Digital camera question

[jjarman]

I am thinking of buying a digital camera and have narrowed it down to the Kodak CX6330 or Fugi Finepix A210. My real question is how many memory cards will I need. I normally would take about 4 36 rolls of film so that is about 150 or so pictures. How much can I get on a 64 mb card? Thanks for the help.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Depends totally on what you set the picture quality to.
Each of those cameras have capacity listed in their specs.

Personal opinion, go for the Fuji. Much nicer camera.

There is a discussion on cameras on this board, you might want to look there also.

 

[geffric]

Buy 3 times more memory than you think you will need... I have 3 128 mg cards plus various smaller ones...

 

[Sarahsmom85]

I got the Fiji one for my daughter for xmas so we haven't explored it yet. I do know that is takes XD memory card with is more expensive than Sd or compflash. Although I heard that is is a better card. It comes with a 32 mg card, I plan to get her a 128 card.

In my camera I have (3) 128mg cards, a 32 and a 64.
I Keep the 64 on very fine so I only get a few pictures, I use it for special shots. I keep one of the 128 set on fine and the other two I take on normal and these I use for crowd shots.

I plan to take my lap top with us and dump the photos to the hard drive every night.

 

[topcat011]

I have a fuji and use a 16 mg card for any formal pictures that we set on the high settings. We get like 30 picutres. and 128 mg set on the medium setting. Always got a little over 500 pictures.

 

[mearjan]

I get 998 pictures with a 128 meg CF with my kodak and you have to pay attention with some camera's they use the same picture quality for all quality pictures the only difference is the size 640x480 or 1200x1000 for example this is the case with my dx3500

 

[mearjan]

almost forgot DW used all but 30 pictures trip before last but only took 300 or so this summer so there may come a point where you arent as interested in sooooo many pictures

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by mearjan
almost forgot DW used all but 30 pictures trip before last but only took 300 or so this summer so there may come a point where you arent as interested in sooooo many pictures

Nah, that will NEVER happen.

 

[jjarman]

Thanks so much for all of the advice. I know nothing about digital cameras. I didn't realize there were different quality settings for pictures. I probably will set all of mine on the highest quality. One reason I have not gone to digital was I thought the picture quality was not as good as my 35mm. It has gotten better and cheaper. I looked at the kodak and the fugi. I think I like the feel of the kodak better. The fugi was thicker than the kodak and didn't feel good in my hand. Also, if fugi uses more expensive memory cards that is a drawback.

 

[mearjan]

We have been very very pleased with our kodak. Our trip in 02 we took about 960 pictures and almost every one of them is as good or better quality than the picture hawkers as you get inside.

 

[oogieboogie]

I have a fuji finepix myself and while it is bulkier than the kodak, the lens quality and inner workings have a better quality than kodak.

As far as the xd cards being more expensive, this is not true anymore since memory card prices are going down significantly. The price of an xd is relatively the same as the other types. One drawback of xd is the lack of card readers. There are only 2 models of card reader, and just not worth it yet to buy.

When you decide to buy your digital camera and take pictures... unless you're going to print bigger than 8x10 pictures, you really don't need the highest quality setting. I find that 1.3 megapixels is just fine for standard 4x6 or 5x7 pictures.

IMHO I would go with either Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and Fuji. All these companies have years of camera manufacturing experience, whereas Kodak's expertise is in the production side of photography.

But whichever one you decide to buy, I think you'll enjoy a digital camera. I know I do.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by jjarman
Thanks so much for all of the advice. I know nothing about digital cameras. I didn't realize there were different quality settings for pictures. I probably will set all of mine on the highest quality. One reason I have not gone to digital was I thought the picture quality was not as good as my 35mm. It has gotten better and cheaper. I looked at the kodak and the fugi. I think I like the feel of the kodak better. The fugi was thicker than the kodak and didn't feel good in my hand. Also, if fugi uses more expensive memory cards that is a drawback.

the new kodaks use a different kind of card also. I prefer to stick with the defacto standards which are compact flash and smart media. The card readers are designed for these two types, not for the newer cards.

Fuji makes a much better camera than Kodak or HP. Your best bet is to try a bunch of them for feel. Top picks are Canon, Nikon, Fuji and Olympus. From what I have read, Kodak is going to be gearing all their energies to film.

 

[jjarman]

Y'all are great. Thanks so much for the advice on the cameras. I think now I am leaning more toward the Fugi.

Another question I have is about the memory cards. Forgive me for sounding like a total idiot. The camera has 16 megs of memory built in I guess. Is there a card for that 16 megs that I can take out to take to Walmart or Walgreens to get developed or is it internal memory?

I know I will have to get a memory card eventually but I am confused about what kind to get. What I want to be able to do is take the memory card to the store and print the pictures out. I am not ready to invest in the picture paper although I have a very nice printer here at home. Someone told me they take there memory cards to Walgreens and print out the pictures they want there pretty cheap. Eventually I want to print at home but for now Walgreens is okay with me. Does anyone else do this? Does Walgreens take any type of memory card? Thanks.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by jjarman
Y'all are great. Thanks so much for the advice on the cameras. I think now I am leaning more toward the Fugi.

Another question I have is about the memory cards. Forgive me for sounding like a total idiot. The camera has 16 megs of memory built in I guess. Is there a card for that 16 megs that I can take out to take to Walmart or Walgreens to get developed or is it internal memory?

I know I will have to get a memory card eventually but I am confused about what kind to get. What I want to be able to do is take the memory card to the store and print the pictures out. I am not ready to invest in the picture paper although I have a very nice printer here at home. Someone told me they take there memory cards to Walgreens and print out the pictures they want there pretty cheap. Eventually I want to print at home but for now Walgreens is okay with me. Does anyone else do this? Does Walgreens take any type of memory card? Thanks.

The Fuji includes a 16mb picture card, which is removable. Not sure about Walgreens, but, I would bet WalMart has the capability in as much as they have the Fuji machine for digitals.
Another alternative is to transfer your pictures to your computer then burn either a CD or Floppy of the ones you want to print, OR... upload them to Fuji for processing. Many options.
http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/ep...rent=PRODUCT_CATEGORY_598546&product=43860870

 

[geffric]

or you can upload the pictures to your PC and then upload to Ritz Camera, Snapfish etc and get your pictures that way..

 

[Minnie's Mate]

I have the Fugi Finepix and like it very well. Mine is one of the older ones that has a 2.1 megapixal resolution. When I use the medium setting for 4x6's, I find it nearly as good as my Minolta 35 mm. I get about 80 pictures at this setting on a 64 Mb card and about 160 on a 126 Mb card. The older Kodaks used a proprietary compression format that had to be translated to ".BMP" or ".JPEG" format. This would be an extra step, but I think they no longer do that. Ask the sales person to be sure.

I use Eckerd for photo processing. You don't need to resize the pictures to get 4x6's, they will resize for you. (The capture size of the image is 10x16 or is it 10x13?) With Eckerd, they do take overnight to make the prints, but they are on Kodak photo paper.

If you are concerned about image quality, go with a 3.1 megapixal or higher. The price of a 3.1 is now what my 2.1 cost two years ago.

Once you get used to the idea of the digital, you will love it. You can get an idea of the image with the mini screen on the back and know if it was a bad shot or not. Then you can re-take if you need to and print only the photos you want for your photo album when you get home and e-mail any of them without having to scan. This saves time and money...especially on photo processing even though the cost of a digital to print is about twice the cost of developing film per image. In the long run you save money by not paying to develop images you don't plan on putting in your album.

 

[ElaineMc]

If you look at Consumer Reports they rate the Kodak Easyshare DX6340 as taking excellent quality pictures, but if you go to a site like Epinions.com you'll find a lot of complaints about the quality of the pictures even though most still recommend the camera. I am now leaning towards a Canon instead of the Kodak which I really wanted due to the good quality lens and all of the features such as email and it takes pictures in black and white, color and sepic. I wonder if anyone actually owns one of these on this board and how they like it. I've heard that the Kodak has too much red in the pictures and that Fuji has too much green. I have to make up my mind though, Christmas is coming.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by ElaineMc
If you look at Consumer Reports they rate the Kodak Easyshare DX6340 as taking excellent quality pictures, but if you go to a site like Epinions.com you'll find a lot of complaints about the quality of the pictures even though most still recommend the camera. I am now leaning towards a Canon instead of the Kodak which I really wanted due to the good quality lens and all of the features such as email and it takes pictures in black and white, color and sepic. I wonder if anyone actually owns one of these on this board and how they like it. I've heard that the Kodak has too much red in the pictures and that Fuji has too much green. I have to make up my mind though, Christmas is coming.

The Fuji's I have seen don't throw enough green to worry about.
Canon makes a very good camera, better than Kodak or Fuji (which is one of my favorites). You might also look into Nikon, they have some fantastic ones out there. A few days ago there was HUGE discussion on digital cameras. I will try to find it and bump it up for you or post the link. http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=473673

 

[TarraLee]

Dear Gail Hayden,
Thank you so much for the advice you've been sharing about digital cameras. DH has it on his CHristmas list, and since I want one too, I thought it'd make a nice gift I would like to spend less than $300, so here's what I'm considering as choices, all are
$299, with a $25 rebate, from circuit city:

Kodak EasyShare 4530
Cannon Powershot A70
Nikon Cool Pix 3100

Which is best? Or is there something else in the same price range that is better? I saw your advice about the HP bundle, and decided to skip that one

Thanks again for all the good advice on these boards lately!
tarralee

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by TarraLee
Dear Gail Hayden,
Thank you so much for the advice you've been sharing about digital cameras. DH has it on his CHristmas list, and since I want one too, I thought it'd make a nice gift I would like to spend less than $300, so here's what I'm considering as choices, all are
$299, with a $25 rebate, from circuit city:

Kodak EasyShare 4530
Cannon Powershot A70
Nikon Cool Pix 3100

Which is best? Or is there something else in the same price range that is better? I saw your advice about the HP bundle, and decided to skip that one

Thanks again for all the good advice on these boards lately!
tarralee

My vote will ALWAYS be for the Nikon, second would be the Canon and last (always) the Kodak. Do a search on the net for each model (just click on your "search" button at the top of your browser on the tool bar and type in Nikon coolpix 3100), you might find a better price.
I am always happy to help.