Camera and Photography - Digi and Film

[Clinton1]

I think that with the film - I'll try and find a decent place to develop them, and for 'important' rolls return them to Aus.... and thanks for the tip on the Richmond store - good one!
I reckon I can bypass the x-ray machines... its not what you know but who you buy beer for, right??

Yes, $200 is about my budget although the missus said hers can wait and be purchased through Duty Free.... So I guess I'll go up to @$300.

$300 should get me the Canon A530... unless I go the tightars3 route and just get the A430 for $175 and get a better/spare battery and bigger memory card.

Ditch the film camera.... Noooooo, bar the doors, the philistines are coming! Seriously, I like it... its good to play with.

So, A430 or A530, extra memory and rechargable battery and recharger... also find a computer to have the images burnt to disk on.

Thanks all for the hand holding...
makes me feel a bit more comfortable with spending the equivalent of 1/4 of my Festool Domino savings on a bit of 'soon to be redundant' digital crud.

I suppose I'd better just find a decent 'blog' site to upload them to....

[woodbe]

Another option for developing at home would be to post the film back, and so avoid the airport xray. I don't know if postal articles get zapped, but it would be worth checking. On our recent trip, one of us had a dvd-burning laptop, so we posted a dvd of all our photos once a week back home, and they all turned up without a scratch...

woodbe.

[ozwinner]

Been playing with iPods as well, using the iPod camera connector. Means that I can upload photos from the camera to the iPod for storage in the field. Means I have 80GB of storage, rather than the 1GB on the card, without getting back to a computer. Might be very beneficial overseas. Also, is harddrive storage, rather than relying on the SD (or CF card) as storage.

Excellent tip there with the iPod Stu.

Al

[Malibu]

Just a quick two-bob's worth...
I prefer my Pentax SLR 35mm, but I had a need for a small and easily transportable camera, so I opted for digital.
I got a Pentax (Hey, I love Pentax stuff) Optio S4 for about $750 a couple of years ago. Now they've upgraded the pixel count and downgraded the price. An Optio S5 I think is around the $300 mark and well worth the price. Even in digital, the lens is the failing point and that's why I went for Pentax.

[Iain]

Think I already covered xray bags in my post - oh wait - forgot, no one reads other peoples posts any more.

But not a decent pro lab, just a general overview and comment, plus my own experience with a really good processing and printing outfit, at not much more than the shopping centre '1 hour processing' operations.
No, I glance through responses and add my own

[Stuart]

True, they are just a bit scarce in 3rd world countries. Didn't come across one in Egypt for example- bought all my films back to Oz to get them developed. Since then however, there has been a significant leap in xray machines - a new one came onto the market, but it is way too powerful for film, and the operators don't care. It is the one that can penetrate the lead lined film bags without straining.

And then 9/11 happened, so I can only imagine how much worse it got after that.

As to mail - all parcels are xrayed. However, I don't know what model of machine they use - it may be safer on film.

Damage from Xray machines is cumulative - one machine may not be enough to cause obvious fogging, but if you pass through a few, the damage gets worse and worse.

[ian]

Clinton
there's no longer such a beast as "Duty Free"
all you get back is the GST, it doesn't matter where you buy, if it's within 1 month of departure just front to counter within the terminal, show the item, show the receipt, hand over the credit card (for the GST refund) and that's it.

as to what camera to get
list the important specs in priority order
1) very short shutter lag
2) power up speed
3) optical zoom range
4) battery (my favourite is Lithium Ion, others prefer AAs)
5) storage media

that's probably it, though at 7Mpixels, you can crop to compensate for a shorter zoom range

ian

[MajorPanic]

Hey Clinton,

1. I've got to buy 2 digi camera's, both around $200 or so. Whats a good camera for this price, and what sort of 'minimum shutter release' can I expect. Or am I dreaming?
I was looking at a Canon A430 today ($175) and it took 2 seconds to take the shot after the button was pressed. Can I get better than this for my $?

Spend more money .... Sorry but that's the truth of the matter.

2. When I get film developed, if the developers is a bit dodgy, will the negatives be poor quality?
I'm off to a developing country next year, and in some countries I've noticed the developers give me slightly blurred pics back, with poor colour. I can handle this when I am overseas.... but I don't want to get the film developed if it means the negatives will be poor as well. So, will the negatives be affected?

DO NOT GET pictures printed.
When you get to your destination, find the local version of the Yellow Pages & look up PROFESSIONAL labs or better still find a local pro photographer & ask him/her what lab they use. Once you are armed with this info, go & have your film processed in strip & not printed. The negs will be in a long roll, usually inside a plastic sleeve. Just send them home for printing later.

[Groggy]

Stu, I recently bought my daughter an IXUS 900Ti. It cost a bit but is just the ticket. It came with a 2gb card that is very quick.

I like the ipod tip - ta!

[bitingmidge]

For the most objective review of a range of digital cameras I've seen in a while, see here:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/2006-camera-guide.htm

by the same author (Ken Rockwell) and worth a look are also articles on:

Which is better, a $150.00 or a $5,000.00 camera

and a (slightly) contradictory article Classes of Digital Camera in which he explains that even the most expensive Point and Shoot Camera is not really suitable for photographing people because of the time lag factor, and from experience I have to agree with that.

On the other hand the question could have been whether it's possible to get a set of $5.00 chisels that hold their edge. There is no one answer, but you might pick up one second had that could....

Cheers,

P

[bitingmidge]

I suppose I'd better just find a decent 'blog' site to upload them to....

www.flickr.com

cheers,

P

[Clinton1]

Thanks for the links P!

Well, I went and paid $175 for the Canon A430, and then spent a bit more on a Scandisk Ultra II SD card, Lithium rechargers and a recharger, and a carry case.....

Now, I can solemnly swear that this was the absolute best camera for me .... and no-one had better say different!!

Seriously, thanks for all your input.

[Stuart]

flickr is an interesting site - I have a few of my photos on there as well.

Another site worth looking at (for those still looking that is!) is

www.steves-digicams.com Think it has been mentioned on here before - great for comparing models. ( camera models, not photography models )