Digital Camera Question...

[patches-4]

I AM LOOKING AT A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA AND AM COMPLETELY LOST CAN ANYONE TELL ME IF THE SONY THAT CAN TAKE A STICK OR FLOPPY TAKES GOOD PICTURES ON THE FLOPPY? I KNOW THE ONES WITH THE MEMORY STICK ARE O.K. BUT NEED SOME IMPUT ABOUT THE FLOPPY. I'VE SEEN ALOT OF POEPLE WITH THE CAMERA BUT DON'T KNOW MUCH OF ANYTHING ABOUT THEM. ANY INFO WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

 

[GenieDana]

Read and learn:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/glossary

 

[Muushka]

The website posted above is an excellent resource for information about digital photography. To answer your question about floppy vs stick, my only imput is that the cameras that use the floppy discs are cumbersom at best. The floppies do not hold many pictures, and on vacation if you were taking several photos, you would need a huge pile of floppies.

The digital cameras that use the CompacFlash or some other non-propriety digital media is the best route, unless you have your heart set on the Sony.

PS remember the 'beta max'?

 

[gonna go cruising]

http://www.steves-digicams.com/ is also another good source for comparing cameras. Our family has five digital cameras, each one different and great for particular times. This site will help with pros and cons of different ones.

 

[WebmasterPete]

My personal opinion is avoid the floppy disc or Mini-CD version of the Sony cameras. The CD versions have problems and the floppy versions take very low res pics. The memory stick models are very good (I swear by them), and look for something with a minimum of 2 megapixel resolution to get good photos.

Pete

 

[MarkRG]

Everyone goes for the floppy ones thinking it'll be easier to get the pictures. It isn't! The cameras now come with such easy to use software and ability to hookup to your pc it's not a worry anymore. Floppies are slow and don't hold very many.

With all of the current crop of digital cameras, they all work on these memory devices - Memory Stick, Compact Flash, or Secure Digital. of the three the memory stick or compact flash are the easiest, the secure digital are a bit on the small side and easy to lose. One thing to know you won't lose any pictures by removing the memory from the camera. Think of the memory chips as rolls of film. When you fill one up, remove it, plug in another. You can then plug them back in one by one when you get home to download them. It's not too hard.

 

[patches-4]

Thanks for the info. I just went on a school trip with DD and one of her teachers had one of these and was shooting pictures right and left and was using the floppies. I was just wondering what the quality of the pictures was. I would have to have something that was fairly easy to use and download. Thanks again, and I'll check out the websites.

 

[MarkMichaels]

I have the cd and the floppy Sony. The problem with the floppy version is that you can only fit a few decent quality pics on a disk. On the cd version however, I average 170 high quality images on a cd and the cd's only cost $.40 each. On the very highest quality setting it holds about 12 images on a disk, but once you get the hang of it with trial and error you can figure out what size/quality image to take. At the setting that gives me 170 images per disk, everyone is very impressed with the 8x10's I print of our vacation pictures.

I've never had a problem with my cd mavica and would highly recommend one. Mine has been on several trips and has held up well. Mine is a 3.3 megapixel camera and I would recommend buying at least a 3 megapixel camera if you plan on printing images.

Also, I just bought a trv70 Sony digital camcorder. It takes the memory stick for 2 megapixel still images along with the tape for digital movies. The 2 megapixel image is pretty good, prints are great at 4x6 and very presentable at 5x7, but only ok if larger. (the image starts to get blocky) With this, I can fit 128 images on a 128meg memory stick, at roughly $50 per stick. If your not taking a computer with you, you will need to decide how many pics you want to take and have enough memory sticks to last you till you get home.

Hope I haven't confused you.
Mark