Digital Camera advice
 

Hey travellers-I'm finally upgrading and buying a digital camera to use in our travels. Any recommendations? Any features that are must haves, wastes of money. I tend to take pictures more of people than of landscapes. I plan on buying a little printer to go with it. Any recommendations on that. Thanks.

I love my Minolta Dimage Xt. It works great for everything from vacation photos to tree pix for my landscaping class, to closeups of crafts for eBay auctions.

The best thing is it's tiny, so it's VERY portable (fits in any pocket) and inconspicuous so your subjects don't get self-conscious even though they KNOW there's a camera there. An because it's so small and easy to use, you can keep it in your pocket and pop it out and take photos spontaneously and quickly. The features and layout are very user-friendly.

Essentials include an extra battery and memory card so you can take LOTS of photos without worrying about using up your power or storage!

We bought a Canon S50 and took it on our 2 week trip and were thrilled with it. We have a one year old Epson photoprinter that works well too.

Canon have just brought out a new EOS 300D or I think it might be called a EOS Rebel in the US. In any case it is causing a revolution in the digital camera market. It retails at about $1000, but has all of the features of a SLR camera and you can use any Canon lenses with it. Not sure if you want a camera as advanced at this, but it's a brilliant camera. You can also get a printer that hooks up straight to the camera so that you can by-pass a computer.

Good luck!

Rachel-
I also have a Minolta Dimage XT and love it for the same reasons as Anonymous. It's so tiny and takes good pictures. But yes, extra battery and larger memory chips are essential. There are tradeoffs to buying such a small camera though- zoom function more limited than other cameras, battery life may not be as long, etc. But size and portability was most important to us so that's why we picked this one. I also considered the Canon Elph...

When I was shopping for a camera, I found www.epinions.com to be VERY helpful. It gives user reviews per camera. Also, the site will list various websites that will sell the camera and at what price. They even have user ratings for those websites so you can read customer's opinions of them, whether they had trouble, etc. I ended up getting my camera for $100 less than Best Buy through butterflyphoto. I bought my battery and memory chip from them and they waived my shipping charge!

Jane

I love my Cannon PowerShot G3. It's very user friendly. I think you are going to get as many different recommendations on cameras as there are posters!

I don't know if I would go to the expense of getting a printer. I take my memory card or a burned CD of my pictures into Costco and put it in their machine and select which prints I want, how many prints, what size and the information is electronicly sent to their 1 hour photo lab and printed out. It only costs me $.19 for a 4 x 6 picture. I think there are other places like Wal-Mart or Kinko's that are doing this now too.

Look into how much good photo paper and the special ink will run you before you get that printer!

Here are some pictures taken with my digital camera.

http://www.utahtea.lithium.com/vacation2003/float.htm

Utahtea

I just upgraded this spring to a Canon Powershot S400, which has in its favor a compact steel body, good optical zoom and digital zoom (as necessary), 4.0 megapixel image size, and point-and-shoot ease of use. Buy extra battery packs and a couple of high-capacity memory cards (Compact Flash format), and you're pretty much set.

I also just bought a new HP PhotoSmart 7960 printer. It'll print 8.5x11 as well as 4x6 photos, and the print quality is basically indistinguishable from chemical photo processing. Laser-quality text as well. If you're looking for a full-capability printer, this is the one!

It's really hard to answer this type of question without more information such as--

-your budget (under $300?, over $800?)
-how you like to use a camera (strictly point and shoot, or do you like to have some control)
-what size prints do you expect to make (4x6, or 11x17?)
-how small a camera do you want (fits in a shirt pocket, a purse, or a camera bag?)

A great website with reviews and forums is dpreview.com.

I think generally people look for 3-4 megapixels, and 3x optical zoom (optical zoom is what you think of as zoom-- digital zoom is no different from making the picture bigger on your computer). Some people like cameras with AA batteries, because they are widely available (if you need some on vacation), others prefer cameras that use smaller, lighter photo (lithium?) batteries.

IMO canon has a great line of cameras-- the A70 has a lot of features (including a pretty good movie mode for very short clips) for under $300, but you can get smaller or larger cameras depending on your needs.

Canon also has a great line of printers, such as the i950 (or i850).

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

- More Megapixels only help if you want enlargements. 3 Megapixels is more than you need for excellent 4x6 prints and will even give you decent 8x10 prints.

- Forget digital zoom; optical zoom is really what you want.

- You can get a printer, but if you want to print your images at a photo lab (most have little "entry kiosks" now, e.g. Costco), remember that they use a 4x6 aspect ratio and most digital cameras (except digital SLR's) shoot in a more square ratio (3x4). So you will loose stuff at the top and/or bottom of your frame if you try to print 4x6 prints, or you'll get white bars on the sides. When you compose your shots, you can try not to put people's heads at the very top of your frame or important stuff at the very top/bottom of your pictures - that will help.

- If you buy the new camera before vacation, be sure and try it out before you leave! Take some pictures and get them printed first, so you know what you are doing before vacation.

Thanks everyone. I knew I could count on my Fodorite friends for help. I plan on spending b/t 500-700 on the camera and mini printer combined. I will go to the web sites suggested tonight in between trick or treaters. I was most impressed with those little printers at a recent family gathering. My cousin was able to take everyone's little card from their digital cameras and print up everyone's pictures on the spot (they were given to the couple being honored at their 50th wedding anniversary).

Check yesterday's NY Times (www.nytimes.com) for a great article in the "Circuits" section about buying digital cameras. The big thing I took away from the article is that paying for more than 3 megapixels is a waste of money unless you're a professional or like to make poster-sized prints of your kids' halloween outfits.

Also, I use Shutterfly instead of a printer, but that's just me.

One more small point-- I would definitely recommend visiting a B&M store to hold different cameras in your hand. You may find the really small cameras to be too small to hold comfortably, or you may find that a camera other people described as very compact is too large or heavy to fit comfortably in your pocket (or wherever you plan to carry it).

I love my Canon S400 Elph. It isn't much bigger than the size of a cigarette pack. I also purchased the Canon i950 printer, which does a marvelous job! It's not portable so it isn't something to take with you when you travel. But, the photos are such great quality, I can't say enough about the i950 and s400 camera.

I bought a Canon S30 about a year and a half ago - enough time that there's now an S40, S45 and S50 out there now. If the new ones are built the same, I'd highly recommend them. They are compact and lightweight, yet very sturdy (not much plastic, breakable knobs, etc.). I can't emphasize enough how important it was to me to have something small enough that I'd actually use it on trips. It can have all the features in the world, but if it's a pain to use or tough to get in and out of a case or purse, you probably won't use it much in your travels.

When you finally decide to buy, check out B&H Photo online. Their phone reps are not the friendliest - think of the Soup Nazi selling cameras - but if you know what you want the prices are good and there's no tax. I have used them several times and haven't been burned yet.

I have to concur with the dimage.. but if budget is your thing - you might go with the fuji finepix 5000. It's around $399 and takes great photos, and is pretty easy to use. I use that and also a dimage..

More practical advice for traveling with digital camera. Buy an extra battery so you can always have one charged. If you travel outside your country (let's assume it is US or Canada), you will need transformer/adapter gadget so you can recharge it. You will need to buy extra memory storage when you travel (this has gotten a lot cheaper in past 2 years) or find some other way to store pictures while you travel.

We have a tiny digital camera - I find it a little small to hold, but that is just beccause I am used to a bigger, heavier camera. But it is nice that it can fit into even a tiny purse or small pocket.

Ive had my poloroid digital over 3 years ,took it out west twice and to D.C.also. the pictures are great considering I paid less than $100 on e-bay (new).I use a scaner to dounload to my laptop in only seconds .an extra card is only $20 It uses AA batterys

I have to agree with TomT. We too have a Canon S30. We got ours about a year ago. It is soooo user friendly. My sister has an olympia and she rarely uses it, relying on the old disposible back up. I thought it was just her comfort level, but after reading the instructions (told her I was sure I could help her with it) realized that it was not as user friendly as our camera.
Good Luck!

A"little" printer may not be the best investment. When buying a printer get a brand that has near archival inks. I think Epson is the only one that does at this time. I have had HP (years ago) and the prints were wonderful but the ink faded to a bright green over time. My Epson C80 was around $150 and is excellent--there are even more available now.

A few years ago I splurged on a Canon PowerShot G1. At that time there was a question of the availability of batteries and their longevity of other brands. My Canon came equiped with a battery charger which also serves as an AC adapter when downloading pictures. The Canon also came with the wiring to hook up to a tv so we could use it like a slide projector. Our son came for a visit but forgot the cord to download the pictures to our computer. Then he realized he could put the compact flash card in my camera and we could show his photos on the tv. Great fun for the relatives. The G1 also came with Photoshop LE and some album software which is great for saving the pictures and editing. I still use the original batteries.
Evaluate these extras. They all came with my camera. There are functions I haven't tried. The LCD display is movable which helps if there is a glare problem with sun. I can also look thru the lens which saves battery life if you don't have the LCD display on. OTH I have rotated the display so I could view my shot as I help my camera over my head. Digitial cameras should be fun to use.

I have an Olympus D-510, and it is a great camera. It takes great photos and I can take over 200 photos on one memory card. However, I want to buy a new camera for 2 reasons: I want something a little smaller and I am hoping to find a camera without such a delay in shutter speed. Do all digital cameras have that delay? It seems like forever between the time I push the button and the time it takes the picture! Anyone know about this?

Parrot Pop is on his third digital camera and it's an Olympus..one of the reasons is that this particular model has a great zoom lens. He takes a battery charger and batteries with him and he is able to take almost 500 pictures and does have an extra memory card. He has the expensive batteries...whose name I can't remember this early in the a.m. He was able to buy it over the internet.

All digitals have the lag time unfortunately. One way to diminish it is to use the viewfinder (rather than the display) and have fully charged batteries. Compose the picture, depress the shutter partially to focus and ready the camera, then shoot.

Actually, Gretchen, not all the digitals have the shutter lag, though the cheaper ones are probably more prone to it. The new $999 Digital Rebel kit (with lens) from Canon is a Digital SLR and I think you will find it has no appreciable shutter lag (or no more so than a 35mm camera). Though the price may seem high, keep in mind that this is a huge price drop for technology that just a year ago cost almost 3X more. This is the first moderately-priced digital camera that pretty much makes 35mm obsolete for consumers. You can make nice enlargements from it, acceptable probably up to 16"x24" if you need to. That $999 will be coming down too.

I'm not sure I agree that you need to spend the money on archival inks for a printer. I don't even have a color printer - get my photos done on professional machines. Many one-hour photo labs have those kiosks now where you can insert your media and choose which images to print - and at what sizes. If you truly need archival quality (how often?) you can always go to the photo lab. Then again, it's easy to make new prints of a digital image any time in the future if you want to.

Andrew

I agree, loangalsal, the delay is annoying. It's not really a fix, but for action shots I switch to Continuous mode on our Canon Powershot Digital Elph, which we love by the way. It is not extremely rapid-fire, but I have been able to get some very good action pictures. (This will have to do for me until I get a spare $1000 to get that camera Andrew is talking about!) I'll even use Continuous mode at times when there is no action just so I don't have to wait as long in between shots. So, while the delay is a negative, being able to rip off 8 shots in succession and not have to pay for film and prints is a big plus.

You are all amazing. thanks for so much great advice. I guess it's time to start shopping.

Rachel, when Wife and Daughter bought me digital camera for Father's Day they asked ahead of time so they/we could do a bit of research. Somewhere (sorry) on the internet I found a site where lots and lots of digital cameras were rated. I really appreciated the pros/cons for each model I checked out. Author also suggested the bundle that comes with particular model be considered as that certainly increase/decreases value received. Bundle includes the battery (type important). Good point on the pixel level as 3 megs is more than adequate particularly if enlargements are not high on our needs. As I am interested in wildlife when we travel I opted for 10x zoom feature. We settled on the Olympus c-740 unit. I believe the C-750 had a couple of extra features that might have been nice but the store was out of that model at the time. Previous commentors have made good point as to getting out and practice before the special trip or event. The garter snake in our wood pile provided great opportunity and even with basic printer paper I got a good feel as to the new camera. As I was checking out the detail on the snake I then noticed the end of the log used by the snake and how clear and sharp the growth rings were in the wood. Enjoy the new camera! Dick

Dick, the site you are thinking of may have been dpreview.com . Great site, lots of digital camera info, check it out.

Andrew

Andy, by "archival" I am really talking about a picture that won't be unuseable in one year. If you give pictures to family and friends you would like them to last a little while. Perhaps those made at the kiosks are good enough in their inks. I don't pay those prices however, love to do my own cropping (I've had a darkroom in the past) and print in various sizes for the application I am doing. And yes, I am certainly aware that for $1000 (reduced price from a year ago) that you can reduce lag. I was just trying to be realistic and helpful in reducing it on current mid-level cameras. I am on my second--have had my 3MP for probably 4 years so I know about paying for "advanced" at that time technology.

The Sony Mavica records its digital images directly to a small CD. With my three year old camera, I get approximately 135 pictures on each CD at highest resolution including a thirty second sound bite with each shot. It comes with a transformer and if you buy an additional battery and a couple of packs of CD's you're good for the duration of your trip. The camera is a bit larger than ones that use a memory stick, but well worth it IMHO. Another neat feature is it's movie option with sound. I use this feature to pan a cathedral or follow a stream down through the rapids, etc and then shoot detailed still shots. My three year old Mavica only has 2.1 mega pixels which doesn't give good resolution much beyond my computer screen on the movie clips, but it prints out a respectable 8x10 still shot. The new and improved model has 4.0 mega pixels to the best of my knowledge.

Andrew, Thanks. Sounds like the site. I really enjoyed it as it was not like the salesman trying to sell me a particular brand/model.
Dick

REgarding the image quality of digital pics....

There are setting on digital cameras that define the quality of image you will get.. The best quality image will take up more space on your memory media.

If you don't want to use high capacity memory cards....you can adjust your camera to use its best quality settings only when you see a real "photo op".

Unless you have a camera that uses SmartMedia or Sony MemoryStick (in which the size of the card is limited to 128MB), consider getting a larger media card. 256MB for example are getting pretty cheap and can be had for $50 or less. Much better to use the highest quality you can and not worry about switching - it is easy to forget to switch back and forth.

Andrew

For a 10 day vacation, I travelled with two 128 mb cards and a 512 card.

This allowed me the luxury of taking photos at a higher setting producing clearer enlargements.

I don't know where you are located, but if you can, get a copy of today's New York Times (Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003). There is a computer section which has a comprehensive review that seeks to answer the question, "how much digital camera can I get for $300?". The answer: a lot.

Here is al ink to the NY Times article.

You may have to sign up to view.,..but it is free.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/20/te...ts/20stat.html

I went to a CompUSA to look for another printer and was told by the salesperson that the HP printer (forgot the model #) was set up to receive the camera card and print directly from the card.

BUT he also said that I could download from the camera card to a disc on my computer via the printer. Is this possible?

Sorry, I'm beginning to feel really technically challenged! :)

easytraveler

I'd not buy anything with less than 2meg resolution, my Olympus D510Z (bought on eBay) at default settings, can produce a nice 8x10 which is enough for me (I use Shutterfly.com for prints). At default settings I get approx 256 shots per 128meg stick. A great site for reviews etc is Steve's Digicams:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/default.htm

You may find this link helpfull Rachel: www.imaging-resource.com/WB/WB.HTM. It helped me decide what's important for me. I've had an Canon S30 and was pleased with it until I lost it ($*#*!) and now have a Canon S400, which is smaller and similar quality. Utahtea's G3 is better but bigger and dearer. Depends very much on what you need, which takes me back to the link. Take a look!