Digital Cameras
So I’ve been poking around online, attempting to decide which digital camera would be best to upgrade to. I’m personally a big fan of Nikon digital cameras, and I want something smaller than my current Kodak DC4800. It’s a great camera that has served me well, but I think it’s time for something new.
Thus far I’m considering either the Coolpix 4800 or Coolpix 5200. One is 4mp and the other is 5mp, but the 4mp camera has better optics and a much larger CCD. Unfortunately, the 4mp camera is also quite a bit larger and a bit heavier, but it’s still only 9oz (sans battery).
There’s some nice reviews of both of these cameras over at Steve’s Digicams: Coolpix 4800 – Coolpix 5200
Currently I’m leaning towards the 4800, with a 512MB Ultra II SD card, spare battery, and carrying case. This is all likely to run around $500 total. Sure, there resolution isn’t that improved over my current camera, but hopefully the optics will be a bit better.
That said, is there anyone who would be interested in buying my camera? I’ve got the camera, bag, two batteries, wall charger, power cable, USB cable, TV cable, two CF cards (64MB and 8MB), USB CompactFlash (CF) adapter, a lens cleaner, and a few other bits for it. I’m thinking $150… So, anyone interested?
And before you ask, yes, this is the camera I’ve used to take pictures for the last while. Some of the excellent sample images are here, here, here, here, here, and here.
So, yeah. If anyone’s interested, let me know. It’s a very fair price, and the camera works great. I just want to part with it so that I can afford another one. I’d also appreciate any insight people have into either of those cameras, or preferences for other ones or whatnot. The reason I’m hesitant to get the Coolpix 4800 is it’s physical size. It might not quite be pocket sized… But the smaller CCD in the 5200 is apt to produce noisier images… There’s a sample full resolution 4800 image here and one from the 5200 here.
Price isn’t really too much of a consideration, as the 5200 is only about $30 more than the 4800.
(Odd that I’d go from a DC4800 to another 4800 model. heh.)
Nikon just sent me something with all technical facts about those digitals. they still consider me a ‘specialized nikon salesperson’ which makes me giggle because I havent sold cameras since like 98 or 99. anyways, tech info on both and some comparitive grain and reso and pictures like that. let me know if you want to see it.
I would *love* that info. Could you forward it to me?
Thank you so much. :)
Its on actual paper. I would have to *give* it to you.
Oh, hehe. Well, I’d still love that… Do you know any place to get them online?
we’ve got the 4300, 4 megapixal, and love it! i didnt know nikon went to sd cards now though. i hate sd cards. they remind me of smart media. ive got that on an OLD camera of mine and always thought they were kinda flimsy. the sd just doesnt do it for me. cf is my fav by far.![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
magentablue would know a bit more then me though about the camera stuff.
Eh, I’ve got no problem with Smart Media, CF, SD, or MMC. Yeah, they are a bit more flimsey, but they do save a lot of space. Smart Media probably feels the lightest of it all. SD, while small, can sure take a beating. CF is nice because it’s basically PCMCIA in a smaller connector, but that also makes it a lot larger physically.
cf is still not too big. another thing to think about, i remember cf being faster then sm because cf could carry the drivers on its self, while the sm had to rely on the cameras drivers. dont know about sd though. im sure today the question is moot because everything has gotten so much faster and better. what matters the most is if your happy with the feel and the operation of the camera. and what kind of manual options you want. go with the one you like the best.
on another note. i think im gonna get a usb 2.0 pci card for $30 and forget about my problems. tech support for my computer seems to think something is configured wrong on my computer and says to format and reinstall everything. i really dont want to do that. and every message board i read says people cant seem to get their sis usb ports to work at 2.0 no matter what drivers they use. i havent found a post yet where someone got it to work right. whats your opinion on this?? it tok i think 2 hours to transfer 7 gb this morning.
Well, when you look at the size of CF vs SD, CF is almost eight times the volume of SD. When you take the type of connector into account (pins on the end vs. friction contacts) and the requirement for ejection hardware, CF takes up far, far more space. CF also has greater electrical requirements.
Second, CF is not necesseraly faster than SD. The speed is mostly based on the speed of the memory in the device itself. Speed of the bus used to access the card, the supporting hardware, and the cache in the camera also come in to play. One cannot generally say that one format of memory is faster than another.
Third, CF doesn’t have any sort of built in drivers. CF mass storage devices are basically the same as PCMCIA ATAPI devices, which is why there are simple pin adapters to use them in a CF slot. Because of the prominance of PCMCIA slots and the number of cards of this type available, this is why you see so many drivers available. When it comes to specific readers for the devices, this is where you can run into an issue. There tends to be a limited number of bridges for USB <-> SD / CF / Whatever, and as CF has been around for longer, OS’ tend to have support for these built in, but that’s not always a certain. Most memory card readers also tend to just adapt the card to be a USB Mass Storage device, making them very compatible, since almost every modern OS has support for such devices. So, no, no built in drivers, just older technology that’s more supported. That said, both XP and OS X have great support for memory card readers of every type I’ve seen thus far.
With regards to your USB issue, that might be a good solution. I’d still say it’s possible to get the built-on USB 2.0 ports, if that’s what they really are, working. SiS isn’t known for making the best chipsets (I personally tend to shy away from their stuff), so it’s hard to say. Also, people don’t really tend to post when they get something working… They only bitch when it doesn’t.
That sounds like 1.1 speeds you had going, though. A 2.0 card would make things nicer, and as long as you can get the 2.0 card working, it might be worth picking one up. Best Buy and CompUSA have some reasonably priced ones that work pretty good, too…
Also, a reformat / reinstall is the way that people who don’t know what they are doing solve problems. This should only be reserved for a worst case scenario. Generally it’s not a problem to get a single problem resolved without such drastic measures…
points taken on cf/sd. im sure their both good. just depends on what you like, and how much you have invested in any particular format. that did clear up some things i was told years back about cameras.
i think i will go pick up a usb 2.0 card. any ones you know of i should aviod? dont know if a $15 one will work as good as a $50 one or if they will perform pretty much the same.
i agree about the re-formatting issue. it would seem illogical to wipe everything out and start over just because of a driver issue or what-not. i have too much stuuf in there that i dont want to have to put back in the hard drive to do a re-format. that would just suck.
I’d just get the $15 card… It’s most likely going to work just fine.
cool. thanks dude! i’ll go get one next week.
I have the Sony Cybershot, and love it to death. Obviously that info doesn’t help you, though. Sorry.
Thanks. :) They are nice cameras, but I don’t want one that takes memory stick. It just seems too pricy and too propritary to me. :\