Category acquired things

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Check out this bag. It’s a rather nice laptop bag with a piece of Soyez parachute (from the April, 2004 mission) sewn into the front flap. Really nice looking, I think. Only ~US$95, too.

I’ve got an idea, and I’m curious if anyone can throw an opinion about it my way.

First off, I have a Kodak DC4800, but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. I want a new camera, a Nikon D70, but I can’t afford it yet.

So, here’s what I’m thinking of doing…

I should be able to get a Nikon Coolpix 3200 and matching case for ~$158. Rechargable AA batteries for it will run about about $25 with charger, and 512MB of UltraII SD memory $65.99. That makes it about $250 for a new, smaller camera with about the same capabilities as my current one.

The current one should sell for about $125 on eBay, making it all a difference of about $125 for the new camera. This will provide something much smaller and considerably lighter than my current camera, with plenty of memory. Unfortunately the zoom and resolution of this camera is the same as the old one…

Then, sometime next year after saving up a bit, the D75 could be a possibility. This way I’d eventually have a small, more knock-around camera, and a better one for more serious photography.

How does this sound? Does anyone have any suggestions or better ideas?

Thanks!

Help! Could anyone who reads this who is familiar with photography stuff offer a suggestion? I’ve got some negatives I’m scanning, but despite being stored flat in sleeves for eight years or so, they seem to have a bit of a curl to them. Scanning them is producing a bit of distortion at the end of each negative, as can be seen here.

Does anyone know a good way to go about flattening negatives? I don’t have a tractor drive negative scanner I can feed them into, and the negatives slide into the carrier, not clip in. As such, it’s hard to fully keep them from curling. :(

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.)