Digital Cameras

[Jennifer Piersol]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, illyana delorean
<illyana at m...> wrote:
> My boyfriend just bought a Canon Powershot S50 and he loves it,
which 
> is saying a lot because he always told me that he would never buy a 
> digital camera that wasn't an SLR. However, he finally decided that 
> spending $1000 and above on a digital camera is not something that
he 
> was ready to do.

We have an Olympus C-4000 4.0 Megapixel camera, and it's FABULOUS. 
They've recently come down in price a little (around $350 now) because
Olympus introduced the C-720 5.0 MP camera (which is just as nice, but
"better" image quality).  Honestly, you don't really need more than a
3.0 MP camera if you're just going to make regular-sized prints.  It's
only when you get up to poster-sized prints that you need the extra
pixels.

Anyway, our Olympus has a *fabulous* (and really easy to use) zoom
lens - 3x optical, 8x digital.  If you're interested in taking
close-up shots, it's also got a very nice macro feature, which is what
tipped the scales in it's favor when my hubby's Math-Sci department
was looking for a digital camera.  Pictures are easy to take, easy to
transfer to the computer (USB cable is included), and just a really
good quality.  Also takes mpeg movies, but doesn't do sound.  It's too
bad... but the movie quality is fabulous.  Maybe the C-720 is
different.  We're waiting for the day we can afford a digital SLR, too
- but that day will be slow in coming, as we're only living on one
income and have monster debt out the wazoo...

Now, the cons.  Unfortunately, the Olympus has a lens cap that you
have to remember to take off every time you turn the darn thing on, or
it beeps at you angrily and shuts off.  See, the lens starts slowly
moving outwards when you turn it on, and if the lens cap isn't
removed, the lens hits it, and can't fully extend.  Why on earth they
designed it this way is a mystery, and while I really appreciate the
fact that it HAS a lens cap, I get beeped at a lot because I'm a
scatterbrain.

Also - it takes SmartMedia.  We liked this, as all our other
peripherals take SmartMedia (until my hubby got his new PDA, of
course), and the camera we were replacing also took SmartMedia - so we
wouldn't have to buy any extra cards.  If you're buying a camera from
scratch, you don't have to worry about this problem... but SmartMedia,
while pretty inexpensive, are kinda delicate, and they don't last as
long as Compact Flash.  Even better, get a camera with Secure Digital
as storage - it's becoming the new standard, especially with PDAs and
wireless capabilities.  We bought my mother-in-law a digital camera
for Christmas that was under $200, was 3.0 megapixels, and had an SD
card (and also took mpeg movies with no sound).

Anyway, while I'm at it, let me heartily recommend Ofoto as your
digital picture processing place - they're GREAT quality prints, they
have a fantastic storage (and guest viewing) policy, and it's great to
be able to upload your pictures and have them available to long
distance relatives who don't get a chance to see the subjects of the
pictures very often.  There are other companies - we also tried out
Shutterfly recently, but Ofoto has the best prints we've ever
received.

-Jen, sorry for the length.