Where PC means Personal Care® · April 2003 · No. 42
Digital Camera Selection
By Tom and Charlotte Kassens
You’re ready to buy a digital camera. You’ve been to several stores, and each has “the best” product to offer. Your head is spinning with information! How do you select a camera that is right for you?
Begin by asking yourself how you’ve taken pictures in the past. What type of camera(s) have you used? How do you intend to use your photos—send them to family via e-mail or make poster-sized prints?
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Hint: There are many manufacturers and models of cameras, and not all are carried in one location. Stick to a brand-name you’re familiar with. I prefer buying photographic equipment from companies whose primary products are cameras and lenses.
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Step 1: Decide on a price range. Buy the best you can afford. You will not outgrow the camera nor will the technology become outdated as quickly. Prices range from less than $100 to well into the thousands for professional models, with interchangeable lenses.
Step 2: Start researching. You can get an idea of what is available in your range of interest by talking to friends and chatting with the tourists at the waterfront (they love discussing their cameras!). If possible, ask to see the output of the camera. Use the Internet; I especially like http://www.steves-digicams.com and http://www.dcresource.com for research. Both sites review cameras by resolution and body style (snap-shot, semi-pro and professional). Most digital cameras have multiple settings for resolution, and the camera is rated on the maximum. Remember, the higher the resolution, the larger the picture files are on the storage media and your hard drive.
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Hint: Steve’s Digicams does an especially good job describing features, showing actual photos of the cameras (all angles), their display screens, and even side-by-side photo quality comparisons between different brands.
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Step 3: Try them out. Go to a reputable camera store and talk with their digital camera specialist. He or she should ask how you intend to use the camera, what your photographic experience is and how technical you want to become. Handle various cameras to get an idea of how the controls work. If you have large fingers, perhaps the ultra small cameras won’t be comfortable for you to use. If you are an outdoors person, you might not like the weight and bulk of the SLR style camera bodies. Is another member of your family also going to use the camera? If so, he or she should also be involved at this stage.
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Hint: Shopping at a camera store like Tall’s Cameras (many Seattle area locations), Dick’s Camera and Digital in Burien, or other similar shops will give you the opportunity to talk to their digital camera specialist; the person best qualified to answer your questions.
If the camera has removable storage media, what type does it use? How are photos moved to the PC and/or printer? These are questions that the camera store’s staff will willingly answer for you.
Hint: There are many types of removable media readily available. The most common types include: SmartMedia, CompactFlash, Compact Flash II, Secure Digital (SD), Multimedia Card (MMC), FlashStick, and CD-Rom. Many smaller, more compact cameras now use the MMC/SD cards (they are interchangeable) because the card is very small. Most of the semi-pro and professional cameras use CompactFlash and/or CompactFlash II because the capacity is greater, sometimes as much as 1 GB.
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Step 4: Purchase the camera. At this point you need to decide WHERE to purchase the camera. Will you buy from a camera store? A discount store? A web site? (You might save a few dollars purchasing via the Internet, but what happens if you have a problem? Can you get after-sale advice from them?) Check how long the business has been around. Ask about the store’s customer service record and return policy should the product not meet your needs.
Step 5: Learn to use the camera. Read the instruction manual thoroughly. Practise changing the media card and batteries (ALWAYS carry extras!) Learn the camera’s features so you can easily change them “on the fly.” Become comfortable with the camera at home, in a non-stress situation.
Step 6: Enjoy!
Featured in this newsletter:
· Digital Camera Selection
· TECH TALK
Also:
Coupons
Digital Photography Demonstrations at Quidnunc
Following the weekend of the ArtWalk we will host weekend demonstrations on digital photography by Hans Westphal, Greg Byrd and Tom Kassens. Check our website for the latest details.
West Seattle Art Walk
April 26
The ArtsWest Artists Association presents the West Seattle Art Walk, Saturday, April 26th, 2003, from 10:00am to 5:00pm, in the West Seattle Junction, California Ave SW and SW Alaska St.
You’ll find artists in over 40 businesses, many of whom will be demonstrating their art on site. A wide variety of art works, including drawings, paintings, pottery, sculpture, photography, and digital art will be available for purchase. The Art Walk is FREE, and it’s a great chance to meet creative people and see what’s new in the heart of West Seattle.
QUIDNUNC welcomes digital artist JIMM NAWROCKI back to our store.
Jimm will display his beautiful images as part of ARTWALK and will also be demonstrating his work. Don’t miss it!
Quidnunc classes will be starting soon.
Watch our website for class titles and schedules. If you or your business associates are interested in a particular subject, please contact us and let us know.
We now repair laser printers.
All HP, many Lexmark and some Brother and other models. Service is available either at your site or you may bring the printer to us. In most cases, turnaround is two days or less.
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T E C H T A L K
When the Computer Bits Hit the Fan
Prepare For and Prevent PC Calamities
Computers will crash, and they even burn, but there are some cheap and simple things you can do to revive them. Adapted and revised from a 1997 article by Reid Goldsborough, MSNBC Contributor
For individuals, computer malfunctions can deal severe blows to both your patience and your pocketbook; for businesses, they can prove catastrophic.
Fully half of all businesses that don’t recover their data within 10 days of the initial loss never fully recover financially, according to data-recovery firm Ontrack of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
The most common mishaps? Power outages, says Contingency Planning Research, a management consulting firm in White Plains, N.Y.
Next come storms, followed in turn by floods, power surges, hurricanes, fires, hardware errors, earthquakes, network outages, human errors, bombings, heating or air conditioning failures and software errors.
To lower your susceptibility to a computer calamity and to increase your prospects for a full and speedy recovery, individuals and businesses should heed the following advice, offers Gerry Stoloff, a Philadelphia-based specialist with 15 years experience in computer-disaster recovery planning.
Examine your system’s major elements, says Stoloff, determine where their potential for failure lies and take steps to minimize or even avoid losses altogether.
HARD DISKS
Though more reliable than ever, the hard disk remains the PC’s most vulnerable component. Any number of accidents or malfunctions can incapacitate this drive.
Although unlikely, a severe jar or blow to the machine can force one or more of the disk’s read/write heads to actually crash into a disk platter, which stores the machine’s data. The thin magnetic coating on the surface of a platter can wear away over time. The drive’s electronics, the controller or the connecting cable can go bad.
Early warning signs that a hard disk is about to fail include unusual whirring or grinding noises, programs that take longer and longer to load, increasing error messages when you try to access or store your data, and the computer’s intermittent failure to boot.
If you experience these signs, you should immediately back up your data if you haven’t done so recently. (See our article last newsletter.)
Many hard disk problems can be corrected or minimized with a utility program such as Norton Utilities. Among other things, it can check your disk for bad sectors, remove any data stored on them and copy the data to safe areas of your disk.
Some physical hard disk problems can be caused by loose cables. If you are experienced working on a computer, try turning off your computer and opening the case. Press in all the cables, both on the motherboard and into the drives.
An all-too-common nightmare scenario is your hard disk crashing without having backed up your crucial data. In this case, you have the option of sending the failed hard disk to a specialized data-recovery service. These companies use special software and controllers in “clean” rooms to disassemble and reassemble faulty disks.
It can be an expensive proposition, though. Fees generally range from $300 to $1,000 or more to diagnose a disk and recover its data.
MONITORS
A blank monitor may be caused by something as simple as your not turning it on, which happens more often than you might think. The cable may also have become loose, or the video card might not be seated properly in its slot. Sometimes the contrast and brightness dials inadvertently get set to their dimmest settings, which can also blank the screen.
If these steps don’t work, and you have access to another monitor, you can swap it with the one not working. If the second one works, you know the problem is with the first monitor and not another system component.
Older monitors used to have problems with screen burn-in if you left them on for too long without activity. Newer monitors are engineered to prevent this problem—the ever-popular screen savers are more decorative than protective.
Monitors attract a lot of dust and gunk because of the positively charged ions produced by the monitor’s cathode ray tube. You should periodically clean your monitor to maximise visibility.
You can usually use a mild ammonia-based glass cleaner such as Windex. But make sure you squirt the cleaner on a clean paper towel and not directly on the screen, to keep it from getting inside and possibly doing damage. These, however, do nothing to prevent build-up from the static charge. Therefore you may wish to buy anti-static wipes to clean your monitor.
Some monitors have special anti-glare surfaces and should be cleaned according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
KEYBOARDS
Keyboards also attract their share of gunk, which can cause keys to stick. Try turning the keyboard upside down and shaking out the dirt, crumbs and other debris.
You can also vacuum the keyboard with a portable vacuum cleaner, or blow out the debris using the type of canned air sold at Quidnunc.
If you spill water on a keyboard, just let it dry before using it again. If you spill a sugary drink on it, unplug the keyboard and dip it quickly in soapy water, then clean water. Then let dry. However, you may just want to buy a new one—replacement keyboards are cheaper than ever.
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Quick Reminders
Remember to bring in empty ink jet and laser toner cartridges. Keep them out of the landfills!
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We will recycle old computers, printers and monitors for a nominal fee of $15/computer or monitor, and $5/printer.
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