Guys,

I looking for a few pointers on Digital Cameras and Memory

I want something very compact, because i want to take it pretty much everywhere with me, and 3meg is about the resolution, as occasionally i'll want to print at A4

I've pretty much decided on the new Minolta Xi unless you guys tell me its a waste of time, and have a great alternative.

In terms of memory, i'm confused, as its uses MMC and SD cards. The supplied 16mb will be pretty useless for my tour of Oz in May, and I need to buy some bigger cards.

I understand that SD is 'faster' than MMC, so i would go for that, but then should i be looking for certain speeds / brands of cards etc ?

Any advise would be appreciated as i'm a novice on the digi cam scene.

Thanks

Greetings!

While I know almost nothing about cameras, I can help a little with the memory. SD and MMC memory are the same form factor and connections, so the devices I have tried can use them interchangeably. SD can be purchased in much higher capacities (up to 512MB). Your milage may vary.

I bought a 128MB MMC card when I first got the Rio S50. This was before I knew that I could use SD memory and that there was a 512MB SD card out. (There was a posting in the web site thread that the S50 page really needed to be updated to show the expandability. I agree completely!!!) If you are interested in a 128MB MMC card cheap, send me a PM.

I have to put a vote in for the Canon S30. My girlfriend just got the S40, and it's an absolutely wonderful camera. Extremely well designed and quite compact for a 4MP camera. It's basically the same as my G2, only more compact. I'm guessing the S30 is just the 3MP version of that. I also prefer the type II compact flash memory as my medium of choice. It offers the greatest memory sizes (with microdrives), at cheaper prices than, say, memory sticks.

Also, I'm assuming you've checked out dpreview.com. Don't buy a digital camera without going there.

Oh, and a woman in my office bought a Minolta digital camera once. She returned it pretty quickly, though.

For your tour of Oz a digital wallet would be handy, rather then dragging around a boat load of memory or a laptop.

The older model, old because it does not have firewire I believe, can be found here for $119 for the 3GB version.

Other then that I don't have any particular advice about digital camera.....oh bring spare batteries

Or you could get the new Archos Multimedia Jukebox, which does the same thing, only you can view the pictures on it as well as play MP3's and small movies.

Although based on my experience with their products, I'm not sure I'd go with them again.

How does the digital wallet connect to the camera ? USB ?

And then i just plug the USB into my computer later?

Ta

By the way, there is a lengthy and helpful thread about digital cameras in general here.

I would recommend Canon Cameras. I have owned 2. The Canon S30 and now the Canon S230. The S30 and S230 are both 3mp cameras but the S230 is smaller, better looking, and records video as well.

Them digital wallets look pretty cool. Can you upgrade the HD's in them?

How does the digital wallet connect to the camera ? USB ?

From what I gather it has a PCMCIA slot into which you insert a PCMCIA convert for your particular memory type. It does a quick copy of whats there, and then when you get home a USB connection to your PC.
The main differance as far as I can see with the newer ones is Firewire, which is useful as they are also available in much bigger capicities.

Can you upgrade the HD's in them?
No idea, as they do offer them in various configurations it would be easier on them not to have anything funky which would stop that.

I'd be intrested in hearing of any ones experience with them as I would be intrested in getting one when I do buy a digital camera - hopefully later this year. As they do seem to be much better value then a stack of memory cards/sticks.

Where are you going in OZ?

I agree that upgrading the memory is important but there are many photo shops which will burn a CD for you too; many with just a little kiosk stand which takes all media.