I have a need to buy a cheap ($200 appx.) digital camera to put items on ebay. What would you recommend, keeping in mind that nearly everything I do with a computer turns out wrong. Thanks, don

-- Don Bittle (donbittle@sondata.net), March 18, 2000

Answers

If that's all you need it for then DON'T GET A DIGITAL CAMERA!!!

Let me explain:

Take photographs of your items with a film camera and then have the film processed at the drugstore where you can get images on disk as well as paper prints. The Long's drugstore in California offers this service at no additional charge: One set of images on paper and on set of digital images for about $6-7 per 24 exposure roll. Not great quality digital images, but very suitable for this purpose.

Obviously, this won't work if you need fast turnaround, as processing takes a day or two longer than regular film processing. Also, if you'll be listing hundreds of items, you would be better off to get a good digital camera. Inexpensive digital cameras aren't good with closeups or flash shots, so they don't work that well anyway.

-- Ray Brooks (rebrooks@bigfoot.com), March 28, 2000.