Anybody out there "NOT" using a digital camera.....???

[disneygirl1977k]

Hi Guys,
I have a Nikon N55 SLR camera that I have used on my WDW trips in the past and the pics are wonderful....however, I have fallen in love with the Kodak DX6490 or DX7590.....but I don't know if I want to invest $350 right now before my trip, and reading all of the threads about digital cameras makes me really want one, but I just wonder if anyone out there still uses regular cameras???? Can maybe talk me out of spending money for a digital camera and get me excited about just using a regular 35 mm camera? sounds crazy I know...I just don't know what to do? Buy or not to buy...I could afford it, however, just don't know if I should just wait for christmas and use it next year at WDW......Is having a digital camera something I should definately invest in before the trip and forget my Nikon SLR 35mm camera? TIA
Kristy

 

[MouseEars4us]

Hi Kristy,

I work at a camera store (in the Scrapbook Dept.) and the camera guys are always trying to convince me to go digital. But, I just love my SLR Film camera.
The Nikon is a great camera. The N55 is simple enough to use with out alot of reading or camera classes and you can add all kinds of filters and lenses and experiment a little. I have a Cannon Rebel and I love the quality, but my Manager is a total Nikon fan. He says the quality of the glass in the lens and the focusing features are superior to Cannon. He owns about 6 Nikon cameras. (It's all he owns.)
However advancement in digital has come a long way in a sort time...one of these days they might talk me into a digital. If only I had time to sit at my computer and print pics (I'd have to give up DIS-ing!!)
Jenn

 

[ukcatfan]

If you are used to SLR performance, then go with a digital SLR. Any of the point and shoot or semi-pro digitals will let you down. If you are going to go with a no-SLR digital, do plenty of research. I do not think the Kodak will be near the top of your list. Kodaks are very user friendly, but you give up features and quality that would be noticed by someone with SLR experience.

 

[WillCAD]

I went digital a few years ago, but for only one reason: when I was shooting with my 35mm SLR, I found that I was bringing the pics home, scanning the prints, and putting the prints and negatives into an albuim and never looking at them again! SO I fugured, eliminate the middle-man and just shoot digital, which saved me not only the time and effort involved in scanning, but also the cost of processing.

However, much as I love my digital camera, I greatly miss my 35mm. My Canon EOS Rebel G can get shots that my Fuji Finepix S602 can only dream of getting, and the Finepix has severl barrel distortion in the wide angle range of it's lens (which is roughly equal to my Sigma 28-200 zoom that has no barrel distortion).

I also have a lot of accessories for the 35mm that I don't have for the digital, such as a Speedlight external flash which actually talks to the camera, a remote shutter release to avoid shaking when taking a shot with a pocket tripod, and extra lenses.

However, I do love the fact that the digital is half the weight of my 35mm, and that I no longer need to buy, carry, change, or pay to process film, and that I can immediately see the pics to know whether I need to re-shoot. I also take a laptop with me to make downloading and reviewing the pics easier.

Assuming your budget allows, you will be happiest with a digital SLR. DLSRs will give you the best of both worlds - all the advantages of a digital camera, plus the higher quality optics and accessories of an SLR. I am a Canon guy myself, but I understand that Nikon makes a series of DSLRs. The D50 and D100 are each under $1000, and may even take the same lens mount that your 35mm takes, which might allow you to use some of your current lenses and filters (check this to be sure before you buy!)

I bought the best digital camera I could afford, but if I could have afforded to buy a DSLR I would have gotten a Canon Digital Rebel, which would have allowed me to use my current lenses and filters. But I was on a budget, so I wound up with a very nice digicam with a fixed lens. But even so, and even taking the barrel distortion into account, my Fuji takes excellent pics, has no shutter lag like point-n-shoot digicams do, and works in almost every way like a DSLR except that it has a fixed lens.

This is a review of my digicam on Imaging Resource:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/F602/F62A.HTM
I think Imaging Resourse is the best digital camera review site on the web. It's reviews are full of all the most detailed technical specs, they do some of the most complete and thourough testing, and they use the same set of shots to test each camera under laboratory conditions, resulting in the truest apples-to-apples comparisons you will find. If you want to check out digicams, go to IR first.

 

[MouseEars4us]

Assuming your budget allows, you will be happiest with a digital SLR. DLSRs will give you the best of both worlds - all the advantages of a digital camera, plus the higher quality optics and accessories of an SLR. ...I understand that Nikon makes a series of DSLRs. The D50 and D100 are each under $1000, and may even take the same lens mount that your 35mm takes, which might allow you to use some of your current lenses and filters (check this to be sure before you buy!)

My manager won the D100 by having high sales thru a corp. promotion...I thought he was going to pass out when he won. He smiled from ear to ear for days... The co-manager practically drooled over pictures of the D100 in camera mags, and when the manager won, he was awestruck...I'm guessing from all this it is a fantastic camera!

 

[Skylarr29]

Last year I used a dig camera for the first time ( and yes I read the entire manual and practised) well at night during the spectro parade we accidentally hit the delete all button and lost all of our pics ..... of ocurse it was our last night and we came home with only the pics the disney photographers took. I was only with friends so it wasnt the end of the world although I was upset but could you imagine losing the pics of your children! Thats a good reason to not go digital

 

[robertchance]

go with the digital camera,, you can get a Nikon digital SLR for about 800 to 1000 dollars .. Check with a camera shop and see if the lenses you have will work with the digital Nikon. I use all my old Canon lenses on my new Canon SLR and will never go back to film. If you make a mistake with a digital camera you can always fix it in your puter. Pictures can be cropped, straightened out if slightly out of level,, red eye removed. As an old film camera hobbyist, I can tell you from experience that on a roll of 24 prints/slides, i would at most get 4 to 6 prints that I really wanted to keep. As far as I am concerned , all the other unwanted pics are just a waste of my money. With a digital camera, as soon as you shot a pic you can check it and if you don't like it, you can delelte from camera and reshot what you want. Go for it and get a new one. Buy the biggest film card you can. Have fun on your vaca and all the others u will take in the future

 

[ukcatfan]

Last year I used a dig camera for the first time ( and yes I read the entire manual and practised) well at night during the spectro parade we accidentally hit the delete all button and lost all of our pics ..... of ocurse it was our last night and we came home with only the pics the disney photographers took. I was only with friends so it wasnt the end of the world although I was upset but could you imagine losing the pics of your children! Thats a good reason to not go digital

Sorry to hear of your bad luck. Everyone beware that this can also happen without hitting the delete button. The memory cards can go bad and become unusable. I like to format the cards instead of doing the erase all. It really pretty much does the same thing, but ensures that the file/directory structure is OK.

It is a little late for you now, but I am in the practice of copying my pictures over to somewhere else every time we go back to the room. I bring my laptop, but there are also digital wallets and I believe that some Apple iPods can copy them. If none of those are options, you can always go to somewhere like Walgreens, Walmart, Target, etc. right outside WDW and get them copied to CD for about $3-$4 per disk. Always make sure that the disk actually has them on there before you leave the store and erase your memory. After you get the CD, stick it in one of the self help kiosks that has a CD drive to see if they are on there.

 

[goofy4tink]

Sorry to hear of your bad luck. Everyone beware that this can also happen without hitting the delete button. The memory cards can go bad and become unusable. I like to format the cards instead of doing the erase all. It really pretty much does the same thing, but ensures that the file/directory structure is OK.

It is a little late for you now, but I am in the practice of copying my pictures over to somewhere else every time we go back to the room. I bring my laptop, but there are also digital wallets and I believe that some Apple iPods can copy them. If none of those are options, you can always go to somewhere like Walgreens, Walmart, Target, etc. right outside WDW and get them copied to CD for about $3-$4 per disk. Always make sure that the disk actually has them on there before you leave the store and erase your memory. After you get the CD, stick it in one of the self help kiosks that has a CD drive to see if they are on there.

Oh man, do I know what you mean about unstable cards!!! We were on our last day in WDW...dd had taken some shots with her little disposable 35mm but for the most part everything was on my digital camera. I'm a real novice at this whole digital thing and have that 'user friendly' Koday easyshare type camera. But, there we were, watching the Star WArs parade when my camera tells me my memory card needs to be formatted!!! Now, I'm a little upset since I remember my instruction manual telling me that doing that will destroy the shots in there!! So, I do nothing. BTW..the memory card had been just fine up to then..formatted a long time back and I was on maybe my 120th shot. So, I leave the camera alone. later, when we got back to the resort I turned it back on and it was fine!!! Sheesh. I have no idea what happened to the darn thing but it was fine from then on...just a momentary aberration I guess. But it did tell me several times that the memory card needed to be formatted. Maybe it got hot in the Fl sun!!

 

[budbeerlady]

I like my Kodak digi but it isnt as instastanious (sorry bad speller) as my old trusty Nikon that I have had for 14 years. My Dd is 4 and if the camera hesitates for the red eye or whatever the pose is gone, Nothing beats my old Nikon I got for Photo class in the 6th grade.

 

[mgm61]

We are going in a couple of weeks and we are taking both our new digital and the 35.
Hubby loves to get closeups on the 35.

 

[pbharris4]

We don't have a digital camera. We'd like one though, but are fine with what we have. We paid about $350 for it 3 to 4 years ago. It's a nice Minolta. I love it really. And ready for this...we still use the cam corder we bought when our 1st DD was born..9 years ago. My DH works in computers for a government contractor. He builds our computers. We are not big into electronic stuff. Doesn't mean we don't like it. We just can't justify forking out the $$$ for things when what we have is doing just great. We end up getting those things, but later. It's kind of hard not to get what everyone else has. It's not that we can't afford it because we can..we just don't want it THAT bad. If you want to keep your regular camera go ahead.

 

[tubachick]

I "lug" as DH says both with.... with plenty of memory cards and film for either. I am often seen with one camera around my neck, and the other around my wrist. I have had experiences where I think one pic looks better than the other, plus as a scrapbooker, it was hard for me to transfer to the digital film thingy. I still bring home as many, if not more pics from Disney, however, I think I will always use at least some film pics because I always seem to loose some on my memory cards (DH says I have too much static electricity??? ) Good luck with whichever you decide.

 

[Fast Pass]

I can speak from experience bring both a digital and regular camera if you can afford to. I was in AK and took alot of pictures with my digital when I got back to the hotel and pushed the review button there were no pictures on the card! The card had choosen that day to become stupid! I had reviewed the pictures on the bus ride back to the hotel so I knew they were there at one time.

Any how, I also brought my regular Canon Rebel and took some of the same shots that I had taken with my digital. (Those pictures that I would die if I lost them)and therefore really didn't lose anything that mattered.

 

[robertchance]

there r programs out there that will find lost pics on digital film. Don't know the names but a web search will find them for you.

 

[DisFam95]

Film all the way baby. I've always used my SLR for 20yrs and love them. We bought the Kodak easyshare (can't reacall the number but the nice $500 one ). Decent camera but I get much better quality w/ my SLR and Fuji film and processing. We take both on the trips and I rarely use the digital. It's still not fast enough for me and there is always a delay. When the price comes down on the faster digitals (Rebels etc) I'll get one of those but in the mean time I'd skip the digital.

When you get your film developed, most places you can get a CD a well. I do all my processing at Costco w/ Fuji processing and they give you a CD for a couple dollars I think and their processing is so cheap. Walmart has Fuji processing too but they never come out as well. I don;t trust walmart photo techs.

 

[WillCAD]

there r programs out there that will find lost pics on digital film. Don't know the names but a web search will find them for you.

Excellent point Robert!

Of course, this has limitations; it will only work if you have a laptop with you at WDW, or if you have enough memory cards to put the one with the lost pics aside and not use it until you get home (using it again after you've lost your pics will wipe out any chance of recovering the lost pics).

 

[shelly3girls]

We have both. We use the tiny digital camera (Canon Elph 5 megapixel) for the convenience of the compact size. It is great for a point and shoot. We get good pictures and never mind taking it anywhere. BUT when I really want top quality pictures we take our Nikon EOS. There is just no comparison in the picture quality and zoom. I would only get a digital for the convenience of the compact size and printing pictures quickly (and emailing them). We have not felt the need to upgrade our good camera just to go digital but we did find the need to have something compact to carry around the parks.

 

[kizmac]

I will be bringing both my digital and my Canon Rebel SLR.......Probably will end up using the digital more though. I say if you can afford a digital before you go then go for it! It's just nice to see that you're getting some good shots for sure. I know that I'm quite the novice and the one year my film picks were so crappy. I guess they weren't that bad but definitely none that wowed me. Plus it always costs me a fortune to get all my rolls developed when I get home and I am usually broke from vacation as it is.

 

[PrincessRianne]

Go with film! I can't stand digital. I think you get such a nicer quality with film, and just better in general. I just got the new Canon 20D 8.0 mp camera, and the results just don't match up. My 35 is the Canon Elan7, which is a wonderful camera my loving bf got for me last christmas.

The thing is, remember, if you decide to go with the 35 mm, to get the protective radiation bag (or whatever it is, lol) from a local camera store. It will protect your film from the intense xray machines in the airports and such. Id assume you're bringing film from home, cause its expensive at hte parks. I made the mistake of when I was younger, around 15/16 during a trip, not to protect my film. Well, got home and there were weird streaks all over the place, the film looked really distorted. Disappointed.

Now that im 19, and more educated, lol, (and a photo editor of my college's paper) I know better. Good luck with your choice.