digital cameras: a Question

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digital cameras: a Question

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Humm got all my equipment ready to go but want to record this stuff to the net. What digital camera is best?
What resolution? Any precautions? Does the color always suck? Can I get it at Walmart?

Thanx in Advance,
Larry Leins
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Richard Hull
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Re: digital cameras: a Question

Post by Richard Hull »

Digital cameras can be had from $100.00 to $3,000.00

You should make sure that the camera you choose can focus manually and not only automatically.

Resolution beyond 640X480 is just not necessary. Color is always going to be mis-represented. (shifted)

I use the Sony Mavica line (have two of 'em) These record directly to a standard 3.5" floppy disk within the camera. The disk can be popped out and into your CPU immediately. All images are in standard JPG format and can be viewed and massaged with familiar software that handles JPEGs. These cameras are fading fast with flash cards and mini CD rom disks taking over quickly.

Rest assured.........ANYTHING YOU PURCHASE TODAY WILL BE YESTERDAY'S OUTMODED RUBISH TOMORROW!

If you are serious about digital photography be ready to pony up $600.00. If just wanting to test the waters but desiring something quite servicable, be ready with $400.00.
For a lark, there are always rice rocket specials at walmart in the $100.00-200.00 range. Rest assured, you'll get just what you pay for. Most of the cheapies are aimed at the dorky, mom and pop crowd, forced auto focus, no macro, 6 trillion to one digital zoom, 14 billion images on a flash card,etc., with a 200X100 LCD with 2000X1000 image sizes for $99.95.

Digital photography is in its infancy and there are already lots of pioneers with arrows in their backs drapped over burning covered wagons.

Good luck.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Re: digital cameras: a Question

Post by guest »

Boy you weren't kidding about these darn cameras.
Not only are the pioneers shumped up with arrows
and burning wagons but stark naked too.
There is hardly any rice rocket special that is good for indepth pictures. Looks like 400 dollars is the only workable range to be.
I've tried out all the cheap Walmart/best buy stuff ...
Glad I kept the reciepts for returns.

Pictureless
Larry Leins
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Richard Hester
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Re: digital cameras: a Question

Post by Richard Hester »

I use a Sony Mavica FD-73. It has 10X optical optical zoom and digital zoom as well. The picture size is only 640 X 480, but this is good enough for web postings, Ebay sales, etc. What I treasure about this camera is the brainless ease of getting good closeup shots, as well as the convenience of saving the pictures on a floppy. The FD-75 is still sold, and it has the same 10X zoom and floppy drive. Sony also makes a scope hood for the Mavica series, which makes it a cinch to capture analog scope screen shots for posterity. I used the hood to advantage for capturing the ripple waveform for my "Real Simple Power Supply" report in the files section. If you want., I can temporarily post some pics taken by the Sony. All you need after the camera is a good editing program like Paint Shop Pro for adjustng sampling size, color, contrast, etc. For the price, Paint shop Pro handles a wider range of image file types than any other program I know of. It also has a screen capture routine, which comes in very handy. The pulsed fusor schematics in the file section were screen captures from Orcad converted into gif files by Paint Shop Pro.
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Re: digital cameras: a Question

Post by Richard Hester »

A small parting note from me on this thread, seconding what
Richard Hull said earlier. Just like computers and any other rapidly evolving electronic trash, any digital camera you buy will be obsolete almost as soon as you pull it out of the box. If you're not an absolute trend pig, this should not bother you. What counts is that the item in question has the features you need to get the job done, so don't get upset when your neighbor waves his new 8 jilion megapixel Warthog 5000 camera in your face... After all, don't we all just dote on "obsolete" technology?
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