Digital camera-compact flash card

[IAN5150]

Hi,Some advice please! Just got a digital camera and never had one before so help req please!
Ive got 3compactflash cards with it a 8 ,16 and a 32 how many pics can i get on each?
Is it easier to put pics on a cd? Can I do this in Orlando and howmuch?
Is it cheaper over there for new cards?
Im charging batteries now so any advice would be great then Ill have play
Thanks IAN

 

[steve_rob]

It really depends on at what resolution you're taking them at - the less detailed the picture, the more you can fit on a card. If you're only going to use these pictures to show people on your computer or post them on the internet, then you can get away with a lower quality setting, but if you're going to get them printed out like proper photos at some point then you're best off at taking them at the highest resolution your camera allows.

To give you an example, my digital camera takes 3.1 megapixel shots (i.e. 2048x1536 pixels on screen) at it's top end setting. I can fit about 50 of these shots on a 32MB card (give or take a few). By lowering the resoultion one stage (the camera gives me four options), it ups the amount to over 100.

Assuming your camera and memory cards are of a similar spec, that would mean even with best quality photos, you'll still get at least 90 shots across all three cards.

 

[calvinjtodd]

Hi Ian
I paid £2,000 for a digital camera and didn't even get one memory card with it let alone 3
How many pics can you get on each card? all depends on how many mega pixels your camera is and what quality you set it at. If it's about 4 mega pixels you will probably get about 5 high quality pics on the 8 meg card and so on.
It's easy to transfer them to cd via a pc with a card reader and a cd writer, would imagin a photo lab could be able to do it for U, but no idea of the price, only know is it's dearer to have pics done in florida than here.
I was only looking on the wal mart web site this morning and the prices without tax added are more expensive than here, by quite a lot, I get mine from www.7dayshop.com, eg: 1Gig compact flash card is £150 @ 7dayshop and $282 + tax at wal mart.
I get 318 pics on my 1Gb card at the high quality setting but this time I'm taking the laptop so I can view them properly at the end of each day and transfer them off the card ready for the next day.

Is this sad? am I a lost cause?

p.s. 7dayshop is about the cheapest site you will find for loads of stuff, could spend all day browsing it and spending all my dosh.

Regards
Calvin

 

[IAN5150]

Thanks for the help guys I was kinda hoping for more than 90 pics Ill be taking a t best res as Ill be printing them quite a few at A4 size I love big pics,
Calvin i got 3 cards as its an inherited camera from brother in law hes upgraded this one cost him £400 A KODAC DC 5000 and Im realy chuffed! As itws a freebie Ill be investing in som new cards
I may put a question on US board regarding getting a CD donein Orlando,
Cheers IAN

 

[GO2209]

I didn't get prints made, just had the images transferred to CD. Ritz Camera shops (found in most Mall's around Florida) have a PC. You insert the Memory card select your pictures and get a receipt. Take the receipt to the counter an hour later and they will give you the CD. Very simple. I paid around $8 a disk (approx 120 pics a time).

Eckerd drugstores have a similar service but it was much more expensive (you had to have the pictures printed as well).

In the UK, the larger Boots stores (eg the one at the Trafford Centre - my own personal hell) have PCs where you can upload your pics for printing etc. I managed to catch an offer 50 prints for £5. Very cheap! The best price I have found is the internet services at 15p a print. Boots standard prices are 20p-40p depending on quantity.

The pictures are printed using photographic inks and do not fade and are sharper than the typical home printer. I was very pleased with the quality of the prints.

Digital cameras are great, but I struggled getting decent night shots (spectromagic etc). Have fun with your new 'toy'!

 

[mike230652]

IAN

Since you got the camera for free....why not invest in a decent size card rather than 2-3 smaller ones? I'd imagine if you take them in to be uploaded to a cd you'll pay a price per card anyway...so it may well make economic sense to go for the bigger card.

I know that my better half much prefers the 1Gb cards....that way you're assured of plenty of room for your pics. She operates at second highest res and gets 300-315 shots.

They'll blow up to 10 x 8 and give a definition at least equal to 35mm.

GO2209............To be fair the average home printer doesn't give brilliant results since they weren't made for printing photos. But if you invest in a photo quality printer....and you can get a good Epson from £70 and up.....there is no difference to the results from Boots etc. Plus you can play around with the images to your hearts content!!!


mike

 

[GO2209]

Mike is quite correct about the photo-printers and the prices have certainly dropped recently.

I have seen some great results from the 6/7 ink Epsons and my Lexmark produces reasonable prints if I use the glossy photo paper.

However, the quality of pics I got from Boots surprised me. Very good. Although the aspect ratio is different between digital and conventional film and therefore what you see on screen isn't exactly what you get back (apsect ratios - 2:3 conventional 3:4 digital).

I have lost count of the hours I have spent tweaking pictures on my computer! For the less technical PC users / non-enthusiasts, I recommend Kodaks 'easyshare' software. I got a copy free with some Ultima paper. You can specify your printer and paper type and print pics at the press of a button.

 

[SidB]

Originally posted by calvinjtodd
I get mine from www.7dayshop.com, eg: 1Gig compact flash card is £150 @ 7dayshop and $282 + tax at wal mart.

I'd check around before ordering from these. I've heard some varying reports about their customer service. I've just taken a look around the net and found a 1 Gb card for £130. A couple of other things to think about. Make sure that the camera takes type II cards. Some older cameras don't. Also worth noting is that some manufacturers don't test their product using 1GB cards. Canon for example only test to 256Mb. It may be worth taking the camera in to Jessops on the High Street. They can give you the advise you need, and I've seen on a few posts on a bulletin board which say they will price match internet prices.

It sounds like downloading to a CD is expensive in the US. I've just come back from Bangkok, and there you can get it done for £2.20ish.

 

[calvinjtodd]

You'r right jessops do price match, usually, their price for 1gb card is £261.99 compared to the price you found of £130, difference of £131.99 even jessops will find this one a little difficult to match!!
By the way where did you find the £130 card I could do with getting one at that price, I can't even get them off e-bay for that price.
Iv'e never had any problems with 7dayshop other than slow postage but when Iv'e been getting things like fuji 35mm 36shot 100iso film for less than £1.20 each I can wait 5 working days.

Anyway back to Ian have a good look in the manual it will tell you the size of card they have tested the camera with, I only used the 1gb as an example of price, or visit the manufacturers web site and see if they have any upto date info, they may even have new software to download and flash your cameras memmory.
My friend runs his own minilab and he prints my pictures for me, direct from the memmory card through the system just like a normal photo and the quality is almost as good as my 35mm camera, he gives me 5% discount. Iv'e tried photo printers but can't justify the cost of the paper, ink/die and the time and effort compared to the minilab quality.

 

[IAN5150]

I really mean this Thanks a lot Guys
Im a complete novice so this info is all very helpful,
He gave me a card reader with it that he said wont need software but I hooked it up and windows doesnt recognise it so Im stumped there cant locate driver so Ill have o work smething out there
Ive just about got the camera sussed its just getting the pics on my PC now,Any more info would be great
Thanks again Guys IAN

 

[calvinjtodd]

what windows are you running, if it's xp and the card reader is USB it should recognise it, go to the manufacturers web site and check for updated card reader software.

 

[IAN5150]

Hi Calvin Windows 98 Second edition
Ill have a look at the website too and it is USB so I wasa little surprised
Thanks Mate Ian

 

[SidB]

The cheapest I've been able to find the 1Gb drive is £121 at www.valuemedia.co.uk/microdrive.htm

I've never dealt with the company so it would be worth doing some research before ordering. I guess you'd do that for any supplier anyway.

Oh and the Jessops web-site quotes £150.

 

[mike230652]

calvinjtodd

Jessops are pretty spot-on regarding price matching.

My better half just bought a Fuji S2 with 1Gb Microdrive, took in a hard copy of the internet price she'd seen ( £ 1124.99 ) and they matched it.


Got to say she uses 7dayshop ALL the time for film ( she uses 35mm for a lot of her work ) , paper , inks etc. Never had anything other than First Class service and she probably spends about £100 per month.



mike

 

[calvinjtodd]

Sid
Your right a 1gb microdrive (like a pc hard disk only much smaller) is £150 at jessops, but thats not what Iv'e been talking about Iv'e been talking about a 1gb compact flash card, no moving parts, all digital, so it can download, upload, save, erase etc. upto 40x faster so allowing the camera to work much faster, on mine at least 4.1 frames per second at full quality.

Mike
I will try to get jessops to price match on the compact flash card, but my point was they will have to price match down to half their asking price and on somthing so inexpensive compared to the camera you got they may not be able to oblige, Iv'e got all my bits crossed though.

Calvin