General Chat

I or should i say we have a new toy to play with, a digital camera, oh what great fun that is after you have spent some time reading the instrution book, gave up on that. After a few lessons from a fellow genes connected member i am taking photos of everything in site, the poor dog he is now camera shy.Wish we had got one ages ago now i can go and take photo's of gravestones.Any tips gratefully recived please Margaret

Hi Margaret there great things to have, i like them as if you don't like a picture you just delete it, it saves so much money in the long run. Enjoy your new toy lol sandra

Morning Margaret. Which one you got? I brought one for £100 which lasts about 5 mins when using batteries. We then got a better one from Iraq funnily enough, which lasts about 2 hours on batteries. Dad got it for about £200 but over here it would have been double that.

Hi Danial It is a Vivitar, 3.3.mega pixels ,yes i have noticed that the batterys dont last but have been and bought some recharable ones. Margaret

By the way, I use a Sony 3.2 Cyber-shot.

I trust that you have a decent sized memory card....? 16Mb at least? or several.......they seem to be a bit cheaper nowa days.......just got a 64Mb one for £18. Bob.

Hi Margaret, We get our memory cards etc. on line at:- www(.)svp(.)co(.)uk/ There is also Digital Depot - not sure of the address but you could Google it. Have fun - digital cameras are wonderful things! Magsx

Bob the memory card that came with it is 64mb

they are indeed a fab invention. I have a 4 megapixel HP camera that I've had about 2 years now and it's great. I'd agree with the previous comments about battery life (they go in a flash (pun intended) and the ability to delete the rubbish pics and therefore not waste money printing them. The only thing I'd say, is that they do tend to take a second or so to focus and take the shot - which can be frustration when trying to take photo's of, say, a small child who tends to not stay in one place for long. Maybe I should investiate a replacement, they might be faster now - any excuse for a new gadget :D

You can say that again Paul - especially when they know that they will be able to see the shot on the camera and want to see it before it's been taken! Magsxx

yep, been there, missed those shots

Paul - Got a lovely shot on video of Holly (grandaughter) when she was 2yrs old with her palms towards the camera saying 'No pictures!' - a star in training I think. lol Marion - the only thing I miss is having a packet of photos in your hand to look at - but they've even solved that now with those processing machine thingy's (very technical lol) Expect they will be getting cheaper with time too. Magsx

Hello Margaret, Sounds good, well done! I bought a digital camera last year, and have had lots of fun with it. Things I'd suggest from experience are: 1. Use rechargeable batteries (see you're already doing that) 2. Plenty of memory stick (see you've got 64Mb, which is pretty OK). The number of piccies you can take depends on the quality setting you choose. I bought a 128Mb stick to ensure that I could normally use the high quality setting, which allows about 90 piccies at one sitting. When we went on hols recently, I altered it to medium, to give about 250 shots. (Usually I download them into my laptop straightaway, to free up space again, but don't always have it with me, hence changing the setting.) 3. Sending piccies by e-mail. Most cameras have a "low" resolution setting, which reduces the size of the photo file to enable it to be sent easily by e-mail. (It's surprising how large piccie files usually are!) Alternatively, some e-mail software progs have a file setting which enables you to attach a piccie file with reduced size. For example, MS Outlook Express has this facility (click File to see it). Only problem is that you can normally only attach one file at a time. There is a way round this, by saving the piccie file so created as an e-mail attachment, bu sing the menu command "save attachment". Then you can open an ordinary e-mail later, and attach as many reduced piccie files as you want. Some e-mail progs don't have this facility (eg IncrediMail, which I use as my default). However, if you also have one installed which does, you can always use this to create the reduced piccie files, even if you then use your other prog to send them. Sorry, hope this doesn't sound too complicated!) 4. Finally, printing piccies. I was a very late starter in this area, used to e-mailing them, including in videos etc, but not printing. However, have ing started, I've found it's great fun (although a great threat to the business of photographic chemists!), so do try and enjoy! Get a good photo software prog, I use MGI Photosuite III, which is not the newest version, but recognises virtually any camera, which some versions don't. Good luck! Philip

Phillip Thank you for all the information given will find it very usefull i have printed your reply so that i can refer to it when needed Margaret

Hi Margaret Surprised you found anything nice to photo down your nexk of the woods!! :-)) I have had a digi for about 6 weeks now and oh what fun. I have been a keen photagrapher since I was about 10 which is a long time ago. The beauty of the digi is the number of photos you can take. My suggestions are: 1) Get the biggest memory stick you can afford, and then some more. I always take lots of the same subject from different angles to make sure I get at least one good picture. This requires a lot of memory. On our recent 3 week hol in Ireland I took 1600 pictures. 2) Do NOT rely on the image shown on the camera's screen. It will be quite a lot different, especially with regards to the lighting, from what is printed or shown on your computer. 3) Upload the pictures to your computer and get rid of the rubbish! 4) Get the best printed commercially. Whilst those you print yourself will be quite good they will not be as good nor will they last as long. I suggest you copy your best to a disc which you can either send away or take into a shop for printing. Alternatively you can use the net to send your pictures for printing. 5) Finally, come to a NICE place to take some pictures!! LOL Gerry

Hi Gerry I have found some nice things to take pictures of the dog and now come on we have some pretty places in Kent well somewhere we have lol , thanks for comments Margaret

Alan, your comment about batteries is really valid. a new Alkaline battery will be in the region of 1.6 volts per cell a set of 4 =6.2 volts......NEW A rechargeable, Nicad or NiMh is only nominal 1.2 volts ( 1.3 volts charged. therefore a set of four is only 4.8 to 5.2 volts down 1 volt already....... you should be prepared to change batteries often...........ie have several spare sets,all fully charged........and of course all sets, should be of the same capacity, ie 1300- 1500-1700 Ma or better, if you can get them. also when down loading them to your PC you should always use your AC power pack adaptor,( that came with the camera). one further point, use of the LCD screen is a deep drain on batteries........ bob

Some very good tips there Margaret, I think I will print it off too June xx

My digi came with it's own rechargeable and doesn't take batteries at all so if like me anyone has one of those..... REMEMBER TO CHARGE THE DAMN THING BEFORE YOU GO AWAY!! I went to Petra in Jordan and had no power at all..... fortunately had a friend with us who took shed loads but I would ave been gutted having to buy a chuck away camera!! ;O) daft mare me sometimes!! CAMEDIA is a good download onto PC facility.... but then I only use it as Digi came with that CD too!!

I have the Sony Cyber-shot 5 megapixels and love the photo's, but for some reason now, when I print them off on photographic paper they print really grainy, but it does not happen on photocopy paper. I have an Epson 'all in one' CX3200 Anyone got any suggestions, this prob never used to happen Kim