I HAVE BEEN GOING BACK AND FORTH...UNDER $1000.00. BEING A LANDSCAPER, WE TAKE PHOTOS OF OUR WORK AND PUT 8x10& 11x14 IN OUR PORTFOLIO..RICH CRISP, CLEAR TRUE TO LIFE COLOR IS IMPORTANT....I ALSO PREFER THE VIEWFINDER..THE DIGITAL IS GREAT FORICAN SEND OUR WOKVIA EMAIL BUT AT THE SAME TIME USE THE SAME PICS FORTHE PORTFOLIO....AM I DREAMING???? HELP!!!!

-- Eileen (setdesign@pioneeris.net), July 26, 2000

Answers

With the right printer, paper and know-how, you should be able to produce pretty good looking prints for your portfolio and definitely for email with any of the 2.1 or 3.3 megapixel cameras, almost all of which will fit your budget. If the print is going in a portfolio sleeve, you can probably get away with an 11 x 14 print from a well focused, well-exposed photo, or you may want to look into Altamira Group's genuine fractals to "upsize" your file for 11 x 14 output. I have had an Oly C2000 and an Epson Stylus Photo EX for a year and still am amazed at the quality of photos i can get...and I am in the graphics industry! I love to see what a new Epson photo printer/paper combined with a 3.3 mp camera would produce! Good luck.

-- Ringo Santiago (ringos@asheragency.com), July 26, 2000.

Hi Eileen,

You might want to lay off the CAPS, some picky people consider it SHOUTING... and it is kind of hard to read. :-)

I'd say that if you're shooting for larger than 8x10" you definitely want a 3.3MP camera. Depending on how picky you are and how far away you view a 2MP image, they tend to top out around 5x7" or 8x10" at best.[In My Not So Humble Opine, anyhow... :-)]

I'd say you'd be reasonably happy with any of the more popular 3.3MP digicams, although some seem to have color casts you have to deal with. I'd recommend the Toshiba PDR-M70. I have one, and it's a nice performer. I've noticed the greens in my nature images are especially attractive. The M70 also has a color mode setting that allows you to select Standard Color, Vivid Color(think Kodak), Monochrome, or Sepia toned for "Olde Tyme" effects. It also has manual Shutter and Aperture Priority modes similar to those found on competing brands.

There's also a Landscape mode available as a preset mode in the Automatic mode. Depending on the distance you're taking photos from, the landscape mode may or may not be applicable.

No matter which camera you choose, I'd suggest investing $20-40 in a decent tripod and using the in-camera timer to minimize any motion related blur. If you have lots of light with a wide aperture it's not essential, but can come in handy and it only takes a few seconds to set one up.

One other thought. I'm not sure what printer you've considered, but let me put in a plug for the Epson line. The 870 has 6 color output, and can print 8"x10s, the 1270 can print up to the larger sizes. The output is rated to last as long as a conventional photo print too! On the budget end, I have one of their Epson 760 inkjets. For around $130 it prints very nice 4 color photos, but the prints aren't rated to last anywhere near as long as the 870's and the 870's prints should produce slightly better images by using the other two inks.

Good Luck!

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), July 26, 2000.