[RESOLVED] What's the best digital camera (in $1000 range) and why?

[iateyourcat]

Anyone had any experience with the Sony? I like the 10x zoom, 2.1MP and 156meg CD-R storage.

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=-iateyourcat-=

[Rockymt4vr]

I recently bought a Sony digital camcorder which can also take still pictures which can be saved either to tape or to a memory stick. Only after I bought it and was using it did I find that it only has 640x480 resolution which is still good for e-mails, etc. The new ones have megapixel quality though. Might want to wait until a good sale comes along.

[AlienDyne]

I've heard some nice words about Sony Mavica, but some further input here would be fine.

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[ilovetheusers]

I have a dsc-30 (the 1.6 megapixle one)and I love it. It is the best thing I ever bought, though in retrospect I probably should have spent a little more for the dsc-50 that has a better resolution and creates mpeg videos. The only thing I don't like is that you can't set the F-stops and exposure times separately of each other. Aside from that it does everything and takes some sweet pics.

My bud has a mavica and I feel that the resolution is a little low for the dough, ya know?

Also - notethat the sony cameras have a wide angle lens built in so when you zoom up to the 10x all you get is actual real life size and not a 10x zoom. I had to get a telephoto lens (well a doubler really) for my camera just to get a little some thing closer and to cut down on the area of the photo.

Go here for the real thing in photography:
www.bhphoto.com (http://www.bhphoto.com)


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now type format c: and press enter and you will never have a pc problem ever again...

[This message has been edited by ilovetheusers (edited March 14, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by ilovetheusers (edited March 15, 2001).]

[jpo]

I've used the Canon ZR-100. It's really cheap ($700). I'm currently editing the results and must say that the video quality equals more expensive cameras but the still image quality is less than mediocre. For my own uses, I'm more concerned with audio and the ZR-100 does very well as long as you use a third party microphone (the in-camera mic is not good, like any other camera format). I am currently of the opinion that low-end MiniDV cameras are great for video only!

[Randall]

I have cerebral palsy and wonder which was the best also. I just want to take pictures of my dog etc. I have seen some kewl digital cam corders same price as the digital cameras. Would it be better buying one? Sony makes some asweme cam corders. I saw one for $800 at Bestbuy I liked. Then again with the DVD movies gaining on vhs tapes how long will a VCR be around?

I gave up on 35mm cause I shake so like half the roll is black-LOL

Hey nothing I can do but laugh cause why be down?

[Sowulo]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Randall:
I have cerebral palsy and wonder which was the best also. I just want to take pictures of my dog etc. I have seen some kewl digital cam corders same price as the digital cameras. Would it be better buying one? Sony makes some asweme cam corders. I saw one for $800 at Bestbuy I liked. Then again with the DVD movies gaining on vhs tapes how long will a VCR be around?

I gave up on 35mm cause I shake so like half the roll is black-LOL

Hey nothing I can do but laugh cause why be down?</font>

I helped a client who has a Fuji camcorder with the snap-shot option for bookmarking single frames. It looked like it did a pretty nice job and I've seen it at stores for $399.

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[silencio]

I bought the CD1000. The pictures look great, it has SteadyShot which compensates for shaking (seems to work, i'm not very steady myself), 10x optical 20x digital zoom and the best part is the storage. It stores 156meg of videos or stills.

The cd is supposed to work like a regular cd-r drive. You can either plug the camera into your usb port (where it shows up as a cdrom drive) or put the 3 inch cd in your regular cd player. The catch is that if you want to read it in your own cdrom, you need to finalize it. And if you want to read it while it's in the camera, you need Adaptec DirectCD and the appropriate USB driver for your OS.

Unfortunately, trying to access it through the usb does NOT work with windows 2000. I've tried it on 3 machines and they all fail. I've upgraded the USB driver to the latest on sony's site and upgraded directcd from adaptecs site. After upgrading directcd (from 3.01c which comes with the camera, to 3.03b), it doesn't work at all now. I get an application error and that's it. I may try going from 3.01c to 3.01e but after farting with it for 2 hours i was ready to explode last night.

All in all the camera is great. With any new hardware you have to expect the technology/software to catch up so I'm not tooo worried about that. But, it would be nice to have something actually work the first time the way they advertise.. i like to dream. :)

Here http://www.iateyourcat.com/house/

[paraflyer]

Olympus C-2100.....Online it's about $600, less than half the cost of the Sony CD-1000, uses plain old Smart Media cards up to 64MB.

2.1 megapixel, 10x optical zoom coupled with 2.7x digital zoom, optical stabilization, USB and video-out. Full control over suhutter speeds, aperture size, etc; almost as many manual settings as my old Nikon FG 35mm, plus full or patrial auto-control.

Uses 4 "AA" batteries, and not as "clunky" to hold as a CD-1000. Has a remote control for zoom and snapping pics, good for use with a tripod.

I'm just about to get mine, just waiting for the tax refund to come in this week... :rolleyes:

[paraflyer]

BTW, a good review of the Olympus is at
www.steves-digicams.com (http://www.steves-digicams.com)

[Jallentino]

MAVICA !

Simple
No Drivers needed
Lots of Floppys laying around
Great pictures !

[leecarter]

I have an Epson 850Z. Picked as had great reviews, and I wanted a hot shoe attachment for accessory flash. Feels and handles like a 35mm.

I have also used a Canon S20. Very nice and compact. No accessory hot shoe.

For best resolution, choose a camera that will take pictures uncompressed. A high resolution uncompressed photo takes 3+ Mb's! A high resolution .jpeg takes 1.5mb's, so won't fit any high resolution pics on a floppy.

Compact flash card better than smart media, has more capacity if you can stand the price. Get at least 32mb card.

USB connection a must. Serial is way to slow.

Pictures I have printed loose their color within a few months. Get Epson printer that has long life inks.

Paper quality is probably most important variable when printing.

[PastorKenn]

MAVICA !
Simple
No Drivers needed
Lots of Floppys laying around
Great pictures !

WOW! De ja vu...
Jallentino
I couldn't agree with you more...

[Ibelieve]

Mavica, we have a CDR1000 & MVC80 both are great for quality and simple to use. Sony, "It's in there"

Is it 9:00 or 10:00?

[billmez]

What is your main use for the camera?

I use the Olympus 2100 (2.1 Mpixel), and also have an Olympus D340 (1.2 Mpix). I have experience with several Sonys, and Ricoh. For my money, you can't beat the quality of the Olympus. I use it for professional web development and it is great. Have even used the pictures (you can save them as uncompressed TIFs) for print advertising with great results. The picture quality of the Olympus is superior to the Sonys even at the same resolution, and floppies are a real pain if you are going to shoot several high resolution images, plus they are slower than hell.

The D340 is a very nice, compact little camera for general purpose use. It prints a good picture combined with my Epson 850, and the cost is down to under $300. But you can really tell a difference in image sharpness between the 1.2M and 2.1M so again we're back to your intended use.

I am waiting for the prices to come down a little more and then I'll get an Olympus 3030 (3 Mpix)-- Also keep in mind that the technology is changing significantly in the course of 1-1/2 yrs so weigh that with what you intend to spend for a camera.

Good luck, I hope this helps

Bill

[NakedMessiah]

Originally posted by Randall:
I have cerebral palsy and wonder which was the best also. I just want to take pictures of my dog etc. I have seen some kewl digital cam corders same price as the digital cameras. Would it be better buying one? Sony makes some asweme cam corders. I saw one for $800 at Bestbuy I liked. Then again with the DVD movies gaining on vhs tapes how long will a VCR be around?

I gave up on 35mm cause I shake so like half the roll is black-LOL

Hey nothing I can do but laugh cause why be down?
I don't have cerebral palsy, but still can't stay still to take a good picture. I use the tripod as much as I can. I own the Nikon Coolpix 880 ($700) digital camera. it is amazing! you can check my doggie web page for the pictures at hometown.aol.com/mdurman1/dogs.html

[emmason]

I have an Olympus 960 3xzoom +2x digital zoom 1.3 mpix gives superb results can print 16 inch x 11 inch pics no sign of blocking,

[http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi]

If you're gonna spend $1000 on a camera, buy a nice 35mm SLR film camera and accessories. I've spent a good deal less than $1000 on my camera setup, and I have a half dozen lenses (12mm through 440mm), a bunch of filters, three tripods of different sizes, a flashgun bright enough to blind people, spot lamps, a huge bag to carry it all, and a bunch of misc stuff like remote shutter bulbs.

Film is much more versatile than digital, especially for the price. To get a digital camera that has the image quality, zoom range, filters, and adjustable exposure/appature that my film camera does, you'd have to spend $10,000 easy.

Sure, you have to spend money on film and developing, but considering that photo paper is about $1 a sheet, and inkjet photo prints are not archival, I'd rather spend the little bit more for film and developing for pictures that I want to keep.

There is not a digital camera yet that can match a roll of Kodachrome and a good SLR.

(On the other hand, I DO have a cheep digital camera that I use strictly for pics that are going on my web site. For that I bought a $200 cheep-*** HP camera and use it on the lowest resolution so I can fit a zillion photos on a cheep CF card.)