Digital Cameras, what's your's like?

[Zenith]

We are thinking of trading in our regular camera to get a digital one. We would use the camera to take motion pictures at the races, motion/still wildlife and the other usual stuff. Can you tell me what you have and what you think of it, a list of pros/cons would be great and some specs aswell if possible. Mum would like to use it aswell so if a degree in rocket science is necessary please say so. What format and resolution should be used if you wanted to have the photos developed properly and what size(Mb) files does this res. and format usually make so I have some idea of memory card needed???


Thanks for any thought/suggestions,
Zenith.

 

[smb_racing]

I've got a very cheap one, it's a Kodak EZ200, it does digital pictures as well as web cam and short video clips. Decent quality photos as well, holds 64 high quality or 128 email quality. It has no preview screen or flash, but what can you expect for an $80 cam. I like it because since it's cheap I can take it riding with me and if it gets damaged in a crash I'm not out a heap. It's good for what I use it for though, the web cam picture quality is top notch though.

 

[Senior KX Rider]

I have an Olympus 460-Z and also a Sony digital camcorder that takes excellent stills. For the best pics I set them both on the highest resolution.

 

[MX-727]

I have the Olympus C2100. Great camera. Not as small as others. Most important feature in my view is get the maximum optical zoom. Digital zoom is just in camera cropping and with it you lose resolution and detail. It is no different than loading the picture into the computer and enlarging and cropping there. I always disable digital zoom. It is a false feature in my (ex-pro photo) book.

 

[95cr250jbw]

digital camera

I bought an Olympus C-3000 with the income tax check. I have had it for about a month. It has 3X optical,5 differant resolution pics and also takes short movies.With the 8MB memory card that came with it you can get from 4 pics on super high quality to 37 on the lowest settings. If you look in my photos these pics where takin on the medium setting.

 

[Danman]

I have a Kodak zoom 290. Nice, has more features than I will ever use. It will take an aftermarket type lenses(must have an adapter). Does uncompressed mod with super detail. I have 64 meg card and I can get 45 high res shots. The only real downside that I have found it that its delayed about a second from they time you snap it (not to good for action unless you follow it well). I want something faster. The next step up in Kodak line up is professional and is about 3K more than what I payed. I've had since early 2000. I too afraid of taking it on the trail so I use disposable camaras for that. I would love to get a knocker around digital for taking trail shots.

 

[Gary B.]

I have a Sony Cybershot model#DSC-P50, and it works great, except it's a little pricey to take along riding. It ran about $600 total with a 32Meg memory card, case, rechargeable battery pack. Takes great pictures!:)

 

[JuliusPleaser]

I bought a Sony Mavica FD95. It's huge, but it has 20X zoom and mpeg capabilities, too. I like it cuz the images are stored on a regular floppy. I can do 3 really high res pics (1600 x 1200) per floppy, or 32 640 x 480's. It came with a battery and charger for $699.
Arcsoft Studio software was also included.

 

[JPIVEY]

I have a Nikon 950 coolpix that the whole family can use, it has 8 res settings from basic to HI, it's pretty nice little setup, I have a 24 meg flash card and can get two 8x10 print quality pictures on high and 64 standard type on basic. But nothing comes close to film, I had a chance to get a Nikon D1x which is a SLR digital and I can use all my lenses on it but, I would have to trade in my F1 and my N90s bodies, and I not ready to do that, when they hit film quality I'll make the change.

 

[JuliusPleaser]

JP, you can pick up a film-quality Fuji S1 Pro for a mere 5 grand.

 

[JPIVEY]

5 grand is about what the D1x was, but only printed 11x14 photo quality prints, some of my stuff get into the 20x,24x and even a 30"

If I ever get my 4x5 finished, ( keep spending $ on the bike ) I might go ahead with the D1x so I can still use my Lenses.

 

[kingriz1]

I have the Sony Mavica I love it! I use it for work. Dont think I would take it on trail ride. I little pricey for that.

The new ones are even better.

Can't go wrong with Sony.

 

[ZOOK250]

digital camera

i have a kodak 280 .its about 3 years old now and have never had any problems with it. with a kodak you have to press the button down half way until you hear the beep , then follow your shot and there will be absolutly no delay. i have taken so many motocross pictures with this camera and they are all professional quality. get a camera that is at least 2 mega pixels. this will do 8 x 10 nicely. more than 2 mega pixels will not realy do you any good unless you intend to blow up images larger than this. also for out door shots, get a camera that has a traditional viewerand an lcd screen. i have seen camera's with the screen only ,the problem is with the sun , you cant see what you are shooting at.they also use up more battery power. for the money i would highly suggest the kodak line, they are built well, have a ton of features and are very easy to use. i bought mine primarily for motocross pics and dont regret it. they use smart card medium. send me your email and i can send you some shots.

 

[Danman]

I have not done much motorcross type pics with my camera, but took it to see world. I had a realy hard time capturing the action shots there. Most of what I got was the splash at the end.

 

[Hucker]

Nikon Coolpix 990. Awesome camera, wirth every penny.

 

[ZOOK250]

digital camera

danman, next time you take any action pics try holding down the auto focus on the snap shot button,the most important thing is to follow the subject to get a clear picture. if you hold the camera still, without following , you will get a blur. listen for the double beep, when you hold the button down half way. the beep tells you that you are in auto focus. press the button all the way down to take the picture. a problem my friends have when they use my camera is that they hold the button down halfway but then fully release then push down again, then they wonder why there is a delay. give it a try and let me know.

 

[LWilson250]

I'm going to give a thumbs up for the Olympus D-510 Zoom. It's loaded with great features and is easy to use. I have not done any action MX shots yet but I have taken bout 1 gig of Quicktime video with it.

Very good cam for a not so bad price ($400)

Lee W.

 

[JuliusPleaser]

I bought an Olympus before I picked up the Mavica. It was a much better looking piece (and the specs were better, too) but I experienced some compatibility problems with my computer. Circuit City couldn't make the camera work with their compouters either.

 

[bsmith]

I have the Olympus C-700 with10x optical/3x digital zoom, and 2.1 megapixals. I have the 128m smart media card and can hold a couple hundred photos, but It only holds about 2 minutes of video.
I'm pretty busy so for me to download and save the pictures is more of a pain, but it is so nice to be able to view the picture and decide if you like it.

Zook, thanks for the tip on the motion pictures, I've been struggle taking pictures of my kids in action. I would let up all the way and would lose the image everytime:moon:

 

[KiwiBird]

Nikon Coolpix 885 - similar to 990 but smaller and a couple less features. Mated with a 256MB card I can get 30 hi res pictures or over 300 2048X1600.

Excellent camera.

 

[Zenith]

Thanks very much that's very helpful, if anybody else has suggestions then please chip in...

Suppose I wanted to have a photo developed properly and look reasonably close to what you'd get from a decent standard film camera what would I need? How many MegaPixels? What size of digital photo(1280X960 ?)?

I have borrowed an Olympus 960 Zoom and tried it on the three quality settings - SHQ-TIFF, HQ and SQ-HIGH. The pictures really don't look great on the PC screen though, is this just because it is a screen and they would look fine developed?

Thanks again,

 

[ZOOK250]

zenith, for good quality 8 x 10 prints you need to have at least 2 megapixels. try to get your pictures framed correctly when you take them, ie. dont take a shot from farther away and then rely on croping them on your computor because when you use the zoom feature you will lose definition and cause the picture to look pixelated. i always try to get as close as posible for this reason.always use the highest quality for action shots. i have had good luck with epson printers. they have been very reliable and are fairly cheap. i have used an epson stylus 800 for years with no problems. some other models that are better and cheaper costing are the stylus 777 or epson c-60. nowadays you dont need a really expensive printer, because they are all pretty good. photo programs range from very easy , mgi photosuite 4 to very advanced ,adobe photo products. i would suggest that you go with the mgi products first because they are more user friendly. dont let an expensive program fool you into buying it because first timers will get very frusterated trying to figure it out. i know i was.also when printing photos always use ink jet photo paper. you would not believe the difference in quality compared to regular paper.

 

[Coop]

Hey GaryB I just got the same camera yesterday. I got mine for $314 with the case and 32 megs stick. The only thing I didn't get was the rechargeable battery, but I already have a charger and NiMH batteries, so I didn't worry about that right now. How do you like it? I've only taken a couple pictures so far.

Julius I almost bought that camera. I found it for $399 locally (it was the last one they had), but my wife didn't like how bulky it was. I liked that it used floppies that would make it much easier to transfer pictures especially if you were visiting someone.

 

[Hucker]

Some advice for those looking into digital camera's.

Buy yourself a good set of rechargable batteries. The LCD screens on these little suckers just EAT batteries. So if you don't have to use the LCD, don't you'll save a tonne of battery life.

Kiwi Bird, good choice :) :)

 

[madwrench]

I've got a Nikon CoolPix 885 also--and of course the price has dropped since I bought mine. Definitely get the rechargable battery!! I went with Nikon because I have has always owned and liked their 35mm stuff (even a digital camera has to shoot through an optical lense). After years of shooting with 35mm equipment, it's taken some effort to get used to the digital---particularly with action shots (with my 35's, I know the shutter will fire NOW--I'm missing some shots with the 885, but I'm still learning). It's fun to play with the images in a good editing program (I use Adobe Photoshop 6.0--but it's pretty complex & very pricey). It's also very cool to be able to just plug the camera right into the TV and have an instant slide show!:cool: