HIT: Digital Camera Recommendations

[Shayne Russell <srussell@VOICENET.COM>]

Thanks for your suggestions regarding the purchase of a new digital camera.
Several of you requested a hit.  All of the major brands have their
supporters, and the comments I received are listed below (I may have to add
to this as some of the messages I received are on my computer at school and
I am at home now...).  I followed the list of specific cameras mentioned
with some general tips you offered, and some reviews I found that were also
very helpful.  We decided to go with an Epson, but it sounds as though we
would have been happy with any of the others as well!  Hope this will be as
useful to some of you as your help has been to me!

1.  Fuji Fujixon ("or something like that") with a card reader-- about $1500.
has the ability to run the picture directly to a monitor or to vcr to
put on videotape (Like the old Zapshot), and pictures can be imported into
Digital Chisel productions.  Video screen option is also available with this
camera.

2.  new Apple QuickTake
It can work as a quickcam or camera, has a little memory piece that can be
removed (like putting in a new roll of film, like on a field trip), and we
were quite impressed. The resolution also seemed very good, especially
compared to our QuickTake, which is several years old.

3.  Casio QV-10
It takes nice pictures but they are not as sharp as a great 35mm can produce.

4.  Kodak DC-50
We like the Kodak DC-50 camera better than our Quicktakes.  However, it
does live on batteries!

5.  Epson
We have the Epson - I'm not sure of the model - we spent about $400 for it.
It does not have the LCD viewfinder and it does eat batteries.  AC adapter
is available.   Quality of the pictures is outstanding.  I would not
hesitate to recommend it.

6.  Chinon ES3000
Saves pics in memory or with a memory card.  It has a zoom feature which I
really like.  With a 4MB memory card, it can hold up to 177 pictures...the
drawback to it is that you have to download all the photos to the computer
and decide which ones to keep.  It does give you a snapshot view so you can
choose which ones you want.

Considerations and Tips:
Get a camera that has a flash.

Think about how many pictures you need to take before you can get to a
computer to download.  If you'll be taking a lot of pictures at once, you'll
need a camera that can store a large number of pictures, or that has
reasonably priced cards for storing images.

I also got a tip that suggested that digital cameras have just gone through
a major change in design that will result in better pictures, ability to
store more pictures, and lower prices, so find a recent article about the
digital cameras and wait to see what the next generation brings before
purchasing.

Reviews:
CNET Digital Cameras
http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Compare/Digicam/

Digital Cameras Exposed - MacUser, November 1996
http://www4.zdnet.com/macuser/mu_1196/features/feature.html

Heave Ho Silver - PC Magazine
http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/camera/_open.htm

Pretty as a Pixel - Computer Shopper, May 1997
http://www5.zdnet.com/cshopper/content/9705/cshp0007.html

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Shayne Russell
Educational Media Specialist & KidsConnect Volunteer
Mt. Laurel Hartford School              Mt. Laurel, NJ
srussell@voicenet.com                   http://www.voicenet.com/~srussell

KidsConnect is a question-answering and referral service on the Internet,
provided by the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the
American Library Association
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