Is it worth it to upgrade to a digital camera?

[jmminarik]

Originally posted by Ratpack
Did someone mention that you can get prints from Sam's from the memory card or did I read this wrong?

Some sam's have this service...they also offer prints on-line through their photo center with delivery to your home (via mail) or to a local club.

-joe

 

[admiral nelson]

Originally posted by donaldduck1967
Heres a tip concerning memory cards. I cant remember where i read it though. Instead of buying large memory cards buy many samller ones. At the end of the day swap out the memoryu card and put ni a new one this way if you happen to lose the camera and dont get it back you wont lose all your pics with it.

If you have the money, I would go with as many 128's as you can afford, if you wanted to go that way(3mp that would be say 75 pictures per card). Personally, I don't even know if my 256 (which holds 154 pics) will be enough for my vacation. I want to take a lot of pictures. Wish I had another one.

Oh yeah, you might want to check out the Canon i850 photo printer. Online its usually about $150 shipped, and the photos are unreal with the Canon photopaper Pro. The ink isn't too pricey, and it's got the smallest ink droplets of any printer. (2 picoliter) Also watch for 15 free prints, etc, with places like fotobug and o-foto.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

My 2 cents. I was a devoted 35mm fan and resisted digital up until a year ago. I just didn't like the grainy quality of digital. But that, thankfully, is a thing of the past. Like most electronics, however, it is impossible to keep up with developements. I have a Kodak DX3600 which is a 2.2 megapixel with a 2X optical, 3X digital zoom (never use the digital zoom, though). I bought auxiliary lenses from Kodak so I have a small telephoto and wide angle ability, in addition to being able to add filters.

Pictures - I like the quality, and I print out 8x10's to decorate my office waiting room and am very pleased with them. I take all my pics at the high quality setting, though.

Compact Flash cards - I don't like to deal with large amounts of photos and I don't like to carry my laptop on vacation, so I use 16mb cards. This allows me to get around 24 pictures on a card at high resolution, roughly what I would get on a 35mm roll. They are easier to change than film, and this way when I get home I am only dealing with 24 pics with my software at a time.

Batteries - carry EXTRA. Digital really sucks them up. I always carry a couple of sets of rechargeable and a couple of Lithium batteries, too.

Final advice - After you push that button, hold still for a second until you hear the camera click - digital does not take the picture instantly like regular optical cameras do, so hold still for a sec or your image will be blurred.

Have fun!

 

[HunnyPots]

We just got an HP 320 for $150 at Wal Mart. Incuded in that price was an HP deskjet 3420 printer. We love both! The only drawbacks we've found are you don't get good low-light pics and your subject must be absolutely still. Outdoor daytime photos are fantastic. We print our shots that we want to frame on Kodak soft gloss medium weight photo paper and they are beautiful. It's about $9 for a pack of (25) 8 1/2x11 sheets.

For great low-light pictures I have found the Kodak Max 800 disposable to be invaluable. Better pictures than I've ever gotten with any point-and-shoot camera and it's only about $6 for 27 exposures. Very convenient, good price, great pics.

Also, using a digital take practice! If you decide to get one, don't wait till the week before you leave for vacation. Give yourself a few months if possible to figure it all out and get really good with it.

Good luck!

 

[jmminarik]

Originally posted by HunnyPots
Also, using a digital take practice! If you decide to get one, don't wait till the week before you leave for vacation. Give yourself a few months if possible to figure it all out and get really good with it.

Good luck!

This is good advice for any camera that has more complexity than aim, press shutter button, move onto the next shot...digital or film. Most bad photos aren't the equipment's fault....and absolutely none of the boring ones are.

-Joe

 

[Janell Ebert]

My husband bought a D10 Canon very expensive but he can use lences from film camera. Its nice to look at photo and have some idea if you have what you want or not. Cheaper proubly not right away. But film and processing wasn't cheap either. He took like 24 rolls of our last Disney trip. Less hassle with security at airport no more having film checked by hand sounds good to me. We are able to pry the camera from his hand and take pictures which makes for diffrent peoples points of view.

 

[HookedOnDiz]

I have to disagree with those who say that digital cameras don't capture detail like 35mm...

I have an Olympus 3.2 megapix. and the amount of detail the camera captures is incredible... in my opinion, it is MUCH better than film... my Disney vacation pictures look almost 3D because of the outstanding quality... it is definitely worth switching to digital.

 

[Windermere]

I have to agree with the previous post about Olympus. I have 2 film Oly and last year bought a digi Oly. Spent WAY too much on the e20n but i absolutely LOVE every picture. It's 5 mpixels. DH bought it for me with a traditional wide angle lens, a light filter and a telephoto lens. It has manual and autofocus which I think I finally have the hang of. He also got a 1.2 gig scandisc which holds 698 high quality. The 32mb SM that came with it gets about 22 pictures. (I use the SM for pictures of pins that I have to prevent unintentional duplicate purchases)

I probably won't take film or camcorder on this next trip. I do need to figure out how to compress the pictures enough to send to friends so they are not downloading for hours at a time. But that's their problem not mine. hahaha

 

[MrsPete]

I teach photography, and I don't think digital cameras are necessarily an UPGRADE as just a DIFFERENT type of photography.

Digital has some big advantages: instant feedback on the quality of your pictures, no film to transport/buy, reduced cost for printing the pictures themselves (depending, of course, upon the method of printing you choose).

Film, however, has some strong points in its favor too: Unless you buy a really top-notch digital SLR (which runs over $1000), you're not going to be able to take fast-action shots such as sports photography. This may or may not be a consideration for you. It's easier for a novice photographer to take good pictures with film; digital is much more prone to camera shake. And, of course, film cameras have many more available accessories such as zooms, filters, etc. Many of the affordable digitals are point-and-shoot versions for which these things just aren't available.

Finally, with either type of camera, you're going to get what you pay for. A good quality entry-level SLR 35 camera can be had for around $300. The digitals in this price range are definately second-rate cameras with low megapixels.

If I were going to buy something for family vacation photography, here's what I'd buy:

For film: A Cannon Rebel -- it's simply unbeatable in the 35MM catagory. It's versitile, easy to use, and affordable starting at about $250. It's available in several versions, all of which I like. Do look out for the gray-market cameras, which are often sold through the mail. They're intended for over-seas markets, and the warranty won't be honored in the US.

For digital: An Olympus with 3.0 megapixels or better. Olympus is really far ahead in the digital world, and their cameras are user-friendly. You can get 4.0 megapixels for less than $500.

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

I won't even try to add any more technical info, but I will add this:

Because we are not limited to rolls of film and paying for processing, we take many more shots than we used to. The result of this is that instead of a couple of exceptional shots at any given function, we get quite a few exceptional shots, and lots of very good ones.

The benefit is that you can do some really cool things, in addition to emailing and web publishing, you can create screen savers and wallpaper. Last Christmas I used Shutterfly to make calendars for various family members, including my In-laws' 50th wedding anniversary party. They get to enjoy it all over again all year.

The shot in my signature was taken last June at midnight on an e-ride night with a Canon Powershot S110 digital Elph. I think the size here doesn't quite do the photo justice, but I still love it.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Nice shot. And a good illustration of how far digital has come.

 

[dBugged]

I've been using digital since the less than 1MP cameras were out (640x480) and haven't looked back. I have owned three EPSON digital cameras and three CANON digital cameras.

I currently use a 4MP Canon G3 and my wife uses a G2 -- they are excellent cameras with all of the customizations that you could ever want in a digital camera and the battery life is incredible. Both are equipped with 1GB combat flash cards and they can take about 500 pix each at the best settings. I love using Digital because I can quickly take a pile of pictures of the same thing and will know that I have a pretty good chance of getting a "perfect" shot. These camera also take excellent stills with high detail and clarity. I love digital because if a picture doesn't come out just right, I can tweak it in Photoshop (I also use PSP8, but used Photoshop more).

We also use an older 2MP Canon Elph S100 (we like to call it our battle camera) when we're using the water mouse boats or doing other outdoor Disney activities. I also have a few Digital video cameras, but that is a different topic...

My only tips for people buying digital cameras:

1. Buy 3MP or better. Be sure to buy a spare battery pack and spare memory cards/sticks.

2. Read reviews of the cameras you want to buy, before you buy them. These reviews point out all of the strengths and weaknesses so you are aware of what you are buying before you buy it. My favorite (VERY DETAILED) site is:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM

3. Spend a little bit more on the digital camera than you'd really like to spend -- I've had too many friends who went out and bought the super $100 camera deal of the week only to be disappointed by the quality of the pictures.

4. DO NOT buy a camera and worry about the digital zoom or the frilly camera effects (Sepia...) that come with the camera. You can reproduce all of this using a good photo editing program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro and can usually get much better results. I usually advise NOT using these features because they permanently alter the appearance of the photo and if you don't like the effect after the fact, there isn't any easy way to fix it. A photoediting program will let you zoom and add many effects to the photos in a non-destructive fashion.

5. Once you buy your camera, be creative and have fun with it!

I'm a digital camera nut (took over 3000 pictures last September while we were at Disney World) and would be happy to answer any questions any of you have.

We have a ton of pictures on our site that were all taken with digital that you can check out. Please keep in mind that the photos on our site were reduced in size considerably and highly compressed to keep our bandwidth usage low so we can continue to provide our site advertisement free -- you may see some minor artifacts in the photos, which is a result of the high compression. If you wish to see any of the photos in their full HIGH QUALITY size, drop me a line and I'll be happy to email you any of them.