Hi everyone and thanks for taking the time to "hopefully" help me. Ive been looking for a digital camera and would appriciate any advice you can give me. First of all...do all cameras have the screen in back that allows you to see the image as soon as you take it and delete it if you dont want it? Also....Id like to get a camera that takes a floppy disk instead of having to connect cables to my computer and download the images. Unfortunatly I know those are alot more expensive :-(. If anyone knows of an afordable camera with the screen to see the pics right away and that takes the floppys instead of having to download..PLEASE let me know. My Email address is "Redhead01@aol.com" Thanks so much !!

-- Carrie T (Redhead01@aol.com), January 14, 2000

Answers

I just wanted to comment on your floppy disk requirement. If you intend to take photos for printing at 4" X 6", you'd probably want a 1.3 megapixel or better camera. At that resolution you won't be able to fit very many photos on a floppy. SmartMedia and CompactFlash have much higher capacities, and they're not as inconvenient as you might think.

Look for a camera that fits your needs and feels right in your hands. If you end up choosing a camera that uses SmartMedia, you can purchase the FlashPath floppy adapter. The SM card goes into the adapter and you can read it from your floppy drive. I got mine from a rebate offer when I bought my Fuji DX-10; you may be able to find similar deals out there. There are also many CompactFlash and SmartMedia card readers that go for under $100. Some will read *both* types. Most will plug into either your parallel or USB port.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your search!

-- Martin Quiazon (mquiazon@mindspring.com), January 14, 2000.

Carrie:
Many of the digital cameras on the market offer the LCD on the back so you can preview and delete pictures that don't turn out the way you want. Some even have a zoom mode so you can examine the picture even more closely. These LCD's, while convenient, do display the picture in relatively poor resolution and with too much contrast - so don't judge the picture on these merits using the LCD.
Cables are lame - I really don't recommend them. Floppies are terrifically handy - but as Martin points out the capacity is a bit constricting. You can, however, carry a lot of floppies around - they are incredibly cheap.
You should also consider the option of adding one of the many new I/O devices such as a floppy adapter, or memory card reader to your PC. They are not hideously expensive and are relatively easy to install.
With a card reader you simply put the card into the reader and look at the contents as though it were a disk drive. Very slick! If you are willing to go that route then your options are pretty wide.
For floppy cameras I like the Sony line. They don't offer much resolution in the FD models (the floppy drive models) - but if resolution isn't your main criteria then you may find them to be an excellent choice.
Panasonic offers a super-disk model - but it's so friggin' ugly I don't want to be seen on a date with one.
For non-floppy models I'm a fan of the Olympus line. They have a real-camera feel to them because they were bred (in-bred perhaps) from real cameras and a real camera company. The Nikon and Canon (IMHO) lines were farmed out to new ventures that took a different approach (not a bad one either - just not my cup of sasafrass).

Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), January 14, 2000.

Im overwhelmed by all the help Ive received on this site as well as in EMail. Thank you everyone! I have to admit the responces Ive gotten ave been very helpful but confusing at the same time. You all seem like computer experts! LOL I, on the other, hand had to have a very nice man from this message board help me to find out what kind of port my PC has. LOL Megapixals, smart media, compact flash, floppy adapters...OMG LOL Maybe a digital camera is too complex for me? LOL Im determined to figure this out though.:-) Dont get me wrong..I very much so appriciate all your input.....I know now that theres alot more to look for then simply point, click and there ya have it...a picture. Please dont stop leaving advice..it really does help! Thanks again everyone! Carrie

-- Carrie T (Redhead01@aol.com), January 14, 2000.

If you simply must have a floppy disk based camera, I would go with the Sony Mavica FD-91. It is feature laden and very popular. If you have a new computer (one that has USB ports and Windows 98)then you can plug in what is called a Memory Card Reader(think of it as a floppy drive for memory cards. Then you can get a camera(The Olympus 340R is well liked by critics). Upon filling the memory card, transfer the Card from the camera to the 'Reader by the computer and and trasfer your images.

A couple of things that you won't get with the Olympus 340R that you will get with the Sony. 1. A fold out LCD panel 2. A 14x(high powered most cameras have 3x) Zoom lens with motion stabaliziation(helps prevent blurry images)

-- David Erskine (davide@netquest.com), January 15, 2000.