Digital cameras

[girl scout tied]

OK, so i want to be able to post naughty pics too!

i do not know a thing about digital cameras, other than the more pixels the better. If anyone can please help, i need the basic low down, and some recommendations if you have any. But, i really do not know a thing about them so you really need to be able to talk to me like i am 5.

 

[Ricoh]

My humble opinion

If you are interested in just taking some fun picks and posting here, you don't need amything more then a 2.0 megapixal camara. We can pick them up here for about $120.00 at Walmart. Of course I don't have a clue where to look or price range over across the pond. Good luck. Also you may need to purchase a photo editing program to resize pictures to fit the size limits of this site. You need to talk to someone more technically proficient then I....

 

[lobito]

depends on how "good" you want them to look. You can get a cheap webcam, that will do semi-sufficient jobs, (@ $30) or a slightly better digicam for less than $90. On up to hundreds, or thousands of dollars.

 

[AnelizeDarkEyes]

Hi there--

As to the buying a photo editing program most cameras come with a program that will suffice (I've had both a Canon and an Hewlett-Packard, both had the appropriate photo editor programs included with the camera for Windows). As to the camera itself, it depends on how much of an investment you want to make. I wanted something that would last me awhile, but wasn't a going to cost an arm and a leg. I spent about $225 for 2.3 MP, and 2X zoom. I've been pretty happy with it, I've had it about 2 years with no problems.

By the way, run a thread search, i believe Dillinger has a thread regarding a free program that you can download that works quite nicely for resizing and such. Also, check your computer system. If you have Microsoft Works, you may already HAVE Microsoft Picture-It loaded on your computer. That will do the trick

~anelize

 

[MercyMia]

I'm happy with the Sony digital camera I got for Christmas. Still trying out its different features. It's a Cyber-shot 4.0 pixels but I don't take advantage of its high-end abilities since my main need is to take clear photos to send to friends and relatives by email. I don't want to send humongous files!

Haven't seen Dillinger's thread on software for digital cameras, but WeirdHarold turned me on to Irfanview, shareware that is so idiot-friendly! I make my AVs with Irfanview.

Good luck.

 

[billwindows]

I would recommend you get a good camera with higher pixels because not only can you use it to post naughty pics, you can also use it for other camera needs. Drop us a line and tells us when you do get the pics online.

 

[ReadyOne]

Image Resizing program

http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

The virture of this one is that it is intelligent when adding new pixels or lumping old ones together. It resamples, looking at near by pixels and makes a much better guess about what color/shade to use for the new pixel.

The only thing it won't do is let you see what a compressed jpeg will look like. Jpegs are saved at a selected "quality" level. The lower the quality number, the smaller the file, and the less fidelity the image has. with ifranview, you guess at a number, save the file, and then open the small reduced quality version to see if the quality was reduced too much.

I have an old program called jpegExplorer that shows both the current and potential image plus their file sizes. You move the slider until the potential image is of good enough quality and/or the file size is small enough. When you're happy. you do the actaully save.

In looking for a link to give you for it, I found that it has evolved into a (very poor) slide show maker and lost it's redeaming virtue of letting you see compressed images before saving. Sorry.

 

[ReadyOne]

Jpeg compression previewer

http://www.winsoftmagic.com/downloads.html

Shareware $25.

The screen looks incredibly complex, but don't worry! The only thing you really need to do is move the slider bar at lower left. Click on the button beside the bars so they move together.

Also, be patient and watch the very lower right corner of the window at the message/ red and green lights. It takes a while (seconds) to do the compression, so it may not look like moving the slide did anything for a bit.

Also, try the magnifying glass, top tool bar two buttons left of the hand. When selected, right mouse button zooms out, left button zooms in.

This guy will also do resizing/thumbnails, and croping. Many people should be able to get by with this one program.

 

[cactiphile]

I found a good website for digital cameras
which has a good search and compare function on it.
Might be of help as well as being far cheaper than the high street.

http://www.internetcamerasdirect.co.uk/


Things to look for apart from pixels.

a) Is there a proper optical view finder as well as the lcd.
If you have to use the lcd ALL the time, the batteries run out
very quickly.

b) size of memory card that comes with it. The bigger the better.

c) Optical zoom is better than digital zoom, get at least 3x optical.
Get better if you want to ever take pictures of wild life.

Hope this helps

c.