Digital Camera Hottest Gift for 2004

Associated Press via MyWay.com ^ | December 22, 2004 | Ben Dobbin

[RayChuang88]

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - A novelty item just four or five years ago, the digital camera is shaping up as the most popular electronics gift in 2004, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. It was runner-up last year to the DVD player, the No. 1 gift since 2000.

Catapulted by cutthroat competition, digital technology is transforming the $85 billion global photography industry by creating new ways of capturing, developing and storing pictures.

[RayChuang88]

Here's a follow-up article to the one I originally posted about the rapid sales of digital cameras.

I think what is happening is that with the price of digital cameras dropping fast, it's small wonder why film sales for the consumer market are rapidly falling. Note that even photo processing labs are taking full advantage of digital technology; they now have special machines that can take the stored photographs from flash memory cards, Microdrive cards and/or CD-R discs and process them into physical 3 x 5 " or 4 x 6 " photographs so you have a real printout of your shots.

[FairOpinion]

PING

[JoJo Gunn]

tech ping

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I will be purchasing a digital camera for Christmas. I am amazed at how low the prices are for a 5 mp with a huge screen and docking station. I can get an excellent model for $269. I am in heaven!

[Trajan88]

I'm still old school... my Leica M6 continues to perform like a champ without the help of bits and bytes.

Trajan88; TAMU Class of '88

[RayChuang88]

I've seen the excellent Casio EXILIM EX-Z40 for well under US$300 at many online retailers. The EX-Z40 has four megapixel resolution, a huge LCD preview display, a long-life lithium-ion rechargeable battery, and a great docking station design.

[claudiustg]

Newspapers use little point and shoot digitals for a lot of the ad shots. News photographers get digital SLR's. The only film is the stuff the pages are printed on to burn the plates for the press.

[Max Combined]

Bought an Olympus Stylus Verve for my wife today and my daughter liked it so much she is getting one for herself.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I found the Casio Exilim EX-Z50 for $269. It totally rocks. I am going for the 5 mp.

I checked out all the cameras at www.digitalcamerainfo.com. I was looking at the Sony Cybershot which is over $500. I like the Casio just as much and will use my newfound savings for a really cool MP3.

[roadcat]

Digital cameras are great! I've used them for almost 10 years. My current model is a Canon Powershot S50 5-megapixel I bought a year ago for under $400 including accessories. I added a 4GB microdrive flashcard (yeah, 4gigabytes) for $200 (from a Muvo MP3 player). I can take thousands of pictures on a single trip and discard the ones I don't like. Rarely use my 35mm SLR anymore. And I can digitally send the pictures over the net for processing.

[FreeReign]

Okay,

I purchased a 6.1 MP 3x zoom digital camera today. I paid $375 for it. I liked the specs but I was worried of the brand. I purchased it anyway. It's a Kodak. I usually try to spend a little more time trying to figure out what the best buy is, but what the heck who has time.That's where you guys come in.

How did I do?

Anybody?

[roadcat]

Go to http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/dx7630.html

That's one of the best places to do comparisons of cameras. Also, steve has a lot of tutorial info on using the camera.

[The KG9 Kid]

I'm guessing that you bought the Kodak EasyShare DX7630. That's the best 6.1MP camera for the price right now, and handily beats the feature-creeped Canon PowerShots in the same price range.

If you haven't got the dock printer for your camera yet, you'll be wanting that soon. Also, the $39 carrying case that contains the whole suite tops off the package.

The best buy right now for $300 to $500 are the Kodak 6.1 MPs, even if you didn't buy the gimmicky digital viewfinder model. That component is unnecessary and somewhat impractical.

[FreeReign]

Thanks for the link, roadcat.

[this_ol_patriot]

They are just starting to put decent optics in digitals as far as I can see but does it make a difference yet?

I'll stick with my OM-2n, Zuikos and Tamrons

[dennisw]

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/

[FreeReign]

I'm guessing that you bought the Kodak EasyShare DX7630. That's the best 6.1MP camera for the price right now, and handily beats the feature-creeped Canon PowerShots in the same price range. If you haven't got the dock printer for your camera yet, you'll be wanting that soon. Also, the $39 carrying case that contains the whole suite tops off the package.

Glad to hear it. Yes it's the DX7630

I'll probably get the dock printer, more memory and the carrying case after Christmas.

Thanks!

[Mo1]

I love digital camera's .. especially for the kids

So instead of wasting money on film and the processing fee .. I can just delete all those pictures of the floor or the door knobs and stuff animal pictures ... oh and let's not forget all those close ups of someones eye ball *L*

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for the ping. A friend of mine worked for Kodak (indirectly, through a temp service) about ten years ago, hmm, slightly more than that come to think of it, then worked for a subcontractor to Kodak, then back to Kodak as an actual employee, then a few years ago he left Kodak (presumably for good). The digital revolution won't entirely replace conventional photography for a while, but obviously it is going to make a hell of a dent.

If I feel extravagant, I may pick up a 1 GB compactflash "card" for my camera, but then use it (with the Dazzle attachment I got a while back) as a cheap substitute for one of those USB fake hard drives. I've tried it with the existing camera card (a 256 MB) and loved the way it worked.

[WorkingClassFilth]

You can have the crappy digital camera. I'm getting my grandfather's vintage Atlas 10" F Series metal lathe with a mess of bells and whistles. Beats a hunk of plastic and a computer chip every damn time.