This seemed too ungeneral for GQ. So, we are wanting to get into the digital camera thing, but really mostly to take still-shots of bike parts to put on e-Bay-- that sort of thing. What would be the best way to enter into this for under 150 bucks? We’ve been thinking about getting a web-cam (for other purposes) and using it with a laptop; could this dpouble as a camera? Would it take still shots of a decent resolution? What’s the difference between webcams and digital cameras? Any general advice?
Thanks!
If you get a webcam, the ONLY one with decent resolution is the 3Com Home Connect digital cam (not the webcam lite)
It’s between $110-$150 depending on where you get it.
A web cam is a digital camera, but not a “still” camera. It’s more like a camcorder type of thing. I know some web cams can capture individual frames (stills), but the resolution would be quite poor. The resolution required would be determined by how much detail you need to show. A resolution of 1024x768 is the minimum I’d consider.
I’d suggest you visit http://www.dcresource.com and look at some of the olympus cameras. you won’t find anything for $150, but you can get enough information to know what to look for on the used market.
Of course after the pictures are taken, you need to get them into the computer. Then you need to edit or tweak them. It’s a never ending battle.
Webcam: Shows moving video or still images over the net - cheap
Digital Camera: Just like a regular camera, but saves photos to a media other than film. Some can double as a webcam - more expensive
For a decent digital camera at a good price, I can recomend the Hewlett Packard 315. It will probably be over $150 (closer to $200 something) but a great camera for the price. 2.1MP (1600x1200 res?) which is good enough for printing “decent” 8x10s with a good printer, or really good 5x7s.
I don’t have much experience with webcams, sorry I can’t help with that.
You’re cutting pretty close on pricing to the “nothing at all” catagory, but there’s hope. I’m assuming you’re talking $150 USD here (I’m in Canada… I’ll assume USD in this case though).
HP makes a sub $200 camera with 1.3M pixel resolution, which allows for more than enough quality for web use, while still being good enough for basic photography as well. Lowest price I found on the 'net was $129.99 (using http://www.shopper.com )
Probably more, but that’s the best I found in your range.
It’s the HP model 215 I was referring to previously. Information on their site at:
(Sheesh… that’s a long URL, isn’t it?) 
the 3Com webcam that I mentioned will take pictures at a max resolution of 640 x 480 and the resolution is actually surprisingly good. I can’t say that of ANY other webcam.
webcams are cheap but don’t have anywhere near the right resolution or sharpness for bike parts. I tried myself with a few of them.
Digital Cameras also may not have the macro lens you need for bike parts. You can try them in the store & see how they look.
A camcorder hooked up with a Snappy to the PC gives pretty nice pictures of still items.