Hi, I figured I should report my experiences with my brand new digital camera and say thanks to everybody who provided input. In the end, I got a Nikon CoolPix 3100 at the Ben Gurion Duty Free shop for $399. I figured it was not a bad price, considering that most quotes on the net were in the range of $350 to which, I presume, one has to add S&H, customs duty, and VAT (I found some quotes for under $300 on the net, though, probably special discounts).
The camera has 3.2 Mpx, 3x optical zoom, ability to take 40 second video clips, rechargeable batteries, Compact Flash memory, quite a few useful shooting modes, and - IMHO - a rather good interface. Batteries, charger, cables, and 2 CDs with NikonView software, QuickTime, and a Reference Manual are included in the price. I knew the camera would work with Linux because a) the manual [I flipped through it in the store] said it worked as USB storage in addition to PTP, b) it was Mac compatible and Gilad had said it was a symptom ;-), and c) http://home.gagme.com/greg/linux/usbcamera.php said so. An Olympus camera with similar technical characteristics cost around $530. The main difference, at least according to the shop assistant (not a great authority, I know), was that the Olympus had a sturdier and heavier metal body (Nikon is plastic). I figured that I should not drop the camera onto stone pavement anyway (didn't do an Olympus of mine any good some 10 years ago, metal body notwithstanding :), and that it was not worth the price difference. Sorry, Marc. I also got a 128MB CF card - the card that comes with the camera is only 16MB. This set me back another $59, I think. I shot probably around 200 touristy pictures with the camera and kept around 60% of them. Those that I deleted were either shot with bad lighting or using a wrong mode or something of the kind, not because of any defect of the camera itself. I am quite satisfied with the picture quality (tried landscapes, buildings, portraits, close-ups of some flowers, museums). Could not find a mode to shoot stained-glass windows from a distance inside an unlit building - something I used to be able to do with a regular camera, I suppose due to much better optics. The most obvious drawback is insufficient zoom compared to my non-digital Pentax. Another problem is that if you shoot a lot of pictures and some movies, and review them on the screen, and generally play with the screen a lot trying different modes and settings, and use the flash, the batteries tend to run out. After a couple of days I got used to the camera, started playing with it less and using it properly more, thus using the screen a bit less, and the batteries were enough for a tourist day. Overall, not a bad camera for a complete amateur like me. At home, sticking the USB connector into the right port, turning the camera on, and mounting (the order is important!) was enough to copy the JPEGs and MOVs to the hard drive (tested with RH7.3 on a Pentium III desktop and and a Pentium IV Thinkpad, with various 2.4 kernels). The transfer of about 135 JPEGs took a little bit of time, but nothing I would consider excessive. Xine shows MOV's just fine in full screen mode. GPhoto does a fair job showing pictures but leaves much to be desired in terms of presentation capabilities, compared to the NikonView I tried on the XP I have on my laptop - no slideshow, need to resize each picture individually, no "fit to window" option, etc. Unfortunately, NikonView is available for Windows or Mac only. I will try to download the latest version of gPhoto2 - maybe it's better. The result of viewing the pictures on TV was less satisfying: the resolution of the TV screen is not so good, as we know, and for some reason the image flickers a bit. I have a rather old TV set though - will try it on a newer and bigger TV when I have a chance. Thanks again for all the advice, -- Oleg Goldshmidt | [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
