Question: Will I be happy with the zoom and detail available on a digital camera? Or should I stick with a traditional camera with a decent zoom and them scan the picture in after I get it developed?

PS: I heard that optical zoom is better that digital zoom for preservation of detail...any experience from anyone would be useful.

Also, I am thinking of going with a floppy disk storage so I can easily keep a copy of a client's pictures in his file without having to shuffle everything around....anyone have favorites on storage options?

Making photographic background tiles that tile seamlessly will be quite a job. If they are not seamless, they will be virtually worthless. Single-shot photographic backgrounds will likely be quite large in file size. It would be interesting to see an example of what you are planning.

I have a Sony Mavica 83 (I think that's the number). It can take some pretty decent pics and I really like the idea that it stores images on floppys, but have never considered it for what you have in mind.

Sandy

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www.alleghenyweb.com

I don't have anything in mind yet. I just have really been gravitating towards textural images in my webpages - like "powerclipping" textures into letters, using something interesting for buttons, and of course backgrounds. I am still very "newbie" and would like to come up with my own source of textures.

On one web site, I tried to tile corn, and my source had a shadow on one side - it tiled poorly, so I follow you on that issue!

Forgot to mention your comment about storage.
If you want high resolution photos you can't get much on a 1.44M floppy. That's why Sony is pushing their Memory Stick so hard and I think you'll see the time real soon when camera using floppies are extinct. My little HP 1megapixel uses a Compact flash card and I can get about 40 very high quality photos on an 8MB card. When I download them to my hard drive I get bmp's which are about 2.8MB each. Saving photos on compact flash or memory stick or whatever can get to be pretty expensive so I erase the cards from time to time and burn photos onto CD's if I need them. Of course, if you don't have a CD burner that's an added expense.

Have I made any sense??
Dave

[This message has been edited by nowlkldy (edited 02-18-2001).]

One consideration may be the new Sony Mavica model (MVCCD1000) which has a mini CD burner built into the camera. Not bad considering you can now fit over 1000 shots on a single disk, but the AUD$30000 price tag makes it out of reach for most people! - check it out @ http://www.sony.com.au

I recently got a Sony Cyber-shot, 3.3mega pixels digital camera. I work on a Sony and use the memory sticks, and I must say, the quality is fantastic, as good as a regular camera, and the ease of use is absolutely terrific. I use it for my family pics as well as for work...photos for clients reproduced onto web pages...and the results are most pleasing. This camera is availabe for under $1000. I believe that you could do anything you wanted to with it. Check out Circuit City. They have lots to try and play around with. The memory stick makes life with a camera sooo easy.

Bonnie

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bonnie@outfront.net
http://www.outfront.net

I am looking at a Olympus D-490 Zoom: 2.1 megapixel, 3x optical zoom, pop-up flash, 1600 X 1200 res, long life lithium batteries, 8mb smartmedia card, and it can turn a series of pictures into a panoramic shot, and short web video capability for around $400.

The short web video capability sounds intriging to me - I might want to incorporate it into a web page sometime - anyone out there think I'm missing the big picture??

Also looking at Panosonic palmCam digital Camera: (up to 4X6 prints) 1.2 megapixel, 8mb compact flashcard,3x optical zoom, 4 sec of motion image recording, built-in flash, 4 AA rechargeable batteries for about $280.

Whatcha think???

[This message has been edited by Tressa (edited 02-21-2001).]

Personally, I adore my Sony MVC-90....love the floppy disk flexibility, as it allows me to preview pics anywhere without someone having to have software installed, or even hand a disk to someone when I've taken pics that they want. But that's a personal liking. Some hate that.

The "movie" option con is that they create a HUGE file (unless someone knows how to do this better)...only Grandparents would wait for the download, if they were promised a few seconds of the Grandkids antics.

Have a browse at www.epinions.com about the cameras you're looking at; see what people who have them have to say.

Good luck in your "quest".

Jego

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"I am NOT tense, just terribly, terribly alert."