Testing New digital Camera

Rowski · Jun 28, 2001

Just testing out my new digital camera. It is a Nikon Coolpix 950. Pretty neat little camera. Seems to work well. A little slow on the download (serial cable). Has a lot of features that seemed pretty complex but turns out it not that bad. I'm pretty excited that I don't have to wait for film development again! Attached picture is 65KB set at VGA (640x480) in normal image quality. Seems like the image should be sharper but it was taken in full auto mode.

Attachment is of the NH getting ready to tear into another project of lining the last section of the brook that feeds our pond. The rocks are coming from the partial stone wall in the back ground. Directly behind the backhoe bucket is going to be a small retaining wall in a semi circle toward the tractor.

Harv, thanks for the digital Camera help a while back.

Derek

jinman · Jun 28, 2001

Nothing wrong with that picture, Derek. It looks great (and I'm particularly fond of that blue tractor /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif). Doesn't your camera have USB connection? If not, you can buy a memory card reader that will attach to your computer's USB port and you'll be able to download pictures so fast you will think you're drinking from a firehose./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif They make them for compactflash and also smartmedia cards and the price is about $50. It's a small price to pay for the convenience. I leave mine attached to my computer all the time./w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif Welcome to the digital side of photography.

JimI

glennmac · Jun 28, 2001

Derek,

Nice picture, nice tractor, nice land. Did you buy the camera locally or online? And what what would your tractor size equate to in the TC line?

rf33 · Jun 28, 2001

Nice pictures, and nice camera. I have the CoolPix 990 and I love it. I use the compact flash card from Lexar Media which is USB enabled, and a Lexar USB reader. The download time is really fast. They also make cards in differing speeds which in digital film refers to the write speed of the memory which determines the interval between pictures. They are rated in X as in 2X film is twice as fast as 1X film. They have some nice, 4X and even 8X compact flash cards (I have the 4X 64MB) in a variety of capacities. You can find out more info at http://www.digitalfilm.com.

rf33

/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Harv · Jun 28, 2001

<font color=blue>Harv, thanks for the digital Camera help a while back</font color=blue>

If I had anything to do with producing that picture, Derek, you are more than welcome. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

That's an excellent camera, and you'll have a lot of fun exploring all of its features and options. Which reminds me -- next time I want to see you use the self-timer so that tractor seat won't be empty. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I wish I could post the out-take movies of my mad dashes from the camera to the tractor. We should make it an Olympic event. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

The serial interface is notorious for its download speed, or lack thereof. I think the other fellas here have the right idea -- get a USB card reader and just pop them CompactFlash cards in and watch the images fly. If your computer doesn't have any USB ports handy, they are fairly inexpensive to add to either PC or Macs. All you need is an empty card slot.

Looking forward to seeing many more picts from you.

Rowski · Jun 28, 2001

Jinman

Thanks. My camera nor computer doen't have a USB. Most likely I will get a card reader along with an A/C adapter for the camera. I have thought about adding the the USB port to my computer in the future. It was hard finding a camera in the price range I had, with the features I wanted and the computer setup I have. I have also heard that Nikon has the best optics? I look forward to the word of digital photography.

rf33

Thanks for the link. Have you had any trouble with compatability with their stuff?

Derek

Rowski · Jun 28, 2001

Glenn

Thanks

I did most my shopping and comparing on line. Found the price I liked at http://www.ritzcamera.com. Went to my nearest Ritz Camera store, about 50 miles away, and had the salesman do his stuff and bought it. Ritz Camera claims they are the only ones which carry the Nikon Coolpix 950 new. Something about they bought them all from Nikon, what ever that means. But I did notice that Ritz was the only one that listed it new in my searchings.

The NH 2120 (pictured) is closest to the TC45. The HN2120 has about 2 HP less than the TC45. I do feel the NH2120 is more rugged than the TC45. The backhoe 759C would not fit on the TC45 and there were some issues with aftermarket backhoe not fitting at the time. I do hate to buy some new to the first model year. Don't get me wrong the TC45 is a nice tractor. But when we looked at them 14 months ago the TC45 was hard to come by and the loader could not be found. Also the NH2120 is a plain gear tractor. Has done a lot of hard work so far with no problems at all. According to the NH web site they stopped production of the 1720. The 1920 and 2120 they still are producing. According to my dealer they are only making the 2120, dropped the 1720 and 1920. He claims the 2120 is across between a compact and an Ag tractor (like a L4610) with a great track record.

Derek

Rowski · Jun 28, 2001

Harv

Mad dashes!?! Got any pointers for mad dashing? The take-outs would be funny I'm sure, but you must have some pictures of some not so perfect pictures. I do have a tripod but lost the little wedge thing that screw into the camrea. I'll have to get a new one.

Derek

jinman · Jun 28, 2001

Rowski, just a little info. If you have a computer running Windows '95, you will not be able to install a USB port. If you are running Windows '98 or later, it should be no problem to add one to your computer. There are also parallel port adapters which are faster than the serial port and another solution is an adapter which fits into the floppy drive. Of all four types, the USB and floppy disk adapter are the fastest.

The Nikon is a nice camera and the ability to rotate the lens up and down is a big plus. I know you will enjoy it.

JimI

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 28, 2001

You're gonna love that Nikon. I almost bought it when I got my Olympus, just couldn't part with the bucks and now wish I had. I'm using a "Flashpath" (tm) adapter with my smart media card. It basically looks like a floppy disk. You shove the smart card in the side and put the whole thing in the floppy drive. The computer reads the card and handles the information transfer just like a disk. Transfer speed is about what you could expect with a regular floppy disk. The advantage for me was one less cable and one less port used.

The adapters are made for compact flash cards too. And you can use them (or could when I bought mine), with windows 3.x, 95 & 98. (I've got mine on both a 3.1 and 98 platform and it works with both.)

Have fun! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

SHF