loangalsal

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?

ParrotMom

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.

Gretchen

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.

Andrew

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

April

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.

Rachel

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

rsnyder

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

Andrew

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

Andrew

Gretchen

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.

Retired_teacher

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.

rsnyder

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

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".

Andrew

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

Dick

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.

niskyboss

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.

Dick

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

easytraveler

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

pspercy

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

Smalley

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!