Curiousity, Following Up On a Class Assignment

I already fin­ished a school assign­ment that had me inter­view three peo­ple who use dig­i­tal cam­eras. I don’t real­ly feel like it went far enough, and I’m curi­ous as to the results I’ll get here. Help a poor stu­dent out, will ya?

Do you use dig­i­tal cameras?
Yes 28(100.0%)
No 0(0.0%)

If so, what manufacturer/model? If more than one, let me know.
ga_sunshine — Viv­i­tar something
sim­plykim­ber­ly — Canon and Nikon
tyme — Canon Pow­er­shot S110
je_reviens — Viv­i­tar, don’t know more than that
dwi­vian — Olym­pus D450Z, Kodak DX4330, Cheap Tar­get Brand ($60 or so, for web-ready shots)
kmc­cready — Nikon 8700, HP 720
kamyra — Sony
soquili_gitli — Canon Pow­er­shot A75
sleep­ing­wolf — Casio (I’ll try to remem­ber to check the pre­cise model)
cata­mor­phism — Kodak
starwolf67 — Cannon
bib­li­o­girl — Kodak Easyshare LS743
waya — Kodak EasyShare and Sony Cybershot
tech­nomom — Canon IXUS
joyeuse13 — Canon DigiPro and a Kodak something 🙂
trillian42 — Canon S30
epi_lj — I have a Kodak DC290. My wife has a Kodak EasyShare CX6200. My cell phone, an AudioVox 8900 (I think?) also has a camera.
acid­drag­on — Canon Pow­er­shot A70
nae­sa — elph powershot…
red­cub — Sony
hob­bit­blue — Fuji Finepix F601zoom
notspam — Nikon
ms_interpret — Toshi­ba PDR 4300
hopeev­ey — Epson
ruis­seau — Hewlett Packard
allessin­dra — teh NLSO had got­ten one that I thought was very good, and I’m blank­ing on the name. Cur­rent­ly we have one found after the Invis­i­ble House­mate moved out, a Fuji thingie. both of these are a few years old at this point.
great_eye — Olym­pus E‑20, Nikon 4500
poly­poly­glot — Olym­pus C2100 UZ, bought in 2001. It’s only 2.1 megs, though

How long have you had your camera(s)?
ga_sunshine — 6 months
sim­plykim­ber­ly — years and years
tyme — 4 years?
je_reviens — since August
dwi­vian — Olym­pus — 6 years, Kodak — 1 year, Cheapo — 2 years
kmc­cready — The hp is 3 years old, the Nikon 2 months old.
kamyra — 5 years
soquili_gitli — Less than a year
sleep­ing­wolf — 2 years (bought used for $100)
cata­mor­phism — 1 year
starwolf67 — 2 years
bib­li­o­girl — About eight months (this is not my first one, though)
waya — I’ve had the Cyber­shot about three or four years and the Kodak since Christmas.
tech­nomom — 1 month
joyeuse13 — The Canon, for a bit over 2 years; the Kodak, for about 4 years
trillian42 — near­ly 3 years
epi_lj — The DC290, 6–7 years. The cell phone, about 2 years. The CX6200, about six months.
acid­drag­on — 1 year, 2 months
nae­sa — sev­er­al years
red­cub — 7 years
hob­bit­blue — 2 years
notspam — this one 3 years
ms_interpret — 13 months
hopeev­ey — about two years or so
ruis­seau — approx. 1 year (used)
allessin­dra — 2 years ish.
great_eye — 3 years
poly­poly­glot — 3 1//2 years

Would you buy the same brand again?
Yes 24(92.3%)
No 2(7.7%)

What fea­tures are most impor­tant to you?
ga_sunshine — qual­i­ty of pho­tos, zoom, memory
sim­plykim­ber­ly — real zoom (not dig­i­tal), abil­i­ty to do mini-movies, expand­able via mem­o­ry cards, etc.
tyme — A flash, some zoom to help with cropping.
je_reviens — price, megapix­els, hav­ing a flash and an LCD screen, “recov­ery time”
dwi­vian — Opti­cal Zoom, sta­bliza­tion, chip mem­o­ry or high-speed trans­fer (USB2.0 or Firewire)
kmc­cready — man­u­al set­tings, like white bal­ance, high pix­els for print­ing big pic­tures, low noise at high ISO settings
kamyra — Easy to Use with Good Qual­i­ty Pho­tos. Easy to Put into Com­put­er and easy to get copies print­ed up
soquili_gitli — Opti­cal Zoom, sol­id con­struc­tion, good UI.
sleep­ing­wolf — Macro­mode. It also has a nifty fea­ture where the optics can be rotat­ed about the hor­i­zon­tal axis inde­pen­dent of the rest of the camera.
cata­mor­phism — ease of trans­fer­ring files
starwolf67 — view screen, delete options, fil­ters, shut­ter control
bib­li­o­girl — Ease of use, good pic­tures tak­en in low light, much faster than the one it replaced
waya — Easy of upload, qual­i­ty of the pho­tos, opti­cal zoom,
tech­nomom — Point and shoot
joyeuse13 — abil­i­ty to man­u­al­ly adjust set­tings if I want to, but a smart enough auto­mat­ic set­ting that I don’t have to
trillian42 — I like the nav­i­ga­tion, and the cus­tom set­tings that I’ve both­ered to fig­ure out.
epi_lj — Good qual­i­ty pho­tos, good opti­cal zoom, ease of use, size / weight, response time.
acid­drag­on — Good detail in macropho­tog­ra­phy with an extreme­ly close min­i­mum focus distance
nae­sa — the met­al cas­ing! along with it’s porta­bil­i­ty and phys­i­cal zoom as well as digital.
red­cub — Recharg­ing Lithi­um Ion bat­tery, smart card, USB hook up.
hob­bit­blue — met­al case, small, good lens & zoom, lcd screen, easy to trans­fer pics
notspam — size, com­pact flash cards rather than smart mem­o­ry cards or oth­er type of stor­age, zoom, abil­i­ty to man­u­al­ly adjust set­tings, res­o­lu­tion abil­i­ty, recharge­able battery
ms_interpret — man­u­al every­thing, auto­mat­ic everything
hopeev­ey — fast pic­ture tak­ing, high resolution
ruis­seau — ease of use, pic­ture quality
allessin­dra — I did­n’t answer ‘buy it again’ because it’s both. The mod­el the NLSO had, yes we’d buy again. The oth­er one we have, no. Fea­tures: per­son­al usabil­i­ty, pix­el quan­ti­ty, abil­i­ty to take Real Lenses.
great_eye — man­u­al set­tings and qual­i­ty lenses
poly­poly­glot — The con­ve­nience of dig­i­tal and, for a while, the 10x opti­cal zoom

What, if any­thing, would you change about the cam­era if you could?
ga_sunshine — I’d want more zoom options and lens­es I could change out like on my 35 mm
sim­plykim­ber­ly — I sup­pose if it were small­er, that would be nifty, but I did­n’t buy a small­er one, so I guess I don’t care much
tyme — I would have unlim­it­ed size movie mode . Cur­rent­ly lim­it­ed to 30 seconds.
je_reviens — well HSN just had anoth­er cam­era for sale, same megapix­els, flash, etc, but also plays and stores MP3’s, for the same price! I would total­ly get that one instead if I was look­ing now.
dwi­vian — Make it just a bit ‘hefty’-ier, as it feels too cheap and light.
kmc­cready — The Nikon 8700 is great, except for the man­u­al focus which is dig­i­tal and not very pre­cise or useful.
kamyra — eas­i­er to get copies print­ed up
sleep­ing­wolf — It does­n’t have a viewfind­er, just an LCD.
starwolf67 — no
bib­li­o­girl — Slight­ly bet­ter auto-focus, more zoom, more megapixels
waya — Abil­i­ty to inter­change lenses,
tech­nomom — Charge bat­tery in cam­era; use “nor­mal” bat­ter­ies; some on-board memory
joyeuse13 — The Canon: the sil­ly flash pops up in a lit­tle trap-door thingy, and it’s hard to remem­ber to keep your hand off it.
trillian42 — Longer bat­tery life
epi_lj — I’d love for it to be much smaller/lighter and for it to take shots more or less instant­ly with no pow­er-on time or lag from when I push the shut­ter button.
acid­drag­on — Short­er min­i­mum focus length
nae­sa — bet­ter res­o­lu­tion- so i guess i would get a new one.:)
red­cub — process­er speed, megapix­els (don’t both­er with less than 5 or 6), and an opti­cal find­er for out­door shots when it’s too sun­ny to see the LCD screen.
hob­bit­blue — The but­tons are a bit fid­dly for my part­ners fingers
notspam — I would have the flash more strict­ly man­u­al­ly adjustable — with this cam­era if flash is off you auto­mat­i­cal­ly have a slow­er shut­ter speed — it CAN be done but its a huge pain and reverts back after one photo
ms_interpret — bet­ter opti­cal zoom — abil­i­ty to attach oth­er lens­es would be nice (mom’s cam­era has that — I’m jealous)
hopeev­ey — make it take pics faster
ruis­seau — feel­ing more like a non-dig­i­tal camera
allessin­dra — The one we have: more pix­els, dif­fer­ent user inter­face, larg­er-capac­i­ty mem­o­ry card. But it was free.
great_eye — E‑20: would love inter­changable lenses
poly­poly­glot — Smart Media is a soon to be obso­lete card for­mat and I’d upgrade to CF or SD

What do you do with the photos?
Pub­lish them on the web
7 (25.0%)
Print them yourself
0 (0.0%)
Have them print­ed professionally
0 (0.0%)
Some­thing else (tell me in the com­ments, please)
2 (7.1%)

What soft­ware do you use to man­age and/or edit your photos?
ga_sunshine — it came with the cam­era, I don’t recall, honestly
sim­plykim­ber­ly — var­i­ous — Zoom Ex is pret­ty neat and came with the Canon
tyme — Fireworks
je_reviens — photoshop
dwi­vian — Pho­to­shop (for Mac)
kmc­cready — Corel pho­topaint 9, Adobe pho­to­shop 7
kamyra — Pho­to Shop
soquili_gitli — Man­u­fac­tur­er includ­ed soft­ware. Irfranview.
sleep­ing­wolf — Adobe Pho­todeluxe, Corel­Draw, soft­ware that came with the camera.
cata­mor­phism — nothing
starwolf67 — Photoshop
bib­li­o­girl — Kodak’s own to get them off the cam­era, then Paintshop Pro for edit­ing and “album” for cre­at­ing albums online
waya — Kodak EasyShare software.
tech­nomom — IrfanView
joyeuse13 — Photoshop
trillian42 — Photoshop
epi_lj — Pho­to­shop, Graph­ic­Convert­er, Irfan­View, Fire­works, Pix­elNHance, “Gallery”, a bunch of oth­er ran­dom tools.
acid­drag­on — Canon Zoom­browserEX (bun­dled with the Cam­era), and GIMP
nae­sa — photoshop,mainly.
red­cub — Photoshop
hob­bit­blue — paintshop­pro and photoshop
notspam — Nikon­View, Paintshop Pro 7, Canon panora­ma maker/photostitch, Broder­bund Pho­to Orga­niz­er, Easy Thumb­nails, Arc­Soft, Album Express, Jasc Ani­ma­tion Maker
ms_interpret — ACD­See for minor stuff — Pho­to­shop for major stuff
hopeev­ey — the soft­ware that came with the cam­era, and paintshoppro8
ruis­seau — Gimp for edit­ing and I man­age them in direc­to­ries in Windows
allessin­dra — I don’t use any soft­ware. I just down­load them from the cam­era and store them. By default, the mac lap­top I have uses iPho­to, but I don’t like it and don’t real­ly use it.
great_eye — Adobe Pho­to­shop CS
poly­poly­glot — Pho­to­shop Ele­ments 3.0, some­times Dell Pic­ture Studio

What advice would you give to some­one shop­ping for her first cam­era? (May need to use comments)
sim­plykim­ber­ly — Know what you’re look­ing for in a cam­era first, then take a look at dpreview.com — get the most cam­era you can for the money
tyme — Look for reviews of your prospec­tive cam­eras, then hunt down prices using price­grab­ber, or on-line deal sites.
je_reviens — you CAN find a 3MP cam­era for around $100, which is an awe­some price, if you look.
dwi­vian — Pick it up and see if it feels good to use. If you don’t, you may find that you hate to hold it, and thus nev­er have it nearby.
kmc­cready — Think about what you want to use it for and then check prices. See if you can try the ones you like out first?
kamyra — Get the best one you can affford
soquili_gitli — Avoid Sony. Shop around exten­sive­ly. High­er MP does­n’t equal best. Opti­cal zoom is EVERYTHING.
sleep­ing­wolf — Try to buy a cheap used one from some­one who takes good care of their things. It’ll help clar­i­fy what you like and don’t like, and while the res­o­lu­tion may be low, you will like­ly get an excel­lent fea­ture set to give you an idea what is worthwhile.
starwolf67 — For a first cam­era, I would sug­gest pur­chas­ing some­thing in the $ 200.00 range, then it will be a good experiement­ing cam­era, then save up for a more expen­sive one when you are con­fi­dent with usng a dig­i­tal camera.
bib­li­o­girl — Spend as much as you can real­is­ti­cal­ly afford, don’t skimp, and buy more/bigger mem­o­ry cards…
waya — Rate what is impor­tant and use that for your shop­ping. There are cam­eras with all com­bi­na­tions of features.
tech­nomom — Fig­ure out what you want to do with it, then shop
joyeuse13 — Get the high­est qual­i­ty (in terms of megapix­els and mem­o­ry) you can afford.
epi_lj — Try them all out as much as they’ll let you. If pos­si­ble, take the same shot with sev­er­al cam­eras and com­pare them.
acid­drag­on — Research which cam­eras have the fea­tures you real­ly desire. Every brand excels at some­thing dif­fer­ent. Also, find the price/value sweet spot, i.e. find the cam­era that gives the best upgrade for the least addi­tion­al cost from the one below it.
nae­sa — hmm…find some­thing portable, and with decent res­o­lu­tion, easy to use, and an opti­cal zoom.:)
red­cub — Spend the big mon­ey now to get a good cam­era that will last a long time.
hob­bit­blue — read plen­ty of reviews, work out what fea­tures you’ll use and what size/digital for­mat is best
notspam — Edu­cate your­self to exact­ly what your own per­son­al pho­to needs/wants are; Ask oth­ers what they like/dislike in their cam­eras; Be will­ing to pay for what you want instead of set­tling for less; Buy Nikon or Olym­pus but if you don’t, at least buy Canon
ms_interpret — fig­ure out what you want it for, first.
hopeev­ey — I have no idea — mine was a gift
ruis­seau — Maybe eBay isn’t the best place if you haven’t han­dled the mod­el you are look­ing for.
allessin­dra — What user inter­face aspects do you like and dis­like in reg­u­lar film cam­eras? Get the *exact same thing* in dig­i­tal. Dig­i­tal is not some mag­ic thing that will make you work differently.
great_eye — #1. Make sure to hold it in your hands before buy­ing. Even if you like the specs, make sure you like the feel.

Rate your exper­tise with dig­i­tal cam­eras. 1 is a begin­ner, 10 is a pro.
Mean: 5.79 Medi­an: 6 Std. Dev 2.08
1
0 (0.0%)
2
2 (7.1%)
3
2 (7.1%)
4
5 (17.9%)
5
4 (14.3%)
6
3 (10.7%)
7
5 (17.9%)
8
4 (14.3%)
9
3 (10.7%)
10
0 (0.0%)

Rate your exper­tise with cam­eras in gen­er­al. 1 is a begin­ner, 10 is a pro.
Mean: 5.96 Medi­an: 6.5 Std. Dev 2.31
1
1 (3.6%)
2
1 (3.6%)
3
2 (7.1%)
4
6 (21.4%)
5
2 (7.1%)
6
2 (7.1%)
7
4 (14.3%)
8
6 (21.4%)
9
4 (14.3%)
10
0 (0.0%)

Rate your exper­tise with com­put­ers. 1 is a begin­ner, 10 is a pro.
Mean: 8.54 Medi­an: 9 Std. Dev 1.27
1
0 (0.0%)
2
0 (0.0%)
3
0 (0.0%)
4
0 (0.0%)
5
1 (3.6%)
6
1 (3.6%)
7
3 (10.7%)
8
7 (25.0%)
9
9 (32.1%)
10
7 (25.0%)

Rate your exper­tise with graph­ic soft­ware. 1 is a begin­ner, 10 is a pro.
Mean: 6.25 Medi­an: 7 Std. Dev 2.41
1
2 (7.1%)
2
0 (0.0%)
3
3 (10.7%)
4
3 (10.7%)
5
1 (3.6%)
6
1 (3.6%)
7
8 (28.6%)
8
6 (21.4%)
9
3 (10.7%)
10
1 (3.6%)