Need a camera!! update: Is there a reason for digital?

[JaiKnight]

Thanks for the link! Actually Henry's is pretty close to where I work right now, found another place too with cheaper prices too, http://www.vistek.ca
The Pentax 928M is $289CDN there.

Bump for a new question

 

[RossMAN]

I would definitely go digital, check out the Kodak DC4800 for $375 after rebate with free shipping.

 

[snakesnfrogs]

<< Is there a reason for digital? >>




If you want pictures to post on the web or send to friends, a digital camera is much more convenient than scanning prints and the image quality might be better(with some of the newer digital cameras, anyway). But if you get a digital camera and plan on making prints, it's very tough(and expensive) to get better image quality than film.

 

[CivicSiRider]

If you have the money to get a digital camera with good resolution and &quot;optical zoom&quot;( don't worry about digital zoom, completely useless) then why not go for it. But it depends on what you use it for, if using it on a vacation you will definitely go through batteries like crazy. What I do is take the batteries out of mine while I'm not using it because otherwise power is drawn little by little even when off. You save money in processing and film though. When you have a lot of rolls of film, it gets expensive to process them, not to mention how much the rolls cost themselves. Take for example a shoot I did for work last weekend. We went through over 40 rolls of film. The film itself was like $6 or $7 a roll. The processing cost over $1000. Now if we had the Nikon D1x we will soon be getting, think of how much we could have saved.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

I think the question should be &quot;Is there a reason why I shouldn't go digital?&quot; I have the 4800 and it takes awsome pictures. Most photo stores can print the pictures from the CF card if you don't want to get a printer yourself.

 

[Doggiedog]

I would say the print quality of digital pictures is pretty good. I was amazed at what I could print out with my HP 970Cxi. Right now for bulk photos, I use online printing services because it ends up being cheaper than printing it out yourself.

The printouts from online printing services I'd say is equivalent to what you'd get from any 1 hour place.

 

[Mday]

don't go aps, it's quality in terms of film size is less than that of 35mm.

if all you do is take pictures and shove them in an album and never see them again, go with digital... that's what i do ;-)

--

anyway, if you're really into photography, go SLR, it's a few hundred for a new, and less for used. with a lower end lense, it can do for now until you can save for a better. if you just want to take pictures, get any autofocus camera with zoom. but SLR is really the &quot;expansion&quot; way to go since you can get a better lense if you really are into photography. the canon rebel 2000 is a nice prosumer camera.

the best thing for you to do is go to a photography forum. and go around looking at shops yourself... it's a nice way to test and look around. a camera is not a thing you want to go out and get online right away. go to a store to look at it, and get a feel of it. THEN go online to buy it =P unless you find a good price, since a camera is something that if it breaks, go to the store or something...

get a nice camera no matter what, don't get another pos $40 camera ;-)

a nice few hundred dollar camera can last you for years or MORE if you don't catch the picture taking bug... ;-) that bug has been going around lately, very contageous...

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Full size pic with 4800 There is a little moire(sp?) on the roof but I think I might have had the compression turned on.

 

[gwlam12]

i dont think that u should replace a regular cam with a digi cam. u can print pictures from a digital camera, but the quality wont be as great. personallly, i'd use a digi cam for taking pictures of things that one would normally waste their film ; such as silly things that u dont really need to take a picture of.

 

[Doggiedog]

The only time picture quality of digi and film camera comes into consideration is when you are blowing up pictures.

If you are printing out regular 5x7&quot; pics you won't notice the difference with a 2.1MP digital camera.

It's the same thing with film. If you use ISO 1000 speed film it'll probably look worse than the digital camera at that size.

 

[JaiKnight]

<< I would definitely go digital, check out the Kodak DC4800 for $375 after rebate with free shipping. >>


I really really wish we had deals like this in Canada

Ugh....so many things to consider, well...here come more questions:
What speed is necessary for shutter time if you're taking pictures of things in motion? Like sports for example, I see a lot of digicams around with 1/1000th of a second, whereas normal cameras are around 1/2000th is there much of a difference?
How does ISO speed relate? (because the Canon Power Shot S300 only has ISO100 I think)

What's the best thing to do, I generally don't like going with proprietary things, like Sony's memory sticks (rather use CF), or Canon's battery (rather have rechargeable things like Kodak's Lithium Ion, or AA/AAA batteries)
Should I be concerned about these things?

If I did go digicam, I'd probably at LEAST double the amount of money I'd have to spend, which puts the price range of cameras into the models of Kodak DC4800, Canon PowerShot S100, S300, Olympus D-series (although these things look pretty huge, and I've read that they chew threw batteries like crazy).
Do you guys have experience with these models? and which one would you recommend?

Very important for it to be able to make good indoor pictures as well, I'm not just shooting pretty landscapes outside, I would need this for party pictures too

Mday: I think that bug is going to devour me pretty soon

 

[GasX]

Digital Camera

Pros:
No film to buy
No developing costs
Instant access to pictures
Easily copied for friends
Easily sent long distances
Easy to eradicte bad pictures
No need for a scanner
Can get 128MB flash cards that hold LOTS of pictures


Cons
Unless you have rechargeables, but stock in Duracell
Expensive compared to 35mm for same picture quality
Need constant access to a PC to empty flash cards
Standard 8MB flash card only holds ~15 pictures at 1024x768.
Not likely to have interchangeable lens

 

[Doggiedog]

I have the S100 and I'm sure you WON'T like it for party pictures. The cycle time (the time it takes to take the picture after pressing the button) is too long for that. I suspect by party pictures you mean catching people offguard with lots of movement. It's more useful for still pictures. Plus, by party I would also take it as indoor. The flash shutter on the S100 is 1/30 second which is awful. Any slight shake and the picture will come out blurry. The flash is also useless after 8 feet. You might as well take a picture in a cave.

But besides that, it takes very good pictures and is very compact and easy to use. I find myself always taking pictures of my baby. It is definitely more cost effective for me to use this than an APS or even 35MM picture. So far, I must have taken 2000+ pictures with it. Doing the math 2000/36 =56*$10= $560 I would have spent developing and printing pictures. I only print out the pictures I like now so my cost savings is a lot higher.

 

[JaiKnight]

Wow, thanks for the warning Doggiedog! Ok, guess I won't be getting the S100 then....do you know if the S300 has that problem solved?

And yes, that's exactly one of the things I want to do with the camera, catch people looking their silliest

 

[Doggiedog]

S300 I hear is the same except it has a 3X optical instead of 2X and motion capture capabilities.

I haven't used it so I'm not sure but I'll bet it has the same performance characteristics.

 

[GasX]

I got a Casio QV-8000 from the For Sale forum for $225. THAT is a deal.

It doesn't have the name recognition of the other cameras, but it has some awesome features not the least of which is 8X optical zoom AND 4x digital zoom.

 

[JaiKnight]

I'm kinda tempted to get the S300, but I'm trying to find some place where I can demo it... in the meantime, I know it uses Type I CF cards. What's the difference between Type I &amp; II? Just size?

Just did a little comparison at http://www.powershot.com as well, between the S110, S100, S300, G1, S20, and the S110 &amp; S300 seem almost identical! Anybody know how they really perform against each other?

 

[damocles]

I had a look at the pic on the 4800. I thought the image was a little blurry (not too bad and maybe that was compression) however the colours were extremely vibrant