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Example: Olympus E10 supports BOTH SmartMedia and CompactFlashII (for those 1GiB microdrives), has removable lenses and is 4Mpix, for USD$1000.

PS: Like many have said: SM sucks, go CF!

Taking another posters advice here is the review at Steves-digicams.com The only complaint I've heard about this camera is that the battery life was short. Well I've had mine for almost nine months and the Lithium Batteries that were supplied with the camera are still doing fine. Lots of controls, extra lenses and filters can be threaded on. I would recommend that you get a 64MB SmartCard with it and the cam on normal 640x480 res. you get almost 700 shots per card. It drops to something like 32 shots on the highes res which are hugh files that you do spy type zooming on in Photoshop :-)

• Adjustable Focus: Well, no, you can't adjust focus manually, it's automatic. You CAN do spot metering, though, to focus on exactly the point you want. You CAN manually adjust EV, ISO, white balance though. I've never had a problem with the focus not working perfectly.
  
• Macro capability: Yup. You can get as close as 3 cm.
  
• Flash: Yup, and you can set it to always on, always off, or auto, and can set the brightness level.
  
• Decent pixel size: It is 2.1 megapixel, it can do 640x480, 1024x768, or 1600x1200. I can't imagine needing more than 1600x1200 for computer work. 1600x1200 is great for printing up to 8.5 x 11.
  
• Lossless format: Yup, it can do uncompressed TIFF, and two compression levels for JPGs. It can also create stop-motion 10 frame animated GIFs, and 320x240x8fps MPEG video (no sound), length only limited by storage space. (On a 128MB stick, you can do up to 22 minutes, or 90 minutes of 240x120)
  
• Battery: It really shines here, it can take either Sony Infolithium -OR- standard AA cells. Go buy a 4 pack of AA NiMH batteries and a charger for like $30, and you're laughing. And you can use standard AA in a pinch (it drains these like water though)
  
• LCD screen: BEAUTIFUL LCD screen. Very very bright (adjustable), sharp, and accurate. I think it's around 110,000 pixel screen.
  
• Storage options: Sony Memory Stick.. yeah I know it's proprietary, but these babies really do rock. Pick up a 128MB stick for $70 USD. (Unfortunately, the camera only comes with a measly 4MB stick)
  

• Steve's Digicams
  
• Imaging Resource
  

...the best site I've found is Steve's Digicams... summaries of most of the cameras on the market today, from low end to digital SLR...

--Zachary

why haven't we seen screens for laptops that are like sony mavica displays (4th picture down)? they let the sunlight in behind the LCD screen and reflect it out to better illuminate the display. its not perfect (you have to get the angle right for the sunlight to get in there), but it can't hurt.

As noted on Steve's website

The following should be noted when using a Microdrive:

• Compared to CompactFlash cards, battery life is reduced due to the electrical needs of the Microdrive.
• Since the Microdrive has moving parts, the temperature of the card increases with continuous use within the camera.
• Compared with CompactFlash cards, the time to write is sometimes longer.
• The data in the Microdrive can be easily damaged by shocks because the Microdrive has a working mechanism inside.
  

What I'm holding out for is the Olympus D-40. It's a freaking piece of genius. Check out a review of it here. Too bad dpreview hasn't reviewed it yet.

There is a second, smaller standard for CDs - an 8cm diameter. Sony use them in their new digital camera. They only store about 180MB when standard CD technolgy is used, but Sony has that double CD density technology, and if you did a DVD in that size you'd be able to fit over 4Gig in a double sided, double layered disk. They're cool and tiny and should be the future.

Second, I wouldn't mind one of these mp3 cd players. They also plays VCD, and are fairly inexpensive.

Finally, for sheer coolness factor and utility, I would take a Ricoh RDC-7 "Image Capture Device". This thing is amazing! It can fit in a shirt pocket, has a very high-res 2" LCD, zoom to 3x optically, and can record movies with sound or just sound alone (with a built-in speaker for playback). It also has a 3 megapixel CCD chip with two focusing modes which makes it a very capable digital camera. Need to become an international spy? This thing quickly sucks up highly compressed blank and white .tif files for OCR. As if that's not enough, it also places the CCD on a special piezo-electric mount so that it can shift it by a half a pixel and combine two exposures into a 7 megapixel image for when you need that extra, extra, extra fine detail. Phew! I've got to stop talking about it. Just go to either here or here for a review. And it only ranges from around $600 to $900, too! Just don't expect to have too much manual photographic control over aperture or shutter speed. But screw a Handspring, I'd take one of those and keep all my documents on it! Just think of it as a pocket size tape recorder, digital camera, camcorder, scanner, and taker of big-ass 7 megapixel files. (And the unreleased successer in Japan has wireless Internet access, a touchscreen, and PDA functionality! Imagine that...)

Check out the Digital Wallet by Mindsatwork. It has some flaws, but if you have time to upload pictures between filling a disk or an assistant who can do it for you, then this looks like a good option:

MindsAtWork
Digital Wallet FAQ
Digital Wallet Review

I don't have anything to do with any of the above companies/sites. I am just a digital camera enthusiast who likes backpacking (and thus is looking for a similar solution, but compact). I am waiting for the second generation of these devices after reading the reviews though.

PHr0D wrote:
Thats cool but...I think I'd prefer a higher resolution

The just-released Canon S100 does 1,600 x 1,200 and is the size of a deck of playing cards. Additionally, it takes high-quality pictures (although green gets somewhat under-exposed [which can be fixed in photoshop]).

You can sort-of video capture with it too with a continuous mode that does two frames-per-second. It also has a USB interface and direct video out.

But best of all, it exists.

Linus H. Torvalds on rollerblades! You know, there are uses for compactflashes other than stuffing Britney Spears on them! Goto dpreview.com or Steve's digicams and other and see why we need larger storage media. I have 48MB CF in my camera and I can fit 140 images on it. Maybe good for one day, but hardly for 2 week vacation. (Unless I get more flashes/portable storage/nearby cybercafé) And I have old 1280x760 camera, wait until I get my paws on one of those 2000x1600 cameras.. Btw, I want that Canon D30!
J.

I know Sony has been pushing their Memory Stick technology very hard. Even some of the new Vaios have a Memory stick slot. There is also a Cybershot line to complement the Mavica.

What is a Memory Stick? It is just what the name is, and it is a Sony proprietary thing that works across different devices.

Sony's high-end cameras use Memory Stick, and here there is a floppy adapter for a Memory Stick.


"...we are moving toward a Web-centric stage and our dear PC will be one of

PoC

After doing a fair amount of research (reading every review I could find on certain models of cameras) and changing my mind several times about which one would best suit my needs, I've decided on a Sony CyberShot DSC-D770. I selected this camera because the 35mm I use most often is an SLR, and after much deliberation I decided to stick with the SLR style. The Sony's resolution (1.5 megapixel) is a bit on the low side by today's standards, but that's the only real shortcoming of this camera. Still, I think 1344x1024 output will be sufficient for my purposes. What I particularly liked about this camera is the wealth of manual controls, especially the zoom and focusing rings.

Other cameras (less than $1000 street price) worth considering:

• SLR: Olympus C-2500L and Canon PowerShot Pro 70. Although the Sony was my favorite of the SLRs, for someone else's needs one of these might be a better bet.
• Versatility: Hands down, one of the Nikon Coolpix cameras. There's a wealth of lens attachments and other accessories available for these things. And while not the most compact, they're certainly less bulky than an SLR. And the new 990 is a 3.3 megapixel powerhouse.
• Bang for the buck: Casio QV-3000EX. For a little more than $900 you can get one of these 3.3 megapixel beasts in combination with IBM's 340MB MicroDrive. Unfortunately there's no external flash attachment, and the lens is not threaded to accept attachments, but someone will find a way around this limitation.
• Portability: Take your pick of Canon's PowerShot A5, A50, S10, or S20 (increasing in capability from sub-megapixel to 3.3 megapixel). These little jewels are about the size of Canon's Elph APS film cameras, which is hard to beat for a go-anywhere camera.

Regards,
Jeremy

(And if anyone's interested in how that Sony works out, I'll be receiving the camera this week. I'll be happy to share my own impressions of it once I've had a chance to play with it.)

I did a lot of research into digital cameras last year. I didn't buy one, but here's some of the info I found . . .

How good of a camera you need (and how much you end up spending on one) depends on what you plan to do with the pictures.

If all you want to do is post pix on the web, any 1-megapixel (or less) camera should do a respectable job for you, since web pix are generally low res (640 x 480 or less). At 72 ppi screen res, that's 8.9 x 6.7 inches (pretty big).

What you need the extra pixels for is printing photos onto paper. There's a big controversy over the resolution photos should be printed at, with the general consensus being in the 150 to 300 ppi range. Generally, you should avoid printing at less than 200 ppi.

At 200ppi, you'll need a 1 mp camera to print a standard 4x6 shot, 1.5 mp to do a 5x7, 3.2 mp to do an 8x10, 6.2 mp to do an 11x14.

The highest res digicams available today for under US$1,000, are ~3 mp. Best 3 mp models currently include the Canon PowerShot S20, Nikon CoolPix 990. The 2 mp models of these cameras are the S10 and Coolpix 950. They are all great cameras, and 2 mp models just dropped in price with the introduction of the 3 mp models.

For reviews, visit:

• http://photo.askey.net
  http://www.imaging-resource.com
  http://www.lonestardigital.com
  http://www.steves-digicams.com/cameras.ht ml

Note that you can get good deals buying 2nd hand cameras. A lot of users sell their 1-yr-old cameras to buy the latest models. Also, you should buy a camera that's small. If it's too big to carry around, it won't get used. (The Canons are small, sturdy, and they look cool. Kodaks generally suck in this regard.)

So why didn't I buy a digicam?

I wanted to print really big pictures, and for that you still can't beat film. Film is cheap, and you can scan onto PhotoCD whatever individual frames you like. You get a 6 mp (!) image which you can print onto 11 x 17 paper.

• http://www.templetons.com/brad/pixels.html
  http://photo.net/photo/point-and-shoot.ht ml
  http://photo.net/photo/point-and-sho ot-tips.html

BTW, for a /.-style photo site, check out:

• http://www.techphoto.org

There are quite a few good websites analyzing and comparing various digital cameras. I wouldn't say one camera is hands-down the winner (although it would seem the great majority of digicam owners have a Nikon Coolpix 900, 950 and soon 990) but one should look at what he or she wants in a digital camera and choose the one that best fits their needs.

I personally find the Canon Powershot series to be quite attractive, and plan on buying one of the two models (s10 or s20) before the end of this year. People interested in controlling the camera's aperture size and the like won't enjoy this camera, however I like its simplicity and image quality. I'll just be taking pictures of my computer and LAN parties anyway (hehe).

Some people say that digital cameras can't replace film cameras. That is true, however for the average user it is truly more convenient, albeit more expensive at first but not necessarily in the longrun (remember, you never have to buy film and rechargeable NiMH batteries last a long time).

The sites you can check are:
Digital Photography Review (maintained by Phil Askey), and Steve's Digicams (maintained by Steve Sanders).

I recently shopped for one, and purchased one after doing a ton of reading and comparing online.
But, there are so many out there with different trade offs, it all depends on what's important to you.
I would really recommend starting by going to a site like Active Buyer's Guide
which will allow you to give it preferences, and it will suggest cameras and allow you to compare several ones side by side.

Then, start reading around about it. For some good expert evaluations, try:
Megapixel
Imaging Resource
Steve's Digicams

For some generally useful user reviews, check out:
PC Photo Review

Good Luck!

These 3 always come on top in all reviews regarding image quality and features. The yesteryear cameras are wery good, and now wery cheap (Olympus C2000Z, Nikon CP950, Canon A50, I own A50) They all have decent resolution (1280x960) crystal clear and sharp images (more important than pixel count, IMHO) and good colors. You really should check out sites like Phil Askey's dpreview.com or Steve's Digicams for all the information you want.
J.