Digital pHOTOGRAPHY

[Johnathan's Mom]

Are there any computers availabe to burn digital pics to CD or floppy availabe on the ship or do I need to bring extra photo cards?

Thanks,
Carla

 

[DisneySlave]

You can not download pics ,we just bought a 256mb card and it will hold 1686 pictures on the lower settings and 413 on the High settings

 

[tecdavidt]

My husband brought his laptop on our cruise and he put the pics there. So if you have a laptop bring that or buy a bigger card for the camera. Kathy

 

[cindy_k]

I bring extra cards. They are so much cheaper now than they were when I first bought a digital camera, 3 years ago.

I hate traveling with my laptop. Too much worry.
I have enough memory to hold over 1000 pics at medium settings. Which is what I use anyway.

I just bought a new camera. I can't wait to try it on vacation.


Cindy K

 

[Johnathan's Mom]

I am in the process of buying a new digital camera. Any suggestions as to what to get ? I need it to be easy to use as well a good pictures

 

[cindy_k]

With Digital Camera's there are so many options.

Here's what I was told years ago, and it still holds true today.

1. Optical View Finder - This allows you to turn off your LCD screen while taking pictures and conserve on battery life.

2. Optical Zoom - The more Optical Zoom you get the better. Digital Zoom just makes the dots in the picture bigger.

3. The most Megapixels you can afford.

Now memory is fun! If you have some sort of small media memory device already. A PDA, MP3 Player, CamCorder, etc. Then I recommend getting a camera that uses the same media type. This way you can share media cards.

My previous camera used SmartMedia, so I made sure to buy a new camera that used SmartMedia.

75% of cameras use Compact Flash
And Sony cameras use MemoryStick

Here is a great website with Camera Reviews. He includes every feature the camera has and gives his opinions.

http://www.steves-digicams.com

Good Luck! I take weeks to pick out a camera. I read reviews, go to Circuit City to try them out, think about it some more, read a few more reviews, go back to Circuit City again...
You get the picture.

The camera I just bought is an Olympus C-700 with a 10X Optical Zoom. Its a really nice camera, unfortunately Olympus recently discontinued it so I purchased a refurbished one on E-Bay, saving $200 over a new one.

I hope this helps you out.

Cindy K in NY

 

[Johnathan's Mom]

Thanks Cindy! I really appreciate the input. I have to look at everything on the market. They already know me at Best Buy and Circuit City.

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

I just bought a mindstor for our trip. It is not much bigger than a camera and has a 10 gig hard drive. It has a slot that allows you to download your pictures from you memory card to the device. It has worked great for me so far. It will hole 6000 pictures at the highest resolutin. Digital cameras are great!!!!

 

[TimonTracy]

Is there anywhere that you'd suggest NOT taking the digital camera with you? I just got one and I love it and can't wait to take pictures on my Western Trip.

Thanks !!

 

[cindy_k]

The beach. Only because I would hate to get it wet, or full of sand.
Other than that I take the camera everywhere.
I love it in low lit areas, I have gotten some really nice shots without a flash. You just need to hold really still.

Cindy

 

[DisneySlave]

There is a company called Aquapac that sells waterproof camera bags.I bought one and they are great. The pictures are clear and it floats to,there is no need to buy the disposible cameras anymore
Aquapac

 

[Johnathan's Mom]

Will the mindstor work with any digital camera? Where do you find these? ANd most of all is it EASY to use?

Thanks

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

Yes it is very easy to use. I bought mine at ecost.com and they were the cheapest that I found. The one I have is for compact flash cards but you can get them for smart media or the sony sticks. The website for the product is mindsatwork.org

 

[DisneySlave]

The 256mb CompactFlash card is $80 compared to $280+15.00 for the battery pack,and the card will stay in your camera and you can delete the pictures that you dont like off the camera. 1686 is a lot of pictures,that is 70 rolls of 24.

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

1686 is a lot of low quality ( high compresion, low megapixel) pictures. I have a 3.1 megapixel camera and a 128 meg card holds 77 pictures so a 256 would hold about 150. If you are going use your digital camera as your only camera you should take pictures at the highest resoulution that you can otherwise I think that you will be disapointed in the results unless your only intention is to have pictures to e-mail or post to the web. If you plan on shooting at the lowest resolution there is no reason to buy a camera that is 2 to 3 megapixels and shoot at a .5 megapixel resolution. Most any source you read will suggest at least a 2 megapixel camera for 4 x 6 prints. You can buy a very nice 1 megapixel camera for around 100.00 rather than spending 300 to 400 dollars on a camera and shooting at the lowest setting. I don't think that there is anything wrong with shooting pictures at a lower resolution but there is a big difference in the quality of a print that is shot at 1 megapixel vs 3. You may get 1686 pictures but they will in no way compare to the quality of 70 rolls of 24 exposure film.

 

[tiptoen]

I recently bought a Sony DSC F707. I am thrilled with the quality of the pictures. It has both a view finder and an lcd screen and is a 5.0 megapixel camera. Another tip is to search for the lowest price you can find on the web, print out the page and take it to your local Sears store. Lately I have purchased several things from Sears as they match the price off the web. I feel better seeing and touching what I am paying for.

 

[DisneySlave]

Mike,
The readings that I gave are on high pixel and better compression,if I use high on both it is still 413 pictures with a 2.0 magapixel Kodak. I'm just trying to save Johnathan's Mom a little money,I have taken my Kodak on a few cruises and have never taken more than 400+pictures after you delete the ones that you do not like. Either way a digital camera is the best invention since the Disney Cruise Line Both of you have gret cruises and be sure to take a lot of pictures

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

Disneyslave,

I agree that these cameras are great and you can do a lot of things with them. I just want to make sure people don't shoot at a low resolution just to get a lot of pictures. After a year I finally convinced my dad to use his camera at the highest resolution. For those that have a digtial camera or are considering getting one make sure you go to ulead.com and download the trial of DVD Picture Show. It allows you to make VCD (video cd's) with your digital pictures. You can have 99 different shows with up to 99 different pictures. When you start the cd it has a menu (you choose the background, ie Disney Ship) and then you pick the show you want to watch (Day 1 on the Wonder, Castaway Cay) and you watch your pictures on the TV with a musical background (Disney's Beauty and the Beat). Very cool. I have a 46 inch tv and the pictures look great. The VCD's play in a dvd player (you can check vcdhelp.com to see if yours will work). I have a Sony DVD player that cost a lot of money and they won't play in this but Wal-Mart carries the APEX dvd players and these work great. I think you can buy one for about 50 bucks.

We bought each of the kids great grandparents, who don't live close to us, one of the APEX players and I send them a VCD with pictures of the kids every two months and they love it. Once you use the program a few times it is very simple to use.

BTW if you think that digital photography is fun try digital video. We have has a DV camera for a while but just in the past few days I have tried to make some SVCD (Super Video CD's) and these are very neat although I still have much learning to do.

 

[Johnathan's Mom]

I really appreciate all the responses. There are just too many choices out there!



Thanks,
Carla

 

[cindy_k]

** The following post is my Opinion on what resolution I use to take pictures**

AS WITH ALL THING EVERYONES MILES MAY VARY

I've been taking pictures at Medium Resolution on my Digital Camera for 3 years. I have never found a reason to take pictures at High Res unless I knew this is a picture I am going to make a 8x10 out of.

I have gotten awesome shots that print good on my inkjet with my 1.3 Megapixel camera. At medium res it takes 1280x960, which is good for 4x6 shots. If you are not planning on printing 8x10's and most people don't, then medium resolution on your camera should be fine.

I have two HP Inkjet printers at home, an Deskjet 800 series and a Photojet 1200 series. Both these printer produce decent printed photos from my medium res shots when printed on High Quality Inkjet photo paper. (The paper is shiny and doesn't absorb the ink, if you are going to print your own shots I recommend getting some.)

To get AWESOME printed shots, I have found the best thing to do is upload the pictures to Fuji, OFoto, Kodak, etc. They use professional quality printers to print your shots and when you get them back you will not be able to tell the difference between them and a 35mm camera shot. Costs about .50 a shot.

For my average vacation shots I print them myself and put them in a photo album with a shiny plastic cover sheets. When under the plastic sheet you have to look really close to notice that these are digital camera shots.

For pictures I am going to frame, I send them to Ofoto, or Kodak and have them print them.

Over the years I have found that its the printers that really limit what a picture prints like, not the resolution of the camera. As long as the picture is at least 1280x960 then you shouldn't have a problem.

Newer cameras with more megapixels, like my new one take higher res medium shots, so by buying a camera with a higher megapixel you by default get better shots at Medium Resolution, and at the same time they are a little larger file. All the more reason not to use High res and save yourself some diskspace on your cards .

Of course everyone has to decide for themselves how their photos look.
I hope you find my rambling useful.

Cindy in NY