Seeking digital camera advice
 

I've never been much of a photographer but am finally getting the urge to join the rest of the world in having a digital camera.

I have a GE A835 in the box, got it for $87, but am holding off on opening it up until I've learned something from the experts~! If I can do better it is still returnable.

Yes I know this GE is considered an "entry level" unit but it seems to have enough features to make it better than a toy. I also like that it takes regular batteries and not some funky expensive camera-only battery.

So?

Depends what you're gonna use it for. No need to get a fancy camera if you're just taking relatively close shots of things and don't want super crisp pictures.

I'd return it just because it is from GE. It is substantially cheaper on Ebay, too. If you want to take pictures outdoors, you probably want an optical viewfinder. In sunlight, the view screens are barely good enough to help aim; you have to crop the shots later, loosing maybe half the megapixels. The other big consideration for me is how fast I can access the various controls. Scrolling through menus can get tedious, and cause missed shots.

Who's better than GE and why?

Yes I'd expect most of my shots to be outdoors. I'm looking at the ease and convenience of downloading to computer. And being able to take zillions of shots and throw the bad ones for "free", unlike film where all the junk has to be paid for so you see what you have.

I'd like for the pics to be halfway decent. How do they compare to film cameras- regular Joe Blow film cameras?

HP, Fuji, or Canon, among others, are more than marketers in the camera biz. Yes, throwing out the bad ones is key. One way that pros get their results on film is by wasting an awful lot of it. Computer software for viewing, editing, and sorting the collection is half the battle. Transferring is usually very simple even without special docks. Just hook up a USB cord, switch on, and click OK. You will probably want to crop pictures and change the exposure fairly often.

Digital cameras just don't have the range of film. When shooting slide film, you have to have the exposure pretty close, compared to print film. Digital is even worse; even with the options to tweak it one way or the other on the computer, light or dark details will be missing.

BTW, that one still picture behind me took a day and a half of professional studio time, mostly messing with the lights.

Thanks Bob! :thumbup:

I guess I'll shop around some more.

I want to be able to post pics of my awesome custom Tempo! LOL

The best thing about digital, for me, is that I can keep it handy and use it when I see good light on a nice scene. For awesome pictures, sunrise and sunset can help. Study the lighting in good pictures - direct sun won't bring out the detail at all. Partly cloudy days are best. Happy hunting!

You mean the picture of the yellow vehicle in your avatar? Did you ever post about that? I wonder about it every time I see it.

Frank: I don't know what you plan to use the camera for, but FYI, all the shots you've seen me post since summer 2008 are from a second hand 2 megapixel Kodak Easyshare 2x optical zoom camera I got for about $35 on eBay. Everything before that was taken with a bronze age 1mp Kodak.

I'm no expert - all I knew was I wanted an optical zoom, and something that would take regular rechargeable AA batteries.

I'm sure no expert, but know a little.

Hate to do anything to promote WallyWorld (WalMart), but if you buy your camera there, it can be returned even if opened (provided everything is there) with no restocking fee. I think the time frame is 90 days. (At least that was the policy last fall.)

Couldn't find any reviews of GE A835 at Digital Camera Review sites I trust

Digital Photography Review
Steve's Digicams

Based on the GE A835 feature list it doesn't appear to be an unreasonable choice, but no way to know how logically the controls are laid out nor the quality of photos it produces. Really good to be able to try it out before your money is gone for good.

Last fall I bought a Canon A590 IS and am happy with it. It has 4x optical zoom vs 3x for the GE. Optional Wide Angle Len and External Flash are available as add-ons.

There are plenty of modes available on the mode dial.
(Center between on/off and shutter button.)
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2008_...ntrols_top.jpg
The ones casual users like us will be most interested in are:

1. Easy (Red heart inside camera outline below AUTO)
   ...Flash: On/Off
   
2. Auto
   ...ISO:Auto/Hi Auto
   ...Shooting Mode: Single Shot/Self Timer
   ...Picture: Various Sizes & Compression
   ...Focus: Normal / Macro
   ...Flash: On/Off
   ...LCD: On/Off/Info Overlay
3. Movie Mode (4 possible size, frame rate, compression combinations)
   ...a) 640x480 @ 20 frames/sec - min compression
   ...b) 640x480 @ 20 frames/sec - max compression
   ...c) 320x240 @ 30 frames/sec
   ...d) 160x120 @ 15 frames/sec
   
4. All those other modes* EXCEPT P, TV, AV, M.
   ...* "Huh? What? How the ### am I suppose to remember what
   ......all those goofy icons mean?" No problem. If the LCD is set to
   ......Info Overlay, the names of each mode is displayed large letters,
   ......in plain English on the LCD:
   .........Portrait
   .........Landscape
   .........Night Snap Shot
   .........Kid's & Pets
   .........Indoor
   .........Night Scene
   .........Sunset
   .........Foliage
   .........Snow
   .........Beach
   .........Fireworks
   .........Aquarium.

Here is a review at Steve's Digicams.

I bought my A590 IS for about $140, now they're down to about $120.

Hi Cap'n.
That yellow trike, the Car-Cycle X-4 is mostly an experiment in frame/suspension integration, and overall packaging. The Car Cycle

I'd agree that megapixels are oversold, unless you are relying on only digital zoom. 3:1 optical zoom is pretty versatile and easy to find.

Hi Frank.

You may want to check to see if GE actually makes cameras, or whether it's a rebrand. The Canon Powershot and Fuji Finepix seem to be the better units in point-and-shoot cameras.

I have a Kodak zs712 and it is a really great camera. It is about twice as expensive as the one you have but all my latest pictures have been taken with it on the lowest resolution and highest compression. It also doesn't have a lag when you push the button it takes the picture right then.

It takes either a rechargeable pack or 2 AA to operate and I am pretty happy with it. For a reasonable priced camera it is a pretty good one with really nice optics. Really the number of megapixels really doesn't matter for normal pictures once you get about 4mp or so as long as the optics are good then it will be a good camera.

I've been thinking of getting a new camera, too. I've been using my wife's Kodak EasyShare that she got a number of years back. The thing that annoys me most is the lag between the moment you press the button and the moment the shutter opens. Are cameras better about that now? Is there some variation between models that I could watch out for, like in the specs?

I'm a fan of the Casio Exilim as a handy camera that isn't too expensive and takes good shots. I've been using one for the past 3 years and it's worked well for downloading to the computer and also printing pics (up to 8 x 10). It doesn't use regular batteries but comes with a camera battery and battery charger kit. I'm using a 7.2 megapixel but you can get a 10 megapixel for a little over $100 on Ebay.

I've used it to see alot of items on Ebay and also for work projects like taking photos of baseball players and kids that come to our baseball camps (we then print the photos and give them to the kids at the end of the baseball camp...we've never had any negative comments about the quality of the photos). I've also posted alot of our pics on websites that our customers can go purchase the photos and we've sold quite a few.

Just my 2 cents...good luck bro!

I've heard all the other brands mentioned above but not GE.

I'm a Sonyphile, just because I figure they have a reliable brand, and I cant be blowed juggling brand options.

That said, the menus on the Sony Erikson mobile phones give me the willies, so rather than relearn I stick with Nokia mobiles.

I did the same as you a couple of years back, and also bought a printer too. Bad idea. I keep replacing ink cartridges and I dont even use it. The library works out cheaper for low volume printing.

Ink-jet printers are like house plants. If you don't feed some fluid through them every week, they dry up and die. I prefer printers with a cleaning cycle, and refill my own ink tanks to keep costs down. Recently, I pumped $20 worth of ink through an Epson 900, trying to clean it again, but that wasn't the problem, so I bought an 880 model, used, for $10. It is slower, but the colour is much closer without tedious adjustment.

I doubt GE made the camera - probably just slapped their logo on it. A few places on the web assert it was made by General Imaging Co. of China, but without anything resembling a source. Whoever made it, the thing they most likely fudged on is the quality of the optics. I couldn't find a web page for the camera at GE.com.

Any digital camera that connects to the computer via a USB cable, should be fine for speed downloading to the computer. No matter which digital you get, you can throw out the bad pictures for almost (batteries/recharge) free.

If you're taking pictures out doors, you'll want to be sure LCD is nice and bright - relatively easy to read in bright sunlight.

Assuming you mean what I'm thinking when you say Joe Blow film camera, you'll be happy with the quality of the pictures from (virtually) any digital for which you pay/paid $80+. The real question is how easy is it to use.

All digital camera's have a delay between the moment you press the shutter button and the moment when the picture is snapped. The delay can be greatly reduced, if you pre-focus the camera by pointing at where you intend to shoot and half-pressing the shutter button. The little computer inside the camera decides if/how long the flash needs to fire, shutter speed and is ready and set to go the instant you finish pressing the shutter button. In general, the shorter delay, the more you have to pay for the camera. But there can be a huge difference in the delay for two cameras that cost the same.

One of the pictures I imagine you taking (maybe on a regular basis) is an engine compartment deeply shadowed in the afternoon sun - the vehicle temporarily unable to move under it's own power. No matter which digital camera you buy, there is most likely some other mode than Easy/Simple/NoBrainer/Auto that will produce a dramatically better picture. The list of modes for the GE A835 -

• Auto
• Manual
• Image Stabilization
• Panorama
• Portrait
• Scene: Sport, Children, Indoor, Leaf, Snow, Sunset, Fireworks, Glass, Museum, Landscape, Night Landscape, Night Portrait

is pretty similar to the list for my camera. The choices first four choices I'd want to try would be - Auto, Scene:Indoor, Scene:Sunset, Scene:Snow. I'd hazard a guess that Scene:Snow would produce the best picture. (Ignore all that bright light around the engine compartment.) The question is how many buttons do you have to push to find Scene:Snow and how confusing is it to get there? How confusing will it be if you only use that mode every three months or so?

Way easier to answer those last two questions if you can take it out of the box and play with it for an hour/day/week. No matter what the return policy they never want to let you take it out of the box in the store. And unless you go to someplace where you'll at least twice as much, the sales people won't be able to tell you a single thing that isn't written on the side of the box.

The only way to know how it will feel in your hands (Are the buttons too small for your big fat fingers? Are some buttons too hard to reach without using both hands?) is to have it in your hands. Wal-mart isn't the only store with an easy return policy. Return policy is the first thing I'd worry about.

Yup, inkjets can kill you. If you must have one, get one with replaceable heads.

I have a used Laserjet 2100 for my day-to-day printing. My wife knows to feed a little color through her Canon (cheap) inkjet each week to prevent clogging. For photos, Walmart, Costco, etc. will print your photos using a real photographic process for much cheaper than doing it at home, meaning your photos won't fade or run like inkjet prints.

Very interesting!

And I followed the link at the bottom of that page to your SpinFin and realized I've been to your page several times in the past year, while idly mulling over doing a DIY pedal boat.