What digital camera do you have/want?

[pruntyc]

Prunty, you bring a great point. How do you get whats in the camera outputed to a format other then a computer screen.

It goes on the computer screen, but it downloads to a program that comes with the HP. And it puts it into you pictures file in documents. Then I can use its program or I generally use PhotoSuite 4 to change anything I want to.

 

[_RaT_]

One other thing for those purchasing the higher capacity memory cards is the transfer time from the camera via USB 1.1 to transfer 1GB, 2GB and now as high as 4 GB is quite slow. On the other hand, some cameras now have USB 2.0. My CF reader is USB 2.0, they are quite cheap and for Windows 98, require no driver. On my laptop, the cardreader driver was built into the OS. This means, if you bring your card reader with you on a trip, the ability to offload to another computer be it a frineds etc, is very easy. The cameras usually require a program to allow this to happen. As Gator mentions, the reader is definitely not mandatory, unless like me, you have a serial port on the camera. As mentioned, a 32 Mb card takes about 30 minutes to download through my camera and about 4 seconds via the reader. I can't imagine using the camera I have with a 512Mb or even a 1Gb memory card. Most folks I know unload the pictures through the camera.

 

[RobertN]

Right now, we use a combination of camera/lens.

For Digital, we have a simple point and shoot, the Nikon Coolpix-4300. It works nicely. We've had it about a year, and really like it.

For film, I use a Nikon F100 primariily with an 80-200/2.8 and the 24-120/3.5-5.6. I really like the 24-120; it covers a great range. It is amazing the difference of the 24mm bottom end compared to a 28mm bottom end. We also have an older N70. I cut my teeth on a Pentax K1000 in 8th grade, back years and years ago, but sold it recently.

So, what would I like in a digital??? I like the Nikon 4300 for a point and shoot. I would like to upgrade one of the film camera's to a Nikon D100. A D1/D2 would be sweet, but $$$. Above that, I can dream of one of the Kodak/Nikon 12+mp pro cameras...

I would stay with Nikon. We have lenses and stuff already. For glass, they are hard to beat. I wish Nikon would catch up with Canon with more image stabilizer and AFS/USM style lens offerings. Nikon has great glass, but is lagging on the other gizmo's.

You mention a Rebel in another post/followup. If you have lenses for it, maybe the Canon D10/D60 series would be a good option.

Lastly, depends on what you want to do. For point and shoot, digital is great. For a bunch of 3x5's, it's just as good as film. How many do you blow up beyond 5x7? That's when you start noticing differences.

We shoot mainly slides, in 64 or 100asa, off tripods. But, we blow stuff up too. We have some great whale shots from Alaska for example. 11x17 off Kodak and Fuji pro films came out
great.

A Canon D10 or Nikon D100, with a lens like the Nikon 24-120 would make an awesome combo.

 

[RobertN]

One more thing...
When you look at film vs digital, look at where you have your developing done, and how you print your digital pictures.

One-hour, and many fast turnaround developers do not deliver the best overall picture. They develop the film ok, and use decent paper, but the way the machine exposes the paper is done based on a standard gray-scale setting. They compare your picture to an average scale, and print based upon that.

I have had prints like that that made a mediocre picture. I then scanned(We have anHP combo flatbed/fil scanner, and have friends with high-grade pro film scanners) the same piece of film, and came out with a great digital image. I had some horse pictures of the beautiful black thoroughbred I used to have. The pictures were terrible. Took them with my SLR. I also had the developer make a CD of the fim. Great pictures! The printing of the pictures had left a lot to be desired. I had the pictures reprinted, with attention to detail, with great results. Cost more though...

It reminds me of printing digital images. You can print to ok paper, and have an ok picture, even though you had a great digital image. You can print on good paper, and have a good image, or use archive quality paper and have a great picture. Then... There's the quality of the ink you use....

 

[bebster]

My experience has been that the ability yo image-process a digital image (whether from a digital camera or from a scanned photograph) is invaluable. The camera is just the first of 3 steps: Camera / Image Processing / Printing on Paper. The end result is influenced by all 3, and having a weak link in the chain produces a mediocre result.

Photoshop is the standard of course, and there are some simple tools there that really enhance your photographs. In about 1 minute per photo it can be enhanced so that it seems to correct for any lighting issues that might exist when the picture was taken. Can't recommend it enough.

 

[_RaT_]

Robert, without a question, once you have the lenses for a particular brand, it's pretty tough to consider switching. I think Nikon has some superb wide angle zooms and primes while Canon has some outstanding telephoto zooms and primes. Both have some spectacular lenses in all areas. The 1.6 crop effect on the image certainly cuts into the wide angle. your right, the difference between 28mm and 24mm is night and day.
I was reading that at Costco now you can bring your CD of pictures to Costco and have them send off and print the images on a very sophisticated printer. The results I've heard are nothing short of stunning. The price was reasonable to, much more then say bringing in my Velvia transparencies to have them enlarged. If and when I get a digital, I look forward to trying it out.

P.S. I've thouroghly checked both the 300D and 10D from Canon and without a doubt could get by with the 300D. I'm waiting for the Sony DSC F-828 to come out for a full reviews. Both dpreview.com and stevesdigicam.com (sp?) have excellent reviews. I know there are many others. Rat...

 

[GaryM]

Costco makes prints from CD as well as most memory cards. $0.19 each for 4x6. Don't remember the price for larger sizes. And they look really nice too!

 

[frank_f15]

i now have an olympus d510 2.1 mp(2years old) but am in the process of getting an olympus C750uz, 4 mp but more impotant to me is the 10x optical zoom. there is always some shutter lag with digitals but they are improving, i guess they make so many different model because people have many differnt needs and wants. not sure there is any one perfect anything. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[_RaT_]

Hi Gary. Here is a link for the printer Costco uses. They send out to a lab I'm told.

Drycreek photo - info on Noritsu printer available from Costco

 

[_RaT_]

Hi Frank, here is a little info on the Olympus C-750UZ
Olympus C-750UZ