By Redsrover (Redsrover) on Monday, November 19, 2001 - 05:04 pm: Edit

Well, to take shots of my rig on the trail I suppose...

If anyone has looked recently, there's a million and one choices of digital camera out there. 1 megapixel, 2, 3 megapixel, MP-3, on and on. I have a nice Nikon F3 35mm setup from the late 80's and I love it. But I want a digital camera now for convenience and picture quality.

Can anyone recommend a good choice for all-around useability?

Red

By charlie on Monday, November 19, 2001 - 05:45 pm: Edit

get one where you shoot short MPEG movie. my friend shot some short MPEG's of me going through some tough spot on trails and I can email them to my friends showing off my D2.
a nice plus
---Charlie

By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Monday, November 19, 2001 - 07:14 pm: Edit

The only thing that I don't like about digital cameras is that you can't change out the lenses like you can on a normal 35mm.. Well unless you want to pay $3500.00 plus on one.. I like being able to pull out that 400 zoom lense and take far away pictures.. I just use my old camera and a scanner..

By Herk Papadakis (Hpapad01) on Monday, November 19, 2001 - 07:34 pm: Edit

Red,

You can buy a conversion kit which will transform your F3 to a Digital camera. I am not sure what the prices are now, but you have the best of both worlds, plus you can use all your lenses.

Herk

By Redsrover (Redsrover) on Monday, November 19, 2001 - 08:27 pm: Edit

Herk,

That sounds interesting. I have the F3 body, power speed drive and a variety of Nikor and Sigma lenses (some zooms and fixed including the Nikor 180mm fixed portrait lense)and a cheap Sunpak flash. I bought all this stuff back in college when I thought I'd use it professionally some day (landscape architecure) but rarely touch it now that I have a pentax weatherproof point and shoot. Suppose they make a weatherproof digital?

Thanks

Red

By Phillip Perkinson (R0ver4x4) on Monday, November 19, 2001 - 09:09 pm: Edit

some cameras you can get like a water proof box to stick em in and still operate all the controls I knew this guy that had one for a kodak digital it was bad ass you could take to 12 feet we took it to the everglades and got some oawesome underwater pictures............something to look into if you have a digital..although I do not know where he got it sorry

By Carl E. Cedeholm (Cederholm) on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 09:56 am: Edit

Red,
I have a Powershot 100 from Canon, it's the smallest 2.1 megapix out there and it kicks A$$! It's about the size of a pack of smokes, so it's easy to take with you anywere and the picture quality is great. (although NOTHING compares to film!)
You can also buy a watertight clear plastic case for it, (I need one of those.
Oh ..and it's afordable.
Now I use my Pentax 35 for work related thing, and the Canon for all things fun!
Carl

By JEEPETR on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 10:13 am: Edit

Hey Red,

I'm like you, and I love my F3. I also love the idea of digital Photography, but unfortunately won't give up a "real Camera" to get it. Choices are unfortunately in the $4,000 dollar range for a real Camera that is digital. (I like the Nikon DH1, and DX1 but not the price). Anyhow, the reason I am writing is to comment on the "kit" to turn an F3 into a digital Camera. You can find more info at www.imagek.com, however they are not making one for the F3 anymore, even though they had initially listed it. My understanding is that none of the models are actually available yet, and while it looks like a cool idea, the feild of view of the digital CCD is only a very small section of the center of the F3's field of view (approx. 1/3). Anyhow, like you I may consider a point and shoot digital for the short run, but long for a "Real Digital Camera" that I can use like my F3....

~Scott T.
'95 D-90 (JEEPETR)
'96 Discovery

By Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 10:44 am: Edit

Without a doubt, mpeg vids are the way ahead

Now there are a few that can take films up to the limit of the memory card, rather than a fixed 2 minute job. The Sony S-75 is REALLY cool - it has a nice big zeiss lens (best of the best), and can take mpegs up to the memory limit. Its about $550 if you get a decent price. With a 128 MB card, you can get 90 minutes of mpeg!

Dean

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 04:54 pm: Edit

I don't know about the mpeg vids. I prefer a regular digital camcorder. That way I can get lots of high resolution footage, then pick out the good bits once I get home. As an added advantage, a lot of digital camcorders can take digital stills to a memory card. Just my 2 cents.

By Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 06:05 pm: Edit

Yep, the Director is right - a video would be a better thingy for doing videos. But the guy only wants a camera, so I thought just throwing in a good mpeg feature would be cool. You know, like filming when you drive through 2 feet of sloppy mud and get stuck!

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 07:28 pm: Edit

True, but don't forget that a good digital camcorder can take great stills, too. All of the Robesonia pics for example (except for Garret's of course) were taken with my digital camcorder.

The problem I have with paying extra for the mpeg feature on a camera, is that there just isn't enough memory to record all the action. You are bound to run out of memory just when something interesting happens...

By Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 10:20 pm: Edit

Axel,

What kind of camera did you use for the moab video? That was wonderful quality (and filming). Is this an bloody expensive one? I know nothing about camcorders.

Dean
ps I still like a good mpeg feature

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 10:53 pm: Edit

The Moab video (And the Robesonia clip) was shot with a Sony VX2000. And yes, it's not in the $500 range.

By PerroneFord on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 11:19 pm: Edit

Yea, more like the $3500 range! Great DV amateur camera though! I'd LOVE to have one! Axel, what kind of editing setup you got at home?

-P

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 03:05 am: Edit

You can get it for around 2K and change if you shop around. I got mine from J&R in NYC.
My editing setup is a Dell 4100 PIII, 1Ghz, 256Mb Ram, Pinnacle DV500, Premiere 6 and an external 80Gb Medea Video Raid. The editing PC is running Win Me right now.
Each Moab video sold is a first generation copy right off the hard drive.

By PerroneFord on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 12:00 pm: Edit

Good stuff Axel. How is that Pinnacle working? I got scared off by some of the support issues. Looking at a Canopus Analog and DV setup now. I need to get some stuff at the house. I've got that Adobe Media suite with everything, and a few other goodies at the office.

Sounds like you got a nice setup. I may have to get one of those videos for Xmas!

-P

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 01:07 pm: Edit

Perrone:

Some people have had problems with the DV500, but mine has been trouble free for the most part. I haven't had any issues a reboot didn't fix...
The key seems to be a clean install. Most people seem to (not surprisingly) have issues when they skip or misunderstand a step in the install instructions...


If you are interested, there is a list for the DV500 and DC1000 at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PinnacleDV500-DC1000

This site also have a lot of good info:
http://www.videoguys.com/

By Redsrover (Redsrover) on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 02:24 pm: Edit

I got a Canon Powershot A20 last night. 2.1 megapix with 8x digital zoom. Came with 8mb card and I bought an extra 32 card. Total bill $478.

Red

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 03:35 pm: Edit

Nice, good luck with it! Don't forget to take lots of pictures for Ho now.....