[jodyand]

Last monday i was going to take a picture of a burned tractor and as i was getting into my truck i droped my JVC Mini DV Camcorder about 3' onto my driveway :duh: All it would do when you turn it on was tell you to take the battery out and reinstall it. Took it to the shop just got a call from him $175. to fix a broken circuit board:argh: :argh: :argh: So if you have a Digital Camera or Digital Camcorder do not drop it unless it on a pillow.
Jody

 

[tisenberg]

butter fingers (just kidding)

 

[Argee]

Originally posted by tisenberg
butter fingers (just kidding)

Could the post above be costrued as an FP? Most likely it will be. I know it will be by me. It's only four words. :smiles:

Jody,
That's gotta suck.

It's kinda like buying the camera again.

That figures out to $58.33 per foot.

 

[tisenberg]

Sure it's an FP, but it's also a crack... so who knows if it is a real FP. Besides, I didn't want Jodyand to feel like no one cared, the post had been up there over an hour and no one posted anything to it.

BTW, is a Mini DV Camcorder really a Digital Camera. I know my JVC Camcorder was digital and did stills, but I wouldn't classify it as a "digital camera". My digital camera does movies, but I wouldn't classify it as a camcorder. Not to be a schmuck, just wondering. Does this do stills, if so, what resolution (megapixel) does it do?

 

[tisenberg]

Oh, my horror story was taking a movie with my camcorder, it was my daughters first bath sitting up in the little chair. The tub was full of bubbles and they were playing so I figured I would record it to use against her when she grew up. (no nudey pictures, just silliness). Anyways, the water wasn't hot, but the steam in the bathroom basically shut the camera down so that it would not turn back on again for 2 days. After that, it never acted the same again. That was my excuse to go out and buy a new Digital camcorder.

 

[Chris]

To me anything that will take digital pictures is considered a "digital camera" smaller CCD and resolution I am sure, but hey it gets some pics up to this site (the important part) --- I have owned and operated over a dozen digital cameras since they came out --- From big and bulky 640x480 lunkers to my very $$$$ Nikon D1X and Fuji S2 Pro D-SLR setups, (6.1MP and 12.2MP respectively) --- Some of my cheaper digital cameras did offer nice little movies, IPIX, etc that my D-SLRs of course do not. But then again I can shoot my 500x Nikon VR lens with 2x TC and obtain 1250x zoom on my digital camera at 12MP! So I am not complaining about the tradeoffs...

These days --- a good 3-4MP is relatively cost effective camera and while I personally rather have 2 seperate units, if Jody and others can double their purchase and get a device that will serve as their occassional camcorder and camera in one then more power to them. Room for advanced features, Microdrives, RAW/TIFF capability, hot shoe, bulb mode, IPIX???? probably not --- but then again --- If it looks like a camera, takes pictures like a camera, then it probably is a camera.

I am sorry to hear about this additional cost to you especially during the holiday season! Hope you get back to working soon, big J.

Andy

 

[tisenberg]

I agree, I'm not knocking on the dual usage. I thought it was kind'a neat when I bought my digi-camcorder too. I was just wondering if Jodyands had some special stuff in it, I'd be interested to hear about it if there is something more to it.

 

[Chris]

I know --- just giving you a hard time, T --- :clap:

Andy
edro:

 

[jodyand]

4x6

I can get 4x6 photos anything bigger it get fuzzy But if i want bigger i use my 35mm. But it works great for posting pictures on the web and putting the stuff we record on DVD it hooks up with the fire-wire. We paid $520. for it not even a year ago and now i have to add another $175. to that
:argh: :argh:
Jody

 

[slipshod]

jody

Should have bought the warrenty

 

[tisenberg]

To bad, sorry to hear that. Have you gotten a second opinion/price. Ask vendor one specifically what they are replacing. Then call around and say... "If I brought my camcorder to you and you had to replace "x", what would you charge?"

Been there, done that, saved a few bucks.

 

[Rodster]

Hi Guys
I got a question. My old Sony digital uses floopys for storage.
The picture quality is great. Most JPGs are about 50KB just right for posting and emailing. I don't think it is even one pixel.
My sister inlaw got a new dogital and it has way higher resolution but her pictures ( even at the lowest setting ) are too
large for emailing. Does she have to buy another program to scale them down?
Rodster
PS It would be nice to see all the smiles

 

[tisenberg]

Most digital camera's come with at least a utility to view and print the images. Nearly everyone of them allow for a resize.

Windows also comes with "Imaging" and "Paint" (under Start, Programs, Accessories) which both allow a resize, it's just you need to worry about height and width yourself so they don't get out of skew. There are TONS of free image manipulators available on the web. Do a search for "resize image" on www.download.com.

Lastly, I think Kodak has some free downloads on their site too. I got some cool ones with my Canon printer too.

 

[slipshod]

Rodster

I have a program called "Advanced JPEG compresser" that will do what she needs. Had to pay for it,like $15.00 ,but it works well if you have a pic that is too big. nice for avitars.

 

[tisenberg]

Start - Programs - Accessories - Imaging.

Open the image (JPG)
Choose Page
Choose Properties
Goto Resolution tab

If it is on 300 X 300, change it to 200 X 200 or even 100 X 100.
Save it to a new file name and compare the sizes of the files on disk... it should be less.

This is one method with something you probably already have.

 

[Rodster]

Thanks for the info. I will pass it on to her. I like mine. The pictures look great and I can just email them like they are.
Rodster

 

[Chipmaker]

I have a SONY Mavica, w/ hi cap battery and also reg battery good for over 800 images on single charge, uses HD floppy and it takes pics in two different resolutions one of which is ideal for email attachments and posting. I still ormally use the larger size image and scale it to what size I want with Adobe Photoshop. I can scale it to print size or view size desired.

I have a like new Hitachi or maybe its a Sony as well 8mm cam corder I have not used in years, as I prefer stills and get bored watching a movie for any lengths of time. Still have two Minolta SRT 101 cameras that have not been used in years just setting in the closet. They take some fabulous pictures, strictly manual all th way, no auto anything, and these cameras prices are always going up as they seem to be a sought after item. They are considered a pro model full brass body (one is black the other is silver). Guess one of these days I may ebay one of them as well as the cam corder.

Oh, I stole my Sony Mavica on Ebay. Lucked out and only gave $130 including shipping for it. NIB too boot. At the time I got it, used Mavicas were going for over 350.00 and new they were close to the $500 mark. My friend just bought one of those cameras that uses the small CD disks instead of a floppy or memory stick. He regrets it now. The prices of the small disks are eating him up, and he only has one CD player that will utilize them. I know CD players are dirt cheap anyhow, but my friend is cheap as well ;-)

Y'all have a good one

 

[tisenberg]

I'm confused on the CD reference. I have the MVC-CD400 which is the Sony model that uses CD's. The CD's are 150 meg and run less than .50 cents each. DIRT CHEAP. You can buy a 50 pack for $19.99 at Best Buy. I have seen them for $25 for the 50 pack too.

As for the CD's, I have put them in 4 different computers with no problems. If the CD tray has the indent for a small CD, you just drop it in. If not, the Sony kit has an attachment to make it look like a big CD.

I love this camera and glad I bought. Only wished I bought it sooner.

Based on my friends camera who have sticks and this one... I'd never buy a stick one. Not knocking them, just an opinion.

 

[Chris]

My $.02 on the CD400

Well, one of my cameras was the Mavica CD400 just for kicks and compared to my others I really didn't like it. It is a novelty with Sony to use different media (floppies, CDs etc) --- These CDs can only hold about 150MB and I find them slow to write and you have to close to CD completely each time you want to view it on PC --- Then use another CD to start over with --- plus the added feature of careful handling and scratching, storage etc --- just a bit much for me --- plus the optical I think was 3x with additional 2x digital? It does take really nice pics but the "startup" time for loading the discs spinning up and locating the next file area took about 20 seconds --- kinda long if you want to catch something quickly I guess for me -- plus it took about 10 seconds to write the image to the disc. In any case, I enjoyed the style and picture quality of the CD400, nice quality lens. Good video, focusing, and white balance capability and photo sizes up to 2272 x 1704 make it really nice. ---- So, good camera --- just not my choice.

Andy

 

[tisenberg]

Hmmm... lets see now.

"These CDs can only hold about 150MB"
I'll have to recheck, but I think I get around 60, 70 or 80 something pictures per CD at the highest resolution. That's a lot of pictures for me.

"close the cd each time you want to view it on PC"
Yes & No. I don't close the CD's until they are full (or close to it). I hook up the USB cable. If you do close the CD, you can re-open it and add more pictures. I just don't do that because it wastes space burning a File Allocation Table each time. The FAT can be small or big and waste space.

"Then use another CD to start over with"
You can use CDRW's. You don't have to use CD-R's

"careful handling and scratching"
Not sure on this one. I copy the ones I want to print and mess with to the PC. The CD is the "backup". If it is extra special, I burn multiple mini CD's onto a normal sized CD.

"20 seconds to turn on"
More like 5 - 7 on mine.

"10 seconds to write".
Not sure on that one either. If I have it in burst mode where it takes 3 pictures quickly, then yes, probably 5 to 10 seconds. Normal individual pictures, happens pretty much right away.

The zoom is a pretty standard Carl Zeiss or 3x optical and 2x digital. Not awesome, but pretty good. Yup, they could have done a little better, but most camera are using this.

Lastly, I thought about a 256 stick and writing to it over and over again with the thought that eventually it might die like a harddisk. But my biggest thing that swayed me was... I don't want to take a laptop on vacation. And I didn't want to have to buy 4 or 5 sticks for a long vacation. With the CD option, when the disk gets full, I pop out another .50 cent CD and put it in and keep on going.

That's what nice about this world, they make lots of different choices for people with different requirements and opinions.