Hatton, I agree with Erika's positive comments about the Canon Power Shot, and would like to add some comments to what she said. Sorry for the length of this post...
You mentioned "kid proof". I have the Canon S40. It's 8.5 ounces, will fit in a shirt pocket. A big advantage of the S40 and S30 (identical except for max pixels) IMHO with respect to kids is a sliding metal cover which protects the camera lens in front. It takes a moderate "click" of finger pressure to open - no prob for an adult but might be hard for a little kid to open. Opening the cover turns on the camera power and extends the lens quite quickly. Note that the LCD display screen on the back of the camera is still vulnerable to abuse (by kids or just reality) - I have a little padded case for mine which is easy to get the camera out of but protects everything. Re: easy to operate - my S40 has an "auto" setting marked in green on the selector dial. Leave it there, just slide open the cover and take really good "point and click" pictures. It also has enough other settings on the dial and via the LCD menus to practially substitute for my Canon EOS 35mm SLR in flexibility, and to make a programmer truly happy <grin>. (The lens quality isn't up to the EOS but get real dude!) It will even take short movies, and will shoot rapid-action at several pics per second. It will even let you annotate pictures with audio commentary. (haven't done this yet) You mentioned good-quality prints. A rule of thumb says for really clear paper prints, you want 200 to 250 pixels per inch of finished print. So, for a really good 4x6" print, you would want about 1,200 x 800 to 1,500 x 1,000 pixels in the camera (i.e., a 2 megapixel camera). For a really good 8x10", about 2,000 x 1,600 to 2,500 x 2,000 pixels (i.e., a 4 megapixel camera). This assumes glossy photo paper in a decent printer. Until recently, most printers only took 8-1/2 x 11 paper. If you wanted a 4 x 6" print, you got paper with perforated 4x6 prints inside an 8.5x11 sheet. Canon and others now make photo printers which will take 4x6 photo paper directly. NOTE: a camera chain (Ritz / Wolf) is now advertising that most of their stores will take the digital memory cards from a camera, and make regular photo-lab prints directly off the card for 49 cents a print. Good deal compared to the cost of photo paper and photo ink at home. Re: use everyday: the Canon "A" models use 4 disposable AA batteries ($$). The S30/S40 have a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery which goes from empty to full in 80 minutes. No memory effect, so you can safely recharge when only partly empty. And it's removable/replaceable so if you do really intense shooting, viewing, transferring pictures you can get a spare and keep it charged. I was out in the field, ran out of power. Found an ac outlet, plugged it in for about 10 minutes, had enough power to take some more photos. Erika mentioned the included video cable (slide show to tv or VCR) and using a PC-Card to the laptop. There's also an included USB cable. I paid $19 to Lexar for their "JumpShot" cable which is a USB CF-card reader that looks to my desktop pc like a removable hard disk. Plug the CF card into the cable into a USB port, wait till the light quits flashing, then use Windows Explorer to copy the JPEGs to my hard disk. (BTW there isn't "the" PowerShot, currently there are eight (8) models in the PowerShot line:) A30 1.2 megapixels, 3x optical zoom A40 2.0 mp, 3x A100 2.1mp, 2x S200 2.1mp, 2x S330 2.1 mp, 3x (one of the models on your list) S30 3.2 mp, 3x S40 4.0 mp, 3x G2 4.0 mp, 3x The lenses on the S330 and S40 are equivalent to a 35-105mm zoom on a film camera. The S330 adds 7.5x digital zoom, the S40 goes to 11x digital zoom. Digital zoom on top of the optical zoom adds some "noise" to the image, but hey it works... * Erika - which PowerShot do you have?? BTW if you want to use your 35mm zoom lenses, you can get one of the Canon Digital EOS cameras if ya have a couple thousand bucks to blow <g>. Note though that there's a 1.6x focal length conversion factor - i.e. a 28-105mm SLR zoom lens would behave like a 45-170 on a digital SLR. * The "A" models are traditional-looking little point-and-shoot cameras. The S200 and S330 are the teeny-tiny "Digital Elph" models. The S30 and S40 have a sliding metal cover which protects the camera lens when it isn't being used. The G2 is a "semi-pro" model. To clarify the "megapixel" issue: Each camera has a maximum number of pixels (horiz. and vert.) it can capture. The S40 goes up to 2,272 x 1,704 resolution, the S30 to 2,048 x 1,536. The S330 model you mentioned goes out at 1,600 x 1200 pixels. Multiply these out and you get about how many million pixels (dots) it takes to capture an image. A 2mp camera like the S330 (or my S40 at a lower setting) takes 1MB storage per shot at "superfine" resolution, i.e. 64 pics per 64MB card, or 100 pics with "fine" resolution. At 1,024x768 it's 135 or 205 pics per 64MB card. At 640x480 it's 288 or 415 pics. There's also "normal" resolution, not as good. (My S40 at max resolution and superfine is 2MB per pic. I have a 128MB card.) A small side benefit for me - the Canon cameras and my Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC both take CF cards. I can pop the card out of the camera, put it into the iPAQ, and show people pictures on the PocketPC. Or using Microsoft ActiveSync, I can view the files on my desktop pc monitor right off the iPAQ. A co-worker is getting the Olympus model you mentioned. It uses the SmartMedia cards. It is a very nice camera, but I didn't like the "form factor" - wanted a camera that would fit in a shirt pocket or pants pocket. If you have any specific questions, would be happy to try to answer them offlist. Also, if you want to see how pictures turn out from different resolution and compression settings, would be willing to put some test shots on a CD-ROM and snail mail to you. Hey, my kids are 21 and 19 now, but I remember how vital it was capturing all the nifty stuff that happened when they were little. HTH. Enjoy the kids !! -Ben At 12:55 PM 4/21/02 +0100, you wrote: >We have the Canon Power Shot, and I love it. We have a 64MB card in it >at moment, and can take up to 416 640x480 pics, and I do use it almost >everyday, even if it's just silly pics of the bird and/or the cat. > >It's got a cord to hook directly up to the TV for a slideshow, and I >usually pop the memory card into a PCMCIA card to download to my laptop. >Simple. > >I would love to have a really nice one that fits my 35mm zoom lens, but >that's down the road. For ease of use, I like the Power Shot. > >Erika >With a k >------------------------------------------------------------ > >>>| -----Original Message----- >>>| From: C. Hatton Humphrey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >>>| Sent: 21 April 2002 12:30 >>>| To: CF-Community >>>| Subject: Camera question >>>| >>>| >>>| Okay, I know this one is way out there, but this group >>>| seems to be the most diverse I've seen when it comes to >>>| ideas, opinions and experiences, so I'll throw this one out: >>>| >>>| My wife and I are looking at digital cameras. We've got a >>>| pretty loose criteria... mainly that it take good quality >>>| pictures quickly and easilly. Last night we took 4 hours >>>| and compared a ton of cameras on MySimon, then got reviews >>>| from Amazon and then looked at the forums on DpReview.com >>>| (some of which directly conflicted with Amazon reviews). >>>| Here's what we found: >>>| >>>| Canon Power Shot S330, Nikon CoolPix 775 or 885, Sony >>>| Mavica FD-100, Olympus C-700 and the Olympus D490. From >>>| this list we need to find one that will: >>>| >>>| 1. Take pictures that will print nicely. I *think* that's >>>| where the MegaPixel comes in, but I know it's not just >>>| that. She's also planning on posting pictures to the web >>>| on a daily basis... there goes my server budget! >>>| :) >>>| 2. Stand up to being used every day. My wife wants to take >>>| at least one set of pictures every day of our baby (due >>>| June 23). The camera also needs to be able to stand up to >>>| the possibility that a three year old (the twins my wife >>>| babysits) might get their hands on it. 3. You can never get >>>| enough cool software! 4. It needs to be easy to operate in >>>| a hurry. If she sees the baby trying to walk, I don't want >>>| her fumble with trying to get the camera ready to take a >>>| picture. I also don't want her to have the camera ready >>>| too late to get a picture taken. >>>| >>>| So I'll ask the group for ideas, thoughts and >>>| suggestions... either on the list of cameras we've narrowed >>>| it down to, the requirements or both. >>>| >>>| ____________________________________________________________ >>>| __________ >>>| This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by >>>| CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. >>>| >>>| Archives: >>>| http://www.mail-archive.com/cf->>| [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ >>>| >>>| Unsubscribe: >>>| http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists >>>| > > ______________________________________________________________________ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. 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