help with new camera

[fishman7]

hi guys
i am going to get a new digital camera but dont know much about then.i want one for the boat easy to use and somethink that can zoom in and hold heps of picture and also i want to down load them on the computer. any help
thanks
danny

[noluck]

whan i was about to buy my also did not know anythying about and ausfisher nickname zeeke was really big help(thanks tim for all advice)drop him PM he will putt u on right trak

[ba229]

lots of questions there

the basic principle of digital cameras is that you download them to your computer. All digital cameras will allow you to download to you computer.

As for holding heaps of photos that depends on megapixels that the camera can take and the amount of stourage you have.

ie my 4 megapixel camera has a 128Mb card and can hold 62 pictures of the highest quality. it can hold about 1500 pic if i set it at lowest quailty but obviously battery would not last that long.

They all zoom in one way or another. optical zoom means that you get a true zoom of the object ie through len movement.

digital zoom just means that it zooms in on th edigital image. therefore it is nowhere near as good.

For $300 these days you will get a camera that i paid $1500 4 years ago and they will be far better in battery life etc.

It is a bit like mobile phones now but. There are all sorts to choose from.

[land-lubber]

depending on ur price range and what quality of photos u want all contribute to ur choice. personally, id be going digital SLR with at least 10 mpix as i do a lot of photography where i want to blow the pictures up in size. a high megapixel gives more 'dots' per square inch (or to that effect) so the lower megpix u go, the lesser the quality of the printed/blownup photos. the SLRs give u flexability with lenses. meaning that if u want a nice portrait style photo of bloke with fish (for example), but not compleatly 'pro' quality, then a standard 28-80 telephoto lens does the trick. if u want closeups of fish heads or whatever u may need a macro lens. if u want pictures at range, like whales etc, then maybe a 75-300mm lens (cheaper, and will do some closeup work and portraits) may be the go. however, if u want bigger zoom and outstanding quality, go a sinle focal leangth lens, in say 400mm or 600mm etc. thats for the dig SLRs anyway.
if u just want one for posting average pics on the net or ur comp, and dont plan on blowups or prints, a cheaper compact digital may be the way to go. they are cheap as chips nowdays, and the quality of the product is at a good standard compared to 4-5 yrs ago.
personally, i go for Canon brand exclusively due to the quality and technology of thier cameras. they are highly durable and stand up to a good beating. if u want an idea of photo quality of canons have a look at the post on 'pics of cod' under the saltwater photos section. (the cod pics are mine) note: these were scanned on, so the quality isnt as good as the print. if u want/need more info, PM me and i might be able to help u with some specifics
hope this helps ::)

[banshee]

G'day Fishman,I am a complete novice at the digital camera game but have just bought a Pentax Optio WP,great little unit for on the boat,waterproof to 1.5metres for half an hour so splashing and getting wet shouldn't hurt it the bloke told me it can be washed of under the tap to get the salt off,5 megapixles and 3X opticle zoom also easy as to use.The amount of pictures depends on the card you put in and the amount of pixles you use in each photo,a 128mb card can hold a couple of hundred good photos I think.Only problem I have is trying to work out if you can take the pictures straight out of the camera onto the net without geting them developed first,the kind girl in the camera shop used to give me a second disc with the photos downsized to under 100kb for $5 but the new people want more so I don't get them.I think the price was around $400 but I could be wrong(the missus went and paid for it).

[shag_on_a_rock]

Banshee,
no need to get them developed, just download them straight to your pc and play with them there.
Almost all decent photo shop style programs have a "resize" function.
Simply bring up your full size pic and then resize it to something around 100K for emailing.

I use a Fuji F810 in a housing for diving (good to 40m) and general boating shots. I save the shots on 6meg sizes (goes as high as 12) and the chip can store about 200 photos.
Total cost was around $900, ie camera, big chip and underwater housing.

[marzoe]

If you buy a good name brand like Canon, Nikon, Pentax or Minolta you can't go wrong.
Look for something around 6 megapixels and put the biggest compact flash card you can afford into it. For example a 512 MB card would be perfect. More than you can ever fill.
Get a camera that is easy to use and has a flash over ride, so you can turn the flash off or on at will. Great for filling in the shadows on a sunny day.
If you spend somewhere between $700-1000 you will get what you're looking for.

[revs57]

G'day Danny,

We picked up a Fiji finepix s7000 to go to Disneyland with earlier in the year (approx $800ish)...with a 1gig cf card (approx $180 ish) it will hold over a thousand hi res photos...it has plenty of meg pix 12.3 meg recorded pixels and 6.3 meg effective pixels (not that these numbers mean much to me!) just means it takes really clear photos... you can point and shoot or get fancy if you like...its a dream to use, you can take plenty of shots to make sure you get the "good one"...my missus uses it a lot, and even I can drive it so it must be pretty straightforward ;D. Like most today it also has video function so you can record "that fight" for your customers too. We loaned it to some friends who went to Africa recently...they liked it so much...they brought one in Singapore on the way home!!! You can have a spare CF memory card on hand and change them over when they get full. Its a Bl@@%y ripper!

We also picked up a JVC Everio its a small digital movie recorder that will hold a couple of hours of recording on a 4gig hard drive or 10,000 hi res photos. It's small, light and a gem too...

good luck

Rhys

[westie]

hi guys
i am going to get a new digital camera but dont know much about then.i want one for the boat easy to use and somethink that can zoom in and hold heps of picture and also i want to down load them on the computer. any help
thanks
danny


Danny I see you said you wanted one just for the Boat, all the info iven here is fine .... If you were to by one for the family ..But for the boat ONLY there is no need to go to such expence as if you just want to use it for recording the catch and up loading to the net all you need is a 2 meg and a card is optional ..I do however do recommend you get on with Optical Zoom ,Flash, Wrist Strap and MUST have a view finder for night photo framing as some will not allow you to view through the screen in low light these are availabe from around $200 this way it is FOR THE BOAT and as one member has told of his ordeal of it going over the side now if you pay $200 and this happens, a lot better than $5-600 going over the side.
This give you the option of $ 200 or as others say $ 4- 700 for the boat
if you just fish during the day then one of the major discount $ shops have one for $99 4 Mg- Dig Zoom- Flash but NO View finder & it is USB PC conections. scott ( armoz ) has one BARGIN for the Boat

[banshee]

Thanks for that Shag,I'm not good at playing 'puters so I'll get the young fella to work it out.

[Zeeke]

For basic fish photos.. you only need a 3 or 4mp digital camera.. they are small, light and compact and if you have a good waterproof tacklebox they can be packed away...

For professional looking fish photos.. then you might need a SLR based digital camera.. like a Fuji Finepix or a Nikon Coolpix but you seriously dont need to get a full blown digital slr camera unless you have other reasons to go full out into photography.. 6mp is plenty and produces 40cm images with no worries at all.. bigger then most people need and even then, if you need them enlarged you can download quality imaging software and enlarge it yourself or take it to your printing place of choice and ask them to enlarge it for you professionally

It also depends on your price range.. but for $99.. you can get some cheap cameras that will do basic photos perfectly

Tim
p.s. Optical Zoom is better then Digital.. a Digital Zoom actually crops your image to produce a "zoomed" image.. it doesnt do anything special.. any digitally zoomed images will appear pixelated when opened to 100% viewing size

[Bosunsmate]

I was fortunate enough to recently acquire a Kodak CX7530 5 megapixel camera and dock that is absolutely fantastic...so easy to use with zoom and movie with sound. Bought a 256meg SD card for it and now can store upto 200 pics onboard.

This set of pics have been reduced in size for here but hey its still great quality.....and cost under $400 bucks.

[whiteman]

http://www.choice.com.au/. They've updated their digi report. You can buy the report or subscribe.

[bidkev]

Mate, It's all been said and there's some good points been raised. I'm an ex pro so I'll simplify.......

If you ain't interested in anything over 10 by 8, then 3 megapixels is fine..........end of story, apart for one little thing that is invariably overlooked even by those who know a lot about photography but not digital degradation. When you put a digital pic on your computer and work on it ie reduce in size, remove red-eye, enhance colour etc then if it's a jpeg, it will degrade. Better to shoot in RAW, work on it and then change it to jpeg. Most bottom range dig cameras don't have a RAW facilty and neither do some of the dearer ones.

There's nothing worse than trying to salvage a shot whilst at the same time having it degrade anyway. If you can get the pic right in the first palce then all well and good, but RAW can be a lifesaver. It does limit how many shots you can take though, but 17 on a 126 card is enough for any fishing session I should think.

A cheapo that has this facilty is the fujipix S5000 along with a 10x zoom. There are others that won't break the bank.

Beware the Kodak's. There software plays absolute havoc with some computers and when it is deleted takes other files with it.

cheers

kev

[Duyz72]

We recently got a Fuji digital, 3.2 megapixel for just over $200 it has auto focus as well which helps. 3.2-4MP is plenty of guts in a camera, you can blow up these to A4 size without too much trouble, although anything bigger will look rather grainy. It also comes with optical zoom, we did end up buying another memory card and can now hold 160 pix on camera. Although it doesn't come with 12V mains adaptor so keep that sort of thing in mind when choosing a camera. The extra $100 on a camera could end up being cheaper because of the inclusions.

It takes great pics and is easy to use.

You shouldn't really need to fork out more than $500 for one with bells and whistles

[fishman7]

hi guys
thanks for all the info this has help a lot
cheers
danny

[Zeeke]

Kev is spot on and something i forgot.. image degradation when saving images on the camera.. if your camera does raw or TIFF files.. save it as that.. Jpeg looses alot of image quality when its saved as its purpose is to smash as much info and quality of the image into the smallest possible file it can.. so sometimes.. you do loose alot of detail when enlarging, and also minimising the size..

Tim