Digital Cameras - Any Good

[calcium]

Hello everyone. I've still got a film SLR ( well, I say I've STILL got one, I only bought it last year) I now get all my photos put onto CD at Boots.

If you have a look on my website it'll give you an idea of the quality ( some photos are better than others but that's due to the photographer not Boots!!)

I'd love a Digital SLR but I'll have to stick with my film camera for now unless they start giving them away for free, they are so expensive.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/superbikephotos/

[redshoes]

Originally posted by calcium
I'd love a Digital SLR but I'll have to stick with my film camera for now unless they start giving them away for free, they are so expensive.

If you can afford the initial outlay then depending on how much you use it they can work out cheaper in the long run. A good digital SLR with battery and memory card will set you back £1500-2000, or about half that if you don't mind second hand.

Allow £8-10 per film purchase and developing cost, plus either the cost of transfering to CD or time taken to scan. Means you need to take maybe 200 films to break even. Yes I know that still quite a lot but if you are regularly taking 5, 10 or even 15 rolls per meeting it's not as much as you think.

[Alx]

Regarding the number of photos taken:

If you take say 15 rolls at one meeting, how many memory cards are you likely to need to accomodate all these photos (I use 36s not 24s too!) and how much cost is this likely to be - at a good resolution?

I know I can't afford a digital SLR, but I'm sure the time will come where I will buy one (eventually!) - and I'd like to have a grasp on how much it would cost me in 'film'. Also, is it viable to store the pics on your computer or would you have to put them all on CD straight away, because I'd probably want to do both! Madness I'm sure!!

[Tim Falce]

Alx
I have a 128mb compact flash card. I normaly find it will take 70+ shots on medium qaulity, at 3000 X 1800 pixels (very big) resolution. If I go to fine quality it's half that. I need to get a 1 gb card though, as i like to take lots of pictures. The good thing is that you can delete what isnt any good and regain the memory used. I am looking at paying about £170 for the big card.

[egor]

I bought a 128mb card for £20 when i bought my digital camera.

[jpm]

I bought my 1GB microdrive at ebay for € 200.- including a PCMCIA adapter and postage. So it´s not that expensive anymore (but make sure you buy it from a dealer because of warranty).
1GB is equal to about 1000 jpgs mid compression, 2.1 mpx resolution or about 70 tiffs uncompressed in 5.2 mpx resolution.
But keep in mind with a CF card the batteries last about 30% longer.

[redshoes]

Alx, that's actually quite difficult to give a definative answer to. It depends on what setting you use and how much compression each picture gets.

I use a 512Mb card set on medium res (2048x1360) low compression jpg. With a freshly formatted blank card the camera claims there is space for 355 pictures. Last weekend I managed 512 pictures and the camera display still claimed I had space for a dozen or so more. 15 rolls of 36-exp would give you 540 pictures so to be safe you'd need 2x512Mb cards or a 1Gb microdrive.

As far as keeping on PC or burning to CD, how much disc space do you have? I've still got nearly 5Gb of pictures waiting to be burnt.

[Ian_H]

If you can afford the initial outlay then depending on how much you use it they can work out cheaper in the long run. A good digital SLR with battery and memory card will set you back £1500-2000, or about half that if you don't mind second hand.

A company called Photo Optix had an advert in last weeks AP for Canon DSLR's refurbished by Canon, they were priced at D30 £499.99, D60 £699.99 and the 1D £1799.99. I know somebody who bought a 1D from them and he is very pleased with it, he said it was difficult to tell that it was not new as it arrived in a new box and all the accessories were packaged as new, oh and you get 6 month's manufacturers warranty. I have the 10D but I am very tempted with the 1D as this is an excellent camera for motorsport.


Cheers
Ian

[BAR Babe]

ok, i've got to have a small admission here. i work with a Nikon D1x and have done for just over a year now. Last week Nikon had to have it back for a week to do some warranty work on it. They were wonderful and did it on a quick turn round, and 11 days later.... I have just got it back.

I am so relieved its stupid. I really do not know how i did without it at all. the film that i had to go back to last weekend was painfully expensive compared to the digital costs - usually minimal.

Having no personal experiance with the type of the camera you are talking about apart from minimal use of friends now and again, i know about the delays they can have and the ways that i found and indeed they have found to avoid these have already been mentioned here.

from my view though, the SLR type of digi is invaluable and really if you can afford, you can see that it becomes worth it in such a short space of time.

We all know that the D1x is not cheap, but if you take into account that when Nikon plugged it into thier computer and told me that i'd taken 25,000 shots - if you try and add up the cost of film and development and maybe even cd's for normal 35mm .... ooh i don't think i want to do that !!

just lets say i think its been worth every penny for me and i know i can take the next 25000 with the same satisfaction.

ok, advert for Nikon Digi over!

[Alx]

Originally posted by redshoes
Alx, that's actually quite difficult to give a definative answer to. It depends on what setting you use and how much compression each picture gets.

I use a 512Mb card set on medium res (2048x1360) low compression jpg. With a freshly formatted blank card the camera claims there is space for 355 pictures. Last weekend I managed 512 pictures and the camera display still claimed I had space for a dozen or so more. 15 rolls of 36-exp would give you 540 pictures so to be safe you'd need 2x512Mb cards or a 1Gb microdrive.

As far as keeping on PC or burning to CD, how much disc space do you have? I've still got nearly 5Gb of pictures waiting to be burnt.

Not bad then.

I'll admit I haven't put a real serious thought into the idea just yet, I will wait at least a year (after I finish uni) until I put serious consideration into making the plunge - I certainly don't have the finance at the moment anyway.

Disc space shouldn't be too much of a problem - a quick look tells me I have at least 25GB, so that should keep me going a few years at least without having to burn anything. I was more interested to see how much I would use each meeting, and I think you answered that question well, thanks. The cards and microdrives then are another couple of hundred quid I guess.

In the long term, I'll probably go for it - but I think I need to graduate and get a job first!!!

Thanks to all for the info. In the short term I'll look at upgrading my lenses instead!!

[redshoes]

CF cards seem to be getting cheaper ever time I look. Just seen a 1GB card for £180, which is about what I paid for a 512Mb 6 months ago. 512's are now around £80.

[rdjones]

I have today been out looking at camara's both SLR's and Digital's. I have been using my dad's Fuji (FinePix 3800) digital for the last couple of months and it is really about time that I bought my own camera.

The problem is that I am having real problems deciding what to get, there are some really good deals around on SLR's at present, which is great, but do you pay that little bit more and go digital.

IMO its a really though call and I can't decide which way to go - at present I am leaning towards digital, but's a matter of finding the right camara that will meet my requirements, I have seen a really nice Nikon (Coolpix 5700) which is just a little out of my price range. But I think I am going to go for a Fuji S602, but I might have changed my mind tomorrow.

This is a really though call IMO.........

[KC]

If you are buying right now, I would think about waiting before purchasing a camera that uses Smartmedia cards. Smartmedia has developed a newer card with twice the storage, but it does not work in the older style card readers. Many of the cameras that support the new format also support the old version.

I have two 128MB Smartmedia cards. I can take 90 shots at SHQ (high level JPEG mode) which produces images at 1600 X 1200 pixels. These are plenty large enough to print incredibly detailed 8 x 10s and excellent 10 x 16s of really good images. If I switch to .TIFF mode the card can hold 22 images. TIFF images have the least amount of compression and result in low data loss. The bad part is that the images are very large and take around 15 seconds to save before the next image can be shot. No drive mode.

I shoot predominantly in SHQ mode for action stuff and TIFF mode for others where time is not an issue. I have a laptop to dump my cards for more shooting. I am also planning on purchasing another 128MB card shortly.

Most of the newer high end digital SLRs have another file type called RAW. It has zero data loss and no compression. This file format also bypasses any color and contrast corrections the camera's software might try to impose during the save. Pro shooters use this format and digitally alter in Photoshop or another program.

Also look for JPEG2000 support as it has less data loss and better compression and will become the new standard before too long.

[racingdick]

i took this the first time a ever used the camera, beginners luck me thinks..

camera is an Olypus c-40 and its good and close racnge but the digital zoom is rubbish quality

[F1Nut]

You won't be disappointed by going digital. My feeling is with the new crop of cameras, it's the way to go.

I'm not sure that it's as much fun as film.

I have a Sony camera and it gives me some excellent results.

I just have a couple of tips for you:

The digital zoom sometimes on cameras makes the image quality drop the more you zoom, I tend to not use that function unless I have to.

Make sure the light conditions are good, digital cameras don't like poor light conditions.

If you have a fine setting use that, you may not get as many photos on you card but the quality will be allot better.

On the exposure setting I always set it +1 above what the camera says when shooting card this stops the car looking dark with a bright sky.

Hope this is of some help.

Steve.

[Bentos]

Hi egor, my brother bought the Casio 5700 at about the same time as I bought the Minolta Dimage 7i. Have to admit I was impressed with the image quality, given that it was nearly £200 cheaper.. The only thing letting the camera down is its poor optical zoom. He has purchased a 2x convertor, and has had some very good results with it.

[egor]

Hello Bentos, was the 2x convertor your brother bought the Cannon/Casio example or another make and what sort of price did he pay for it?

[stefan]

I have a Tripper - it's a portable card reader with a built in 20GB lap-top hard drive. There are several different models available - they're not very expensive and I never run out of space on my cards. Particularly useful on holiday.

[Bentos]

egor, he baought the Canon one, that was a 1.5x - he then bought the 2x, with a load of adaptor rings for £20. I'll try to fing out the website he got it from.

[egor]

OK Thanks Bentos.