Washingtonpost.com: Live Online

Fast Forward columnist Rob Pegoraro will be online to talk about The Post's annual review of digital cameras. What things should you know before you go camera shopping? What's more important: Megapixel resolution? Battery life? Memory size? Are smaller cameras just as capable as larger ones? And is there a place for old-fashioned film in the digital age?

Interactive Guide to Digital Cameras: Check out short reviews and key facts on 15 digital cameras.

Join Rob for a live online discussion on Monday, June 2 at 2 p.m ET.

Fast Forward E-letter:

Want to know what upcoming topics are being covered? Sign up for Fast Forward e-letter -- get updated information on personal technology news and product demos. Read past editions of Rob's e-letter online here.

Below is the transcript.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Rob Pegoraro: Alright, let's get started: Today's digital-imaging day here at Washingtonpost.com, and it looks like I could spend the next hour just answering the questions that have already been submitted! I'll do what I can to keep up with y'all...

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Alexandria, Va.: I have been considering switching from film to digital, but I have concerns about long-term storage and being able to access my photos in 10 or 20 years. Do you have any thoughts on insights you can share on this?

Rob Pegoraro: An excellent question--a few people have raised this in e-mail to me as well.

Basically, as long as you back up the data in a more permanent form--CD-R, mostly--and take care to move your photos to each new computer you buy--I don't see any real problems. Or at least, none more serious than what you'd have with film as most consumers store it (I have some negatives from 1989 that probably are too scratched to generate a decent print, just because I kept them in envelopes in a shoebox like everybody else.)

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Falls Church, Va.: Rob,
I have not too much experience in digial camaras, but I want to buy a good one. I will be traveling with my wife very soon. I would like if you can advise me to buy a good camera. Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Well, I can try. Shop for something with at least 3 million pixels of resolution and a 3x optical zoom. If you can get a camera that takes AA batteries, you'll have fewer worries on the road.

To get into more detail, I'd need to know what sort of pictures you want to take and how much control you want over each photo.

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Arlington, VA: We are interested in getting my father a digital camera for Fathers' Day. My parents just returned from a trip with several people who had them and found the Canon S200 to be the most impressive of those they saw. I have found this camera for $250, but wanted to know if you might have any suggestions of comparable cameras we should look at, or something better that we could get around the same price. I must add that the purchasers are all clueless. We are just going by what Mom and Dad saw on vacation. Thanks so much!

Rob Pegoraro: I'd spend a few more bucks--actually, you might not have to--on the S230, which goes from 2 to 3 megapixels of resolution. That extra sharpness means you'll be able to order up larger prints (up to 8 by 10) even if you crop or edit them a little. OTOH, the S230 only has a 2x optical zoom.

I'd look at Kodak and Nikon's point-and-shoot lines, which have seen some pretty steep price cuts lately.

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Georgetown, Washington, D.C.: How much of a real-life difference is there between these 3mb, 4mb, and 5mb cameras -- is the picture quality noticeably better the higher it goes?

Also, you mentioned that many of them have a lag time between clicking and the picture being shot. Is that only when they're resetting after a shot, or on every shot?

Finally, if I decide to stick with my trusty APS film camera, what is the quality of the pictures once they've been transferred to a disc (I use Ritz).

Great read on Sunday, many thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: 1) There is a difference--you can easily notice it if you have try to view each image at actual size. A 5 MP image will force you to scroll back and forth to view the entire thing, even on a huge monitor. That doesn't make a difference in a 4-by-6 print, but if you want to order up 8-by-10s *and* seriously crop the image, higher resolution gives you more margin for error--you can use just a portion of the original image and still have it look good.

2) There's one kind of lag between pressing the shutter and having the shot happen; the other kind is from shot to shot, which is usually longer than the first kind.

3) You mean the quality of the APS shots? Assuming the Ritz people do the job right, with a pro-grade scanner, they should be every bit the equal of the original film--but also equivalent to any digital prints. As our reviewer Jim Hawk found out, Ritz uses the same Fujifilm digital development system for both film and print; negatives are scanned in digitally before printing instead of undergoing chemical development.

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McLean, Va.: Rob, what's the going rate for camera bodies that can use interchangeable 35 mm lenses?

Rob Pegoraro: Really expensive. SLR (single lens reflex) digital cameras are still made for, and priced for, people who can write off the cost as a business expense on their taxes. You're looking at basically $1,200 and up now, which is a lot less than what the cost once was but also much more than "consumer" digicams that don't accept standard 35 mm lenses.

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WestBoro, Mass.: I have a Panasonic PV-VM202 Digital MultiCam Camcorder and it has 10x optical zoom with Leica Dicomar Lens and it takes pictures at resolution of 1200 x 900. Using Ulead Photoimpact Software I have been able to print wonderful 8 x 10 and some 11 x 14 prints. Now, I want to justify buying a 3+ MegaPixel camera, How should I do that.

Rob Pegoraro: Uh, because you obviously want to buy it?

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Millersville, Maryland: My Nikon Coolpix 3100 lens shows an aperature of 2.8-4.9. How does that compare with the "f" stops of a film camera lens in terms of the "depth of field" issue?

Rob Pegoraro: The math gets complicated, but basically it's a matter of the digicam's image sensor ship being, like, a quarter or an eighth of the size of a 35 mm negative. I'm told that means the bigger f-stop number compares pretty well to the equivalent of f/16 or f/22 on a film camera. The lower f/stop number also equals a higher f/stop on a 35mm camera, but not by quite the same factor. Anyway, the bottom line is that you will have to keep more of the shot in focus instead of just the subject's nose or eyes or whatever.

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Arlington, Va.: Shutter lag drives me nuts. Are there any consumer digital cameras that capture the image the moment you press the the shutter release? I understand that autofocus takes time as well, but I would be very interested in a moderately- priced digital camera that could capture action photos, i.e., journalistic peak moments.

Rob Pegoraro: Our reviewer Alan Kay found a couple that did that--he said the Sony DSC-P8 performed really well, for instance. It's not an impossible problem to solve, in engineering terms. Shooting technique can also work around the problem a little bit, although not so much with impromptu shots along the lines of what you describe.

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Montgomery Village, Md. mom: I read your column on digital cameras and wanted to let you know that there is at least one digital camera that takes great photos and is fast between shots. As matter of fact it can take more than 10 shots in succession. Perfectly capturing a baby laughing, a toddler dancing or many other fleeting moments. It's the Canon powershot G3 and I love it! I was very hesistant to move from my Nikon N80 to a digital camera but my husband convinced me and while we still use our Nikon N80 on occasion, we have taken more than 2000 shots over the last four months since we bought the Canon. It's really worth it!

Rob Pegoraro: Speaking of shutter lag...

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Digitizing degradation: I want to edit my 35mm pictures using Photoshop, but I'm concerned that digitizing them will result in a degraded picture. Do you know whether this degradation occurs? In other words, if I had a professional print the digitized and edited pics (originally 35mm), is there a difference in quality as compared to the pics that could be printed straight from the 35mm film? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: That depends on the scanner used. A really good scanner won't cause you to lose any data you'd ever notice. Problem is, those cost $$$ and take time to use. (Nothing is quite so tedious as waiting for the scanner to finish off a big photo as you listen to that weird grinding noise it makes.)

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Fort Washington: Any digital cameras out there that are dedicated to MAC systems?

Rob Pegoraro:
No, because just about any new camera you use will work with a Mac out of the box--especially if you use iPhoto in OS X. This is because most cameras support the same basic connection protocols; it's not like printers, which need specific drivers to work with a computer.

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Somewhere, USA: Hi Rob - I just purchased a Nikon 2100, which includes Nikon View software for management and editing of the pics. It doesn't seem like I can use this to e-mail pics because of the fact I have AOL. Am I missing something? Or is it time to ditch AOL? - Kevin

Rob Pegoraro: It's probably the Nikon software not being set to use AOL for sending e-mail--I'm guessing, but I would imagine it's only set up to look for a regulation e-mail client, like Outlook Exp or Eudora.

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Springfield, Va.: What is it with digital cameras and batteries? I take about 3 pictures and the batteries are dead. Is this a common problem?

Rob Pegoraro: Battery drain does happen, but it shouldn't happen that fast. Are you taking pictures with the LCD on all the time? Is this an old set of batteries?

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Santa Barbara, Calif.: I've done some printing (of my digital pix) (on an Epson photo 780 using Epson paper of various kinds) and all the pictures fade, some very quickly. Photos (on film) processed at CostCo, eg., printed normally, do not fade. Is there any way to prevent fading by doing the printing myself -- other than keeping the photos in the darkness, etc. I am about to give up on digital photos for anything but Web use.

Thanks,

Rob Pegoraro: Epson's page on this printer says the color ink it sells "Features Lightfastness rated up to 26 years before noticeable fading occurs, when framed under glass in normal indoor fluorescent lighting conditions, when using EPSON Matte Paper Heavyweight."

Epson has since come out with a line of "DuraBrite" inks that are supposedly good for 75 years without fading. Unfortunately, it seems you can't use those in your printer...

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Los Angeles, Calif.: My sons (three) would all like a digital camera that can dub as a video camera and must include sound. I have a Canon S45 that fits the bill but was hoping there might be something cheaper. The kids love to take motion picture clips of themselves (CF card) with sound and then put it on the computer for manipulation.

Any suggestions?

Rob Pegoraro: Not off the top of my head. For this kind of use, you'll need to read the fine print--not all cameras support the same resolution, and, more important, some only can record a fixed duration of video before shutting off, while others will let you "tape" footage until the storage card fills up.

I'd advise finding a few cameras you like as cameras, then seeing what video features they offer.

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Reston, Va.: I am in the process of creating an electronic album of family photos for other family members. The issue that I am facing is how to archive and provide them to family members. (Beyond putting them on CD's for the recipients.)

The Washington Post articles were very helpful, but seemed to deal more with graphics editing capabilities rather than the storage and presentation issue.

I am fairly comfortable at html programming and was considering manually doing the cd's as web based. However, a freely distributable software package would be easier. Any additional input or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: If you want to guarantee that every recipient can read the CDs, you should stick with an HTML presentation--which a lot of image-management software (iPhoto, ACDSee, etc.) can do for you easily enough.

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Centerville, Va.: I've got a HP Photosmart camera (312 w/ 2.3 mgs, I think) and would like to move up to the next level. I keep thinking that if I wait, the prices will come down. I'd like to stay with the HP family (b/c of the dock). Any chances of prices going down soon?

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, very good odds--happens all the time in this business. There's no way you can buy a digital camera this year and *not* feel like a bit of a chump at seeing the price for a comparable camera a year from now :)

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Gaithersburg, Md.: My question deals more with capturing video and recording to DVD vs. video CD. I don't have or necessarily want a DVD burner and am wondering if I'm OK just burning short video CDs instead? My DVD player says it plays Video CDs, but I really don't have any experience with how reliable these are, how much video they can record, etc. Also, a recommendation of good video CD authoring software would be appreciated. Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Video CD's main limitation is picture-quality--you don't get much better than VHS. The main advantage is cost; you can use a cheap CD burner instead of (not quite expensive, but not nearly as cheap) DVD-recording hardware. And you don't have to take sides in the industry's ongoing, brain-dead DVD-recording format war.

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Maryland: Question on paper for printing photos (I already have a Minolta F100, which I love). I have a Canon 850 printer. Do I have to use Canon photo printer? Does it make much difference to use the paper made by the printer manufacturer?

Rob Pegoraro: I'm sure the printer manufacturer would say it does. But I've got a Consumer Reports story in front of me which says the manufacturer would be correct--"Use the same brand of paper as your printer," CR advised. (May 2003)

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Indianapolis, Ind.: I recently received a Nikon Coolpix 2100 as a gift and have been having a great time playing with the camera and the photo editing software. However, this weekend when I tried to download images, I got a message "an unexpected error has occurred", and I was unable to download the images. Reloading the software did not help. Reinserting the memory card that came with the camera allowed me to shot and download a picture. I guess it must be the memory card that is defective in some way. I empathize with your story about forgetting to load film in Yosemite (I did the same thing in Amsterdam once). I got the same result without the headslap. Anyway, how much of a problem is this (how frequently does it occur), or was it just my lucky day?

Rob Pegoraro: I haven't seen it happen myself among anybody I know on a digital camera, but I did have a momentary glitch reading the Memory Stick in a Clie handheld organizer. The Clie reported there was no data on the card. I ejected it, brushed some pocket lint off the card's contacts, and it worked fine. (Fortunately, cameras include covers to keep out dust, which this particular handheld lacked.)

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Newton, Mass.: What's the best photo management software out there for the beginner?

Rob Pegoraro: My favorites are Adobe Photoshop Album for Windows (I haven't tried ACDSee 5 yet, but that seems like it might be worth a look) and iPhoto for Mac OS X. Of the two, iPhoto is definitely friendlier to beginners.

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Alexandria, Va.: Are there digital video cameras that also produce quality digital still shots, or do you recommend purchasing one of each?

Rob Pegoraro: Nope. Digital camcorders have yet to go beyond 2 MP in digital-camera mode, and why should they--video resolution, really good video resolution, is well below 1 MP.

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Bel Air, Md.: I am using an Olympus Camera that takes SmartMedia memory card. If I switch from a 8MB card to a 128 MB card, would that impose increased drain on batteries, when the camera is not being used?

Rob Pegoraro: Shouldn't, barring some weird malfunction. All of these memory cards store data without drawing any power--otherwise you'd loes your data once you ejected the card.

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Lanham, Md.: so if i pay the bucks for a nikon 5700, what do i have to spend for a printer that will be equal to the task of a 16x 20?

Rob Pegoraro: A lot more bucks. Large-format color printers carry pro pricing. The Epson Stylus Color 3000, for instance, will deliver a 17 by 22 printout... and lists for $995.

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Boston, Mass.: Wish I had known this chat was coming; I bought a digital camera yesterday, mainly because I need a camera for baby pictures. Fuji Finepix 3.2 megapixels, $299. Did I make a good choice?

Rob Pegoraro: 300 sheets is a good price for a 3 MP model--if you can pay under $100/MP, you've done well in this market.

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Atlanta, Ga.: I have asked employees of camera shops how the 2X or 3x or whatever translates to the zoom on a regular optical lense camera. No one can answer my question to any degree of satisfaction. What is the equivalent of a long distance lense in digital camera Xes?

Rob Pegoraro: Again, it's an issue of image sensor sizes. Most manufacturers do list the equivalent 35 mm lens range somewhere on their sites, but too many of them muddy the waters by including the usually meaningless digital zoom in this calculation.

Instead, have a look at any of the "enthusiast" digital-camera review sites. My longtime favorite is the Digital Camera Resource Page (http://www.dcresource.com), which addresses enthusiast concerns while remaining accessible to middle-of-the-road users.

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Silver Spring, Md.: I have a lot of lenses for old SLRs (telephoto.. etc). Is it possible that these lenses can be used with any of the digital SLR camera bodies? If so - which ones?

Rob Pegoraro: How old? If they don't work with the auto-focus or auto-exposure on a new film SLR, they won't on a digital SLR back.

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College Park, Md.: Rob, on my third digital camera, Kodak 4800, 3.1 Mp. I rarely print pictures. Better and cheaper to upload to Walmart. A 4"x6" print is .26 can't do it myself for that price. I've sent some that I've reduced the rez for email and they still look good as prints. I recommend Walmart!

Rob Pegoraro: A plug for one film-developing service (whose pricing, as we found, is dramatically cheaper than competing sites')

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College Park, MD: I agree with your thesis that the key ingredient to digital cameras these days is the storage media as the "killer app."

What do you think of Sony's dual approach of building some of its appliances (fax/tv) around the Memory Stick and on the other hand, building cameras around easily available media (CD5s and floppies)?

Rob Pegoraro: I think the Memory Stick approach makes much more sense--but I also don't like the way Memory Stick effectively locks you into buying only Sony hardware. If you like what Memory Stick sets out to do but want a wider choice of manufacturers, SD Card is a better choice.

I don't like Sony's floppy or CD-R cameras at all. The floppy cameras can't store enough pictures, and a lot of computers--PC laptops, not just Macs--don't ship with floppy drives anyway. The CD-R cameras, meanwhile, are too big and bulky, even if the storage media are a lot cheaper.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi - I am interested in getting a digital camera (4-5MegaPix) in the next few months. How do you rate Factory Referbished models...are they really the "Good Buy" they seem?

Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: Depends on how good the refurbishing was :) Sorry about the glib answer; it really depends on a lot of factors, some of which you may not be able to find out--what caused the camera to be refurbished? what sort of repairs were done? I advise reading the warranty closedly on a refurb digicam, considering that these are fairly complex pieces of hardware

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Alexandria, Va.: I just received a Nikon coolpix 2100 as a gift. I wanted to know if a 2 MP camera is fine if I am not going to be making any pictures bigger than 4X6 and if the MP's make any other differences.

Rob Pegoraro: For 4-by-6 prints, a 2 MP model is absolutely fine.

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Reston, Va.: Question about printing. Just got the Canon A70 and want to print some photos. What do you recommend? An online vendor like ofoto, a home printer (not really a photo printer) or a camera shop like Ritz?

Rob Pegoraro: I'd suggest you have a look at Jim's story on just that issue.

(Eleanor, can I get a link to that?)

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Bowie, Md.: Re Georgetown (Photo CDs) and
Re: McLean and Silver Spring (digital SLR bodies)

I use film and always get double prints _and_ the digital images on a CD. Works really well. I've used several photo shops (many many rolls). Amazingly, about one out of 100 digital images have serious color stirations or blotches on them -- which are not on the negative -- or the prints! I'll go all-digital as soon as I can get my hands on an Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom (4 Mp, 10x optical zoom; has macro mode), street price $595, to be available in August. McLean: With that zoom, there's no need to go the (more expensive) interchangeable lens / digital SLR body route.

Rob Pegoraro: Feedback for two earlier questions...

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New York, NY: If for most common purposes (e.g. 4x6), 3MP itself is more than enough, why hasn't the prices started coming down faster for the 2MP and 3MP models?

Rob Pegoraro: Here's an enduring truth about the consumer-electronics business: Everything it makes will become a commodity someday, and absolutely nobody in the business wants that to happen. Commodity product = tiny profit margins. It's in manufacturers' interest to keep their products somehow "special" or exclusive (hence, for instance, this silly memory-card format war), just to prevent that kind of price war.

Don't worry; it will happen sooner or later.

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Greenville, SC: Olympus is about to introduct the 512 version of the xd memory. What effect do you think this will have on the overall pricing of these chips?

Rob Pegoraro: If it follows the price curve of other kinds of memory, not too much. I recently priced out SD Card chips and found that the best value by far was in 256-meg cards--I've seen them going for just $60 or so. The 512-meg cards cost more like $250 or so.

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Bethany Beach, Del.: Re: "Are you taking pictures with the LCD on all the time?" I have the same problem as Springfield. Can you explain what the LCD is?

Rob Pegoraro: The color screen in the back. If your camera has a conventional viewfinder, you should use that instead (even though it may not show all of the picture you're going to get).

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Fairfax, Va: I recently purchased the Canon a70, which uses the compactflash media card. I noticed the Lexar brand is now offered in 4x and 12x for the same size card (eg, 64, 128). What does the rating 4x and 12x mean? And is it really worth the price difference especially if the storage size is the same? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: That refers to write speeds. Unfortunately, your camera may not necessarily support that 12x transfer rate--some do, some don't, and it's rarely announced by the manufacturers.

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Nikon, Melville, New York: Hi Rob, Mike Rubin from Nikon here. Enjoying the
live forum.

For the Coolpix 2100 user, make sure they are
using an approved brand of card (see the
manual). The can call 1-800-Nikon-UX 24/7 for
more details.

For the Coolpix 5700 user looking for a printer,
personally I swear by the Epson 2200p, but it
does cost about $700-800

Rob Pegoraro: Hey, Mike--thanks for the suggestions (we'll see if anybody from Canon, Oly, Kodak, etc., show up next...)

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Rockville, Md.: Using a Epson Stylus Photo 760 inkjet and Hammermill JetPrint Professional Superior Gloss paper, I've been getting superb results for the last two years or so. Even with a 2MP camera at 8 X 10 inch. No fade either.

Printer manufacturers have a vested interest in keeping you as a paper customer, so they'll always say their paper is best.

An excellent site for paper information is www.inkjetart.com

Rob Pegoraro: More thoughts on printers and paper:

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Winchester, Va.: Rob, Hello and thanks for all your informative articles and these chats. I have a Fuji digital camera that uses Smart Media. The article in the SUnday Post said this format is going away. This is one of those things about the various incompatible formats that drives me crazy. Should I buy up some extra cards? Or do you think they will they continue to be available? Will the prices go up once they are no longer supported by Fuji?

Rob Pegoraro: I think SmartMedia will be around a while--it had better, since I bought my brother a Fuji camera that uses SmartMedia two Xmases ago :)

You just may not see pricing drop much farther than it already has. At some point, as SM-compatible cameras are retired, SM manufacturers will move on to other things.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Do you know a rough correlation between pixels and inches? For example, what does a 4" x 6" picture roughly translate into? I'm not sure how many megapixels I need and I was wondering if you could help. Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: 2 MP is enough for 4 by 6 prints unless you crop the living daylights out of the shot. 3 MP should be enough for 8 by 10s with minimal cropping. Resolution beyond that basically buys you the flexibility to use just part of a shot in a larger-size print (which can be a very important thing).

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Rob Pegoraro: It's 3 already, but we're going to run a few minutes late to catch up on some of the questions I haven't had a chance to catch up on yet.

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upper marlboro, md: Rob,

Is it true that all digital cameras capture images at only 72 dpi, whether 2, 3, 4 or 5 meg?

If so, will then a 4x6 print look the same taken with a 2meg or a 5meg camera?

Rob Pegoraro: Nope. Your monitor may be set to display images at only 72 dpi, but that has no relation to what the camera captures. The actual DPI of even a 2 MP camera is much higher than that.

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Naperville, Il: Are the SLR digital cameras worth the price you pay for them?

Rob Pegoraro: For most home users, I would say not. Non-SLR digicams offer the same kind of manual control as SLR models. It's true that pro-grade hardware suffers few of the hassles of digital photography, such as the shutter-lag and depth-of-field issues I wrote about--but the SLRs are also much heftier to carry around, which cut down on their overall utility in a lot of cases. I'd rather have something I can stuff in a jacket pocket for a trip than something that has to hang off my neck.

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Washington, D.C.: I'm thinking about buying a digital camera and the Web is just loaded with info about where to buy. Other than on the WashingtonPost.com, where would you suggest I look online for advice on what type of digital camera I should buy?

Rob Pegoraro: Stop by that Web page I mentioned before--www.dcresource.com.

There are three other sites that I read regularly, all of which are more technically oriented:

Digital Photography Review: http://www.dpreview.com
The Imaging Resource: http://www.imaging-resource.com
Steve's Digicams: http://www.steves-digicams.com

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Silver Spring, Md.: Hi Rob,

What do you know about coming increases in resolution for digital cameras? The Nikon D-100 claims it offers a 6.1 megapixel maximum. Do you see that increasing sharply in the next few years?

Vince

Rob Pegoraro: Sure, but only so far--the human eye can only see so much detail. We're not talking electron microscopes here. Plus, the larger images take up that much more storage, and that much more time to transfer (one reason why pro digicams use FireWire connections instead of USB 1.1--you don't want to wait for the photos to transfer when you're on deadline).

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Rob Pegoraro: Here's a question somebody e-mailed in, after he couldn't get the submit-a-question form to work:

Q: I am an intermediate-to-advanced amateur photographer. I currently use film
but am considering going digital, and I'm looking at some of the VLR models
- specifically, the Sony 707/717 and Minolta Dimage 7i/7hi.

1) Do you think I am right to go digital at this time? Are there any new
technologies on the horizon that I should wait for?

2) Of the Sony 707, Sony 717, Dimage 7i, and Dimage 7hi, which do you
recommend? Are there any comparable models just about to hit the market
that I should look at?

3) Do you think I am right to go for a VLR as opposed to a full digital SLR?

Thank you.

A:

1) Waiting will get you a lower price, but not any earth-shattering developments.

2) The CF cards the Minolta cameras use will be cheaper. Don't buy the Sony 707 at all--it only supports Memory Stick, not Memory Stick Pro, and therefore won't take a cad bigger than 128 MB. But also look at comparable hardware from Nikon, along with the latest from Sony and Minolta--all of these cameras have been around for a little while.

3) See my prior comments about the utility of digital SLRs. OTOH, these cameras are just about as big and almost as expensive as digital SLRs.

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Rob Pegoraro: Here's another question sent in e-mail:

Hey, Rob. I'm torn between the Samsung SPH-i300 smart phone and a Palm
Zire 71. The Samsung is being offered by Sprint for $200, probably
because it's not 3G compatible. Will I still be able to use it, it'll
just be slow? I'd love to only have one device on my belt, and the
price is terrific. The Zire, though, offers so much more, and more
importantly, is more expandable. How important is expandability in a
Palm? I mostly want to use it as a PIM, but I'd love to play some
games or do some word processing or reading on the Zire's color
display. But I can SURF in HTML with the Samsung! Help!

Oh, and the Zire has a low-res DIGITAL CAMERA that I won't need, but
would probably be fun to play with. Just had to make the connection to
today's topic. :)

My answer: Don't get the i300. It's obsolete, it's big and it's bulky--among the worst of the Palm-phone combos. (The lack of a real phone keypad really sets this model back.) The Zire 71 is a much better deal.

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Washington, DC: Hi Rob! Thanks for the article this weekend.
I've borrowed digital cameras to try them out and can't get used to the delay that occurs before the shutter snaps. It seems I miss every picture!
Is that par for the course with digital? What's a realistic estimate of when a more reponsive camera might become reasonably priced? Also, if you had to recommend one right now around $600 that is the least horrible in terms of response time, which would it be?
Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, that shutter lag is hard to avoid. Some cameras handle it better than others, and the continuous-shooting mode most offer helps as well. This is something that will be solved before long; it's a matter of putting in faster processors in consumer digital cameras.

Have a look at Alan Kay's reviews from yesterday's issue; one of the key phrases in the story assignment was "shutter lag," and he reported that for every camera he tried out.

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Germantown, Md.: Can you comment on the HP digital cameras featuring "Instant Share". I am specifically considering the new 935 and 850 models which offer 5.3MP and 4.13MP respectively. The "Instant Share" technology seems like it would really make a difference when sending the photos to others.

Rob Pegoraro: It could, but that also depends on what software you'd be using with other cameras. Windows XP itself makes it relatively simple to e-mail pictures to other people, and every add-on photo program that I've seen includes a similar shortcut too.

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Annandale, Va.: What's the best digital camera to get if its primary purpose is to put stuff up for aucton on eBay?

Rob Pegoraro: Buy a used camera on eBay, of course :)

Seriously, for that buy the cheapest model you can find with a flash. Those eBay pictures don't need to be very large at all... for this purpose, even the camera on a Palm Zire 71 or a cell phone would probably suffice, provided you're not trying to sell, like, paintings or other things where accurate color matters.

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Chicago, Ill.: I've had my eye on the Canon A70 for a while -- was there any reason in particular it wasn't reviewed? The on-line review sites seem to like it a lot.

Rob Pegoraro: No "particular" reason, in the sense that we ruled it out. I wanted to emphasize entry-level cameras, the under-$200 2MP models, and Canon had a fairly compelling entry in that category, in the form of the A300.

The 3MP category, meanwhile, was really crowded. We easily could have reviewed three more cameras in that space, except we had no room left in print.

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Falls Church, Va.: I'm a Nikon 35mm user, and although by no means a
pro or even an advanced amatuer, I like to have the
ability to change lenses and use filters, etc. Is there
any chance of digital cameras for < $1k using
standard 35mm lenses in the near term?

Rob Pegoraro: An OK, but maybe not great, chance--I'm seeing the Canon EOS-10D go for $1,400 and up (lens not included, however).

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East Lansing, Mich.: If you had to guess, how long do you think it will be before we'll see digital cameras with zoom lenses in the same price range as a decent SLR with a zoom lens? I'm thinking of a camera in the 3-5 megapixel range with an optical zoom somewhere in the 5-10 range. Prices appear to be getting closer, but they're not quite there yet.

Also, why do digital cameras bother to list 'digital zoom' specs? It's not a real zoom and you can do the exact same thing at home with any decent software package.

Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: I sort of just answered the first question, so let me skip to the second one: Your understanding of digital zoom is 100 percent correct! It's nothing you can't do with the "crop" function on any image-editing app.

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Rob Pegoraro: Have 90 minutes gone by already?! [looks up from his keyboard, blinks, wonders where the day went by ] Thanks for some great questions here. I'll be going into more detail on these and some other issues people have raised in e-mail to me in my next newsletter. And I've got plenty of things to think about for the next digital-camera issue...

- R

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