TRAVELLERS DISCUSSION SPECIAL !

Digital or film camera to take these lovely pictures?

 

DIGITAL OR FILM CAMERAS FOR INDIA

Hi all,

I'm leaving for India in January and I will be there for about 4 months. I want to take as many pictures as possible, but I know people who have carried as many as 20 rolls of film with them. I don't want the extra weight and also I would hate to see any of the film damaged as I will only be developing them when I return.

But...I hear that digital cameras are not that great quality.

I am wondering if any of you out there think that Digital is the best way to go when traveling and if so, could you recomend a good model.

thanxs....happy travels.
 
1. OK, lets do this again...BOBTRIPS
<smile>

Quick answers. Go to the Computer/Camera forum and you'll see this question answered many times.

For me, 25+ years of travel with film. Often 20-30 rolls and the frustration of having to pass up shots I wanted due the costs lead me to look at digital. I switched two years ago. Won't go back. Period.

Choosing a camera requires you to decide how you want to use your shots. If small prints (~5"x7") and screen work are what you're after a 2 meg camera will do fine. If you want to print large you will need more pixels and you'll have to pay for them.

The pros who have taken the time to carefully evaluate the best digitals are abandoning film. The best digital cameras outperform 35mm film.

Go to http://www.dpreview.com and read some of the posts. The "Pro Forum" currently has a digital/medium format discussion going. These are people who are finding that digital is starting to replace medium format cameras.

For me, I'm not a printer. I carry a Olympus C2100z that has a 10x (38-380mm lens) that is image stabilized (like having a built in tripod).

I store my pictures in a 20gig Image Bank. I can bring home 40,000 pictures. Is that enough for you?

bob
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips - SEA and Nepal
New Feature - Myanmar Nat Festival

2.

I took both on my last trip which was quite a lot of weight given lenses, etc. Like the above poster I took to the digital after a significant adjustment period. The digital gave me significantly better overall results because I rarely take composed shots. I did a writeup on this that I'll try to get posted in a few days. The 35 doesn't have lag problems that digitals tend to have but overall it made good shots out of casually taken photos even in the dim light. Few shots were fuzzy. The weight is vastly less than the 35. Both are high light efficiency type lenses. There is a definite learning curve though. I obtained a short course for my particular camera. A huge plus is that I often shoot under sensitive circumstances and the digital has adjustments to turn off flash which makes it unobtrusive compared to the clanking mirror of my old Canon. Give yourself some time to break it in (I got mine a couple of hours before I left). I saw a 6 meg for 699 today and that would help out on the enlargements! I couldn't find a perfect choice. I balanced out the desirability of AA battery compatibility with the "right" kind of memory stick (some are cheaper and some are compatible with my Sony computers). Look at the quality of the lens. I would have liked to have compact memory as that allows the use of that nifty IBM minidrive. Memory can be pretty cheap so take plenty. I had one fail and am looking around for image recovery software. A note for the 35 fans (I count myself as still vestigially in that camp) it is hard now to get hand inspection of film. Also, check out very carefully and test even known processors in India with a test roll. I went to my regular and learned that lesson the hard way, things change..

Edwardseco

3.  

ed...
You can get a 20 gig portable hard drive for about the same price as a 1 gig micro drive. 40 gigs for only a little bit more.

Go to the C/C forum and do a search on "X-Drive".

And, which 6 meg for $700US?

And, go to dpreview, Storage and Media forum and you will be able to find a lot of file recovery info.


bob
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips - SEA and Nepal
New Feature - Myanmar Nat Festival

4

Hi there!
When I'm leaving for my rtw trip I'm gonna bring my digital camera, it's not a great camera, but it triples the fun as you can take as many pictures as you like, and wiew them immedieatly. I'm also bringing an Archos Jukebox Multimedia mp3 player with a photomodule which lets me store 20 GB of music and pictures. You should definetly go with the digital camera!

All those who belive in telekinethics, raise my arm
 

5.

For the poster who claims that professionals are running from film to digital I think he is a little premature. There are many more orders of magnatude (zeros on the end of the number) colour crystals on film than the 6 or so million pixels on digital cameras. Good quality 35 mm film will blow up to bigger than 100 cm shots before graininess starts showing. Magazine covers wont accept 35 mm film as the quality isnt good enough and want more like 80mm film. There is no way digital is that good, yet. And film is still getting better, modern 400 asa film is better resolution than Kodachrome 64 was 10 years ago. I still go with film and take about 2 per day on days I have the camera out but I often have camera free days so I can just enjoy looking.

6 ##
It was a Fuji I believe. Wanted to jump up and get it but no dough. The little IBM drive is really for the super convenience of not having to lug a photo wallet around but I agree the bigger stuff is a better value. Thanks Bob for the tip on the software..

Edwardseco
 

7.  for those who are still hesitant about a digital camera

suggest you go to http://www.dpreview.com - the "Pro Talk" forum and do some reading. Also spend some time at http://www.luminous-landscape.com .

There are an awful lot of pros shooting who just plain don't see it your way....

bob
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips - SEA and Nepal
New Feature - Myanmar Nat Festival

STORAGE DEVICES

 

STORAGE DEVICES FOR DIGITAL CAMERAS

I just bought a Canon S200 digital camera and will be taking it to India with me. The camera only comes with an 8MB Compact Flash card which can't hold many pictures. I would like to upgrade to a large CF card. Is the max size 128 or 256MB?

I was also wondering if there would be a place in India where I could buy the CF card. I will be landing in Calcutta.

Any info is greatly appreciated!
1. ##
Take thee to Ramshop.net (flash) for a real experience. Yes, you can get larger capacity cards. Consider that nifty IBM microdrive at 1 gig also. Carry a card reader as well. Since they come USB that can be a problem with older machines as I found out this summer. CF is available in India but I would bet you it is higher than you could get it elsewhere like Fry's. Also, don't know the size..

Edwardseco
2. Memory
Get a digital wallet, it is a portable hard drive, now with memories over 20G, cost not much more than a couple of flash cards.

 

 

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