riverwind

I think I remember reading last night that you bought a new digital camera? Is that right? If so what kind did you get? There are a kazillion of 'em out there.

courthousedeb

Boy...you certainly are observant. The digital I had was a POS and was constantly running down my batteries and I've been having problems getting pictures out of it. So, yesterday I went to Walmart (my favorite place in the world...besides my HHR...) to look at digital cameras.

You're right...there are a kazillion of them out there, so I had lots to select from. I mostly wanted something that I could use for taking pictures of the HHR and other quickie photos, so I wanted something compact...yet had enough features to do what I want.

Anyway...I ended up buying a Samsung Digimax S500 for less that $150 at Walmart. It's a great little camera and has lots of cool features and it's just a tad smaller than a pack of cigarettes. It's much more than a point & shoot camera, although Samsung has it list as one. It comes with a zoom lens and a bunch of really cool settings that I'll have to experiment with. I spent last night playing around with it a little and reading some of the book. I will start taking pictures in the next couple days, once I figure out all the cool features. It's definitely a good deal in my opinion, as I got much more bang for my buck than I realized.

More details and a photo below. Link to their site HERE with great illustrations of many of the cool features.



- 5.1 mega-pixels
- 3X optical zoom
- Large colour LCD (2.4")
- Quick Print button
- User-friendly "Effect" button
- 5cm Macro & Auto macro
- Grip for stability
- Manual Functions
- Cradle Charging System (Optional)

dbarberaz

I have a Fuji. Only had it for a few months but so far I really like it.
Soon will be getting a new one, need to get one with more zoom. But for the price this is a nice little camera. Got it at best buy for about $150 lots of little stuff on it
5.1-megapixel Super CCD HR captures high-resolution images up to 2592 x 1944 pixels


3x optical/5.2x digital digital/15.6x total zoom; Fujinon optical zoom lens


1.8" TFT-LCD monitor with antiglare coating; real-image optical viewfinder

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1134702111012

cj krause

if it didnt have a battery charger, get the cradle charging system
much better than batteries

batteries are no fun

the kodak i have comes w a cradle and charges the batteries and i have had this camera over a year and it has been great

Wal Mart here too

a really fast way to get pics off of a camera if you have a card is to get a card reader if your PC does not have a card slot. my pc has 4 different memory slots which make it easy.
take card out of pc
slide in slot
open windows explorer
click my computer
then find the slot that shows the pics name on it. mine is a kingston 1 gig card
click that name and then move the pics where you want to
alot faster

riverwind

http://www.steves-digicams.com/ is the place I like best for digital camera reviews, but he hadn’t reviewed yours yet.

I did google it and found lots of other places that had reviewed your camera.

I think for the money you did Great.

Being of a trouble-shooting metality, the only thing I could see on it that MIGHT be an issue was the lack of optical view finder. In bright sunlight the LCD displays can be hard to see sometimes. Also I prefer rechargable batteries.

It has lots of good standard features, video, also audio notes (handy for making notations about whatever you’re shooting). The 5.10 Megapixels is overkill for shooting for the web. You might read about the resolutions in the manual. For the web one of the lower settings would be plenty and will give you much more space on your memory card for more pictures. If you think you’re going to print it the higher the resolution the better of course.

I agree with CJ on the batteries and card reader.

Anyway, congratulations. Happy shooting!

courthousedeb

Looking into the cradle charger on eBay...but I do have a universal battery charger that holds 4 AA batteries and camera only takes 2, so we'll see how that goes.

Now...I have a question about the card reader. I know a little about computers and how they work, but I'm clueless as to whether or not it has a card reader. Is it going to be obvious on my laptop?

Anyway, here's info on my 2 computers...maybe you can help me figure this one out CJ. Thanks buddy...if you can.

Laptop - HP ze4325us and Desktop HP Pavilion xg922. I'm more inclined to do this with the laptop than the desktop, as most of my HHR stuff goes on the laptop anyway.

riverwind

I don’t know much about much Deb, don’t have a lot at this point to contribute to this forum. The only thing I can think of is what I learned from the 15 years or so that I did photography for a living. I noticed when posting in yeshua63043’s thread about Just A Few Pics, you said you had left to get a camera. So, I thought I’d post something about it today. I think a thread on photographing our HHR’s would be helpful to a lot of people. Just MHO.

Rick

cj krause

as to the card reader:
you plug them into any usb port and that is if you use a card on your camera if it has one. most use internal memory and dont have a card and use software and a cord to retrieve the pics, slow and ardurous. if your camera doesnt have a card then you have to buy one. they are around $5 to $10 at Wal Mart

courthousedeb

Thanks CJ. I will look into that and the other things we talked about on the phone.

riverwind

Here’s a link that’s pretty helpful, it has several pages on Your camera , Overview/Specfications/Operation/test results/etc.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/DS500/DS500A.HTM

It does use a card, it uses a SD (secure digital) card (or a memory sitck, which I don’t like) and they vary widley in price range depending on how much memory you get. My mail order source prices them at $20 bucks to $60 bucks. You should get as big a memory card as you can afford. You’ll be glad you did.