Digital Cameras (was Re: [Wolves] Re: Wolves Digest, Vol 96, Issue 14)

[Andy Wootton]

Kevanf1 wrote:

>On 22/07/05, Adam Sweet <drinky76 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>--- roundyz <roundyz at hotpop.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Hi all thanks for the responce, I have taken a shine
>>>to the cannon EOS 350D, just gonna go look at it this afternoon.
>>>      
>>>
>>I don't know about Canon cameras but their printers... Make sure you can use it with Linux.
>>    
>>
My camera is the £10 one I suggested to David and Kat recently for a dog 
cam. Both my kids however have very nice 5M Pixel cameras.They've never 
used either with linux so the connection information is only theoretical.

There is no one camera that suits everyone. Decide what you want it to 
do. My kids will both be on art(ish) degrees from September. I got very 
keen on photography about 25 years ago until I realised I had no talent 
and my wife always got better shots with her automatic.

My kids are technophobes so I made the decisions. I thought that they 
would need artistic control so they should be able to choose shutter 
speed and/or aperture and do selective metering. So far this was a 
complete waste of money since the cameras have only been used on 
programmed or automatic and neither of them seem interested in learning 
more about photography. The features that have been used are: cancelling 
flash (for better concerts pictures), video recording, holding focus and 
light metering then moving the camera (or the camera might have been 
fooled by the thing in the centre of the frame). My son found the Pentax 
too small. They both prefer their own. I can see the virtues of both and 
would find a decision for myself really difficult. I hope this helps you 
decide what is important to you.

Pentax 5Si - presents itself as a USB drive.

Advantages - tiny (my daughter carried it down the leg of her suede 
boots when she went out earlier in the year), metal case - strong, 
battery and charger included, remembers when the flash has been turned 
off when power is turned off. I like the SD memory card format and they 
are cheap.
Disadvantage - tiny so hard to hold, display is exposed so needs a case, 
needs special rechargeable batteries

Canon PowerShot A95 - one of several Canon cameras supported by gPhoto2.

Advantages - bigger so easy to hold and grip with bigger hands. Shaped 
so feels safer in one hand, the display swivels so you can take pictures 
with it held above your head or see yourself in a self-portrait. More 
controls are physical rather than electronic so feels more like a 
traditional camera. Some controls are quicker. Fairly cheap memory cards.
Disadvantage - too big for a shirt pocket so you are less likely to take 
it everywhere. Charger seperate and extra cost. The Canon charger is 
very expensive and I don't think the electrons can read the badge. 
Memory cards look easier to damage when out of the camera.
'Features' - resets flash cancelling when turned off. Is it more 
important to you to avoid  underexposed shots or blinding performers 
when you are forgetful?
Light for size because made of plastic - so possibly weaker.

There seems a delay with both these cameras. If you press the button 
when you see a facial expression then it may have changed before it gets 
to memory. I don't understand this because the shutter speed is the 
same. Do any of you hardware guys know if the memory have to be readied 
to accept the image?

Boots would transfer quite a few rolls of film to CDs for the price of 
one of these cameras if you can wait for a couple of hours. Shooting is 
free on a digital camera though so you tend to take many more shots but 
print fewer.

Woo