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[at-l] digital cameras - some quick thoughts



just a quick note re my thoughts:

1)  Get one that is at least 3 megapixels in terms of resolution so you 
can print some pictures occasionally that will look sharp at sizes 
larger than 3-5; note that walmart now offers a great new web-based 
service where you can e-mail them your picture files and then go to your 
nearby walmart and pick up the printed pictures.  I know some hate 
walmart, and i am sure other outfits are doing this, too, but it is a 
great idea - you eliminate the need to buy costly glossy paper, ink, 
personal phot printers, etc. and maintain the total flexibility to only 
print a few every now and then . . . many other stores have stand-alone 
machines that do this, too, but they cost a good bit more than the 
walmart route, and some do not work all that well, plus standing in 
lines, etc.

2)  The optical viewfinder point jim made is an important one while in 
the woods; it really saves a ton of battery life; one caveat - practice 
shooting some closer up pictures using the optical viewfinder only to 
get a feel for how much viewfinder error there is, and in what direction 
- since it is not an SLR camera, there will be some error in closer up 
pictures . . .

3)  There are a ton of good cameras in the 3 megapixel range now, and 
many in the 4 megapixel range at about the same price . . try to find 
the best combo of features, price and weather-proofness; shop around, 
and look around on the internet to get a sense of price, reliability, 
features, etc - then shop locally if you can come close on price to help 
a smaller camera place out!

4)  Two other features that are important to me are a decent USB cable 
connection so you can download into your computer, and definitely the 
ability to take large SD memory cards, or equivalent . . . the internal 
memory that the camera comes with is not usually much - 16 meg or so . . 
. shop the internet and buy one or two 256 meg memory cards - on my HP 
camera, one 256 memory card will hold about 195 pictures at high 
resolution . . . that is the equivalent of buying and developing eight 
24-exposure rolls of film - you can find 256 meg memory chips on the 
internet in the $35-45.00 range, but will probably pay at least $20.00 
more locally at most places.  Right now, our local Radio Shack had them 
on sale for $49.95 . . .

5)  use high quality lithium batteries for max. life, and carry spares . . .

6)  fiddle with features to learn how easy it is to delete pictures, how 
easy it is to modify settings, etc.  ask to take a quick look at the 
owner's manual - you can learn a lot with about 10 minutes of fiddling . 
. . my camera has some good flexibility in terms of flash settings, 
macro settings, manual settings, etc.

7)  don't be wood by the gazillion to one digital zoom numbers - it's 
better to have a decent optical zoom, plus some digital extra 
magnification, but the bigger digital zoom numbers are totally useless 
for hand held shots . . .



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