Please help:

I am thinking of getting a 2.1 MP digital camera. Which one should I get? The Sony DSC-S50 or Olympus C2020 or the Nikon Coolpix 950?

I like to get a good quality pictures of our kids that is worthwhile to keep for a long time. The Sony also provide the opportunity to take movie and sound, this is cool for grand parents.

Thank you for your help.

Howard

-- Howard L (hlemail@yahoo.com), May 29, 2000

Answers

Howard:
While I am not smitten with the movie mode of cameras (it's in the category of "...can your 35mm do this?<") - I do find the sound/picture capture to be inspiring. I recently wrote a program that views Sony Mavica pictures and plays the sound automatically (I'm sure there are other programs that do this too) and discovered that the combination adds a dimension that can only be paralleled with the addition of color to photography. Not only does the image bring you the memory - but the sound confirms and emphasizes it. The point being that sound - in association with image is more capable of capturing a moment in time and recreating it then image alone. Duh! - one might say - but the sum of the sound and image is far greater than the addition of the parts.
Now - while the movie mode does much the same - it adds two factors I'm not entirely comfortable with: Low resolution (the moving image is really small - and really stinks), and length (it teases you with the motion and then stops...

Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), May 29, 2000.