Digital Cameras

[imported_Matt]

Will be travelling across America for 4months in the summer and so will be taking lots of pics...Will a 2megapixel camera be good enough - or do i need something a little better?

Also does anyone know of decent websites where I will be able to upload my photos too, that are free and wont fill up after 10 pics? Or is it better just to get them copied to disk?

Cheers,


Matt

[Mark Sedenquist]

Matt,

A 2.1 Mp camera is fine for posting images on the web and for most printed snapshots. But if you are hoping to get frame-quality images -- better consider 5.

There are scores of sites that offer photo storage -- we considered offering the service here -- but the economics are pretty dreadful for webmasters.

Sony's Image Station seems to get the best marks from folks we know: http://www.imagestation.com/

[PNW Judy]

I have a 2.0 and I have printed out 8x10 photos that look just as nice as a real photo from my printer with it. They may not be as nice as a professional photographer's photos but they are almost as nice as my old 35mm camera did. If you have the bucks, go for a higher resolution camera as you won't regret it. But if you don't, the 2.0 should be OK. My camera has three different settings. Any photo that I might want to blow-up to 8x10 is taken on the highest setting.

Sony's Imagestation sight is good but I happen to like Kodak's Ofoto site better. There are many sites out there and none fill up after only 10 photos. I probably have about 1000 photos in numerous albums on Ofoto.

You ask whether storing them on CD would be a better option. I would think that if you are carrying a laptop with you, CD would obviously be the quickest and easy answer. If you are having to stop at places like Kinkos, then a CD would probably still be the quicker option but it would be fun to share photos with friends via one of the websites. You can go into Ofoto and set up an email list to send announcements about your albums to. I think most of the sites have this feature. So you could make a stop, save to CD if you want, and then upload to Ofoto or another site, and then send an email announcemnt to friends to visit your album and view your photos.

Whatever camera you choose, I'd advise buying as much memory as possible so that you can take several hundred photos before filling up your memory.

[imported_Nick]

I use a Sony F-707 five mega-pixel digital camera. It's one of the best investment I've ever made. The newer model (F-717) features USB 2.0 for faster downloads. It's definetly pricey though. The F-717 can be had at crutchfield.com for about $800.

[imported_Nick]

I'd like to mention that Sony just released a new 8 mega-pixel camera that is simply stunning. It's $1000 though.

[Mark Sedenquist]

How would you rate your experience as far as the optics, recovery speed and zooming ability? The high resolution is nice, but ease of capturing live action shots is of greater interest to us while on the road.

Thanks,

M

[imported_Nick]

Optics are by Carl Zeiss, and are phenomenal. Zooming ability is 5x optical. You can go beyond this using digital magnification, but there is a feature to turn this off which I use. The newer sony has 7x optical zoom. Recovery speed is quite good. It's certainly not like a rapid-exposure film camera, but using the manual exposure sttings of the camera, you can snap off pictures reasonably fast. Using the flash can obviously delay recovery time. The auto-focus setup is also great, making it a point and shoot. I'm moving the computer I just built into my road-trip vehicle when I leave in May, so after snapping off a few hundred photos I can simply copy them to hard-disc, and then burn them to CDs which I'll send home. I bought 6 of the 128MB memory cards, which is good for about 300 2560x1920 high quality photos at a time. You can get even more as you decrease the resolution. Hell, 1024x768 makes for fine wallet photos. The 2560x1920 will give you 8x10s that are indistinguishable from regular film based photos. The new sony gives you 3264x2448 resolution capability. This must be simply breathtaking.

I wouldn't trade my camera for anything, except for the new sony model. Here are links to the two cameras. <a href = "http://www.crutchfield.com/S-fggqRIDyTMB/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=8&g=11310&I=158DSCF717&o=m&a=0& cc=01&avf=N">DSC-F717</a> & <a href = "http://www.crutchfield.com/S-fggqRIDyTMB/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=8&g=11310&I=158DSCF828&o=m&a=0& cc=01&avf=N">DSC-F828</a>

I'm doing a number of road trips in May and June..first on the agenda is the Contiki callled the Wild Western, followed by The Candian rockies and finally Eastern Canada and USA...I have a 3.2 MP Canon Camera which also does 3 minute videos...I'm planning to purchase a 20 GB Apple I-Pod with a media card reader..Once my 256 MB Compact Flash card is full, i'll be transffering the photos and videos to my Ipod...I think this is a brilliant way for storing Photos and I-Pods are well worth it as an MP3 player and a Organizer..

[Mark Sedenquist]

There are scores of sites out there with product reviews and suggestions, but the one I look at whenever we are about to acquire more gear is <a href = "http://www.dpreview.com/">Digital Photography Review</a> and it might be useful in your quest too.

[Krista]

can anyone explain to me how the process of uploading pics to the web works? i am completely ignorant of most things technological. i do have a website(its hosted by triptosomewhere.com), and am probably going to purchase/borrow a digital camera if i can figure out how to put the pics up. i will be getting online at libraries/kinko's/internet cafe's during my trip since i do not have a laptop. is this possible?

thanks for your help,
maizy