I'm new to digital cameras. I want to purchase a camera to both take pictures of flowering plants, trees & shrubs for which I intend to sell seeds online. I also will want to take photos indoors of dried flower craft projects which I also intend to sell. If possible I'd like to keep the price under $550, but will go up to $700.

I've gone to many many websites, but still don't understand the difference between CompactFlash, Picture Card, Flash card, SmartMedia and PC cards. Are some terms the same thing or are they all different? What's the best way to go? Thanks!!

-- Teresa Daly (tts@carlnet.org), February 11, 1999

Answers

Teresa- There are two types of removable storage commonly used in digicams - CompactFlash, and SmartMedia. A few older or professional units use "PC Card" memory, but they're the rare exception. You'll get people to argue the pros and cons of both CompactFlash (CF) and SmartMedia (also called SSFDC, as if all the other stuff weren't confusing enough). If you have a laptop computer (with a "PC Card" slot in the side of it), CF is a great way to go, because you can get an adapter for ~$15 that lets you plug the CF card right into the laptop and pull the images off as though it were just another hard drive. On the flip side, the SmartMedia cards can be used with a gadget called a "FlashPath", that (with a little help from software) plugs into your floppy drive, and lets you copy data off that way - pretty easy. FlashPaths cost ~$80- 90, although some cameras come with them bundled. Either memory type can be used with a separate little reader gadget that plugs into the parallel port on your PC (assuming PC not Mac), to dump the data from them. These gadgets typically run $50-80 or so.

You mentioned the web - would that be your major use of the images, or would you wanting to use them in printed form as well. If web only, you can get by very cheaply with a "VGA" (640x480) resolution camera, but if you ever intend to print them, you'll want one of the "megapixel" units. A big factor in the price will be whether you need a zoom lens or not. Zooms are super-handy, but do add a fair bit to the cost of the cameras. Good non-zoom megapixel units abound at under $500, but ones with zoom lenses will stretch your budget. Knowing zoom/non-zoom, and million-pixel-plus or not, you should be able to scan through our camera listing (when on our site, click on the words "Digital Cameras" on the left), and find several candidates. Then, read the reviews, and most of all, look at the sample pictures from your top candidates.

Hope this helps, good luck!

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), February 13, 1999.