Exploding cameras :-O

I thought that might get your attention.

My faithful old Polaroid PDC-700 finally closed its poor iris for the last time this morning so the hunt was on for a replacement.

The digital camera fund started by CPF members did help, and I appreciate those who donated to the cause. During the first week, three members donated a total of $138 and change, and that was the end of that.

So I took that out of the bank along with another $300 or so I had been saving to go to an insulator show this coming weekend, and I went to the nearby Cameras West store in downtown Seattle and purchased a Nikon Coolpix 775. This was the camera that seemed most recommended for the money by more CPF people than any of the other cameras discussed.

The camera is very small, barely more than half the size of my Polaroid; but it has more features, higher resolution CCD (2.1 megapixel vs. 0.8 megapixel) and a higher resolution LCD screen.

The camera is USB only while this computer has no USB, so that will mean transferring pictures, probably one or two at a time, to this computer via floppy disk from my other computer which does have a USB port. That's the only fly in the ointment. Nobody seems to make cameras anymore that will plug into a COM port. But it's a minor price to pay for such a substantial upgrade from my old Polaroid. I figure it would take just as long or longer to download this camera's much larger pictures via the COM port anyway, so the time lost is probably little or none; and possibly even some gained.

I guess I'll know in about two hours once the battery has finished charging.

Total with tax was around $380.
There goes my insulator fund... o well!

Test picture. Shrank to about 1/3 its original size to fit on CPF's frame without scrolling.
Normal size 1600x1200. My monitor won't even go that high.

That poor camera in the garbage may not actually be fully dead yet. It's worth trying a $9.99 USB cord with. If it works with the USB connection, it's still worh using as a backup camera or a "thrasher" to take to ball games and such.

Second and final test.



Scene outside my window on a very dark, rainy afternoon right at sunset.
My old camera would have rendered this scene as a snowy blizzard of colored noise and speckle.

Again, size is reduced by 2/3, and picture was compressed to quality 4 (out of 10) to save loading time. That alone will knock it out of focus and add noise. It really does look fine in a full-sized version.

I love my new Nikon.

telephony, I bought the same camera about a week before Christmas. I love it, have taken over 800 pictures with it.

May want to check these forums:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1007

http://forum.steves-digicams.com/Forums/viewtopics.cfm?Forum=44

http://www.dr-xu.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=1

Have fun,
Joe

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by telephony:
Second and final test.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's beautiful! You ought to frame that one and sell it! NOW I know right where you are. I've been to that market tons of times (my Mom's family is in Bremerton, so we used to visit yearly at least).

Good stuff. Congrats on the new camera.

looks like a long exposure too, by that blurred guy behind the orange van -- you weren't hand-holding it, were you? If so, good hand! Might be sharper at faster speeds or on a tripod, or window sill...so, where's the green laser?

Here is one more test picture.
It's too big to fit in CPF's frame without ruining the formatting, so I'll just post the link.

Victor Steinbrueck Park from 1/4 mile away

This was just another "shove the camera out the window and push the button" shot. I used the 3x telephoto on it. Picture is unretouched except for being cropped and having a nasty compression applied when the file was saved because I really don't have a megabyte of space anywhere to give it.
I can deal with 155K however.

Neither outdoor shot used a tripod, but when I took the "Public Market" picture I used the side of my building as a gigantic monopod, bracing the side of the camera against it. That didn't stop all camera movement, but it stopped most of it.
For the big picture linked here I just shoved the camera out my window, aimed it (sort of), and pushed the button.

My old Polaroid couldn't take pictures like these. And my new Nikon is only a "mid level" camera. Imagine what could be done with a $1,500 model.

(Edit) I just checked the link, and as I thought might happen, the compression kinda ruined it.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by telephony:
This was just another "shove the camera out the window and push the button" shot<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I sure hope you have that thing ona lanyard and carefully wrapped around your wrist when you do that. I too just bought a digital camera (Olympus C700) and sure as wouldn't take any chances dropping it.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by LEDagent:
I sure hope you have that thing ona lanyard and carefully wrapped around your wrist when you do that. I too just bought a digital camera (Olympus C700) and sure as wouldn't take any chances dropping it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I had that thing virtually strangling my wrist before I reached out the window, and I still wasn't completely happy. I'd have felt better putting it on a tripod *and* securing the lanyard against some fixed object - just in case.

I'd hate to live in this building. Imagine having to tell somebody where you lived.
"Oh, I live in the Undre Arms up on 11th".
"You live where?!?!?"

This unusually-named place was found on 11th Ave. just east of downtown Seattle, and I just happened to have my camera with me. :-O
I was actually looking for the "**** ant" sign (which I also found) when I came across this building.

Somebody must have added the ".com" to the end as a joke; as there is no such URL. A search on Google turned up only one instance of "Undre Arms apartments", and it was from a tourist who had their photo taken in its doorway a couple of years ago.