Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : Any info about Iomega (IOM)? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les White who wrote (51273)	3/26/1998 5:29:00 AM
From: Fred Fahmy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 58324

Les, <Nice shots, Fred.> Thanks. <Since you have made the switch have your expectations about digital photography been met?> Expectations have been exceeded. <What factors caused you to go digital?> Convenience and instant feedback. I always wanted to get more serious about photography but wasting film experimenting and developing film can get expensive and is time consuming. Also, I have a two year old son and all my relatives are internet capable. By giving them an internet address or by sending E-mail I can share pictures of Matthew minutes after I take them. <Do you find the system to be user friendly?> Yes. <How large are the photo files at highest setting?> The native jpeg files created by the camera on the high quality and supper high quality setting are 1280x1024. As far as digital photos go 1024x768 is decent if you are only going to make 5"x7" inch prints or if you are primarily interested in screen display. IMO, anything less than 1024x768 is worthless excpet for low end applications where quality is not important. Re: Storage Storage is on SSFDC (also known as Smartmedia). The little cards are really amazing. About 1" by 1.5" and as thick as a credit card. Currently, however the largest size is only 8 meg although 16 meg is very close. In SHQ (super high quality) mode each picture takes almost one meg. This mode should be used if you are going to make large (i.e. 8"x10" prints). For all other applications HQ mode is more than adequate. Both modes are 1280x1024, the difference being the degree of jpeg compression used. In HQ mode you can get around 24 pictures per 8 meg card. In SHQ mode I usually get 9. The 8 meg SSFDC's can be had for somewhere in the $45-$49 range if you shop around. As for interfacing between the computer you have two choices with a third one about to become available in the US (already is in Japan). First there is the serial cable connection which is painfully slow and unacceptable from my perspective. Second (my choice) is to get a PC Card adapter (i.e. PCMCIA card) which accepts the SSFDC directly. This is extremely convenient if you have a notebook. There are also desktop PC Card readers but I have no need for one since I have an internal ZIP on my notebook. This is the scenario. My SSFDC PC card adapter is always in my notebook. Whenever I want to get a picture from the camera I pull out the SSFDC media and stick it into my notebook. At that point the notebook beeps and an F: drive icon appears. From there it's just like having a second hard drive (with 8 meg capacity). You can use whatever Windows applications you would with any other drive. I usually just view the jpg's directly from the F: drive (i.e. directly from the media). I save the ones I want to keep on the hard drive and then copy them to a ZIP disk. I can then use the ZIP disk to move them to my desktop PC and to share them with friends and relatives. I nearly filled up a ZIP disk on my vacation with 70 shots. I took a total of 80 of which only 10 were unsatisfactory. Transferring from the SSFDC media to the notebook's hard drive or to the ZIP drive is lightening quick. The whole process is amazing and like magic. The third method soon to become available (like within days) is the use of a 3.5" floppy disk caddy. You simply put the SSFDC media in a 3.5" caddy and then stick it in your A: drive. This is much faster than the serial cable method but still much slower than the PC card adapter. I'm not sure what to think about Clik for digital camera's. Price could be a big factor for the average consumer but Smartmedia prices are falling drastically and densities are increasing. I really like the Smartmedia discs, but there is the cost issue. Needles to say my ZIP drives are in heavy use since I got my camera....both for storing/archiving pictures and for transferring pictures. From my perspective the whole experience would be much less desirable if I didn't have a notebook with an internal ZIP and a desktop ZIP. While on vacation I was able to use and re-use my Smartmedia cards because I had somewhere to download the pictures (i.e. my notebook). Come to think of it, if I didn't have a notebook I would have needed tons of Smartmedia cards (way too expensive since I was using SHQ mode) or a couple Clik disks. Hmmmm....perhaps Clik will be much more significant for those who don't travel with a notebook. Keep in mind that all of this technology is still relatively expensive and as Rocky would be quick to point out it's not for Joe 6 pack...at leat not yet. However, we all know what happens to the price of consumer electronics and PC related toys. It won't be long before digital photography becomes mainstream. If Clik's media price advantage is significant enough I think it has a serious chance of being a major contributor to the digital photography revolution. Finally, just to voice my opinion on KE. I was/am a long time KE supporter. I think any disagreements between KE and the company which lead to his departure is definitely IOM's loss. I currently have no position in IOM but was looking to re-enter. With KE gone I am more hesitant and much less likely to do so. I will be watching closely from the sidelines. Good luck to the longs, FF