Re: filmscanners: Minolta DiMAGE Scan & Dimage 7 camera

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

I note that Sony has a new Digital camera which uses a nice little 3" 
CD-RW disk capable of storing about 150 megs of info, and of course, it 
is re-writable. The disks are about $5 each here (worth about $1.50, but 
that's supply and demand, I guess) Still a LOT cheaper than flash 
memory.  The camera in Canada is about $1400 right now, that should be 
well under $1000 US street, and saves the need for the extra interface 
with the computer, and having to download to write to a CD-RW/R anyway.

Of course, since CD-RW is reusable many times, to save money you could 
write the stuff down to a standard CD-R/RW and reuse the disks.  Also, 
the cost of packing a dozen of these 3" babies is under $60 CAN, and 
takes up very little space and weight.

I used to wonder about Sony when they came out with the floppy disk 
version of this concept, but now they are getting somewhere.  Of course, 
I imagine that flash memory is a lot more reliable (having no moving 
parts) than a CD-RW drive in the camera, and also RAM is smaller and 
must weight a lot less.  But one big advantage is at $5 a pop (or less) 
you also don't really need to bring a laptop with you and can wait to 
download the images when you get home.

Is there enough room under that kitchen table for two? ;-)


Art

Steve Greenbank wrote:

> A Casio QV3500 + 340 MB microdrive (250 high res jpegs [and you can delete
> the bad ones to make way for more]) can be had for less than the price of a
> 35mm camera with 28-70 zoom + half decent film scanner (Acer 2740).
> 
> On screen or in smaller prints there is little between them except the huge
> depth of field on the digicam pictures. Yes there are still some quality
> problems with digicams but there are also some benefits no dust, no
> scratches, no grain, no fingerprints, no human processing f**k ups,
> immediate feedback, exposure latitude, slower shutter speeds can be hand
> held, macro pictures are much easier to take, decent results out of the box
> unlike the damn scanner.
> 
> I have little doubt that 35mm film quality will soon be surpassed in MOST
> respects by prosumer digicams. Like with CD and vinyl some people will
> maintain that analogue is better for quite some time, but ultimately 99%
> will convert to digital.
> 
> The original poster was talking about using one for web pictures - I'd say
> he'd be completely mad to use film.
> 
> I'm just off to hide under the kitchen table ( as once advised by the UK
> government in the event of nuclear attack!!).
> 
> Steve
>