I’ve been thinking about buying one, and as always when purchasing major electronic equipment that doesn’t involve my job, I checked out eBay first. I found ones that looked pretty good to me that were going for about $30 to $50. Is this TOO low? I mean, I want to get a decent one, but again, it is just for fun. I think new ones run about $300 don’t they? Can anybody suggest a specific brand? Also, how necessary is a USB card that they mentioned, something about faster uploading of pictures…? Well as you can see my ignorance is abundant when it comes the digital photography industry, so I invite you all to help fight it.
I personally love my sony mavica md95 –
http://www.steves-digicams.com/fd95.html
sony also makes the same camera that writes directly to a CD
both cameras are about a year old, so they shouldn’t be too pricy. I paid 800 for mine new
I keep close track of digital cameras and prices. A $30-$50 camera will probably only have a resolution of 640X480, which is passable if you don’t care about having excellent image quality… however, my own rule of thumb is to spend at least $200 on a digital camera. That’ll get you one with a 1.3-megapixel resolution (1280X768), and it should include a 4- to 8-MB memory card.
Ideally, I’d suggest spending around $300 for the camera, and try to get one with at least 2X optical zoom (digital zoom ain’t worth shit). Additionally, try to pick one up that uses either Compactflash or Smartmedia, as those have become dirt-cheap in the past several months. In other words, only pick up a Sony camera if you’re willing to invest $600 or so in the camera itself, and digital media.
Yeah, the sony cameras are still pricy, but you do get a few things for it
you can burn directly to CD’s with the mavica cd-1000 or you can go straight to floppy’s with the MD95
Both of the above come in at 2.1 megapixles, taking pictures at 1600x1200
the 10x optical zoom is nice, and the digital zoom that takes you to 20x is pratically flawless.
there are more settings to change shutter speed and such that even my father, an avid photographer, was impressed
and it takes mpeg movies…granted they are short (15sec at high quality, 1 minute at low quality) its still a nice feature.
so yeah, the camera is expensive, but for the price you do get a lot of nice stuff you won’t get from a cheeper camera
If your PC is faster than 200MHz, it probably already has USB ports. If it doesn’t, but is at least a 486, has a free PCI slot, and is running at least Win95-OSR2(Ver4.0b), you can add such a card for less than $25. If your PC does not meet those specs, you really need to spend the $300 on some upgrades. You can add up to 127 devices, so if you have USB and both your ports are in use just get a USB hub. Many newer cameras require either USB or a card reader for CompactFlash or SmartMedia. Older ones usually only use a serial port (much slower than USB).
I happen to like the older Sony cameras that use floppies and the FD-95 is a reallly good camera. I have a FD-91 and I use the floppies like film. They are a whole lot cheaper and more portable than any of the solid state storage alternatives. They do tend to take up a lot more room, though.
OTOH, many of Sony’s newer camera use Memory Sticks, another Sony bomb, IMHO. I can’t see how one company can keep releasing proprietary solutions that never catch on (Beta, Minidisc, and now Memory Stick). Of course, if you have a VAIO laptop, it rules.
Don’t have the link, but I think the website is dpreview.com. Everything you would ever want to know about digital cameras…prices, comparisons, product info, reviews, and terms explained. I bought a Kodak DC215 and LOVE it.
Do a search here…or maybe IMHO. About 3-4 weeks ago I posted a question about digital cameras and got lots of helpful responses.
For the price you’re talking about, you probably won’t be happy with the picture quality. I have friends with an older Sony that uses a floppy…its easy to use, but the picture quality is much grainier than mine. The Kodak has a USB card, & I was able to plug right into my computer.
Ah…here’s that thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=78481
I have been looking for quite a while and just got an Fuji 1400 on eBay for about $200 which I consider a very good deal. The 1400 was about $350 some months ago but has dropped since it was replaced by the better Fuji 2400. For $200 I got: 1.3 Megapix 1280 x 960, optical 3x zoom 38 - 114mm, USB transfer, etc. I think it is a really good deal. Anything less than 1.3 Mpix is just a toy, anything more I cannot justify… the optical zoom is what sold me on this one.
First off… a slight hijack… Hi Sailor… I’m proud to tell you I no longer own the laptop (if you remember that whole argument?!) I took it to the police station and toild them i had found it in the train on my way home from work… It felt good.
Now… Digicams… I like Sailor own a Fuji Finepix 1400z and I must admit to be pretty damn satisfied with it! The zoom is real nice, the picture quality is very good for that price range, the camera is reasonably fast and battery life is quite good. (If you use NIMH’s that is.)
I got mine off buy.com for around $325,- I belive… that was in june last year… I’ve used it pretty heavily… dragging it along to concerts and festivals and everywhere else i felt like taking it, and I’ve never had a single problem with it. Definately a good buy for me!
Only thing this camera is missing is a TV-out option… But I haven’t really missed it that much. It is however standard on almost all digicams and if you like the idea of being able to hook up your cam to the TV and show the family your snapshots… then you should find one that does that… If not this is definately a good and fairly cheap solution!
If you’d like to see some shots taken with it, then let me know and I’ll send them to you or upload them on a webpage.
I disagree. Yes, it’s still a Sony thing exclusively, but I’ve found them to be damn useful things. They’re about twice as exensive as Smartmedia or Compactflash, but they’re much smaller. However, they’re extremely useful and durable. Just be sure to get an external Memory Stick reader.
Perhaps for your case, yeah. But in my case, I try to take all my pictures at 2.1 megapixels, and on occasion go as high as 3.3 megapixels. Someday, when I have more cash, I want to get one of the pro-quality 6+ megapixel cameras (though those run in the multi-thousands of dollars).
Trust me… the extra quality is WELL worth it. Especially if you have a photo printer and plan on printing these things out (here’s a hint… take your photos at double the size you plan on having them in real life, which means printing your 1280X960 pics at 8"X6", or even less, or you’re going to get pixelation. And be sure to leave extra space for cropping the image).
I’ve had my first good camera a few days so I’ll add my 2¢ I wasted money with “toy” cameras and decided to stop throwing away good money after bad.
I got the Canon A10 and by the time all was said and done I’d spend nearly as much on accessories as the camera. two 80MB compact flash cards, USB reader (saves batteries in the camera) three sets of NiMH batteries, 1 hour charger, case, extended warranty (I usually don’t but felt it wise for this) and a partridge in a frickin’ pear tree.
I find it exactly suits my purpose. 1.3 megapixels is more than adequate for any web images. I don’t intend to make 8x10 prints so had no need for much higher resolution. The 3X optical zoom clinched it for me. I can zoom and not lose any of the image quality I’m paying for.
When you get a quality camera you’re getting more than just a number of raw pixels. A cheap camera may have a 640x480 CCD but the image quality will be crap. Just a few years ago you often had to resample pictures down to a smaller size to get adequate sharpness and deatail. With a good camera the true resolution is what you get.