Digital Camera Media

[Steve Mehs]

What media does your digital still camera use?

I have a Sony CD200 CDMavica. I went with a CDMavica over a CyberCam becasue Pocket CDs are so much more cheaper then Sonys Memory Stick. They want $150 for a 128MB Memory stick, and I can a 10 of pack of 210MB 8cm Memorix CD-Rs at Walmart for $7.

[James_F]

I'm not a big fan of Memory Sicks just yet. If companies other than Sony would support them, they might take off. I have 2 digital cameras, a Canon G2 (What I believe is the best digital camera under $1000) which uses Compact Flash, and an Olympus D-40 for my wife which uses a SmartMedia card. I like the SmartMedia because it words with our MP3 players. Compact Flash is great because its cheap.

I looked at that Sony camera, but it just seemed like a waste to have to burn a new all the time. Do you like it?

[Steve Mehs]

I love my CDMavica. I never have to sync my camera to my PC. To view, edit and print pictures I just pop the mini CD-RW into the CD burner open the JPEG file and away I go. No disc finalization required, since its like packet burning. My DVD-ROM wont read the mini CD-RWs for some reason, but it does read the CD-Rs after their finalized. On the CD-Rs after you take a pic and delete it, you can no longer write to that portion of the disc some thing goes for CD-RWs but the the RWs you can always reformat. But this isnt too much of a problem since the 156MB discs that came with it can hold 140 pics in its highest rez, 1600x1200 fine or 240 in 1600x1200 standard or 1300 in 640x480. Remeber that only for a 156MB disc, there are 210MB mini CD-R/RWs out there. But if you only use CD-RWs theres nothing wasted. I wanted the CDMavica CD300, which is 3.3 MP, but it was too much $$$ since I got it right after my Digital 8 Handycam.

[Karl Foster]

I have a Kodak digital with a 32MB Compact Flash. It works great. I burn all of my photos onto CDs. When I e-mail them, I convert them to Acrobat. Easy to do, and really compresses the photos into a small enough size to easily send.

[Chris Blount]

I use Smartmedia in my Olympus D-450.

[Richard King]

Nikon CP-990 here. I had two 16M Compact Flash cards from when I bought the camera, but when larger ones got cheaper I upgraded to a 256M card for about $110. This thing will hold more shots than I will ever shoot at one time. I upload most of my interesting pix to a seperate drive and if good to Pbase.com for on line storage. In the approx 2 years that I have had the camera I have taken over 7,000 pictures of which I have probably had about 200 or so processed. I send any files I want printed to a shop in Geneva Switzerland.

[MarkA]

Nikon CoolPix 885 here (graduation present from a relative), takes CompactFlash

[Maniacal1]

Steve, I agree with you totally on the Mavica. I have the CD300 and I really enjoy the convenience of using the MiniCD's. They pass my Disney World test--I can take more pictures than I care to all day long without having to dump the pictures to a hard drive. An extra battery and an extra CD and I'm good to go.

I can just pop the CD into my laptop's drive to transfer the pictures, but for my desktop computer, I have insert the MiniCD into the disc that Sony supplies. I can also connect via the USB port if I prefer.

How do you like the HandyCam? (I have the feeling there's a digital camcorder in my future sometime soon.)

[Steve Mehs]

Maniacal, Im jelious The 300 is really nice and the extra 1.2MPs would be great. But the 200 suites me (for Now ) I love my HandyCam too. Its the Sony TRV740 Digital 8. 15X opti and 420 digi, but the digital zoom is practically useless. The PQ is unbeliavable when using Svideo to connect to your TV or VCR. The thing thats cool it it also takes still photos. There a Memory Stick slot on the left side for the memory stick. This way if your filming something you dont have to fumble around for another digital camera. It only takes a 1.0 MP still image but that pretty good considering it was really ment for still images. The only thing is battarys. A 2 hr (exact samething that came with your Mavica) battary can be cut down to less the 45 mins when using the LCD flip out screen in conjunction with the digital image stabilization feature. Minus another 10mins if your add a light. At the time, if you registed your Sony equiptment you got $20 off of accessories. Of coaarse there are higher capacity batterys but due to the physical size the one that comes with the Mavica is the only one compatable with both Sony devices. The whole memory stick idea turned me off of Sony for a while. But after looking and comparing the features, I couldnt be more happier with the performace of both the Mavica and Handycam.

[Kevin]

I don't have one yet, thanks to AOL. I ordered a digital camera about 9 months ago and it never came nor did it show up on my credit card bill. I've been too lazy to re-order it. My printer is horrible anyway and it doesn't work since I installed Windows XP.

[Martyva]

You forgot SD which may soon become the card of choice for many manufacturers

[Steve Mehs]

Whats SD?

[James_F]

Its smaller than a Smart Media Card and contains copy protection built in (which the media companies like).... I believe its also called MMC.... My Canon Digital Camcorder has it for still photos...

[Martyva]

Close Multi Media cards will ussually work in SD devices, but the reverse is not always true. Several 100 companies have signed off on this card.

[James_F]

Oh, there are just so many different type of cards available. I'm just wary of anything that might limit me from copying files that I have a right to...

[Steve Mehs]

Dont be wary James, any copy protection will be cracked sooner or later

[James_F]

But is it worth my time when so many other choices are out there? I would just assume to stay away from it... The government is taking away my rights to move data back and forth.

I'm just waiting for Rage to chime in on this...