digital camera question

[kajohn]

1.When you own a digital camera do you still use your 35mm at all?

No, I have not used my 35mm since I got my camera last summer. I have been on two cruises and took all my pictures digitally.

Does it save any money having a digital camera as opposed to a 35mm? It seems to be costing an awful lot of money and I don't even know how to run the darn thing yet!

I don't know! I spent a lot of money on my camera and smart media cards. I have only printed out a few pictures so far. I scrapbook, and am behind, so I will print them as I need them. However, I have not bought film for two cruises or a family reunion, halloween, christmas etc. So over time, I think I will save money (hopefully!)

What is the best thing (in your eyes) about digital photography?

I like it much better because I can take all the shots I want and just delete them if I don't like them. I also like to be able to see if I got a good picture immediately. It came in handy on our DCL cruise, I took pictures when the kids posed with the characters, along with the professional photographer. I knew immediately if I had a good shot or not, so I only bought one picture with the characters, all the others I just used the pictures I took.

I also like storing my photos on CD's rather than having stacks of developed film sitting around. As I said I scrapbook, so I will now only print off the few that I will scrapbook with, and leave the rest on the disks.

I found a great program that does simple photo montages that let you record naration that I use to make slide shows. I then can put that on a CD and send them to family. It's kind of cool, they get to see the pictures, and hear a discription of what we were doing.

I have also found it is cheaper to have Costco ($.19 or .20 per print) print the photos I want rather than printing them at home. By the time I bought the printer, paper and ink, I found it was cheaper to just have them do it.

I would be interested to hear how others answer these questions! Good luck with your camera!

 

[mobetsy]

I still use my 35 mm, for photos for the albums; I don't generally print out my digital photos as it gets so expensive at home, and I don't get around to taking them somewhere to print. As a general rule, however, the digital is the one we take along.

We have friends and relatives all over, and I like being able to e-mail photos to them; when dh was away on business last week, the kids and I sent him a pic right away of a cake they'd made, and it was great to include him that way. I love the feeling that I can take 6 of the same scene and dump the ones that didn't turn out, with no cost or hassle; the other side of that is knowing right away if I did get the one I wanted. I feel more secure with our digital photos burned onto a CD and stored elsewhere; there's always that fear that we'll lose our photos in a fire or disaster, and this way I feel our precious memories are safer.

I'm betting you will grow to enjoy yours, queenof4hearts, once you get used to it, and then you'll wonder how you ever did without it!

 

[mcnuss]

1.When you own a digital camera do you still use your 35mm at all?

I do still like to have my 35mm, although I am not sure why anymore! I have a compact flash 256 card and I can get about 300 pix at medium res on it, so it's not bc I need the extra capacity. On the cruise, we had to have a film camera for underwater photos. I don't like disposable cameras (too much waste, IMHO) so I bought a $17 Fuji at Target that took beautiful shots. There is still something nice and tangible about film, I think!

2.Does it save any money having a digital camera as opposed to a 35mm? It seems to be costing an awful lot of money and I don't even know how to run the darn thing yet!

Yes, it is MUCHO cheaper. I no longer print dupe photos for aunts, uncles, nanas and papas. I have a web site and everyone goes there. If they want prints, they can link over to Ofoto.com which charges approx. 20 cents per print and the quality is super. You cannot tell the prints were from a dig camera. Make sure you get TOP QUALITY rechargeable batteries (2 sets) and a big memory card and you'll be set for a long time. I also shoot about 1 roll of film to every 100 dig pix so obviously I save on film and developing.

3.What is the best thing (in your eyes) about digital photography?

Being able to 1) share pix so easily and 2) being able to guiltlessly dump the bad pix!

ps: I did not bring a laptop on our cruise. It would have been too tempting to work!! Between clearing the digital every night and have a lot of memory, I took about 175 excellent dig pix and about 5 rolls of film.

 

[matty204]

I still use my 35mm for my DDs sports mostly for the faster shutter speed. I have a digital with an 8x opical zoom but find that for actions shots the 35mm works best.

 

[queenof4hearts]

Thank you so much for all the information!!

I took my first pictures and was able to get them on my computer and view them. Yay!!

I know I've got a lot to learn but I am sure I can do it.

mcnuss, thanks for the tip about ofoto. Is it difficult (relative term, I know) to figure this out? I will be trying!

Thanks again!

 

[DMoss3377]

1.When you own a digital camera do you still use your 35mm at all?

Yes, I still use my 35mm a great deal. I like to flexibility and range I get from the manual settings that I don't have on my digital.

2.Does it save any money having a digital camera as opposed to a 35mm? It seems to be costing an awful lot of money and I don't even know how to run the darn thing yet!

I would say that yes, in the long run it has saved me a little money. I'm a scrapbooker and take my memory card to Costco, print the pictures I want to scrap, then I transfer the rest to my harddrive and CD's. Since I only pay the "reprint" charge when I do this it saves me money, and I only print what I need. But I also save money on my 35mm film as well, I only get one set made when it's processed, then I take the negatives and scan them in at home and make them into digital images. I purchased a negative film and slide scanner from Coscto at a great price. So now I don't have to worry about negatives piling up anywhere.

3.What is the best thing (in your eyes) about digital photography?

I would say it's the ability to KNOW you've got the right shot, and can discard any that didn't come out right, immediate satisfaction.

 

[jdlr]

Another option to saving the photos from your digital camera is using Iomega fotoshow. You don't need a laptop with this. You can load, organize, edit, crop and enhance your digital photos on your TV with out even having a computer. You then save the images on a zip disk - fotoshow acts as a zip drive.

You can find one in e-bay for < $100. That's where I got mine. Haven't used it though since we always use the laptop. But if you go on a trip and don't want to bring a laptop, it should do the trick.

 

[Gillian]

Can anyone recommend good software for making cds? We have a CD creater program, but I'm looking for something fancier, maybe that would make photo albums on CD?

Our digital camera is older & didn't come with any decent software. I think we'll upgrade this year, but until then I'd like a good program for making photo CDs.

 

[BunnyV]

We took our daughter then 2 1/2 to WDW last year. Everyday she looks through the photo album at the pictures and relives the "magic".
We now have a great digital camera. I seem to take both cameras with me everywhere. I too seem to download to disc and don't print out the photos with the digital and it does suck down the batteries fast.
I am debating if I really want to drag both cameras around all the time.
Is anyone else going to do this? I don't want to disappoint my daughter and not have any pictures to look at and put in an album -- which I hope DCL has an album exclusive to them -- or should I pay Walmart 50 cents each to print them from my memory stick?
Thanks for any advice.
Bunny

 

[rmbreset]

I had the same concern , I use an Iomega "Click" drive. It is a device about the size of an electric razor, it takes these disks (40mb) about the size of a stamp in one end, you insert your smart media or compact flash (takes both) in the other and it transfers the data. It has a dock the you leave connected to you computer. Here is a link to see it better. I think thay have been discontinued so you can pick them up for a low price if you search the net.

http://www.lost-oasis.com/imaging/reviews/iomegaclik.html

 

[kajohn]

Gillian,

I have a fun program I just got, 'Plus Photo Story' that is part of the Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition disk. It costs $20 retail, but I found it advertised at one of the Electronic stores right after I purchased it for $5, oh well.

Anyway, it makes slide shows that you can narate. It is very easy to use. The only drawback is that once you save it you cannot edit it again. The program will pan in and out on your photos, which makes it a little more interesting as you talk about each picture. You can have the program do it, or you can change it pretty easily to pan and zoom the way you want.

I have family out of town, and now I download those slide shows to a CD rom and send them to my family. They play on Windows Media Player.