We had a free for all discussion about digital cameras at the IBM PC Club meeting on Monday December 20, 2004. This is a report of some of the discussion and presentations by people in the IBM PC club.

Popular Brand
The most popular brand from our users group appeared to be Canon with at least one person who was extremely pleased with a 5 pixel Minolta. The models included Cannon PowerShot 100, Power Shot Pro1, G2, Ge, G5, and G6. Megapixels ranged from 2-8. If you need to enlarge the photos past 4x6 then more megapixels are better. If you want to just display them on the computer screen or make 4x6 prints then 2 megapixels is sufficient. The large number of megapixels requires a large cost for the camera and takes more room on the camera storage, on the hard drive and time to transmit the files. A 4 megapixel camera requires about 1 megabyte of storage per photo.

Batteries
Most of the cameras present had rechargeable batteries. However, some cameras used AA batteries. Those who had AA batteries expressed problems with their use being only a few hours and then having to replace the batteries.

Memory Card
There was a lot of discussion on compact flash type of memory that can be used to transfer the photos and other information to a computer or between computers. Some people had bought larger flash memory cards to store more photos.

Hooking Digital Camera to TV
There were also some comments on showing your pictures or short video by attaching your laptops with S-VHS outlets to your TV. Most people in the PC club had not used this feature.

Digital Camera Photo of new Grandson of Peter Hirsch

Taken at Thanksgiving 2004

Showing off photos
A few people also showed photos they have taken with their digital camera and had impressive results. The digital cameras today are very good. Many have more features than most amateurs can use.

Flash Attachments
Most cameras also have flash and some have shoes to attach an external flash. One person showed a zoom external flash that could change to flash to coordinated with the zoom of the lens.

Speed of Camera Computer
Some older cameras are slow and can take 1-2 seconds for the picture to be taken after pushing the button. Newer cameras have fast processors and do not have this delay.

John Eldred reported
John Eldred reported at the PC Club that for many years I used a film (actually mostly slides for trips) SLR. I used an f 2.8 28-105 mm lens and an f2.8 70-210 mm lens. These lenses are quite heavy.

When I started with digital I first got a Canon PowerShot A40 - 2 megapixel, f 2.8 - 4.8 lens, 3X optical zoom, flash built-in. It was OK for ordinary picture taking. One mistake I made was to set the ISO at 400. I found out later that this led to noise. It was particularly noticeable when I cropped photos, because this was essentially enlarging them. One thing I did not like about this camera was that the viewfinder shows only 85% of what the lens actually takes and in sunlight the LCD cannot be used. I did take a lot of photos with the camera and got many very acceptable prints. I wanted to upgrade to something better. I considered a digital SLR, but I then would have the same problem of carrying around heavy lenses.

Canon had recently brought out an 8 megapixel compact digital camera, so I bought one. It is the Canon PowerShot Pro 1 and cost $950. It has 8 megapixels, a 28-200mm lens (imagine that!), f/2.4-3.5. It has a two-inch LCD and has fast processing speed. It also has many other features. The viewfinder actually shows what the lens is taking.

The 8" X 10" prints I brought to the meeting were taken with my new camera. The one showing my great-grandson, Luke, with his parents and the one showing him with a drum he had just received as a present for his first birthday were printed without cropping. The picture of the Alaska Railroad train and the one showing Pat and me at Exit Glacier also were printed without cropping. The caribou in the last photo was very far away. So, even though I took it at 200 mm I cropped it considerably before printing. This shows very good quality and sharpness I believe. I have been having fun doing digital. I took 630 photos on our recent Alaska trip. I have not yet gone through them and picked out the ones to save and print.

Wall Street Journal Report
The WSJ, on 12/2/2004,The Mossberg Solution, featured on page D6 an article entitled "What to look for when buying a digital camera." He suggested three general categories: pocket cameras, point-and-shoot cameras and high-end cameras.

The only thing that Mossberg missed was the discussion we had on where to get pictures printed.

Printing Digital Camera Photos
The names places to print photos were Snapfish, Longs, Walgreens, Walmart, and Kinko. Costco has a web site that allows one to send photos over the Internet and then pick them up at the store. Another popular option is to electronically send it to a web site such as WWW.OFOTO.COM. One can then share the photos from the web site with friends instead of e-mailing the photos. OFOTO also will allow you or your friends to order prints as low as 29 cents for a 4x6 and they will send it to you by mail in a few days. Photos can also be taken by some cell phones. The problem with cell phone photos is that there is not a good way to transfer the photos to a computer. There is no memory card that is removable, so the only way to transfer photos is by make a phone call to another phone, which can cost minutes.