If a picture is worth 1000 words, how much is that in cash? Lost Vacation Pictures Worth Thousands

AP ^ | Jun 9, 2003

[new cruelty]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is that in cash?

For Mark McCarthy, who sued a supermarket and Kodak when they lost his vacation photos, it was worth $8,000 — the sum the two companies agreed to pay him in an out-of-court settlement, according to news reports Monday.

McCarthy, a business consultant, refused to accept it when a Tesco supermarket and Kodak declined to compensate him for losing slides from a January 2002 trip that included pictures of Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

At first, Kodak and Tesco said they were only prepared to offer him new film, the 41-year-old McCarthy, from Potters Bar, north of London, told the Daily Mail tabloid.

"I eventually established that the slides had arrived at Kodak's processing laboratory ... and they confirmed that they had developed them to be returned to Tesco, but after that the trail went cold," he said.

Under the agreement, neither company was prepared to comment on the case. A Tesco spokeswoman said the company will continue looking for the slides for a year.

[supercat]

That is until the developing mach. eats the film . . .

The first pictures taken of my niece look normal except for the areas which should be dark (in print/light on negative). Those areas appear 'negative' of what they should. This behavior is evident on the first half of each of two rolls of film.

Anyone ever seen anything like that before?

[petuniasevan]

That's why mine was with me all the time in Southern California. Take no chances.

You didn't have the serial number recorded? I do that, plus engrave it elsewhere on the camera body in tiny letters/numbers.

It might turn up at a pawnshop.

[new cruelty]

My wife and I lost all of our digital photographs of our honeymoon in England. I had them 'safely' stored on my pc and planned to get around to backing them up onto CD. Then one day I opened an email from a trusted friend and a virus managed to overwrite all of my .jpg files.

[dennisw]

Every film bag I ever filled out and dropped a can of film in says that if they are lost, you will be compensated the cost of the film alone. If he did not want to take this chance, he should have developed them himself.

Then how the heck did he win the case?

[petuniasevan]

That's why I like my CD Mavica. Already on CD. I also uploaded ALL the pics to Fotki, and have them stored on 2 separate computers.

It pays to be redundant!

[jim_trent]

Good question. My guess is that they did not take this case seriously until it was too late and thats they reason they lost.

[new cruelty]

Thanks for the photo, csvset.

Here is a link for anyone else interested in visiting this peculiar site.

Found Magazine: we collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life. anything goes...

[new cruelty]

I am looking to buy a new digital camera. The mavica seems a bit clunky. How do you like it?

[petuniasevan]

Yes, it's a bit clunky, compared to "memory stick" digital models. But the Mavica CD camera is otherwise a great unit. You can use it as a fully automatic "point and shoot" camera, or use manual settings. Exposure times range from 1/1000 second to 8 seconds. Aperture can be adjusted for blurring background (portraits, for example).

There are special effects available such as solarize, negative, sepia, black and white. There is a macro setting for close-up work.

The view screen can be used on review setting to look at the photos stored on the disc in the camera.

Flash can be set to low, medium or high. Flash can be disabled, default (auto) or always in use. Red-eye reduction can be enabled or disabled.

The picture quality can be adjusted over a wide range of sizes and resolutions. Depending on your choice, the number of pics that fit on a disc will vary.

I had mine on "fine" and 640x480 (email size) and got 650 pics on my vacation disc with room for 300 more pics still available!

I love my Mavica.

If you need more details, freepmail me.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Either that, or get a fricken digital camera. Its the 21st century for Godssakes...

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

I had mine on "fine" and 640x480 (email size) and got 650 pics on my vacation disc with room for 300 more pics still available!

Whoa! Something doesn't sound right. 640x480 should not be considered 'fine' resolution by any camera (and it looks like you have a very good one), but even then, only 950 on a CD at that resolution?

FWIW, I can get 230+ on my 128MB flash card at 1440x960, or go up to 1768x1120 and take around 200. This is about the resolution needed to print out 8x10's without losing any detail.

[John Robertson]

"Every film bag I ever filled out and dropped a can of film in says that if they are lost, you will be compensated the cost of the film alone."

Ah, bring in the amateur lawyers. When the sign in the restaurant says, "Not Responsible for Theft," but one of their employees steals your coat--what, they're not liable? Why don't you put up a sign in your front yard saying you're not responsible if anyone falls on your walk. All these written warnings--and agreements we're forced to sign--don't relieve people or companies of liability...they merely make it a bit harder to sue them, or, discourage most people from pursuing any remedy.

Remember rule number one: This is America, where anybody can sue anybody for anything.

[jim_trent]

Read #18

[supercat]

Whoa! Something doesn't sound right. 640x480 should not be considered 'fine' resolution by any camera (and it looks like you have a very good one), but even then, only 950 on a CD at that resolution?

Many cameras have multiple resolution settings, and multiple quality settings for each resolution. I would expect this poster is indicating that he uses the highest quality setting (minimal compression) for the lowest resolution. Not sure exactly anyone would do that unless the cameras's "digital zoom" works by cropping [in which case, one may have e.g. 1280x960 unzoomed and 640x480 zoomed]. In that case, selecting "fine" quality at high resolution would produce excessive file size and/or writing times, while selecting any lower quality would result in poor quality pictures when zooming. My Fuji MX-500 is like that.

Frankly, I wish I could set the thing to use normal quality 1280x1024 when unzoomed, and fine quality 640x480 when zoomed (without having to go to the menu to change the quality setting) but it doesn't have that feature.

[petuniasevan]

No, you misunderstand.

There are 2 picture quality settings "fine" and "standard".

Those are independent of the image size.

Image sizes available are:

640x480
1280x960
1600x1200
2272x1704

I haven't had the camera long enough to try all the settings, but at 4 megapixels, I should have all the resolution I need for even poster prints.

[petuniasevan]

See my reply 35.

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, buddy. I shoot weddings every so often, and I wouldn't consider shooting film anymore. I KNOW I have the shots before I leave, and I have them downloaded and backed up to CD almost immediately.

If people start getting compensation in the thousands for every lost roll of film, all it will do is speed the demise of film. By 2010, I think you'll see film about as often as you see someone shooting with a film 8mm movie camera, now.