Digital Revolution: Draggin knuckles again

[Too Tall]

Thanks in advance for spending my hard earned $$s ;)
I nearly pulled the trigger on an Olympus 760 weatherproof 7.1 camera today. Having some wits about me (ha ha) I took a breath and read online reviews. All good except a comment about viewfinder is hard to see in natural light.

What attracts me to this thaing' is very light weight, it is on and ready to take pics before I am ready and weatherproof so it should be fine in a jersey pocket. Nice to have are audio clips. A "test" run in the camera store was very positive, fast light and easy to use. (Yes that's a freebie go for it ).

FWIIW I have a cool little Nikon Coolpix 4600 that is dandy, slow and a bit large. Takes great pics. It stays home.

For that kind of change it seems easy????

Go for it :)

[Grant McLean]

dude. all the cool kids rock the Holga.
want it weatherproof? get some ziplocks...

g

[Ginger]

My 10mp canon elph takes nice pics, plus has a viewfinder for those sunny days...needs the zippy loc though...

and I've gotta say...*ALL* of those screens are hard to see on a sunny day, it's just a matter of degree. Some are better than others, but if that's all that's holding you back...

You do learn to just point and shoot without really looking at the screen...especially when riding. Ya get some goofy pics, but you know...take two, or four...they're small.

And get yourself some fast storage...doesn't matter how fast the camera is if it's busy storing your last photo on slow media...
get several storage media thingies too...as far as I've found, faster smaller cards are zippier than really big cards (I'm talking 1G vs 2...)
Ymmv.

Someone who knows something can correct me. :)

[rwsaunders]

Too Tall...along with your portable coffee maker, I came across some more techno-stud devices for your upcoming ride with the Queen. Perhaps with a little work, you can beat the inventors to the patent office. Don't forget the ziplocs, like Grant and Ginger said.

[William]

Couple blocks of wood
A few wing nuts
A little crazy glue

And yer set...

http://www.sailingtexas.com/Movies/052506AustinVeloway/pic052506david.jpg



On a budget? Just use the Crazy Glue:

http://hometown.aol.com/Journals%20Editor/images/blogimages/082106-joe-head-camera-200x150.jpg


You can do-it TT!!




William

[Too Tall]

Gulp...ok no prob. on that wing nut :rolleyes:

Good grief.

[djg]

If you like the ergonomics and the pics, you're home free. I bought a Lumix this winter--liked the all metal body thing and the Leica optics--and I couldn't be happier with it, but the fact is that there are quite a few neat little cameras out there now for reasonable bucks.

[scrooge]

[QUOTE=Too Tall]Thanks in advance for spending my hard earned $$s ;)
I nearly pulled the trigger on an Olympus 760 weatherproof 7.1 camera today. ....QUOTE]

I got the Olympus 720 SW (waterproof/shockproof, but maybe not as much as the 760..) last fall so I could stick it in my jersey pocket and I love it. Also love that I don't have to worry about getting rained on... but they are right about the viewfind (but it seems par for the course).

[Too Tall]

Good words Scrooge. I checked that model out and wow it is built to last. Was a bit put off by weight...maybe it is worth a second look. The Stylus 760 all weather is selling for about $220 here. Seems a bargain.

[Kevan]

a relatively small satellite projection-type system on your rear rack so any pictures taken will automatically be fed to this website. Course, this may require some further modification to the bike's frame, installing cables and batteries and such. You also might want to use some discretion as to where you point your camera too. I'm just saying...

[TimB]

Ya need to talk to Dave the Oreo-munching randenneur rider dude and get him to loan you his old P-B-P VideoHelmetCam setup.

You know of whom I speak.

[Too Tall]

YOU MEAN Dave "The Legend Berning" ...we are not worthy. Dewd! That was a full on 80's style 30 lbs. video camera and he was using a gen. hub to charge it while he rode PBP AND freakin' finished under 80 hrs. HULLO manly man is he. But wait there's more! Dave is also a stone cold audio-phile genius who eschews driving cars to this day and can be seen still riding a 60's schwinn to the store....a few yrs. back I invited him to NYE at our house and aske him to bring Ice Creme (he lives about 30 miles away) just to see how he transported it ;) hehe. The ice creme arrived frozen BTW. The man is a legend.

Check out Dave: http://www.davidberning.com/

[TimB]

That's him.

I recall a few years back he rode to the Barnsville Bash from his house...then did the 50-ish mile ride and enjoyed the rest of the Bash. When I saw him getting ready to leave, he had strapped a piece of plywood to the back rack on his bike, and then was piling camping equipment onto the plywood. From the Bash, he was going to ride to Gettysburg, PA to go camping overnight, then ride back the next day.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack.

The new digital cameras are amazing. Few years back we got a PowerShot G2, I think at time it was around $400 - they were $900 when they first came out. All 4.0 megapixels and 3x optical zoom with a 32MB compact flash card. Just think what that same $400 can buy now! At Xmas last year we bought Sophia a small 'kids' Disney digital camera with about the same specs as the G2 for $49.

[Ginger]

a relatively small satellite projection-type system on your rear rack so any pictures taken will automatically be fed to this website. Course, this may require some further modification to the bike's frame, installing cables and batteries and such. You also might want to use some discretion as to where you point your camera too. I'm just saying...

i dunno...after riding with packs of guys for years I think a camera squarely focused on the queen from the rear would get many many views....just say'n.

[Kevan]

i dunno...after riding with packs of guys for years I think a camera squarely focused on the queen from the rear would get many many views....just say'n.

For the record, I wasn't suggesting for a moment that the device would...could...should...awww, never mind!

[mjb266]

I had an Olympus 7xx for a few weeks and the glare off of the LCD screen was so bad that you couldn't compose pictures at all. Granted all screens are bad in direct sunlight but this was particularly bad. I ended up taking it back to the store and paying a restocking fee so I could get a Canon. There is something wrong with their LCD screens.

[Too Tall]

Hmmmm....I keep hearing compalints about the screen. Otherwise it is nice. There must be a stick on anti-glare film?

[Ginger]

Considering that you're just throwing it in your pocket, I'd put film on it anyhow...dunno that it does anything about glare, but it does protect the screen...which, after traveling with mine without the film...is a very good idea. :(

[MarleyMon]

You may be interested to know that the new issue of
Consumer Reports has digital cameras on the cover
and inside they review lots of different models.

[gt6267a]

if you have not looked at them, the panasonic / leica digi's are nice. my guess is the electronics are designed by panasonic and the lenses by leica. you can buy the same model branded as either pana or leica. they both have leica lenses. its just the pana models are much less expensive.

one great feature of these cameras is the wider angle lenses. most only zoom down to equivelent of 35mm Vs 28mm for the many of the leica / pana models. that little bit extra means the world. if you know cameras, you know leica and lenses.

the only down fall, not one that i have noticed myself, pointed out in the reviews is that the fidelity of the camera is great at 100 or 200 iso, but when you go higher the noise gets crazy. i have not had a problem in low light, but apparently other cameras are better.

mine is equivelent to the fx-30. very small camera with nice screen. it is worth checking out at your local camera store. per the water proofing. i keep mine in a ziploc ...

[Kevan]

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasonic-DMC-TZ3K-Digital-Camera-Black/sem/rpsm/oid/177695/catOid/-16941/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

[gt6267a]

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasonic-DMC-TZ3K-Digital-Camera-Black/sem/rpsm/oid/177695/catOid/-16941/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

wow ... they have upped the game since i purchased. 10x zoom, 3" lcd, and it looks like they are addressing the noise issue. cool! if you are a size whore like me the fx-30 is a little smaller ... on the cc website they list a FX8P for 150. it is an older model that is a very small and fun camera for so few heads of cabbage.

[Kevan]

wow ... they have upped the game since i purchased. 10x zoom, 3" lcd, and it looks like they are addressing the noise issue. cool! if you are a size whore like me the fx-30 is a little smaller ... on the cc website they list a FX8P for 150. it is an older model that is a very small and fun camera for so few heads of cabbage.

no see-thru viewfinder.

[Serotta PETE]

In bright sunshine and without a see thru view finder, I can not see a thing and just point the camera. For me the view finder in a must. Canon, NIKON, and very few others still have it. Another suggestion is get one of the CANON elf's and put in a ZIPLOCK for water proof. I use a old NIKON 4900 with ZIPLOCK/

[gt6267a]

no see-thru viewfinder.

oddly, this has not bothered me.

in college, i shot with a f2, f3, nikkormat, and a pile o' lenses. i shot 5 or so rolls a week for the school newspaper and yearbook. about two years ago, my big boy backpack with all the lenses and bodies was stolen. i spent a lot of time thinking about plunking the insurance cashish down on a d-something or rebel xt and 28-70 f/2,8 ... after a while, i realized that i don't shoot very much and a PHD (push here dummy) would do it.

this past weekend, a friend with a d70 came to visit and i had a blast playing with a very fun toy. that said, i still made the right choice going with the smaller deal. if i start shooting tons again, i'll pick up a slr ...

ok, so, where am i going with all this? at least with the panasonic where the viewfinder is large and bright, i have not missed the viewfinder and i am through the lens kind of guy. further, when sweaty or greasy from sun tan lotion or whatever, it's best not to have the face on the camera and that is exactly when you would be inclined to use the viewfinder instead of the lcd.

i say, with whatever camera you might check out, take it outside and snap a few. while this olympus might be suckypoo, between brightness and anti-glare, some of these screens are just fine.

[Too Tall]

Weeeeeeel, I just pulled the trigger on an Olympus Stylus 760. To address the glare and protect the LCD I ordered some anti-glare film which will at least protect the LCD. So far so good. It is neat, light and intuitive. Very pleased that any generic pc will "see" the mem card via USB as a disk drive with nothing special required. blah blah blah. I'll shoot some pics of the Vanilla's new stem to show details. Hmmm yeah that's the ticket :)