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Re: Digital Camera
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about finding a digital
camera for under $300. I got a lot of very helpful responses, a number of
which included pictures that had been taken with different models. Some
great stuff!
I decided on the Olympus D340-R, which fit the major criterion -- under
$300 -- while still comparing favorably, according to www.cnet.com, with
several cameras priced at $400 to $500. The vendors advertising it for as
low as $249 were out of stock, but I found it in stock at
www.shopharmony.com for $269.
I'm really happy with the camera -- our pictures aren't exactly
Amano-quality, but they're getting much better as we play with it (we sure
discovered the importance of cleaning the glass! You don't realize how much
algae, or how many scratches on the glass, you've been overlooking until you
see them on camera). The features that I'm happiest with are a "sports
shot", which helps with getting a decent picture of a swimming fish, a macro
feature, which makes it possible to take a picture of a fish four inches
away from the camera, and the ability to "lock in" the light meter and
autofocus by depressing the shutter button halfway. Playing with that,
we've managed to fix a lot of pictures that were too dark, or too light.
You can take pictures at a resolution of up to 1280x690, although we've just
been taking them so far at 640x480. It came with one set of cheap AA
batteries, which didn't last more than a few hours, but the rechargeable
batteries we put in the day after Christmas have lasted ever since, with the
battery charge meter still reading full, including through uploading
hundreds of images into our computer using the "slow method" -- we didn't
pay extra for either an AC adapter or a floppy disk adapter, and even the
slow method is pretty fast).
Best of all, and the reason we got the digital camera in the first place, is
the instant gratification, together with the ability to play with it without
wasting film. We're hoping to get some pictures up on the web soon and when
we do, I'll post the url.
Alysoun McLaughlin
Wheaton, Maryland
alysoun.mclaughlin at ncsl_org