What's your opinion on this digital camera?

[Kingdom Konsultant]

We just bought a new digital camera. It's a Kodak Easy Share DX4900 Zoom.
Here are some of the features:
4 megapixel resolution
6x zoom
close up mode
captures jpeg standard image files

I also bought the dock for it. Please give me your opinions on this camera. This is my first digital and I would like to know if I bought a good one or not.

Many Thanks,
Pam

 

[no2apprentice]

I have a Kodak 4800. I'm still on a little bit of a learning curve with it, because I've been using film for 32 years (guess I kinda got used to it - lol). It sounds like your camera has good specs, like the 4 megapixel. Is your 6x zoom digital or optical? Use the digital zoom as little as possible: resolution suffers (if you're just doing stuff for the net, or small wallet sized photos, this isn't as much of an issue).

Some lessons I've learned with digital cameras:
- Have memory cards. After all, this is your film. When on a trip, you can always buy more film, but it's so nice to reach in the bag and pull out another memory card that's 128 mb!

- Rechargable batteries. Think of how many you might need, then buy one more. The thing about rechargable is they will drain when left in the camera. You go to pull out the camera for some photos thinking the battery is close to a full charge, and...nothing. It's nice to have fully charged extras sitting in the bag.

- Don't rely on the camera to take good pictures. I started falling into this trap on our last trip to WDW. I had this neat little digital camera, easy to use, auto-everything, etc., and started to forget the basics: framing, composition, interest, perspective, color, lighting...when I got back and downloaded, I was amazed that about 1/3 of the pictures I took were pretty doggone dull. My wife took better shots with her 35mm (and she forgets what an aperture is).

Anyway, hope you enjoy your Kodak. And don't forget to check their website for any updates on the Kodak software (if your use their software).

Have fun! We expect some pictures!

 

[wdwcrazy]

I don't like Kodak digital cameras. Two of my friends have them, and I havne't been very impressed with them. Eventhough one's two and one's three megapixels, my 1.3 megapixel camera took better pictures. Also with Kodaks they are too automatic. You can't adjust setting enough for different light setttings. That's just my opinion. I hope you enjoy your camera!

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Thanks for all of the tips! The zoom is 2x optical and 3x digital if that helps. I will mention the rechargable batteries to my husband. It also has a close up mode to 2.8 inches or 70mm. It also has some type of a night vision where it makes the night time pictures brighter.:veryconfu I have a LOT of reading and practicing I do believe before I get the swing of this. Thank you again for your input!

Pam

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by wdwcrazy
I don't like Kodak digital cameras. Two of my friends have them, and I havne't been very impressed with them. Eventhough one's two and one's three megapixels, my 1.3 megapixel camera took better pictures. Also with Kodaks they are too automatic. You can't adjust setting enough for different light setttings. That's just my opinion. I hope you enjoy your camera!

Actualy, the DC4800 that the person above is referring to offers a lot of manual control such as f stop ratings, exposure, “film” speed and so on. It can even be set up to work with a professional external flash. I’ve actually seen them in use at both Disney and Universal with external for the souvenir photos. I think it may be one of Kodak’s only pro-hobby camera though. Just about everything above that (the DCS line) work like digital SLR cameras and are geared more toward professional use with a price in the thousands…

One thing to look out for with the megapixel rating though is to make sure that it is actually based on the size of the CCD (sensor that captures the image) rather than software in the camera that more or less just enlarges the picture before saving.

 

[Merlin]

http://www.popphoto.com/pdfs/2002/1002/Kodak4900f.pdf

The website for Popular Photography Magazine has a review of this camera that you might be interested in reading. It had favorable things to say!

Have fun with your digital! I have two Sony Cybershots and love them both!

 

[Tramp]

I just ordered the Canon S30...3.2 megapixels...I like the lithium battery setup...the mpeg option...the panoramic mode...it has a 3x zoom and 6x digital zoom...I like the metal case instead of plastic...etc etc...........The camera is rated high on Cnet and a Doctor friend of mine has one and is totally satisfied with it...the picture quality is excellent and that was most important to me.

It seems like enuf camera for me cuz you can go crazy with features that cost a bundle that you never use.

 

[Tramp]

Originally posted by no2apprentice
Some lessons I've learned with digital cameras:
- Have memory cards. After all, this is your film. When on a trip, you can always buy more film, but it's so nice to reach in the bag and pull out another memory card that's 128 mb!

I bought a 256MB CF for $85 less a $20 rebate...sounds reasonable to me...If this sounds good to you, go to www.buy.com. They even ship it for free.

I don't know enuf about it yet, but I'm told I should be able to take 150+ photos at the highest resolution on it OR some 3000 photos at the lowest. So I'm curious, is there a happy medium to take high quality photos while preserving the space on the card? What's your experience with that? Or is this something I'm gonna just have to experiment with?

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Originally posted by Merlin
http://www.popphoto.com/pdfs/2002/1002/Kodak4900f.pdf

The website for Popular Photography Magazine has a review of this camera that you might be interested in reading. It had favorable things to say!

Have fun with your digital! I have two Sony Cybershots and love them both!

Wow! That's great! I feel better now knowing that it got such high ratings. But one thing I don't understand is what is a "burst" mode?

Pam

 

[DisneyCP2000]

Originally posted by Tramp
I bought a 256MB CF for $85 less a $20 rebate...sounds reasonable to me...If this sounds good to you, go to www.buy.com. They even ship it for free.

I don't know enuf about it yet, but I'm told I should be able to take 150+ photos at the highest resolution on it OR some 3000 photos at the lowest. So I'm curious, is there a happy medium to take high quality photos while preserving the space on the card? What's your experience with that? Or is this something I'm gonna just have to experiment with?

With that much memory you'll never have to worry about running out of space. Rather you may have to worry about battery life on your camera (i know i did). :lol: I have a 256mb card and it can take 200-2700 images depending on how fine you want the images. I'd highly suggest taking higher resolution photos when it come to the more precious shots. Just play with the sizes and resolution and you'll see how many you can squeeze on a card.

 

[DisneyCP2000]

Originally posted by Kingdom Konsultant
Wow! That's great! I feel better now knowing that it got such high ratings. But one thing I don't understand is what is a "burst" mode?

Pam

suppose you want to take 20 pictures in a row without the camera stalling for 2 seconds to save each picture. with Burst mode you can take all 20 shots in a row without any stalling inbetween each shot. it's great for trying to capture a perfect shot when you can't get perfect timing.

An example would be trying to take a shot of a person running across a finish line. Put the camera in burst mode just before the runner crosses the line till they cross. With all the shots taken, you should be able to find a good one in there.

 

[SpongeScott]

Since we're talking digitals, anyone know anything about the Fuji FinePix 3800?

 

[Merlin]

Originally posted by Tramp
I bought a 256MB CF for $85 less a $20 rebate...sounds reasonable to me...If this sounds good to you, go to www.buy.com. They even ship it for free.

I don't know enuf about it yet, but I'm told I should be able to take 150+ photos at the highest resolution on it OR some 3000 photos at the lowest. So I'm curious, is there a happy medium to take high quality photos while preserving the space on the card? What's your experience with that? Or is this something I'm gonna just have to experiment with?

This depends largely on what you plan to do with the pictures after taking them. I generally shoot in the highest resolution possible because I know I may be doing some cropping and enlarging. Shooting at the highest resolution gives me some room to play with and allows me to still end up with some pretty sharp images. Also, you can always reduce the resolution later on your computer if you want to email the images or post them on a web site. On the other hand, I've been in situations where I know I'm going to be shooting a ton of pictures and there's a chance I'll run out of memory space at high (5.24 megapixel) resolution. In those cases, I'll select the midrange resolution. That way, the shots are still relatively sharp, but memory storage capacity is increased. I try to avoid the lowest resolution (usually 640 x 480) unless I'm really desperate or I know for certain that I'm just going to be emailing the shots.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Originally posted by DisneyCP2000
suppose you want to take 20 pictures in a row without the camera stalling for 2 seconds to save each picture. with Burst mode you can take all 20 shots in a row without any stalling inbetween each shot. it's great for trying to capture a perfect shot when you can't get perfect timing.

An example would be trying to take a shot of a person running across a finish line. Put the camera in burst mode just before the runner crosses the line till they cross. With all the shots taken, you should be able to find a good one in there.

Thank you for explaining that to me. I wish the instructions were that simple.:hammer:

Pam

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by Tramp
I bought a 256MB CF for $85 less a $20 rebate...sounds reasonable to me...If this sounds good to you, go to www.buy.com. They even ship it for free.

I don't know enuf about it yet, but I'm told I should be able to take 150+ photos at the highest resolution on it OR some 3000 photos at the lowest. So I'm curious, is there a happy medium to take high quality photos while preserving the space on the card? What's your experience with that? Or is this something I'm gonna just have to experiment with?

Part of it depends on the formats your camera offers for saving the pictures. Most only offer jpeg which is usually ok for everyday use but jpeg is what is called “lossy compression” what that means (more or less) is that the software inside the camera is going to take liberties with how it sees the image it just captured so that it can save it in the smallest possible space while retaining the original size. The more it is compressed the worse the final picture will look. Some cameras offer multiple levels of compression on top of multiple image resolutions which also affects file size on the memory card…

If your camera offers the option of saving pictures as a tiff, that would be the way to go for the best possible quality because it won’t apply any compression to it at all but there is a price: Each picture is going to take up around 10 megs of space with a 3.2 megapixel camera.

I’ll see if I can find a website that explains this better than I can. If you can see visuals so that you understand exactly how the compression affects the final look of the picture it is easier to understand…

I get into all this because jpeg is probably fine if you are only going to use your pictures for the web or onscreen browsing but if you plan to be printing them and you want them to look nice (like close to a film color print), you need to be a bit aware of these kinds of things… Oh, and you might want to consider a 6 color printer as well.

 

[sigsegv]

Originally posted by no2apprentice
- Rechargable batteries. Think of how many you might need, then buy one more. The thing about rechargable is they will drain when left in the camera. You go to pull out the camera for some photos thinking the battery is close to a full charge, and...nothing. It's nice to have fully charged extras sitting in the bag.

I read somewhere that, if you can afford it, you should have three sets of rechargables for your camera. One would be in the camera, one would be charging, and one would rule them all. No, j/k... The third set would be all charged up, in your camera bag ready to go when the ones in the camera have worn down.

I have found this to be a pretty good arrangement for my old 4800, which uses AA batteries. My new camera has its own special battery and getting three of them is a bit expensive, so I just have two.

-sig