I'm goint to buy one,can any one tell me what to look for or a web site that can point me in the direction.
thanks Russ&Irene

I got a Sony. I like it, no need for patch cords, it uses the 3 1/2 flop.
The pictures i post of my cars and the car shows are taken with the camera.


Rick
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awsum34

Remember the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

I too need a digital camera. What model is yours and Iwas told by a guy ' who knows everything about everything ' that you need 2point something pixels ? Could see elaberate ? Thanks
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Steeldeuce

Randy
I bought a Olmpus I realy like it.I set it up with a site to work off of.
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A GOODGUYS REP

I too have an Olympus. Nice piece of equiptment,
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If it`s too loud...yer too freakin old

I've got a Sony Mavica FD51, and I've never been happy with the flash pix. Seems like it needs an awful lot of light. But, the floppy disk is nice.
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One man's treasure is another man's trash.

One of the important features is the megapixels. Make sure you go at least 2 and more if you are planning on enlarging your photos. Another important feature is the lens. Make sure you have an optical zoom, not just a digital zoom. Look for a camera with a Carl Zeiss lens. From want I've read, he invented lens for telescopes and microscopes. One other feature you have to decide on is whether you want a camera that uses a floppy or a memory stick/card. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Sony makes a model with all these features. Can't remember the model number but if you go to www.bestbuy.com you should be able to find it. It's got 3 megapixels, memory stick/card but it ain't cheap. Price has dropped $100 in the past 6 months or so but it's still $600 the last time I checked. I thought maybe Santa would bring it but I guess I wasn't a good enough girl this year! LOL Good luck and let us know what you decided and why. I's love to compare the different models before I actually make my purchase. (hopefully May, before PT)
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Your "top-less" cruzn buddy, Denise

I have a sony MVC FD87 that i really like. It used the 3-1/2 floppy and i can use different floppies to record pics of different projects, events, etc. Get about 30 pics @ low res on each disk. Pics are great e-mail or web posting quility. Records on standard j-peg format so if im away from home i can view pics on any friends puter. No tto mention i can buy extra media anywhere. Only 1.3 megapixels but all i need.
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KEEP THE GREAZY SIDE DOWN! Lobucrod

I've got an Olympus too...C-3000Z and I'm real happy with it.

After you narrow down your search here's a few sites that review cameras that might help you make a decision:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/default.htm
http://www.imaging-resource.com/
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraList.php3
And here's some sites that show what the prices run:
http://zdnetshopper.cnet.com/shopping/0-11264-1450-0.html?tag=pdrop
http://shopper.cnet.com/shopping/0-8407-310-0-25.html?tag=st.sh.8407.pop.top10-8407
http://www.dealtime.com/dealtime2000/Pages/SubCategory3WaysDJ/1,3611,23909-7185-1,00.html

I bought mine on line and paid $450 for an $850 camera. Its cheaper now, that was a year ago. Buying on line can be a pain in the butt tho. Some of the shops will try to sell a lot of accessories too and extended warrantys. I just wanted the camera and after trying a couple of places I got what I wanted.

With most any of them you will have to buy a battery charger and some rechargeable NiMH batteries. Here's a site with some good chargers: http://www.thomasdistributing.com/nimh_battery_chargers.htm . I bought the 204F combo and 3 extra set of batteries because I use the same batteries in my two way radios too.

As far as other accessories goes, you should have a couple of extra memory cards. The higher the capacity the better. They're dirt cheap at BestBuy and Circuit City when they're on sale. I got an AC converter and never have used it. I download pics right from the camera with a USB cable right onto my computer. It downloads fast. Some people like those card readers but I've never felt like I needed one.

Good luck.

Wow, purplepickup has some good links here. My favorite site for reviews is http://www.dpreview.com

Jason

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Jason Long
Streetrod Stuff Webmaster

http://www.shopsimon.com/shopsimon/servlet/SMTMall?URL=http://www.ritzcamera.com&mid=0&mname=National+Content&pn=VWAFFL&frame=frame
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MrWillys aka HRB

Paint don't make 'em any faster!

Just got a Olympus D40 from dbuys.com at $539.00 It's got the memory stick,etc. I did an on line comparison once I found the unit I wanted.

Thanks for all the help,
now I must try and take everything in
and then flip a coin?
Russ&Irene

I'm looking at a HP photosmart 612 with an auto focus 2x optical zoom lense, a sandisk 64mb Compactflash, and an instruction manual, that I got for Christmas. In true streetrodder fashion, I've attempted to figure it out without reading the directions. Not good. Time to start reading. I'm afraid to ask Kristy how much this thing cost.
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Lance B.

That's one of the disadvantages of the floppy compared to the memory stick/card. floppy=30 or so photos vs 128MB card/stick= HUNDREDS of photos. Perfect for a long vacation when you don't want to have to worry about carrying all those floppy's, storaging and labeling them. The floppys are less expensive and it is easy to take a few photos for someone and hand them the floppy.
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Your "top-less" cruzn buddy, Denise

It's funny you asked, the 6 o'clock news had a bit on this last night. Check out consumer reports, they're the ones who did the study.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/domain?d=premium/consumerreports&cf=silver&id=41233419
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MrWillys aka HRB

Paint don't make 'em any faster!

Casio - QV-3000EX , 3.3 Mega Pixels , 3X Optical Zoom , 6X Digital Zoom. I ain't no LipStickLiz (professional) , but this pig is EASY to use and takes a great pic. Did this on a whim :
http://www.bluemoongear.com/RichardLikedThis%2057ChevyPage.htm
The guy emailed me and asked for copies saying they were better than what he'd paid someone to take.
See more here (the rest of mine & others):

http://www.bluemoongear.com/TakinItToTheStreets2001.htm

On a 64 card , econo setting - 373 pics

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BATTERED WOMEN ? No Thanks , I like mine plain.

I have the Sony and I really like the 3 1/2 floppy's you get them cheap and can transfer the photos easy or deleat them at your leisure.

Dr. Pepper

I suggest Olympus mainly because I used to do semi-pro photography & I know the reputation. If not I suggest any brand made by a CAMERA manufacturer, not an electronics firm.
Also make sure the lens is glass, not plastic. Plastic warps in heat & scratches easily.
Also, with the drop in prices lately I would get one with at least 2.2 to 3.3 megapixel resolution. Why, you ask?
Picture quality my friend.
They all look good on the web, BUT, if you blow them up & print them, the best quality with a 1.1 megapixel camera is a 5x7 print, with a 2.2 megapixel camera you can get a quality 8x10 print , but with 3.3 megapixel camera you can go all the way up to 11x14.

I too like the floppy as a media. With a floppy, you're good to go with any pc, with other medias you're tied to your pc with cables and software. We have three diff. Sony's at work and a Panasonic. They all use the common floppy media. The Sony's really seem to be light spooky, a lot of washed out photos. I like the Panasonic PV-SD4090 so much that I bought one for home use. It also comes with a Superdisk that will hold 1500 normal pic's, along with being able to use 50 cent floppies. Has a pretty good battery, with extras available from Batteries Plus at $54. No viewfinder, just the color LCD panel, not a problem for me. Max of 1.3 megapixels won't suit those who are looking for everyday 35mm quality, but takes great pic's and they are no brainers. Also freezes the shot while it's recording, unlike the Sony's, so you can see if you have the image you want immediately. Available at pcrush.com, refurbished, for $296 after a $100 rebate.

I'm not a Panasonic salesman or a digital camera expert, just a guy who likes stuff that works.

Daffy

Ok I've got this Olympus D40 with a 16mb memory card and 4.0 megapixl resolution---Just how many photos can I get out of this card??? If I change the setting to economy mode will I save that many exposures??
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American by birth....Southern by the grace of god

If you change the settings to different resolutions it will tell you in the window on top, how many pictures, at that resolution, it will take. At the highest setting, uncompressed, I'd guess you won't get more than 3 or 4. Around Christmas I saw 64mb smart media cards at Circuit City for around $10. I got 2 extras.

In case you didn't see it, there's a 4 page review of that camera here: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2001_reviews/d40.html . They explain a lot of the settings on pages 3 & 4. It looks like a real good camera.

I take quite high resolution pictures and keep them in that resolution on a CD-R. That way if you want to crop just a part of the picture out to keep later, its still nice and clear. I use Paintshop Pro to edit and resize my pictures because I can bring up all my pictures as thumbnails so I can see which ones I want to open and edit or crop. Personally, I've found it the easiest photo editing program for me to use. I only use the Camedia program to download pictures from the camera. I don't care for it for editing pics.

I find myself taking a lot of pictures of something and when I get home I'll sort thru to find the best ones and trash the others. I took over 550 pictures when I went out west and if I'd have had more cards I'd have taken more. The trouble is, I hardly ever delete many. I've found its important to keep them organized if I ever want to find a certain picture again. I always make a backup copy of most everything. My CD burner screwed up this summer and I lost all the pictures I had taken up thru August...Indy, Louisville, dad's last Christmas with us...close to 500 pictures of cool stuff is gone.

Have fun!!

This isn't going to be easy
Russ(Irene said JUST PICK ONE)