On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:16:24 GMT, "Sting Ray" <Sting_Ray(no
spam)@vette.com> wrote:

>Hi! I'm new to this NewsGroup and I am seeking advice on digital cameras. I
>know very little about them and have been putting off buying one for this
>reason. I presently have an older model Pentax 105R 35mm camera which is
>about 8 years old. About the only thing I know about digital cameras is that
>the higher the megapixels, the better the picture quality, and I'm not even
>sure about that.  Here are my questions:
You are right, higher megapixels does not ALWAYS yield a better
picture.  Most of the time more is better though. A friend of mine has
an Olympus 2 MPixel camera that he takes on his travels and he getts
fantastic  shapshots that many "better" cameras wouldn't equal without
a lot of manual settings.
>
>1) What is a good quality, mid-priced camera to buy?
There are many. Have a look at www.pdreview.com 
As for myself, I would look first at Canon. Nikon, Olympus, and then
Sony. As to which model to purchase, go to the link above. In general
if all you want is snapshots stick to the $150 to $250 price range.
You will be better satisfied with the overall results.  The more
expensive the camera the more you need to be a photography expert to
get anything good out of it, and the more bad shots you will get. For
resions I don't comprehent the "auto" mode on the cheaper camerals do
a much better job of of producing what you want most of the time then
the "auto" mode on the more expensive cameras.
>
>2) I think I've heard the term "docking station" used when listening in on
>camera conversations. What is a docking station? Should I have one?
As far as I know a "docking station" is needed only when your notebook
computer doesn't not have a USB port or other IO for transfering the
camera content to your computer. If you have a tower or desktop a new
IO card may be needed.  Most cameras use the USB port
>
>3) I think that I've also heard the term "memory card" used. Is this like a
>floppy disk? What does it do? Are there different cards with different
>capacities?
Each time you take a picture the resulting digitized image is loaded
into some form of memory for future access. Some use a floppy drive,
some a mini CD-R drive and most use a memory stick(Sony)  or a memory
card(most makes).
The more Megapixels the less a given card size will hold. Today no
matter what camera I would use a 512 M memory device. CD and Floppy
don't cut it for me.  Most camers will allow you to select a smalled
stored image to optimize the number of images that can be stored.  But
if you do that why buy a camera with more MegaPixels then you really
will be using.

Snapshot use - 1 to 2 Megapixels. or a good looking print up to 3X5 "

Better then snapshot to budding photo artist  - 3 to 5 Megapixels Good
looking prints to 5X7"  Maybe a 8X10"

Serious photoartist - The biggest Megapixels camera there is.
A pillow is needed for banging head against the wall.
>
>4) Is there anything else I need to buy?
Just depends on how serious a photographer you are. There is no limit!
For most the only Item that is a must is a camera bag. Cheap ones that
loot like a canvas sandwich/lunch bags are best as they don't attrach
thieves as much.
A printer
>
>I apologize for what are probably really basic questions. If anyone knows of
>a good website that answers all these questions, please provide a link.
>Thanks in advance for your help. If I can return the favour by answering any
>questions you might have on old Corvettes, I am a regular at
>alt.autos.corvette and would be pleased to help.

Now some of you are awair that I can neither spell or type well. So no
need to point that out.
John Owens
>