Dig. Camera

[John Moniz]

Evan Leibovitch wrote:

>FWIW, the camera I have is a Canon that takes the large (and cheapest!)
>Compact Flash cards. Personally I like Canon and Olympus and Fujis, you
>can't go wrong with any of them IMO.
>
>
>IMO there are three issues related to cards, mainly all stemming from
>issues of availability. The comments below apply to cards used in
>cameras, as well as the growing number of smartphones that also use
>flash memory cards.
>
>
>
>1) Price -- while name-brand SD and xD cards are about the same price
>for the same capacity, it's easier to find cheaper off-brands for SD.
>The Sandisk prices for 2GB cards are between $80-90 for both SD and xD.
>However, there are many more brands available for SD, one of them now
>offering 2GB cards for $25 (after rebate at tigerdirect) and many others
>at less than $40. (One company even sells a 4GB SD card for less than
>the cost for a 2GB xD card.)
>
>The bottom line: Consider the extra cost of the card when assessing the
>full price of the camera. You're going to need an extra card anyway, as
>most of the ones included with the cameras are tiny and not too uselful
>beyond demos. Many stores like FutureShop can (and will if you press)
>drop the price of a card as an incentive to get you to buy a particular
>model camera.
>
>
>2) Readers -- For my last PC purchase, I was able to find a floppy drive
>that included a bunch of card readers, within the same form factor:
>http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1265795&CatId=630
>-- it contains an SD reader but not an xD reader. Many of the "7-in-1"
>USB card readers don't have xD slots, for licensing of whatever reasons.
>You can still get a USB reader for xD,
>such as
>http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2415753&CatId=962
>, but they're not as common.
>
>The bottom line: these days, most people use a USB cable to hook their
>cameras directly to their computers (which works fine under most modern
>versions of Linux). They only take out the memory card when going to a
>commercial photo printer like Black's or Costco, whose systems generally
>read xD cards. Given the capcity of today's cards, you'll likely not
>need to swap them because you ran out of room. While using the USB cable
>does use battery power, consider that drain is minimal since the big
>power sucks on the camera -- the viewscreen and lens movements -- are
>usually off during PC transfers. In any case, many cameras already use
>rechargables -- and IMO the wear-and-tear of frequent removal of the
>memory card isn't worth the benefit. On some cameras that I've seen, the
>battery-access mechanisms and doors appear more robust than the ones
>used to protect the flash cards.
>
>
>3) Long term availability -- fewer sources of xD cards means that it
>will likely be harder to find them once they become obsoleted by the
>next generation of cards, which will happen long before your camera
>stops being usable.
>
>The bottom line: unless you do a lot of poster-size high-rez shooting,
>one or two high-capacity cards bought now should probably be all you
>need for the life of the camera, especially if you frequently download
>photos to a PC then delete them off the card. If you're paranoid, wait
>untill just after the cards become obsoleted and by a few more at
>bargain bin prices. So this isn't much of an issue.
>
>
>HTH,
>
I ended up getting the Kodak in the end, mostly because of the SD card. 
I'll soon see if it was the right choice for picture quality and 
compatibility with Linux.

Thanks for all the  great replies.

John.
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