Thanks for testing out your camera and showing us the results. What kind did you purchase and what are some of the specs of the camera?
The camera is a Fujifilm FinePix 5000. You can read about its specs at
this link.I had been holding off on getting one for a while because the prices kept falling and, just as is the case with computers, if you can "make do" for a few months longer, you can often get considerably more for your money - which can be a good thing if the high end features are things you actually have use for and you plan on using it for a few years. The downside to that approach, however, is that you "pay" for it by not being able to enjoy the benefits of the product That's the position I was increasingly in.
When I went shopping the other day, I basically told myself I could spend up to $500. I was looking for a 5 megapixel camera with as big a zoon lens as possible. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any. There were some 8 megapixel cameras with nice zoom lenses but they were several hundred dollars more than I was willing to spend. The one I ended up getting was 3.1 megapixel with a 10x optical zoon and a 2x digital zoom. However, the camera has a software enhancement called Super CCD which interpolates to take photos equal to 6 megapixels in quality. The camera was $379 - but when all was said and done, I went over the $500 budget I set for myself. A 128 mb xD card was $79 (The 16 mb one that came with the camera simply wasm't big enough - and I now regret not paying the extra $50 or so to get a 256 mb card). The 4 year product replacement warranty was another $59 or so (I always get it when buying electronics because there are so many things that can go wrong and you cannot fix them when they do). Plus I got a carrying case and a NiMH battery charger. After taxes, it ended up being a bit over $600. Turns out I could have save about $100 plus taxes on the camera by ordering online - but I
hate sitting around waiting for a purchase I am excited about to arrive by mail. I will gladly pay a bit extra to have something
NOW.
My initial thought was that, once better cameras come down in price, I could always upgrade. But the more I think about it, I don't really know that I would have much of a need for anything better. It is rare that I would ever actually want to make print copies of my photos. I am perfectly happy viewing most of them on the computer and it is certainly far more convenient to store digital images than it is prints and negatives. And I have never had any of my photos enlarged more than 8x10s - and it is rare for me to need them elarged that much. I guess for me there is a certain value in knowing that I
could do so if I ever took a shot I liked enough to want to. I guess the question is how much am I willing to pay for keeping such an option open.
I have a question for those who are more experienced with digital photography. Do any of you ever use the lower megapixel settings and, if so, why? All of the photos I took yesterday were at the 3 megapixel setting - though I also had the option of using 6M, 2M and 1M. I decided not to use the 6M because of the memory it takes up and because I knew that I wouldn't be taking any pictures that were particularly special. In order to put up the images I posted to the Forum, I had to significantly reduce the image size and resolution - so I suppose that if I were merely shooting for that purpose the 1M setting would be sufficient. However, one of the things I like about the 3M setting is it is absolutely amazing just how much detail shows up on the images even when taken from a great distance - much more detail than one can actually see in real life. Since long term storage space on CD-Rs is dirt cheap these days, my thought is to take ordinary photos in the 3M setting so that I can preserve as much detail as possible if I should ever want it and just reduce the image size for those photos I wish to publish on the Internet. I guess my question is this: so long as I am not running short on available storage on my xD card, why would I ever want to use the 2M and 1M settings?
