OT - Digital Camera's

[SeaDweller]

Do any of you have an inexpensive digital camera that takes reasonably good images? I'm looking for a camera for taking pictures of parts, the car, boat, etc. I'm not looking for professional quality, just something inexpensive with reasonable image quality.

Has anyone used the $30 cameras that you see at Target and such?

Thanks!

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Michael
'78 911SC Euro

[motion]

I just bought my daughter one of the JamCams from Target for $30. Its great! Not excellent pics, but certainly decent. Hey, ya get what ya pay for, but this one's a good deal if you're on a budget.

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-Richard
'84 Carrera Cabriolet
'74 911 Widebody 3.6 Project

[RarlyL8]

Are the $30-$50 cameras good enough to post pix at this site?
I've lost my Photopoint server and would like to take pix just for the BBS tech stuff.

[Early_S_Man]

i don't want to seem 'picky' .. but very few digital cameras under $500 have high quality optics, and close-up capabilites! Even at VGA-resolution, 640 x 480, the optics are pretty important for detail in close-ups! And, I'm not talking about professional-quality cameras ... they generally start around $2000 and up!

The 'better' grade, serious enthusiast cameras start around the $500 - $700 range, in order to get decent optics. Even a cheap, 25-year old 35 mm camera with cheap 50 mm lens beats the under-$500 digitals on close-up and detail quality! There still isn't any free lunch when it comes to picture quality, and even 3.3 megapixel cameras can have lousy optics!!!

As far as the under-$100 cameras go, a disposable 35 mm beats them in image quality most of the time ... the only hassle is scanning the prints!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

[campbellcj]

Originally posted by Early_S_Man:

As far as the under-$100 cameras go, a disposable 35 mm beats them in image quality most of the time ... the only hassle is scanning the prints!

FWIW many film developing services will put your pics on a CD for a nominal extra charge. Compared to laying out $400-900+ for a good digicam, it's chump change.

The price and hassle of scanning prints yourself has also come way down. I recently got a nice little Canon USB scanner for $75.

I'd personally lean towards either of those options versus a cheapie digicam, if I were taking a bunch of pics where I cared at all about quality. IMHO the pics from some of the 'cheapies' look like cat vomit.

Also to expand on what Warren said, you may find, as I did, that the accessories you are sure to want once you get your nice digicam can almost equal the camera price. Extra batteries/packs, bag, tripod, filters, lenses, USB card readers, etc. etc.

Personally, I like the Nikons and the Olympuses but there are a lot of good ones out there.

Chris C.


[This message has been edited by campbellcj (edited 08-21-2001).]

[ebradway]

You can also develop through services like ClickFish.com where they put your pictures online for you.

Personally, I have a Canon Elph S100 digital camera. It set me back a little over $400 but it is a wonderful piece of technology. It's small enough to comfortably fit in a pocket, takes great close-ups as well as larger shots.

-Eric '86 Targa

[Wayne 962]

I just bought the new Sony CD-330! I'll let everyone here know how it works out. Actually, you will most likely all see the photos from the camera...

-Wayne

[Z-man]

I've had my Fujifilm MX-1200 for about 2 years now, and still love it! Since it's an earlier camera, it's only a 1.3 mega-pixel, but it offers good quality. (I can do 640x480 and 1280x960 resolution). It uses smartmedia cards (I just bought a 32MB card for $30 at Walmart: good for 300+ pics in 640x480 res!)

The only things I don't like about the camera are: 1. no opitcal zoom and 2. flash pictures stink (but that seems to be a problem with alot of digi-cameras)

Two years ago, the camera cost $200.00. Now, you can probably get a 1.3 mega-pix camera for around $150.00. It's definately worth getting one.

The pictures in my gallery (see below) were taken with this camera.
-Zoltan.

PS: Wayne: just read the article in Grassroots: "Affordable Porsches," where they quoted you quite extensively. Nice job!


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My toy: http://www.pelicanparts.com/gallery/Z-man

[carnut169]

I would'nt waste my $$ on a $30 dig camera unless it was to be used by a child as a toy. You would be much much better served by doing what Warren and Chris suggested and having Wolfe (or whoever) put your shots on a cd. If you want really good quality photos look into a used camera (Ebay is a good source)- I really like the Nikon 950.

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87 Carrera Cabriolet

[firecall999]

I have to agree with most of whats been said.
You get what you pay for with a digital camera.
However, most, even the cheap ones, are good enough for use on the web. But as Warren said if you want close ups of parts etc.. they can leave a lot to be desired.

I have no experience of the $30 ones. I have never seen those.

Having said that having a digital camera, even a cheap one, and being able to quickly upload stuff to a website can be very uselfull. Especially if you want instant feed back from this BBS etc...

But if you want to take pics of you car, then you need film. Unless you spend lotsa money. (There are some pro's who say that high end digital cameras are better than film for some uses!!).

It would be very annoying to take a great shot of your car and then not be able to get a good print because you shot it with a digital cam.

Alex.

[Doug Zielke]

Glenn (aka: island911), showed off his delightful little Canon digi-cam at JW's swapmeet. The fine quality of the images it takes were shown on the board a while ago.
I still can't believe how tiny it was too. Glenn may chime in here and tell us the salient technical details.

I was all ready to buy the Sony Mavica MCD that Warren recommended to me a while ago. But when I went to the store, I was told it was NLA, and already superceded by a "better" model. Grrrrr.

That's what bugs me about this business. The stuff you buy today is deemed obsolete before you even get it home!

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'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
The Blue Bomber's Website

[BlueSkyJaunte]

My Canon S10 is good enough to allow me to ID my wife by her fingerprints:



You can get them for just over 3 bills:

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/resellers/0-2295745-311-1452876-3.html?fl=0&tag=st.co.2295745-311-1452876.sort.price

Not affiliated with Canon in any way, just a satisfied customer.


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blue
'81 SC Targa

[wckrause]

I tried a website called ofoto.com It is owned by Kodak. You can upload your digital pics into photo albums, or you can mail them your film and they will process, scan, and place into albums for you. Once you've got the pics uploaded, you can buy prints of different sizes (4x6 costs $.49).

When you join, they give you 15 prints for free. I ordered my 15 free pics and was very pleased with the quality given the uploaded image was only a 200K jpeg image.

The camera I use is an Olympus 2040. 2.1M pixels, low light optics with a USB port. Cost was $400 plus accessories. If anyone is interested in the camera I can email you samples.



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Bill Krause
'79 911SC Euro
MY PELICAN GALLERY

[Doug Zielke]

Blue,
Your wife has strange tastes in pets. (Cute little guy, though).

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'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
The Blue Bomber's Website

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Doug,

Agreed, but this particular critter isn't our pet. Actually that picture was taken on a beach in Okinawa. There were millions of those hermit crabs running all over the place.

(My wife thinks Jack Hannah is da bomb and wants his job.)

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blue
'81 SC Targa