Padeye, that panorama kicks ass! I remember recently thinking to myself, “Who cares about panorama shots? I’ll never want to do that!” Your picture has changed my mind, and I may now go looking for software to “stitch together” shots.
I just bought a Nikon Coolpix 995 a couple weeks ago, and I can’t begin to express how much I love it. It was a bit pricey (I paid about $750 from Comp-U-Plus Direct, a company I had dealt with before, and thus trusted), but worth every penny. This is a “semi-pro” camera, with lots of manual controls for a tech-head like myself to tinker with. In manual mode, it’s got all the controls you’d expect on a 35mm film camera, but it’s also got some “semi-auto” modes and a point-and-shoot mode for when you’re in a hurry. It’s got 3.35 megapixels, too, which makes for some awfully sharp photos. I’ve already bought a basic filter set for it (polarizer, two neutral density filters, and a UV filter. All I need now is a good tripod and a 128M CF card (the 16M CF card that comes with it is nowhere near enough). The rechargable Li-Ion battery that comes with this camera appears to last damn near forever.
I’ve always wanted to get into photography, but the cost and hassles associated with film kept me from it. I’d need a darkroom of my own to really do what I wanted, and that just wasn’t going to happen. Combine that with the fact that even good photographers only get one or two good shots per roll of film, and I just wasn’t up for it. Now that everything’s digital, I’m finally able to live out my photographer fantasies. From the first day I had my camera, I was taking some good-looking pictures (thanks to the point-and-shoot mode) and every time I take the camera out, I learn more about it and about photography in general. I hesitate to even call myself a photographer at this point, but I’m getting there.
There are some very good sites out there that explain the basics of photography in general and digital photography in particular. One of the best I found was http://www.shortcourses.com. I’m still reading their Short Course in Digital Photography and learning an awful lot in the process.
I’d give a resounding YES. My digital camera is a Kodac DC3400 Zoom. 2.1 Megapixel, 2x optical zoom. It takes exceptionally clear pictures, with outstanding color balance. Since I got my new printer, the output from my digital camera on photo paper from my printer is BETTER than a film print from my 35mm Samsung. That’s right, better. It can get a 300dpi 4x6, 240dpi 5x7, but only a 150dpi 8x10. That’s not enough to get great detail at 8x10, but it’s enough to get prints that look great from standard viewing distance.
Actually, it looks like I spoke too soon about Sony’s Memory Stick. According to their website (http://www.sonystyle.com/digitalimaging/Promo05.shtml), Sony is making significant drops in price for all their mem sticks. A 64-mb stick was $120, and now it’s $80. This puts them a bit closer to par, pricewise, with other memory cards out there, and makes a Sony camera a bit less expensive to buy.
I’ve got one of the Sony’s that uses the memory stick (DSC-S30. It’s since been replaced by another model but I think you might still find some S30’s on the net). FWIW, I love it. I generally shoot snapshots anyway, so I rarely need more than 640x480 resolution (but I can go higher if I do need to). The display screen is flippable so you can turn it over when not in use to avoid scratches and you can flip it up to take self portraits. I shoot so many more pictures than with my 35mm film camera (in fact, I don’t think I’ve shot any film since going digital).
I’m hoping someone will make a Memory Stick adapter for the Handspring Visor and I’ll have instant slideshows to annoy all my friends with (well, I’ll have to do some resolution fixing I imagine).
PCmall has 64 meg Sony compatible Lexar memory sticks for
$ 60.00 (I’ve used Lexar CF modules excellent brand)
64MB Memory Stick
Lexar Media’s Memory Stick works in an array of different applications, including your Sony MP3 audio recorder, Sony video cameras and Sony computers with a Memory Stick slot.
Oh god! I’ve just spent the last ten months working my ass off on my pictorial website of the Montreal metro and I would like to make the following statement: Digital cameras are a direct blessing from God. I’d never even have been able to contemplate such a project without one.
I went with the Coolpix 990, I didn’t like the placement of the flash on the 995. Plus the 990 uses AA batteries, which means getting NiMH rechargables or in a pinch, some alkalines. The 995 has a proprietary battery.
But otherwise I agree, you can use the 990/995 as a point and shoot, but it has so many things you can do with them as you learn more. The 990 can take 40 seconds of Quicktime movies, which I thought I would never need. Until I went whale watching and got to film a whale tail-breaching. And then I could hook it up to a TV and show my family what I had seen.
You definitely want a 128 CF card at least. And a USB card reader is much nicer than downloading directly from the camera. I have 2 128 cards, each of which can hold over 2600 pictures at 640x480, at a suitable resolution for putting on the web. They will hold 81 pictures at the highest resolution suitable for printed enlargements, at least 5x7, I haven’t tried 8x10s yet.
I ended up taking over 400 pictures over a 10 day vacation trip. And 2 of those days were devoted to driving and nothing else. I didn’t take that many in 3 weeks in Australia a couple of years ago.