I Want to Buy a Digital Camera

Actually , I didn’t get mine with the complimentary blonde.
I will call the customer service RIGHT NOOOOWWW!!! 😀

Your talking about the camera right? 😀

Cheers,
Alepou 340MB

Yep ,that’s the kind of stuff that I bought in the US (a previous model): very good quality/price ratio.

And here a picture I took in a local night spot.

Please note this picture has been reduced so to fit into the forum.

Cheers,
Alepou 340MB

** The blonde is not included with the camera.

back

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Well I just recently bought a Canon ELPH / IXUS 400 and I’m very happy with it!

Compact 4.0 Megapixel digital camera with retractable 3x optical zoom

Canon 3x optical zoom lens with a fast f/2.8-4.9 aperture and 3.6x digital zoom

Continuous movie recording, playback with audio and on-camera editing for up to 3 min

The picture resolution ranges from 2272 x 1704 pixels down to 640 x 480 pixels. In movie mode it can be 320 x 240 pixels or 160 x 120 pixels.

Check the link for full specs
http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/digital_compact_cameras/powershotdigitalixus400.html

Cheers,
Alepou 340MB

“Garry- why dont you tell what brand/model your camera is since you often make mention of it.”

I didn’t mention it here because in the first post he clearly stated he was looking at 3 megapixel. My camera is called EyeQ Duo LCD and is made by a company I haven’t heard of called Concord. I am just a beginner with taking photos so the camera is not the limiting factor… my skill and knowledge is.

When I mentioned USB I guess I should have included USB 2. The time it takes to transfer the images I doubt if I would bother to upgrade to USB 2 but for a 128MB card or larger then I might think that was important. (Note USB 2 is not a bad thing, and if the difference is a few dollars I would probably go for USB as I don’t have a USB 2 card in my machine. The next machine I buy I might get a USB 2 card… but that will be in the future).

“If you were to buy a 3 megapixal nowadays, is it just aim and shoot or do you have a bunch of buzzers and bells you have to operate?”

It depends. Some people like point and shoot and I think most digi cams will have auto white balance and auto focus and other auto features to allow you to just point and shoot. For good photographs you might want manual options as well… and the more expensive cameras are more likely to have such features than cheap ones… ie if you want to focus on a particular feature with an auto focus camera you pretty much have to place that feature in the centre of the shot… which might not be where you want it. Equally shooting through windows can be frustrating if the camera is focusing on the window instead of the scene outside. (fortunately my camera cannot focus on things closer than about 1.2m so it can’t focus on the window of the car… here is a pic I took through a window from a moving car… note this is full size.. 1280 x 960 x 24. There are three qualities of picture the camera can take… fine, normal, and Economy. This pic was taken before I got my memory card and was taken on economy. The only difference I can see between pictures taken with different quality settings is file size.)

Garry- why dont you tell what brand/model your camera is since you often make mention of it.
Why dont digital cameras use USB2 as thats faster than firewire and available on todays computer. If you were to buy a 3 megapixal nowadays, is it just aim and shoot or do you have a bunch of buzzers and bells you have to operate?

Nikon Coolpix 5700

Moggy

The majority of my pictures on this site (those taken after May 02) were taken with a Minolta D7 – quality is great and I can get A3 & A4 prints from these images.

It has a 28-200 zoom which covers 90% or more of the aircraft I take picture of and is imho a great camera. It is not quite int he same league as a DSLR but then it does not cost anywhere near as much.

A docking station is like a cradle that the camera sits in to transfer images. They are designed for the camera so you only get one, though most connect into the USB ports, though some might be more exotic like SCSI or Firewire.
If you have a USB printer or scanner then you will have USB cables already.
A friend of mine has a really cheap camera and his camera doesn’t sit quite right in the cradle so he sometimes has problems. I have installed my software on his computer and when I go around I use his USB cable from his scanner to transfer pictures or movies to his machine.
Would be useful to buy and extra cable and use one with a laptop… if you used one at airshows.

BTW I have found the delay and lack of zoom on my camera means it is OK for general photos but shots of aircraft in the air are a waste of time. The time delay between when the LCD blanks out for the shot and the time the shot is actually taken means it is rather hard to get good crisp properly framed focussed shots of moving objects.
If you want a decent optical zoom then you will want one that will accept standard (film camera) zoom lenses. Optical zoom means glass optics are used to enlarge the image and make it appear closer. Digital zoom means it trys to make the image appear bigger without any extra information. It does this by increasing the number of pixels in the image and then guessing the colour of each new pixels. This creates information inferred for existing information and reduces sharpness. As long as it is below X 5 or X 6 it can be effective, but don’t confuse it with real optical zoom for quality. With my camera with a X2 zoom the quality difference is not noticible for screen viewing, which is largely what I use it for.
If you want to print the images the sky is the limit, the higher the pixel count the better. For posting to the internet then large images are not that useful and colour depth is more important. A large file is just slower to download and work with.

(For example to post this panorama, that contains about 8 images stitched together, I had to reduce the physical size from its original 848 x7130 pixels to 357 x 3000 pixels to meet the 100K limit. BTW this is Te Anau, in the South Island.

My digital camera is an Olympus Camedia C-740UZ. Retails for around $700 US, but is well worth the price. It has a convenient USB connection, is sturdy, and has a 10x Optical Zoom lens, which is outstanding. If you want more details let me know. I posted a lot of pictures from it on the AFM board under the various WPAFB Museum Trip threads about a month ago. Oh yeah, 3 megapixel.

Never use the digital zoom. With the digital zoom the camera just enlarges the picture. It’s like when you use the computer to cut a small bit from your photo and size it up.

The disadvantages are well known by anyone who has ever enlarged a picture with the computer. You loose sharpness. I never use the digital zoom (even though my camera can) because the computer can do the same A LOT better.

Optical zoom is the normal zoom. The same kind of zoom you will find on compact camera’s and SLR’s.

For determining the kind of camera there are a few mayor questions to be asked:

1. What price are you willing to spend;
2. What do you want to make photos off. Just saying planes will not cut it. Do you want to make ramp shots (small zoom) or shots of planes that are in final approach (longer zoom, faster shooting);
3. What do you want to do with the photo’s. If you just shoot them dfor yourself 3 megapixel should be sufficient (never go for less though!). If you want to publish them on a.net 5 mp will be a nice starting point.
4. Do you also want to use it indoors (family shots, museums)? In that case a flash would be nice.
5. How many photo’s will you shoot per day. This is important because of the memory available. For some bnrands the memory sticks are rather expensive for others they are cheaper. Also mind the battery live. Batteries can be quite expensive as well.

What’s the difference between optical and digital zoom?

I wanna buy a digicam that’s capable of photographing flying aircraft or atleast low flying ones with good resolution. What kind of kit would I need?

Kodak DX6340 might be worth a look, 3.1 mp, 4x optical zoom (also can be fitted with a dedicated 2x teleconvertor making the lense equivalent to a 280mm zoom) can also be used in Kodaks range of optional docking stations (priced at about £50), 1.8″ LCD monitor, about £250. Bargain.

Regards, Dazza.

Thank you for your contributions – appreciated as I really value what people think of these devices by using them in the real world.

The tip about the docking station vs USB port is exactly what I mean.

Keep ’em coming!

Mine has all that. It works fantastically, it has a 3x optical zoom and digital one, it´s one of the smallest in market, 3 MG and doesn´t cost much. I do recommed it. It´s a Nikon Coolpix 3100. Shots are just great. Check it at this consumer page.
www.dpreview.com

I’ve got an Olympus C300-Z.
3 megapixel, 2.8x optical zoom plus waste-of-time digital zoom, comes with 16 Mb card but I bought a 128 Mb for about 18 quid.
USB rather than docking staion but I also think USB’s better.
Perfectly happy with it ’til I dropped it at Duxford a week ago.
Unfortunately, expensively damaged but not enough to claim on the insurance.

If I was buying one now, I’d go for the Olympus mju 300. Metal case, smaller and lighter and a work of art. List price is £350 ish but a mate’s just found one for around £265 on the net somewhere.
http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/digimg/intro.cfm?id=µ[MJU:]+300+DIGITAL

Agreed with the above.
I’m using a tiny Canon 2.1 Megapix. Just perfect , light and handy.