense? Thanks in advance for your input.

Buck · Oct 8, 2002

Farmhouse,

I have a 64 Megabyte flash card. Your question required me to take it out and look at it because I've never had to remove it due to the Easy Share system.

With respect to zoom it comes standard with a 2x optical zoom. There is an additional 3x digital zoom yielding pictures that appear zoomed by 6x. Digital zoom is really an artificial zoom. You can achieve a digital zoom by interpolating in Photoshop.

If you want to add a lens, see:
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.kodak.com/global/en/digital/accessories/DX3600.jhtml?MODEL=DX3600/>Kodak3600Accessories</A>

And look for the menu item on the right labeled: "lenses".

Should you have further questions, please send me a private message.

Good luck on your research,

Buck

Jeff396 · Oct 9, 2002

Success!!!!!/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Buck informed me in an email of an internet site discussing problems with drivers for the HP855C. I downloaded what appeared to the the latest and greatest driver and viola........decent quality pictures! Unfortunately, either by coincidence or resulting from the download, our copy of Word got corrupted. My wife managed to correct that so we're now good to go. Now I just want to try it on some photographic quality paper. Thanks all for the help!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Jeff

JATO_RaT · Oct 9, 2002

Jeff, as I mentioned, BH Photo Video has not only a great selection of equipment, but also tons of information. Here is a link to a "online lesson session" you can do for free.

http://bhphotovideo.webphotoschool.com/

There is so much information about digital photo procedures that in some ways, digital is far more complex then with film, but then, at least we can experiment a lot cheaper. Go check it out, its very informative. Rat...

Jeff396 · Oct 9, 2002

Thanks Rat, I'll do that.

I just loaded my copy of Photoshop. It looks like it could be fun to play with./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Jeff

Wingnut · Oct 9, 2002

I had zilch problems converting to digital after years of being a semi-pro Nikon kinda guy .... but I've had about 10 blurry pictures on my digital cam ... when I handed the camera to a friend (1 pic) in Belgium (of course, a hard to replace pic of the wife and I) and to my stepson (9 irreplaceable pics of his kids on my tractor and horses - irreplaceble meaning they'll be older next time they visit).
Took me some headscratching to figure our what the secret/problem is .... and I finally finured it out. People who are used to film cameras are used to the picture being taken the instant they press the shutter release. Digicams do not work the same way and one needs to wait for the electronic "click".
Now ... when I hand the camera to someone ... I will know what to tell them. Hoepfully no more blurry pics ...

pete

bmac · Oct 9, 2002

Farmhouse, I doubt you will get more than 2X optical zoom in this price range. Regarding storage media, I think it depends upon where and how you anticipate using your camera. If taking it on a family vacation, you will need plenty of storage space as you won't be able to transfer any images until you get home. So, several flash cards, memory sticks, etc. would be nice. Or, what I have done is get cameras that can use the IBM Micro Drive. These little hard drives can store oodles of photos. In my wifes home camera, I have a 360MB Micro Drive (which I am not sure they make anymore) and it will store about about 180 fairly high resolution pics (it is in a 3 megapixel Canon G1). At work, I have a 1GB Micro Drive and I can store tons of pics on it before transferring to the computer.

Let me add one comment about where you buy your camera. If you shop on the internet, you will run across lots of places that that advertise very cheap prices on cameras. Many of these places have a reputation of not delivering the product or pressuring you to buy lots of over-priced accessories. Sometimes they sell grey-market goods. As previously mentioned, B&H Photo is a professionally-run company that enjoys a very good reputation. They are not the cheapest place to buy, but in my experience, their merchandise is priced fairly. In the electronics mail order world, one must be especially careful with whom they do business.

Its been awhile since I have shopped for cameras, so I am not up to speed on current models. Therefore, I can't comment of a good value camera in your price range. Good luck.

frank_f15 · Oct 12, 2002

jeff: glad u are having more sucess with the new printer driver, think u will see a more marked improvement with photo quality paper. i always hear and read that for best results, use the printer manufactures ink and paper, this is not only from manufacture but have read this many times in magizines. don't know if it is true or not. but i alway use epson ink and photo paper. anyone agree or disagree?

Buck · Oct 12, 2002

Frank,

I agree completely. For example, the Epson uses far less black ink for a photo than HP. The paper is optimized for the printers' colors. Therefore, using the manufacturers paper makes logical sense.

From experience, I have found that using HP paper on my Epson STYLUS 900 sucks, whereas the EPSON gives an excellent result.

Buck

Jeff396 · Oct 12, 2002

Yeah, I still have a pack around here somewhere from when we bought the printer. If I ever find it I will give it a try. That's what happens when you move so often.....can't find anything when you want to./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Jeff

RoyJackson · Oct 13, 2002

Another alternative to printing at home is to send the images to an online printer.
We used <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.shutterfly.com/index.jsp>Shutterfly</A> and were very happy with the results. Considering the cost of paper and printer cartridges, it was actually cheaper at Shutterfly if you've several pics to print. In my case, they were Wedding pictures to be printed out 8"x10" and 5"x7". They looked really nice. There were 18 images to print. Total cost was < $90.00.

Also, once printed, you really need to protect the picture. If you put it right into a frame (wih a glass or plastic cover), no problem. I've also laminated them.

I believe the professional outfits use a paper with a stabilizer or process them after printing to protect the photos.

rf33 · Oct 13, 2002

Frank,

I used to work for a company making aftermarket inks for ink jet printers, and take it from me, you are better off staying with the maunfacturer's brand if you intend to print high resolution photos. I was an ink chemist, and I can tell you from lots of hours of experience that the inks that the manufacturers (especially HP and Epson) made are outstanding quality. If you stick with the manufacturers ink and photo paper, you will be quite pleased with the print output I think.

Anonymous Poster · Oct 13, 2002

Buck and Bmac, thanks for your input. I ended up buying a Canon A40, a relatively new camera that has been very successful according to the comments on the internet forums. It has 2 megapixels, a 3X Optical Zoom and a 2.5 Digital Zoom. Reviewing the manual it appears that it has a lot more features than I will ever use but it does have an AUTO setting that will be useful for me! I bought it locally for $225. After using it briefly, I wish I had the battery concession for the world! As fast as it uses batteries, my first supplemental purchases were a battery charger, some NIMH batteries and an AC adapter. Thanks again for your comments. They were very helpful.

Buck · Oct 13, 2002

Farmhouse,

Well where are those photos of that Kioti?

Buck

bmac · Oct 14, 2002

farmhouse - I like Canon stuff. As I mentioned, my wife has a Canon G1 and it works great. My digital camcorder is a Canon and it also has nice optics. I checked out the A40 and it looks like it has a lot of features for this price range. I think you made a good choice. The Compact Flash storage media is very nice as it is readily available and not proprietary. I never would have expected you to find a 3x optical zoom in this price range. That's wonderful. Good buy.

Anonymous Poster · Oct 14, 2002

bmac, as you mentioned the CF cards are not proprietary and we should point out to everyone that all CF cards are the same. If some people want extra cards or a larger memory for more photos at a higher res. then they can buy them at a local computer store for alot less money than the camera store. We have a canon G2 and have one 256meg card two 128meg cards and we get alittle over 100 shots per card at high resolution on the 128 card. They make much larger cards past 1gig but if you start to fill one of those up you could almost retire by the time its done downloading! We shoot at a high res. and then dumb down the images for emails or posting. The more memory the better, can't let the wife run out of space while taking pics of her grand kid!