Digital Cameras

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1

Originally Posted By: jdigiacomo
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What do you guys suggest for a good digital camera? I am looking for a basic unit, something that doesn’t consume a lot of power, easy to use, lite weight, durable all weather and reliable. I was thinking about the Olympus stylus 300. I do not have much experience with digitals. Any comments on what cameras you have, what you like and don’t like about them. Thanks in advance.

2

Originally Posted By: Kevin McMahon
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I just bought one a week ago…


Likes: Small and compact
Easy to use
Good picture quality
Easy to download
Can take 100 pics on SQ2 setting with 16mb card and that's all the quality you'll need or your pics will come out the size of a poster.


Dislikes: In lowlight, you cannot see the item you're taking a picture of in the rear display(which is a disadvantage because we're always working in lowlight areas). You just have to make a best guess that you're in focus and on target.
Some close up pics come in a bit fuzzy so you have to play with the camera a bit to determine how far away you need to be.
Camera is set to take High quality photos' by default upon turning the camera on, so each time you turn it on, you have to go and reset the image quality to take more photo's/card.

--
ABC Home Inspection, LLC

3

Originally Posted By: jfarsetta
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


I use a Vivitar. Cost? About $88. Add the SD card. Get rechargable batteries. Pretty cheap date. Great photos (has a zoom). 3 quality photo settings. Can take about 300 photos.


Have dropped it more than a few times. Love it.

--
Joe Farsetta

Illigitimi Non Carborundum
"Dont let the bastards grind you down..."

4

Originally Posted By: jtedesco
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Joseph:


Quote:
I was thinking about the Olympus stylus 300.


Go for it! I use this camera every day and it works great. Most of my pictures are taken at the highest resolution so they can be reduced with very clear results.

I also have 2 Minolta's sized like a cigarette pack and they work well too.

--
Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant

www.nachi.org/tedescobook.htm
5

Originally Posted By: dfrend
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I use a Kodak 5490. It is pricy but excelent camera. Of course for me it doubles as a personal camera

–
Daniel R Frend


www.nachifoundation.org


The Home Inspector Store


www.homeinspectorstore.com

6

Originally Posted By: ecrofutt
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Try this link for a lesson in digital cameras. See the additonal tutorial links at the bottom of this page.


http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dq.shtml

MegaPixels in cameras are like Horsepower in a car.

Unless you're towing a house trailer, you don't need 400 horses under the hood. (stolen analogy)

Unless you're looking for better than 35mm quality, your don't need more than 1.3 - 1.6 megapixels in your camera.

More important is storage capacity, battery life, ease of use, file size it creates, etc.

I use the Sony Cyber-Shot at 1.3 MegaPixels. Pictures come out at around 150KB file size. I use the FREE Microsoft PowerToys "Image Resizer" to further cut the file size to about 40 KB to 80KB.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
Look about 1/2 way down the page on the right side. After I installed it, I just "highlight" the pictures I want to resize in Windows Explorer, right click, select "Resize Pictures" off the pop up menu, select options, and away they go to a smaller/larger file size.

One important (to me) feature of the Sony Cyber-Shot is that it has an "aiming beam" for when I'm taking flash pictures in dark areas. Kind of an orangeish light beam (similar to flashlight) that lets me make sure I'm pointing the camera at what I actually want to take a picture of. This is really handy in attics and crawl spaces. I don't even use the viewer or the eyepiece to aim in those locations, just point the beam and shoot. I always get what I aim at. (though sometimes I'm not aiming at what I really want to shoot because my elbow slipped or some such.

I also bought a larger (64MB) Smart Card to store pictures on.

I used to use regular double AA batteries and I'd go through a twelve pack in two inspections. I finally broke down and bought eight rechargeable batteries and a four battery recharger. I now seldom use more than two batteries in an inspection and have the spare rechargeables available when needed.

And if I had studied more, I'd of probably bought a cheaper one.

More is really more money.

Enough is enough money.

Get just what you need as cheap as possible and then you'll be able to upgrade after you have a better feel for exactly what you need.

Get an aiming beam on whatever camera you buy. They're great in attics and crawl spaces.

Fortunately, it survived a couple of oops, I dropped its.

--
Erby Crofutt
B4U Close Home Inspections
Georgetown, Kentucky
www.b4uclose.com

7

Originally Posted By: lschmid
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


I have been using the Canon Powershot. Takes great pictures. Small enough to fit in pocket, but easy to use with big hands. Has rechargeable batteries. I use the view finder, not the back display and have taken as many as 300 pictures at a time and never ran out of juice. I bought a bigger card than the 16 that comes with it. I use it for work and personal. I am always taking pictures. Prints out good pictures on the computer. Easy to use and set settings. I have dropped it on concrete “ouch” chipped a piece on the body, but no problems.

–
Larry Schmid


First Choice Home Inspection,Inc.


South Carolina Chapter President


www.1stchoicehomeinspection.com


A SAFE HOME IS A HAPPY HOME

8

Originally Posted By: jburkeson
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


ecrofutt wrote:
I use the FREE Microsoft PowerToys "Image Resizer" to further cut the file size to about 40 KB to 80KB.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
Look about 1/2 way down the page on the right side. After I installed it, I just "highlight" the pictures I want to resize in Windows Explorer, right click, select "Resize Pictures" off the pop up menu, select options, and away they go to a smaller/larger file size.


Hi Erby,

Great little utility you can select all the photos in a folder and resize all of them at one time, I was using photo-shop on each picture to resize, this will save time, thanks for posting the link.

Joe Burkeson

--
Joseph Burkeson, RPI (Hooperette)

?Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.?
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
9

Originally Posted By: rwills
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


I’ve been using my trusty Finepix A101 going on three years now with without any problems except like Kevin mentioned above about the viewscreen in dark places. In that case I just shine a flashlight at the area I want a picture of and aim at the light, works great.


For resizing, I use a downloaded software called Irfanview. You can resize, lighten dark photos, and tons of other photo techniques. Reporthost also uses the Irfanview which helped me twofold! For anyone interested the link to Irfanview is: http://www.irfanview.com/

--
Bob Wills - MAB Chairman
BW Inspection Services
Warminster, Pa.
http://www.bwinspections.com

10

Originally Posted By: dedwards
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


I’ve been using the same beat up SiPix camera for a couple years. I too have dropped it a couple times and splattered parts all over the ground. Picked it up put it back together and it worked fine. It has a flash so I can rapid fire even in a dark attic. I was so impressed after using a Polaroid for years (it was eating my lunch on film packs) that I order a couple more to keep in reserve. I always carry an extra camera in the truck, an extra pack of rechargable batteries, and a charger. The sipix I got off a website “surpluscomputers.com” where they sell all kinds of gadgets basically wholesale. Next item is pair of binoculars with a built in digital camera (8X22). Figure that would be great when I don’t have the seeds to crawl my butt up on a roof…

11

Originally Posted By: jgallant
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Kevin McMahon wrote:
Camera is set to take High quality photos' by default upon turning the camera on, so each time you turn it on, you have to go and reset the image quality to take more photo's/card.


Kevin,

Have you tried bringing up your camera's "Mode" menu then going to the "Setup" tab? On my Olympus D-380 there's an "ALL RESET" option that's set to "ON" by default, but if you set it to "Off", then you don't have to reset the image quality setting each time you turn the camera on.

I've been using the Olympus D-380 for about a year now after switching from a Sony Mavica (with the floppy disc storage). Great camera, small, light, pretty easy to use. For low light situations I just "paint" the object I want to shoot with my flashlight to allow me to center my camera on it, then move the flashlight away just as I take the picture, allowing the flash to light the object(s).

--
-Jim Gallant
Owner, All Point Home Inspections - Poulsbo, WA www.allpointinspections.com
Co-founder, ReportHost (Web-based report writing service) www.reporthost.com