camera question

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Once again i wish to take advantage of the astounding nontracotr information of this group. I have a great digital cmaera that takes what in my opinion are fantastic digital picutes (sony DSC-H1). The problem is that it is pretyt bluky to carry around at tractor shows, and with its price I am scared to death I will set it dwon and leave it somewhere. I am looking for suggestions on a reasonably priced smaller camera for this use. I have been using an old Toshiba M4 for that, but it is beginning to show signs of wear, and is also a little bulky. alos, a cmaera using stnadard batteries as opposed to propietary ones is a definite requiremnt. I made that mistake ONCE.

[Jeff Silvey]

John:
I don't know what you consiter reasonable price,but my boys bought their mom a Kodak 340 for Xmas. Its small and takes great pics . It came with a docking station/printer. Its a lot better than the one I use at the fire house when I'm on duty. Just my oppion .
Jeff

[400lbsonacubseatspring]

John,

In my opinion, as a long-time camera store owner, what you need isn't another camera, you need a neckstrap for that Sony.

There are straps available at most good camera stores that screw into the tripod mounting hole on the bottom of the camera. If you are of the mind to make something yourself, the threads of that hole are 1/4 20. The advantage of making one yourself is that you can make a rig that will more securely mount in the hole, and you wont feel the need to constantly check it for tightness.

Make/purchase a strap long enough that the camera hangs somewhere right above your beltline, as I see you wear your trousers up about your waist. That way, it won't bang on stuff when you sit down, but still isn't high enough to become a "bib" to catch crumbs and drink from cookie-monster like ingestion practices that we all indulge in from time to time.

The broader the strap, the less annoying it will be to your neck.

I used to carry a Nikon F with the power drive at one time. With a 105mm lens it weighed in at close to 5 lbs. I had a neckstrap made for it at a saddle and tack shop that was 6" wide where it went around the back of my neck. It was a necessity, and not a luxury. With that strap, I could walk around with it all day and never notice I had it with me.

Of course, that was when I believed the pictures I took were of some value. These days, they are just for documentation, and I find that anything will do the trick, and have even used a few antique box cameras to do the job, just for the pleasure of using them. 120 film (still available) rewinds onto 620 (not available for the last 30 years) spools perfectly, both before and after exposure.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

tom, I agrre with you on the neckstrap for carrying iy, and do have a long wide one, however, I do not want to subject my sony the type abuse it would get at a tractor show, dust, sweat, rain, banging around, etc.

[Jim Becker]

It has been several years since I bought my camera. At the time, all digital cameras fell pretty well into 2 categories: ones made by computer companies that operated like computers and ones made by camera companies that operated like cameras. I suspect the same may be true today, but prices are lower.

Since I learned most of what I know about taking pictures from using a camera rather than a computer, I ended up buying an Olympus. I have been happy with it. Mine is powered by 2 oddball batteries but 4 AAs fit as well. They recommend the oddballs because they last longer. I wasn't impressed with the life of the original set, so all I have ever fed it is AAs.

I imagine any of them work adequately. I suggest going to some site like Best Buy and pulling a list of all their choices, sorted by price. Move down the list until you find something that seems adequate for your needs and has a way to transfer pictueres to the computer that you can work with. Most store photos on some sort of small "card" or "stick" that can be pulled out of the camera. There should be readers for any of them that plug into a USB port, turning the card into a little disk drive. That is the way I use mine but my cards are probably obsolete by now.

[Ralph]

john this is the one i use

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier. ... 827#wg02_1

[Paul_NJ]

John

You've gotten good advice already. One thing I can add is that the differentiating factor among digital cameras is their "megapixel" rating. This describes how many (million) bits of information the camera gathers for a photo. Most digitals today provide at least 3 megapixels, which is fine if you plan to upload the photos onto the computer and look at them there, or post them on the web, etc. If you would like to sometimes print them out (that is, enlarge the image) particularly as 4x6 prints, you'd be happier with a 4 or 5 megapixel camera because the photos will be less grainy. Of course cost goes up with that capability. I have a Pentax zoom digital, and I love it.

[Jack fowler]

John,

I had a nice SLR digital camera and as well, was worried about it getting it beat up or losing it. My thoughts were I bought the camera to use so, when I went somewhere with the camera it was strapped to me much like Tom mentioned. Everything was fine until my baggage was stolen through check in at JFK airport four years ago.

When I got back from my trip and filing a claim with the airline company, (which is another story) a very long period of time went by before I received my claim. I noticed Wal-Mart was advertising a 3.2 mega pixel Kodak point and shoot digital cameras for $130.00. This was when you couldn’t buy a 2.0 mega pixel camera under $250.00. I bought the camera and it’s one of the best cameras I’ve owned. I was so impressed with it; the next Christmas I bought one for one of my sons, on sale for $95.00 which I think that’s the price now. Kodak has a nice site to store the photos and their software is very user friendly. The only thing I have against it, it does not have an optical zoom, only digital, which isn’t in my opinion a zoom.

Oh, by the way a few months later security for the airline at JFK caught the person who was taking luggage (off the carrier) and settled my claim, although my camera was long gone.

Our family does a lot of camping and the cameras have gone through a great deal. I just got back from a trip and used the camera when camping in the mountains and dropped my camera off a cliff into the snow. It took me a few hours to recover it and it still works!

One of the people I was with had a Sony DSC-H1. What a camera! He carried it in his back pack when mountain climbing and it got “beat” around pretty good and it went through the scale ok.

I personally think your camera will go through the test of tractor shows. I would “sling” your camera much like you sling a rifle; over your shoulder and neck. That way the camera is under the guard of your arm.

Since I can’t go to the tractor shows, I’m looking forward to seeing those pictures you take with that Sony. That’s what you bought it for.

Jack Fowler

[Brent]

John,

Like Jeff I bought the Kodak C340 with the dock printer. It comes as a package called the "EasyShare" also includes the software for your PC. I found it at both Best Buy and Circuit City on sale for $279.00. The internal memory only holds 16 pictures so I bought a 160 chip. That was an additional $20.00. So far I am real happy with it. What I also like is the cartridges for the printer include ink and paper so you never run ot of one or the other. The cartridges can be purchased in 10 to 170 pictures.

[Patbretagne]

Good talking Jack, nice to hear
Our little panasonic (cost quite a lot at the time) with a nice large light gathering leica lens goes into the workshop, tractor shows, on building sites chucked into the Landie and still gives out good photos for us.
Pat

[Russell F]

I've got a Casio QV-R40, its rather small and compact, will easily fit in a shirt pocket. 4mega pixel and uses 2 AA batteries. It even came with a charer and recharable batteries, but alkalines work in it too. It takes excellent pics and you can get really large mem cards for it. I keep it in my shirt pocket when i go on trail rides so i can pop pictures at anytime. Real easy one handed use.

Most the pics in my photobucket where took with it. It does real good on scenary too, I've got some beautiful pics from your backyard (MO Ozarks) i took with it.

Russell