Digital cameras forum: Need help in switching from old to new technology!

Hi dougbert. I'm sure you will get a lot of helpful replies in this forum, but while you are waiting, may I suggest you take a look at www.dpreview.com.

I have no connection with that site other than as a computer/photo enthusiast. The site has reviews (with 15>30 sample pics) and details of many different makes of camera.

Also they have forums for each camera within those makes, so if you pose your question there as well, you will get a lot of useful information from both amateurs and professionals. I am always learning lots of new things on both sites.

Have fun....

One of the most forgotten element in selecting a Digital Camera is the high quality of our existing SLR's with featured lenses. I am going thru the same process and decided to stay with my Pentax and Nikon series of lenses and add just the body. Yes, it remains (physically) heavy but quality comes with this price.

Have fun with your new toys.

Hello Dougbert,
I have upgraded to a "prosumer" style camera. I have used Nikon film cameras and bought a D70 nikon digital SLR. Pentax has similar level of digital. In this style of camera you will be able to use your old lenses in manual and possibly in program and auto modes depending on the lens type you have now. The camera will come with a lens in the 18mm to 70 mm zoom range for general photos. The shutter delay can be mimimized by 3 features.
1. Set the camera to continous focus, this will help eliminate the camera from having to focas on the image in frame at the time you push the shutter button.
2. Turn off the image review on the lcd screen. It takes time on less expensive models and will tie up the camera on follow up shots untill the camera is done updating the screen.
3. Use a memory card that matches the cameras write speed. If the camera writes at 20x speed get a card that will store data at least that fast. There is no advantage to getting a 60x card if your camera can only write at 20x. the buffer in the camera is very limited on most cameras in how many shots it will hold while writing to your memory card. when the buffer is full you have to wait for the image to transfer to the memory card before you can take another shot. Image size and quality greatly affects this speed also. Better quality and higher resolution takes more time. If you have to shoot fast action, sometimes it is better to have lower resolution ang be able to get the shot.
This is not a problem if you spend around $2,000.00 on a camera. They will be very close to film speeds if not better.
As far as the Wife is concerned, I have the same issue. Mine is a POINT AND SHOOTER! All the SLR versions have an auto setting that is just a click of a button or a turn of a knob away. She will love it other than the weight and size. It wont fit in her purse.
For information I agree with an earlier post. WWW.DPREVIEW.COM is a great site for digital camera review from point and click to Professional models costing thousands. Phil will document just about every feature you could possibly imagine. Check out the site!!!
Hope this helps.
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints!!

Hi dougbert
You'll be pleased to hear that most digital cameras are faily light, and most - from about 50 upwards have a flat viewscreen on the rear, mine has a 3x zoom, that is built in, some models use an add-on exterior lens.

That "lag time" you heard mentioned, does not apply in all cases, and is usually only for auto-focus cameras (it's not much anyway).

As far as processing costs - none, yu just upload to your computer via the camera's own USB cable!

One word of caution, the camera memory varies from about 8 - 16 Mb, you're better getting another meory card for it as well. mine uses a Secure Digital 128Mb card; you'll also need to use good batteries for it, you'll find out the best types from the maker.

Regards

I recommend you visit www.dpreview.com and read reviews
of various digital cameras. Some newer cameras have
far less lagtime than older models. That website has
exhaustive information and reviews written by people who have bought various digital cameras as well as the
reviews written by the extremely knowledgeable host.
Good luck.

First some background. I am not an expert and I've been taking pictures since the late '40s. My all time favorite cameras are my Olympus Pen FTs. That being said, my 35mm cameras are an Olympus OM2 and Minolta Maxxum 5. All cameras are equipped with a long lens or long zoom lenses. The Pen FT and OM2 are able to use my 500mm mirror lens.

I now have four digital cameras. The first ever was a Sony MVC-FD7. This particular camera uses floppy disks for storage media. The reason that I purchased this camera over all the others available was its 10x digital zoom and the fact that the floopy media could be used in any computer without the need for additional software. Because of storage limitations you do not want to buy a floppy disk-based camera.

You do not want to go from a 35mm camera with long zoom to a digital camera with less than 8x zoom. You will not be happy. I can guarantee it.

I have an Olympus C-2100 2.1 megapixel digital ultrazoom camera. It has a 10x optical zoom lens with image stablization. The camera is shaped like a 35mm with 75-300mm zoom attached. That is you have a long snout rather than having a zoom lens that can be attached and detached. This particular camera has auto focus assist. That is, in very low light, a red beam is activated which lets the camera focus. It also has a remote control. This particular camera has been discountinued, but I mention it because it is the camera that I base my decisions on when looking at the latest digitals.

Your desire for manual focusing can only be met with a few digital cameras that are not dSLRs (digital Single Lens Reflect). Besides the majority of dSLRs are way outside of your price range. However, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel and the Nikon D70 are in the low $1K range.

Many digital cameras let you switch to manual focus, but it is electronic and not hand focusing. It is very easy, on some cameras, to switch between manual and auto focusing. There are two cameras that I know of that have manual focusing rings. One is a Fuji FinePix (S5000 or S7000, I don't remember which) and the other is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10. The Fuji FinePix S5000 is a 3.1 megapixel 10x optical zoom camera and the S7000 is a 6.3 megapixel 6x optical zoom camera. The DMC-FZ10 is a 4 megapixel 12x optical zoom camera.

Except for the low end of the camera scale, many digital cameras allow you to view the image and take the picture with either the eyepiece viewfinder or the LCD. Not both. Some cameras will immediately show you the image taken on the LCD. Others you have to push a button to view the image.

How many megapixels will you need? Considering the price range you are looking at 2 to 5. You may read in various places that you need more than 2 megapixels to print images at 8x10. This is not entirely accurate. It depends on many factors, including the lens and camera manufacturer. Nikon and one or two others, at their Web sites, indicate that you can print 8x10s with their 2 megapixel cameras. I have what I consider to be great prints at 8.5x12 from my 2 megapixel camera. If you are going to be cropping, after shooting, then the more pixels the better. You should then be looking at the 8 megapixel cameras. They will set you back more than $500 though. Always shoot at the highest quality JPEG setting. If you are taking pictures of a static scene you can use TIFF or RAW (if the camera provides such settings). TIFF and RAW take a long time to write to the card.

You also want to buy a camera that takes AA NiMH rechargeable batteries. Many digital cameras come with proprietary batteries and chargers. Buying a spare is expensive. You also want to be aware of the media the camera uses. The Smart Media (SM) cards have reached their maximum storage limit of 128MB. Compact Flash (CF) and Secure Digital (SD) are now being produced with gigabyte ranges. Regardless of the number of megabytes the card has that comes with the camera, I recommend that you buy at least a 256MB card. If you plan on using TIFF or RAW you will need at least a 512MB card.

Camera manufacturers are now listing the speed at which the camera is ready for picture taking and from shutter release to writing on the media. In order to find this data you would have to visit the various camera manufacturer Web sites. Some of them are very frustrating when trying to find precise information. Besides CNET, your best bet is to visit a couple of Web sites that provide detail reviews of digital cameras. You might want to try Digital Camera Review at http://www.dpreview.com/ or Steve's Digicams at http://www.steves-digicams.com/. There are others, but I religiously read these two.

To take outstanding pictures with a digital camera you must be aware that it is a two stage affair. There is no getting around it except possibly with the $5K and above dSLRs (I do not keep track of the Canon EOS 10D, Fuji FinePix S2 Pro, Kodak DCS Pro 14n, etc).

You have to depress the shutter half way for the camera to focus and then press all the way to take the picture. I take pictures of hummingbirds and I am happy with my results although there is plenty of room for improvement. I do not use flash or additional lighting. In many cases I prefocus on the area where the hummingbird will appear. With the both 35mm and digital cameras I have had disasters. Once I've prefocused I do not worry about the two stage process. I've had disasters here too, but more good shots than bad.

With a digital camera you can see immediately the image you've taken. As they say, you can shoot over. There are times when you cannot shoot over because the precise image you were trying to take is gone. Also be aware that what you view on the LCD screen may not be what you see when you load the images into your computer or have them printed from the media card. The LCDs are notorious for showing you a good image, in low light situations, when in fact the image is underexposed.

I added a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1 to my arsenal. This camera has a 12x optical zoom with image stabilization.
It has a longer zoom range than the Oly C-2100. It does not have low light focus assist. It has fast write times and flash recycling. I used it for an indoor fashion show assignment. I like this camera very much but I cannot trust it for taking indoor shots at distances beyond its flash range or in low light.

You will find that many of the digital cameras that have zooms, the lens retracts when the camera is turned off. That means that you have to zoom again once you turn it back on. It is a time waster even though some cameras have very fast zoom times.

The ideal digital camera is the one that you eventually end up with. You have to go to a camera store and play with different cameras. I don't mean Wal-Mart.

Konica Minolta has just released a Z3. This camera is 12x optical zoom. Give their Web site a visit. I recently added a Minolta DiMAGE X20 to my arsenal. It is a 2 megapixel camera with internal zoom lens. It is a shirt pocket camera, but I wear it on my belt with a small camera case. It goes wherever I go. It does not have eyepiece focusing. LCD only.

I still use my 35mm cameras. When I have the film developed I have Kodak CDs made. That gives me prints and digital images. With my digital cameras I make my own prints at home.

If you decide to have CDs made of your 35mm shots make sure that the prints are on smooth glossy paper. As I understand the process, the developing/finishing equipment takes images of the prints and puts them on the CD. If you go to a place that uses a linen type finish your CD images will look like they are full of dust and scratches.

When possible you want to immediately save your images to CD or a hard drive. You also want to have backups. Do not erase your images from the media until you have a couple of backups.

We have used a Pentax K1000 for many years, but I purchased an Olympus digital camera a few years ago. Then being happy with that one, I upgraded to a newer better Olympus with 10x zoom. I'm very happy with it also.