I am a complete novice when it comes to digital photography and computer technology. I make my way around in applications pretty well, but that’s about it.
I’m considering buying a digital camera. I don’t mind spending about $500, but that’s about my cap. I want to use it just for fun, but I don’t want it to be cheap cheap. I’m not a serious photgrapher or anything. Ideally, the camera fits in my pocket.
I would like to store photos digitally. I don’t see much need to print them out at all. Hard copies are just a pain in the ass.
I would also like the ability to tinker with the photos for fun. Nothing pornographic, just fun.
I have a Dell that I bought in 1999 with a Pentium 3 processor. I don’t know the megahurtz. I have 63 megs of RAM. I use Windows 98. I have a 4 gig hard drive with about 1.4 gigs of available space left.
I have a CD ROM drive and a Zip drive.
Now the questions:
Do I have enough power on my computer to do this kind of thing? If not, I will have to reconsider the whole idea.
In addition to the camera, what do I need? I don’t expect to store the photos on my hard drive, so an external CD burner, I assume, with a driver and some kind of photo software (Photoshop?). Cables to plug the stuff into certain ports (USB?) NOTE: I think I only have one USB port and it’s being used by a PDA cradle… do I need an adapter or splitter of some kind?
What is my total bill going to be when all is said and done? About $1000? Note: I don’t think I need a printer because I don’t see much need for hard copies.
I have PS2. Can I use that to view photos on my TV?
Almost certainly. My parents are using a seven year old Pentium 2 with no problem.
An external CD burner should work fine. You will need a USB hub if you don’t have an open USB port. Any place that carries computer stuff will have them (Circuit City, Best Buy, Frys, etc). Photoshop is good software, but it is rather expensive and has a steep learning curve. The camera will probably come with software that will work pretty well for doing basic editing and printing your photos. I am impressed with the stuff that comes with recent Kodak cameras. The camera will come with cables. Some cameras come with a rechargeable battery and some require you to buy the battery seperately. You may want to buy two batteries, as they always seem to die at the worst moment. The camera will probably also come with a memory card, often 8 or 16 megabytes. With a modern 3+ megapixel camera, you will probably want to buy a bigger memory card, at least 64 megabytes.
External CD burner: $100-ish. If you are willing to open your computer up and swap in an internal burner, you can spend as little as $50 (even less if you wait for a good rebate). USB hub, $20-50, depending on features and number of ports. Camera: For a quality camera, 3 or more megapixels, prices will start at $300, all the way to several thousand dollars for a professional quality camera. You could get everything you needed to take good pictures for $500. A four megapixel camera takes good looking 8"x10" prints.
I assume you mean a PS2 port, what your keyboard plugs into? In that case, no. If you have an S-Video port (looks an awful lot like a PS2 port), you might be able to hook it up to a TV and show pictures on it. Many cameras can also be hooked directly took a TV to show images stored on the memory card.
My parents got themselves a Kodak LS443 4.0 megapixel camera for Christmas. It has all of the features that I would look for: optical zoom, rechargable battery, docking station, and quality image editing software. It retails for about $450 right now. You will probably want to buy a bigger memory card. This is the camera that I would recommend to my grandmother if she wanted to go digital. Lots of features, easy to use, and competitively priced.
If you want to work on the cheap, you can get an old and slow USB CD burner for about $40 on eBay. You can find a decent little 2.1 megapixel digital camera for $150 or less. A used copy of Photoshop Elements can be gotten for $50 or so.
I got a nice little Olympus Brio 2.1 megapixel camera off of eBay for $150 a few months ago, I think they go for $130 now. It’s not a bad camera, really. Decent enough for printing out on an inkjet printer, and its pictures really too big (fullsize) for your average 1024 x 768 monitor. Of course it’s not a really fancy digital camera, but it’s not the bottom of the barrel, either. I’ve taken lots of pictures of the cats with it.
Watch the extras for the camera. A camera case, storage media (smart cards, Compact Flash cards, or whatever) can add up. A big surprise for me was the $25 cost of the external power supply - for plugging in to save batteries when downloading.
Rechargable batteries might be a savings, the kit for those is often around $35.
I’d recommend a CD burner for long-term storage. Pictures can be big & the burner lets you collect as many as you want. If you have a spare IDE controller, internal burners can be pretty cheap these days.
I wouldn’t think you need more than a 3 megapixel camera. Those can be had for less than $400.00. I also think you could use some more RAM for your machine as it is really cheap and the computer will run better if you put another 128 MB inside. I second the recommendation for Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro 7 which is a nice program and I think there still is a trial version that you could check out before purchase. Internal CD burners are really cheap and you can get one for $40.00 after rebates.
I ordered my last memory from Crucial. It can search by model & make of computer or motherboard manufacture.
I consider both this and CD installation to be amateur-level upgrades, but if you want to have it done, I’m sure your local big-box computer retailer (CompUSA or Best Buy) will have fixed fees for this.
This would seem to be the place to ask a stupid question, so here goes. Fromthe other thread, the Sony DSC-S85 looks very nice. Since it has a USB port, would some sort of docking station offer any additional advantage? (I’m thinking no, and know nothin’ about nothin’).
The docking station might have a battery charger built into it, which is marginally useful. It also might have some kind of push-one-button downloading, which would interface with some driver software and download the pictures for you. Contrast that to USB, which requires a bit more effort to get the pictures off the camera.
Considering they tend to run a $100 or so, they’re a rip-off.
I have the Sony S85. My computer has a memory stick reader built in so I use that. However, my laptop does not have a built in MS reader, so I just hook the USB cable up (after installing the Sony USB driver) and it recognizes the camera exactly the same as the memory stick reader does, it’s just another drive. Moving pictures from either is about the same, both speed and difficulty wise. It’s really easy, and if you are familiar with moving files around with Windows Explorer you shouldn’t have any problems.
I don’t know what additional benefit a docking station would provide.
Dr_P - You won’t see a speed advantage to using a “drive” for that Memory Stick (or Compact Flash, etc). One advantage would be not using the camera’s power during file transfers, but since you’re probably using rechargable batteries, it’s not that great a difference. Put the money you save from not buying a reader for the memory card into buying a bigger memory card. Most cameras seem to come with an 8 or 16 meg card. 64 is a practical minimum size. 128 meg is better.
Going back to Bearflag… Step One: Get some more RAM. 128 meg is a good start, and 256 won’t hurt. 64 meg is barely enough for Windows to fit itself into, let alone any programs or files. Your 1993 P3 is proably somewhere around 600-750 MHz, which is certainly workable for what you want to do. Be careful with memory shopping - your Dell may use “Rambus” memory, which is a bit less common and more expensive than regular RAM.
You will need a USB hub (around $30-50) to connect your camera to the computer, unless you unplug the Palm cradle.
You can get yourself a very good camera for $400. More RAM and a USB hub will be another $100-150. The camera may come with image editing software, so you won’t need to buy that. I think 128 meg memory cards for cameras are under $100 now. Two sets of rechargable batteries are a very good idea, if your camera uses removeable batteries, and most do. Some even use regular AA’s.
As for which camera, look up reviews on the things at places like PCWorld.com, PCMagazine.com and Epinions.com. Any of the “name brands” are selling cameras worlds better than what was on the market two years ago. It really will come down to what feels good in your hands and is easy to use, so you need to head out to the stores and pick the things up and play with them.
I went wuth the Olympus Stylus 300 (3 megapixel, compact camera). It ran about $400.
Internal CD Burner with installation, PC RAM upgrade with installation, expanded xD memory card for the camera, xD card reader (USB), carrying case for the camera. The camera came with basic editing software, a battery, small xD card, and battery charger.
I had an extra USB port, so no need for the USB hub.
They were out of extra batteries, so I will get an extra battery soon. I think I will also want to upgrade my editing software if anyone has any ideas.
In all, I spent a little less than $1000. Some mail-in rebates can cut that down.
Thanks to this thread, I took care of the whole thing in just a couple hours without having to go to the store every weekend getting little unexpected upgrades for this and that or getting caught with a low battery or no memory.
