I have an Olympus DL460 Zoom camera that I got a few months ago for around $480. If your looking for a decent digicam, I would highly suggest this model!! As you can see from Pics I have posted, and from my website, it takes very nice pictures. Go to http://www.warehouse.com, they have it on sale for $399.

Checkout these closeups of my tire. http://www.grandillusion.org/Bad%20Firestone%20Tire.htm These were taken without flash, and some were taken using the macro setting. It has plenty of features, and there are some accessories that you can get to make downloading the photos easier, like a PCMCIA adapter for a laptop, or a USB Smartmedia adapter. It takes panarama shots, 2X macro closeups, has a very nice viewscreen, and BEST OF ALL it is very good on batteries!!!! I bought the Nickel-metalhydride rechargeable batteries for it, and I can take at least 100 pictures before they need to be recharged, and that is with using the viewscreen. Right out of the box it has an 8 meg smartmedia card that can take up to 122 super quality (640x480), 36 high quality (1024x768)pictures, or 2 super high quality TIFF images, but I have found that with resolutions that high, the image only looks it when printed out, so if you were to take some nice pictures but only to be viewed on a monitor, the HQ setting at 1024x768 setting is what to use. You can get more smart media cards up 32 meg in size to hold more pics, but I would recomend that if you do, to get the Olympus brand media cards, since they are the only ones that can do the panarama mode, other brands only do regular pics.

Check it out, it has been highly rated, otherwise I would never have purchased it. Now that the price has dropped it is a great deal.

Kilroy - I just bought that EXACT camera just yesterday! How funny! In fact, not even 15 minutes ago I snapped this one with it...
http://www.pcisys.net/~mattbert/explorer/vegas.jpg
thats at the lowest quality setting.

[Edited by mattadams on 08-27-2000 at 08:55 AM]

It takes some DAMN good pictures.

Christ thats a LOT of lights!!! :eek:

Holy lights Batman!!!

I feel sorry for anyone who flashes thier brights at you....sheesh!

Looks like you got the whole ball park! Do you have a generator in the back or something?

Looks badass!

[Edited by 2001ExpSport on 08-28-2000 at 08:52 PM]

Hey Kilroy and Matt. The Olympus DL460 Zoom is a great camera. I'm real impressed with the quality of the pictures. The only thing I was curious about was the batteries that came with it. Although they can only go in one way, they practically wanted to put up a fight going in. I think it's the battery contacts down in the compartment. They are pretty stiff. The batteries went in and the camera works fine, they just seemed to go in a bit hard. Did you guys experience the same thing? Individual batteries, like the nickel-metalhydride rechargeable batteries, probably go in easier, right? Thanks.

I haven't even unwrapped the Lithium batteries that came with it. I use the nickel rechargeables which go in real easy. They last quite a long time also. Alkalines don't last very long, but they still lasted longer in this camera than they did in my mustek.

The Olympus stuff really is getting around. I've been trying to figure out what to get. When I went to PCworld online they had a checkprice function that linked to http://pricescan.webshopper.com/electronics/03040101.asp. You input the pixels, LCD display and if you want a flash then it lists all the cameras in the price range you specify. When you click on a single model it spews forth all of the prices on the web including the lowest price for the model and offers a hyperlink to the sellers site.
I did this routine for the Olympus DL460 Zoom and the price was $309.99 at ecyberone. There were 47 retailers for this model from $309 to $499. Word is that a new chip will enable 4 megapixel resolution before Xmas; when that happens the roof will fall in on pricing for everything below it in resolution. Matt - that's the lowest resolution? That looks great (so does the truck)! wc

BTW, the direct link to the 460 is:
http://pricescan.webshopper.com/electronics/items/item115367.asp

Kilroy,
It probably doesn't really make a difference, but what brand of rechargeables are you using? I'll probably go that route when the lithiums are gone.

Anyone put the camera to a torture test? I'm thinking of taking it on an atv dice run soon. It doesn't get much rougher than that.

Now it's time to get pictures of my '98 Sport posted, even if it's basically stock.

I got the kit from digipower, which includes 4 batteries and the wall charger. They are the nickel metal hydride type. Takes about 1 1/2 hours to recharge.

I'd like to get me one, but I'm gonna wait til closer to Christmas and then start checking around. Hopefully they will lower the prices for the new models coming in.

ebay has a bunch of great digital cameras for auction, but do yoru research and decide what model you want before looking, otherwise you'll spend weeks and weeks looking through all of them. By the way sorry I missed the first post, but the lowest resolution possible is 640x480 in JPG format. I forget how many low resolution pictures you can take... but with the 8 meg card you can take about 35 high-resolution pictures (1280x960)

Easiest way to research cameras is through http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1078.html?tag=st.co.1016.dir.1078

I looked at many different cameras before I decided on the Olympus 460. I originally wanted the c2020 which is an awesome camera, but it was $100 more than the one I got. It will take quicktime movies, and I think it even has a lense where you can attach filters to it. The reviews were very good on both cameras.

I found the D460 Zoom on sale at http://www.compdirect.com/ for $308.

[Edited by kilroy on 09-08-2000 at 06:41 AM]

Kilroy or Matt, how are you downloading your images? Are you using a card reader or the included serial cable? I have an older computer, so I'm using the cable. I haven't seen it effect the batteries yet. It can take awhile to download with the cable. Comments?

I use the cable on my home PC, but mainly I use the PCMCIA adapter for the smart media in my laptop, and then transfer the files to my PC for editing and printing. I just had 2 pictures that I took when I first got the camera printed out on real photo paper, so now I have a permanent picture of my horse and cat, and they came out great.


As far as battery life, downloading doesn't use too much of the juice as long as the LCD screen is off, the two biggest battery drains are the zoom and the LCD. If you leave the screen off and don't use the zoom, and also don't cloase the cover, you can get almost 1000 pics on one charge of the batteries. If you leave the cover open, the camera will time itself off and shut down, I think after so much time it actually retracts the lens also.

I use the cable... I have USB but don't want to pay for an extra USB cable when it doesn't take THAT LONG to download the images.... I usually hook it up to my A/C adapter when downloading or taking pictures in my room (like for ebay and stuff) but I have the rechargable batteries so I could just recharge them if I wanted... but I paid for an A/C adapter, Im gonna use it dangit :).

Matt, do you use the a/c adapter available from Olympus or another one? Which one exactly? I hear it's better to use the Olympus a/c adapter.

I use the Olympus one, I bought it on ebay. By the way Ray, have you entered to win the PIAA 9007's yet? GO to performance lighting and register if you haven't yet.

Looks like the prices are falling fast. These are the trends over the past 6 months. http://www.pricescan.com
http://www.pricescan.com/graphs/115367.jpg


VENDOR SOURCE PRICE

DIRECT LINK or call 800-617-4686 Direct from Vendor
09/21/00 $302.00
Firstsource
DIRECT LINK or call 800-858-9866 Direct from Vendor
09/21/00 $302.95
Beach Camera Direct from Vendor
09/21/00 $309.00
Digital eTailer Direct from Vendor
09/21/00 $310.00


These are places that have the 460 for under $310.

Hey check out prices on a C2020, if you can afford that one GET IT! It takes even better pics than the 460 and I think it has more accessories not to mention it takes quicktime videos. I wanted that one, but I couldn't afford it at the time.

Ok, been looking around and found a bunch of Olympus 2020's on ebay. I have the lead bid on one and it ends on Saturday, we shall see if I get it or not. Seems like a killer camera, 60 seconds Q-time movie, rechargable batteries w/charger, port cable,..etc.. I'm not getting my hopes up yet though..... ok, so maybe just a little :)

Well I sold my A2E and bought my newest toy a Minolta Dimage 2300. Total bill for camera, 8 meg card, batteries and recharger, strap, case, and software was 340 from http://www.bhphotovideo.com. This thing is awesome, loads of settings and different options. Here are some test pics I just took.

My Ground Hawgs
http://www.jeepforums.com/images/PICT0008.JPG

Ghost Cat
http://www.jeepforums.com/images/PICT0016.JPG

My CJ5 Dash
http://www.jeepforums.com/images/PICT0020.JPG

Well, it was bound to happen. Last night at dinner, we were discussing the size boxes of some of the gift we had gotten each other. Our little girl(8 y.o. ) knew what I had gotten my wife and what she had gotten me. All of a sudden she(daughter) blurted out that the box my wife had gotten was big, she said, 'there must be something else in there besides that digital camera'. Wife very upset, daughter crying, Jeff---happy. I did try to hide it, but it was hard. She let me have it anyways and I told her this way I'll get to know how to use it before the Holidays and be able to take pics with it. Plus I gave her one early to make her feel better,...a ping-pong table, I thought it was a good trade. :)

Anywho, here it is. Nothing fancy, but pretty good for the money. Kodak DC215.
http://www.kodak.com/DynamoCommerceServer/dbimagecache/9324.gif

Goober, this you gotta see...
http://www.theonion.com/onion3646/ping_pong_playing_man.html

If that story is for real, there's something wrong with that guy!

LOL no Goober, the onion is just a site for stories they think are funny, and they ALWAYS are. You should've seen their election coverage, just a bunch of stuff they make up and it's always good. Go to http://www.theonion.com. Lets see, some of the news stories the week of the election were: "Clinton declares himself President for life", "ANother 1,200 people die in Washington, D.C. riot following un-called vote" and "Nader looses in Florida, by either 3 million some odd votes or 3 million some other odd votes" I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was funny! :)