I recently bought a Sony Mavica MVC-FD7. For the un-initiated that
is a 640 x 480 color digital camera that records directly to
IBM format 3.5 floppies.  The camera is literally amazing.
Anyone else out there have a digital camera?

38 responses total.

no...but i'm gonna.

I have a B+W Quickcam.  It does a better job than one would think.  But It
is meant mostly for low-stress video conferencing.  I've done some interesting
collages of friends with this.
    I've ordered a new colour digital camera , but it's not here yet.
IT's a Mustek camera with a max resolution of 640x490, and a builtin flash.
This one uses the little memory cards though, not floppies.  No way coul I
afford a Mavica, no matter how much they may make me drool.  The Mustek has
a 1.8 inch colour back-lit LCD screen on the back so you can preview your
shots and delete them right after you take them.  There's also a serial cable
provided so you can send the photos to a computer without any special
adapters.  This camera is also TWAIN compliant.
     Today being new years, and a Friday however, IT'll be the end of next
week at least before I get my hands on this neat gadget.  
    IT costs $180-$190.
    When it arrives, I'll post some shots on my web site for comparison. 
PErhaps any other GREXers with digital cameras could sen along some shots,
and I could put up a comparison of shots from different cameras?  IF anyone
is interested in doing this, e-mail me at  vrondi@cyberspace.org

The digital camera was, alas, out of stock...

There is an alternative. I recently sent a role of film to Seattle Film
Works for processing. I haven't gotten back the slides and prints yet,
but I got an e-mail telling me they were coming - and a URL where I
can see and download all of my pictures right away - and, as far as I
could tell from the message, for free. I haven't looked yet, but this
could be a great way to get processionally scanned photos as well as
regular slides and prints. What can a digital camera do that this would
not accomplish? 

  cut out the processor. 

Allow you to immediately delete bad shots, rather than have them processed.
Great if the lighting is iffy.

You can also do a very quick one or two shots, then put them online instead
of having to use up (or waste) a roll of film.

All good points....though dependent on how you want to use photography. 
I only take good shots and am never in a hurry...  8^}

  Of course. I forgot that your real name was Ansel Adams Curl. ;)

He did a lot of dodging to fix his mistakes (well, actually for artistic
effect, but he should have taken the picture right the first time....).

Not yet having a photo-quality printer, where can I get digital
photographs on a floppy disk printed? (I have a vague memory of hearing
there are do-it-yourself places.) Also, is there a required format for the
image, or a required disk format (Mac, PC or both)?

meijers?

Probably Kinko's does it.

stay away from p. photo and studio center unless you
want archival prints.  big bucks.

Not meijer - they only have a film scanner to print 8x11 at $7 a pop. 
At that rate it is worth buying a photoquality printer!

yikes!  no kiddin.

Does anyone own a SAMPO digital camera?  The DCE-211 is said to have manual
focus, to 6", and use serial cable and produce 640 res, which is what we are
after for use with a DOS computer.  Anyone own an Epson PhotoPC?  The latter
will work with DOS-based download software (64K exe file) and I am curious
if the SAMPO will use the same software (also used by Olympus, Polaroid,
Nikon, Agfa, Sanyo).

I found a used Epson PhotoPC (the original) on eBay for $50.  It has 1M
internal memory, no LCD monitor, but it does autofocus (which two later and
more expensive models 500 and 550 do not).  Has flash (550 does not).  Takes
plain AA batteries, serial cable, and uses DOS-based software for download.
640 res - all our laptop can show anyway (and only in mono VGA).  Can use it
with an AC adaptor to take pictures of Jim's progress (if any) building our
house.  If anyone is still reading this item, can you explain how to use
autofocus with an add-on closeup lens (available for $12)?  Can you see what
you are about to photograph?  Optical viewfinder.  The primary lens is 43mm
and goes 2' to infinity, not ideal for photographing old slides.

The autofocus on a digital camera works by refocusing until the
image on the CCD is *sharp*. It knows this because of contrasts between
adjacent elements. Therefore a close-up lens just allows you to get
closer and still have the camera do its focus thing. Usually you cannot
frame in a viewfinder a close-up image, but you can, of course, frame
it in a LCD monitor. 

Some of the digital cameras allow you to view a live picture on the 
computer, even if the camera lacks an LCD.  You could always frame 
things up that way.

Tip: Those peel-and-stick screen protectors CompUSA sells for PDAs work
well to protect digital camera LCDs from scratches.  Just cut them down
to the size of your LCD screen and apply the same way you would to a
PDA.  It takes a little practice to get them on without annoying air
bubbles, but after wasting two or three I had the technique down.  They
last a surprisngly long time.  The camera at work has one I applied a
year ago that's just getting to the point where I'm thinking about
replacing it, and that camera is heavily (and carelessly) used.

Konica-Minolta is coming out with a digital SLR. The cool thing about this
is that it will have anti-shake technology built into the body instead of the
lenses. It should be due out in the fall of 2004. Personally I think the body
looks better than the digital Rebel or Nikon D70.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0402/04021220maxxum7digital.asp

Pretty sharp looking, yes.  It's interesting how control layouts on
digital cameras seem to be converging.  The back panel layout is pretty
similar to my Digital Rebel.

I'm really eyeballing the Sony A-(alpha)100. It will be Sonys entry into the
Digital SLR market. They used Konica-Minoltas DSLR as a starting point and
improved it from there. 

What really suprised me was how commited Sony seems to be in getting a share
of the professional market by announcing they will be working with Carl Ziess
to have three pro-grade lense fit their DSLR.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/sonydslra100/page3.asp

I think the CZ 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 would be the perfect everyday lense.

I caught my wife grepping eBay for a Nikon D50, which I
understand to be an entry-level digital SLR.  How bad are
these?  What would you recommend instead?

The only thing that I don't like about it, is that it still uses a 6 Mp sensor

although the kit lens for the Nikon seems (by just a hair) better that the
kit lense that come from Canon. But then again, I think that's the point of
getting an SLR, so you can have the option of changing to a better lense or
only by the body.

Since Mrs. Ball expressed an interest, I've been reading a
bit about digital SLRs including some reviews.  They still
seem to be very much a luxury item.  I'm tempted to buy a
film body and save some money that I can then put toward
lenses.  Mrs. Ball can practice with the film SLR to see
whether she is sufficiently interested to warrant the
expense of a digital (which hopefully may come down a bit in
price over time).

I think if you calculate the number of rolls of film you will have to buy and
process, you will find you very quickly reach the breakeven point where it
is cheaper to buy the digital.  

Depends how quickly I take pictures ;-)

We received a digital picture frame for Xmas. It works fine when a SD card 
from a camera is played in it as a slide show. However I have pictures on 
obsolete "smart media" cards which do not go into the picture frame. 
Therefore I transferred them to a computer and from there to a SD card. 
When that is put into the picture frame the thumbnails are shown but when 
trying to run the slide show a few pictures are OK but then they get 
corrupted with junk, and finally just fail to display. What's the problem 
and can I correct it?

I solved the problem I described in #29. It took some fancy fiddling...

Did you have to hit it with a stick?

No. Guess again...

So what's happening in the digital camera realm these days?

The first digital camera that I brought 6-7 years ago doesn't take good 
pictures [images do not come out as clear as I'd like].  A year or two 
ago, I brought a Canon A1000 IS point-and-shoot camera; it's not too 
expensive IIRC, and takes better pictures than my previous camera.  
Though I wish I could afford a camera similar to a friend's camera; his 
pictures are awesome!  I know he's experienced in shooting, but a nice 
camera also makes a big difference.

I would like a Pentax K-3 but I can't justify the expense.

I used to have a Pentax film camera, the K-1000 moel. 

[I know I'm late in responding to this post; the previous post was in 
April.]

I have a Pentax MV and a ZX-M, both film bodies.

I sold my two film cameras (a Mamiya 645 and Minolta XD-5) and am completely
digital now. I now have a Panasonic LX3, a compact 10MP when I want to travel
light. Then shortly after my son was born, I decided to finally get a DSLR.
It was a toss up between Sony and Canon. But I figured Canon already had a
great selection of lenses, so I went with a Canon T3i. It has an 18MP APS-C
CMOS sensor. I've got a 10-22mm, 18-55mm, and 70-300mm. The next lense will
probably be a 24-70mm f2.8 to replace the 18-55mm kit that came with the body.

I no longer have a film SLR and am not sure if I still have one of the 
compact ones. Though I think I may still have 1 or 2 compact digital 
ones. They initially worked fine but had problems with them later on. 
So now I just use my iPhone [5s] and my Canon T3 SLR. I need to get the 
DSLR one out and start using it again so that I will remember how to 
use it when I really want to.

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