Digital Camera Advice OT.................maybe

Here's a shot I took at the Power Show in Louisville KY last Friday with a Fuji FinePix E510. It's 5.1 megapixel and 3x optical zoom. With a 128MB card, it cost $350 out the door.

Unfortunately, I've got some settings effed up and most of my photos from Louisville turned out blurry. Really need to get that resolved.

What's nice about 5.1 megapixels is that you can crop the bejeezer out of a photo and still have good quality. I was utterly fascinated with the pull-back/spotting tractors at the tractor pull in Louisville. I was able to zoom in and crop into a pretty detailed look at a slicker-than-snot-on-a-pump handle tow bar the pull back honchos were using from up in the nose bleed seats.

I carry my extra sd cards and an extra battery in an "Altoids" tin. My only complaint on mine is that it doesn't use standard recharageable batteries.

The hard part of digital photography is editing - th e digital "darkroom". So get a cheap camera, learn how to print, how to upload downsized images, adjust this & that, ... After you have done that for a while, you will have a much better idea of what your next (if any) camera should be.

I'd suggest one of the cameras that can fit in your shirt pocket. Even if you get a better camera later, you will still have a use for it.

I've been wanting a new camera since forever, but just can't justify the cost.

I use this very old Canon Power Shot.

Allan

• Digital Camera Review

My preferred camera is Olympus. Consistently outstanding image quality, plus robust construction and long battery life. But I’ve also had very good luck with Canon, also with Kodak (which are actually made by Chinon).

As for resolution, the HIGHEST resolution camera I own is 2.1 megapixels. My experience is unless you’re gonna consistently be making prints 11 x 14 and larger, or you have lot’s of storage space in your PDA, a 3 meg camera suit you fine. Rather than spending $$ on more megapixels, invest it instead on a larger optical zoom, a couple extra memory cards and a spare set of rechargeable batteries.

Punch below for sample tractor (and some other...) images.

• digital albums

Note the image was shot with the 2100UZ at 1600 x 1200, then reduced to 640 x 480 for posting into the album.

Megapixels ????.....Here's one taken with an Olympus Brio D-100 (1.3 Mega-pixies) on Standard (not High or Super-High quality) setting....I don't know.....what do you think?

I have found that a 640x480 native picture will even print out quite well at 4x6. A 2 or 3 megapixel picture will print out very well at 8x10. Not many non-pros will print out bigger than 8x10 (or even have a printer that can do it). Unless you make a habit of looking at your prints with a magnifying glass, there is no real advantage for most to go bigger than 2 or 3 megapixel. The only advantage to bigger that I can see is if you want to crop and blow up the crop - in essence to increase your "effective" zoom capacity.

As far as brand - it's a chevy vs ford peeing contest. Features and "usability" are more important. Some of the cameras have such small buttons that people with relatively large hands have some difficulty using them.

Rod

I have yet to find another digital camera that even approaches the 2100 in overall performance. I cannot understand Olympus doesn't offer a followup model!

Brands, just dont buy sony! I have a kodak which is ok.