digital cameras

[zazzy]

we are going to need a digital camera for our cruise. what do you think the minimum number of pixels we will need, keeping in mind we may want to make some of our photos into 8x10s. Also, any suggestions on how many memory cards we will need (14 day western med. cruise... lots of ports!).

also, any good computer program suggestions for storage?

zazzy

 

 until our virgin cruise Westerdam 8/30/04

 

[JJS2K3]

You'll want at least a 3 Megapixel camera, probably 4 for 8x10

 

The number of cards depends on the number and quality of the pictures you take and the capacity of the media (128K, 256K, etc). Examples:

 

You can get about 100 pictures on a 128K card on a 3 megapixel camera; 64 pictures on the same card for a 4 megapixel camera.

These are for compressed (JPEG) images. On higher end cameras there is an option to save the image uncompressed (TIFF, better image) but the number of pictures you can store is significantly reduced, by about 1/6 I think.

 

Photo programs usually come with the camera and often are pretty decent. If you needed to buy one, Microsoft has a program called 'Picture It' which is pretty easy to use for beginners.

 

Hope this isn't too confusing.

 

Jay

[smudge's mom]

The more mega pixels you can afford, the better. We have a five mega pixel and when I blew up a very detailed scenery photo into an 8 x 10, there was absolutely no loss of clarity.

 

I would get smaller media cards - instead of one or two extremely large ones - in case the card glitches and you lose your photos. If you have several cards that hold 100 rather than one that holds 400 - you will only lose a portion of your photos. No glitches are not an everyday thing, but it can happen.

 

I would keep my camera set at the highest resolution for all photos. You never know which of your photos you will want to enlarge and if you set your camera so the card will hold more photos - you will lose the ability to make that perfect enlargement.

 

I second the "Microsoft Picture It" recommendation. They have a stripped down version for less than $20 and a full "boat" version for $79 (usually with rebates). Although Adobe is the premiere photo editing software, it is more confusing and difficult to learn for a beginner. I found the basic Picture It program was very easy to learn yet was a pretty comprehensive program.

 

Any more questions - contact me at smudgesmom123@aol.com

 

I am a mid range novice - my learning curve is pretty new, so my advice may be easier to understand than others who are more skilled.

[Michelle!]

So a silly question then if I may?

 

I have a new camera that I'm learning to play with...but, the battery wears down really quickly, is this a common occurance? Or just a bad camera?

 

Cheers,

 

Michelle!

Aloha!

 

 

[deadzone1003]

What type of batteries are you using? In general you should be using NI-MH batteries and always carry an extra set.

[nlptes]

also, YES the batteries wear down quickly. Be sure to bring your recharger with you on cruise - don't waste money on cheap batteries. you need rechargable and a recharger w/o a doubt!

 

Mariner 9/12/2004

Heading south:

Our "Parrothead" Site

Monarch of the Seas 3/29/04

Costa Mediterranea 12/14/03

Sovereign of the Seas 9/21/03

[Bill S]

smudge's mom is right on: get as many mega pixels as you can afford and whatever camera you get,take pictures at the highest resolution if you plan to enlarge your photos to 8x10.

 

If you have the time, get the book, "Digital Photography for Dummies"-it really lays out the essentials of digital photography--read it before you buy the camera, if you can.

 

Hope you enjoy the Westerdam-the photos or her show her to be a beautiful ship.

 

Bill S

-------

 

 

[smudge's mom]

I have ion batteries - don't know the techno term for them, but my warning is - buy the camera's name brand batteries as extras. I bought a couple of generic batteries and they do not last as long as my name brand batteries. Yes, they were cheaper, but in this case, name brand really made a difference.

 

Buy extra media cards, shoot at highest resolution. You will be really bummed out if you get that perfect picture you want to preserve, just to find out you shot it at lowest resolution and now you cannot do what you want with the shot.

 

I know the batteries and cards really add up to a huge expenditure, but it is a one time investment and it will make owning your digital a more satisfying experience.

 

And - don't forget your battery charger. And don't forget to take an extra battery and extra card on your excursions - I use a fanny pack and I store my extras in little plastic fishing tackle boxes - keeps them clean and dry.

[serene56]

I Found that by using the eye piece instead of the digital screen I really save on batteries. By using the screen it eats my batteries by the minutes.

 

Going NOWHERE

 

 

Miracle, February 13, 2005

Legend, October 22,2004

Voyager August 31,2003

Victory September 22,2002

Regal Empress,June 2001

Sensation,August 2000

 

 

[Bill S]

Serene makes an excellent point-choose a camera with an optical viewfinder. Not only will it save on battery life, but in bright sunlight, the lcd screen is sometimes washed out & very difficult to see, thus you can frame the shot in the regular viewfinder. Thanks Serene for another good tip!

 

Bill S

-------

 

 

[pblake]

Few comments:

There are two kind of batteries for digital cameras: NiMh with a different level of charge. Those over 2000 mAh are very good and it last long enough. Cheaper batteries with 1200 mAh are crap.

Better than this are Lithium batteries rechargeable or not. Are long life and not so expensive. I have both for my Nikon Camera. The NiMH for regular use and Lithium for backup.

Hope it help.

pablo.

[Brucemcdou]

Hi - Agree with all the comments about always shooting at the highest resolution, bringing several media cards rather than relying on one large one, and also about bringing a charger for the camera and/or batteries. We use a Kodak "EasyShare" camera, which sits in a special dock to recharge every night. It's not that large and it's convenient - no messing with taking the batteries out and putting them back in.

 

Another suggestion would be to take your lap top with you (with its charger and connection cables) and download the pictures from your camera to the computer every day. That way there's no risk of the media cards failing, and you can go ahead and start to edit and organize your photos during your trip rather than after you get back and you've forgotten which cathedral is which! You could even go ahead and burn your photos onto CD-ROMS. It seems like a lot to carry, but we've found it to be worthwhile. And since you have your computer, you can start to type your cruise review, you can use it for the internet on those ships that have in-cabin access, etc.

 

There are never enough days at sea!

[SilverstoneGirl]

i'm a graphic designer, so here's my $.02

 

try out the Sony DC-717 or any Nikon Coolpix. The sony will be larger, but a better quality. The Coolpix will be better for traveling due to size, but just a lil less quality. Granted, my use is professional and the Coolpix would be fine for you.

 

Get the highest mega pixels you can. Mine is 5.25.

 

Bring a charger with you, but also bring back up batteries in case yours goes date in the middle of being on shore somewhere. I guarantee if that happens you WILL miss the shot of a lifetime... such is life. Also, buy name brand memory cards and storage for them. Invest in a nice travel bag for your camera as well. Any other questions feel free to message me on Yahoo or AIM at truth2lies118.

[matto001]

Another good suggestion if you dont have a laptop or do not want to bring it. Buy a flash trax from smartdisk http://www.smartdisk.com/

 

It's the neatest thing for any digital camera freak, its a 20, 40 , or 60 Gb usb hard drive with a battery and a 3.5 inch LCD. You can download, and view your pictures from your flash card every night or every hour if you like, It also doubles as a large capacity mp3 player which is nice for a long flight.

 

Its a really cool toy for any gadget geek.

 

Regards,

Matt

[tlapointe]

My question about digital cameras is... with the computers on board the ship - couldn't the pictures be downloaded and emailed to home? Is this possible - or does the driver for the camera have to be installed on the computer for the pictures to download? what are the other options ... besides purchasing the Smartdisk... which looks like it would be the perfect solution - but costly. - Terri

 

Until take-off - Celebrity Summit Alaska

 

[smudge's mom]

I don't know about your experience, but mine has been that uploading photos to a website or to someone via email has been a very time consuming thing. With the cost of computer usage onboard such an expensive undertaking, my guess would be it would be cost prohibitive.

 

Besides, with a storage device or another media card, you would always have the option of using these devices again and again. Once you spend money for either getting a CD made onboard, or paying for computer time to upload, you have nothing left.

[marajim]

I'm a graphic designer professionally. And I work with Photoshop everyday.

 

I bought a Fujipix 2600 a couple of years ago. It is a 2mega pixel camera. If you never plan on blowing your photos up beyond 4x6" then a 2mega pixel camera is fine. We bought our Fuji digital camera for about $230 at Target around 2 years ago. It works great and came with a charger and batteries. We bought a couple of extra memory cards and extra sets of rechargable batteries. I have seen that same camera in the past months sell for around $100 online.

 

It is a good one and easy to use. If your are a photophile, and you like high quality photos, you might want to go with a 4-6 megapixel camera, but for 4x6 prints a 2 megapixel will do the job for 9 out of 10 people. A 4 o 6 megapixel camera will obviously take a higher quality photo, but you also have to consider bang for the buck.

 

Also whaterver camera you get, make sure it is set to the highest resolution as others have noted. Digital Cameras can take photos in multiple resolutions. My Fuji at maximum res takes a 1600x1200 pixel photo, but can also take a lousy quality 640x480 photo.

[smudge's mom]

Understand that if you do any cropping at all - your 4 x 6 print will, in essence, be an enlargement. 2mp seems awful low to bother with since 3mp to 5mp's cameras have come down to some very affordable prices.

[LINANRIC]

Ok now I have a Kodak DX4900

4 Mega Pixels

 

My question is..

What kind of Batteries to use I do have a battery charger with 1800 Ni MH rechargeable batteries.

Do you think this will be good enough to take on a week cruise?

I also have the one in the Dock that is

1600 ni hm battery pack that I can recharge in the dock..

 

Are there better batteries to buy for this camera..

 

THANKS

 

LINDA LOVES TO CRUISE WOULD LIKE TO DO MORE 9/26/2004 CARNIVAL DESTINY

DESTINY 9/26/04

NAVIGATOR of THE SEAS 9/20/03

SOVEREIGN of The Seas 10/1994

[fodorspeter]

Just a storage alternative - instead of buying media cards for a 14 day cruise and 2000 pictures - just take your smaller (already purchased) media card to the photo shop abord ship and have them burn a digital cd for you - probably cost you $10 a day - better than six media cards.

 

Peter

[phinfan63]

I didn't notice anyone mentioning the zoom so in case someone out there is as camera illiterate as me - be sure to get one that has Optical zoom not just digital zoom. Digital zoom really does nothing - you NEED digital zoom

[Host Walt]

I didn't notice anyone mentioning the zoom so in case someone out there is as camera illiterate as me - be sure to get one that has Optical zoom not just digital zoom. Digital zoom really does nothing - you NEED digital zoom

A Typo!

 

OPTICAL zoom means a real zoom

 

DIGITAL zoom is nothing more than cropping before the fact. The quality of the digitally zoomed photo is no different than if you did not zoom but just cropped the subject.

 

The last part of phinfan's post should have said: you NEED OPTICAL zoom.

[hkolln]

We have a Kodak CX7430-4megapixal and I have to say it's awesome! We also have the docking station that it sits on and we can push one button and it sends all the pics from the camera to our software on our computer. And it also charges the rechargeable battery too while sitting there. I find that using the screen alot does use up the batteries quicker. It comes in handy cause we just pack it in our carryon and plug it in when we get to our cabin and we can charge our batteries!

 

We have a 256 card and we use that up pretty quickly. Depending upon resolution you can get a ton of pics on that card. I would get at least a 256 card to be safe. My husband has a laptop so we just transfer our pics to that to clear up the memory so we can really take unlimited amounts of pics. We use the kodak software that came with our camera to edit it. I used to have Ulead picture software and that was pretty good too when I was beginning.

[aqusis]

hkolln...I recently acquired a used Kodak w/easy share dock and I have a stupid question...can the dock be used to recharge the batteries if it is only plugged into the electrical outlet or does it have to be hooked to the computer also to charge? I would like to take the dock to keep batteries charged but will it charge w/out being connected to computer?

[hkolln]

Aqusis,

 

Nope...all you need is an electrical outlet. Plug it in and it will charge the batteries. It doesn't have to be plugged into a computer to charge the batteries. That is what I like about it.