Digital Camera Hottest Gift for 2004

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

[Nowhere Man]

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.

I know, I work in a drugstore photolab and although I still get quite a bit of film, a lot of times, it seems like there is a battle over the digital photo computer and scanner.

[reagan_fanatic]

Are there any digitals out there that don't have that annoying pause when you push the button to take a picture? I've had two digital cameras now (an old Kodak 2MP and a Fuji 4MP) and both have a brief pause between the time you push to shoot and when the picutre is actually taken.

[backhoe]

You figured out your camera and made a nice shot! She looks pretty in the shot, too - all dressed in red and festive looking! Funny how machines can be so alluring... A Souix, huh? A venerable old name and maker of very nice drills too - especially their close-quarters right angle drill. Using pipe for a rest is using the noggin, too.

These new cameras are wonderful and frustrating-- it used to take me hours and hours in the darkroom to achieve what a few clicks can do with digital. On the other hand, the tiny size, and the nested menus drive me crazy-- I still have to carry the manual with the camera.

If I get a chance I'll turn the bar and lay out the toolkit and accessories that are what makes it worth anything. It's a beautiful example of the axiom "function determins form." All it does is bore holes, but it does that very well.

That Sioux is so old I've been told it should be in a museum, but it works perfectly. After IAP closed in 1975, it vanished... the guy who was my first chief mechanic at Newman's Auto Repair, Claude Hudson, found it years later in an abandoned, falling-down house on the Island and returned it to Roger Parsons, the co-owner of IAP, and he gave it to me when he quit the engine overhaul game.

I have most of Roger's cylinder-head holding fixtures, too, but for most heads, the two pullout pipes work better and faster.

Merry Christmas!

[reg45]

That's my personal pet peeve. When I shoot photos of my six year old daughter, she can be half way across the room before the actual picture is taken.

[RayChuang88]

I know, I work in a drugstore photolab and although I still get quite a bit of film, a lot of times, it seems like there is a battle over the digital photo computer and scanner.

Actually, a lot of the photoprocessing places now can have you upload the pictures to a special site on the Internet so the photoprocessor can download the pictures to be processed. All you need to do is go to the photoprocessing lab to pick them up or have them sent to you.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

my Leica M6 continues to perform like a champ

Don't know if you are interested, but Panasonic has partnered with Leica for their mid-to-high end digital cameras. The Panasonic DMC-FZ20K has a 12x optically stabilized zoom Leica lens (equivalent to a 36mm to 432mm 35mm lens) and a 5 megabyte CCD for about $470. Sadly Santa had other plans, so it will be on my Christmas list for yet another year.