OK, I got a question.

[DanG]

My little cheapo digital camera is real easy on batteries. The latest pair of AA Alkalines just bit the dust after many months. When I went to change them out, they wouldn't come out, and I had to resort to long-nosed pliers. One of them had ruptured and left all that sticky, gooey mess in the chamber.  What best to clean it out with?  I know that baking soda works well on lead-acid leakages. Should I try it on this, as well?  Is this gonna give me the excuse I've been looking for to buy a new camera?? ;D

[DonE911]

I bet the soda would neutalize the acid, but would make an even bigger mess thats harder to clean out....

If'n it was me I'd either toss in some more batteries and use it till the acid eats it up or use this as an excuss to get a more gooder camera....  there is always room for one more gadget right?

[DanG]

Thanx Don. I think I'll follow your advice. Maybe it'll die a quick death while Walmart has that sweet little Minolta on sale. ;D  Perhaps I'll leave it out in the rain to clean it out, come to think of it. :D :D :D

[WoodSmith]

It been my experience working in the electronics field that there is very little that you can do once the contents pf the battery comes in contact with the plastic parts and all the copper and gold contacts. And the way the industry is now they have got us at a point where you just throw it away and buy new because the manufacturers very seldom any more have schematics as well as replacement parts and what it costs to put it on a technicians bench, we are now a throw away society. I will say that many of the new cameras have more functionality then cameras had just a couple of years ago. and the pricing of digital cameras is very competitive, most of them are made in Japan or china so they are pretty much the same.

[DonE911]

yep... you got the idea.... I personally went for the kodak deal at walmart about 6 months ago.

[Ianab]

from my electronics experience... either dismantle the thing and wash the affected plastic parts in water and detergent.. or wipe it out best you can with a stick and paper towel and keep using it till it dies.
With a cheap digital camera.. I'd pick option 2.  :

Dont worry.. digital cameras are still getting better / cheaper  

[DanG]

I been waiting for the optics to get better. I'm eyeballing the Minolta with a 10x optical zoom. Digital zoom don't mean nuthin.  Seems strange to me, that you can get a video cam with a 20x optical zoom for $300+, but it's hard to find a digital still cam with more than 3x, for more money. ???

[Ianab]

Dang

Also look at the Panasonic with the 12x Lecia lens. Difficult to handhold when it's zoomed right in so not much point going past that. It's equiv of a 420mm lens on a normal 35mm camera. But good optics do make a difference  :D

Ian

[sprucebunny]

I waited a long time to go digital cause I really wanted 10x zoom. Finally broke down this summer and got the Canon S1 IS. It has image stabilization but doesn't fit in your shirt pocket too good. Paid $500 but see it for $400 now.
Also got rechargable batteries.

[DanG]

I haven't really done my homework on these new cameras, YET.  How are they at regulating light?  This little point & shoot Vivitar is really poor at it.  The light has to be just right, or you get a poor picture. I know that video cams are good at adjusting to lighting conditions. Are the newer still cams the same way?

[Fla._Deadheader]

Everything I post comes out of my Sony FD85, floppy disk camera. I still try to lighten my pics, so the folks that have dark monitors can still see the images.

[Ianab]

Most high quality digital cams have very good automatic exposure now. Many will let you set exposure compensation when you take the shot to lighten or darken the exposure by a f-stop or 2 if you want to delibrately over / under expose to highlight something. My Panasonic is not very good in really low light, it wont take the exposure time out to multiple seconds and the picture gets a bit noisey. At night in a normally lit room is OK, but in lower lighting, not so good. Maybe I just got spoiled by using 800asa film to shoot inside with no flash.
 Other trick I use is to point at the key element of the picture, let the camera set focus and exposure with 1/2 push of shutter button, then move the view to frame the picture as I want. For instance this avoids the camera setting exposure on the bright sky and underexposing the foreground item you are actually shooting.  Failing that.. photopaint fixes many sins  :D

Ian

[mapleveneer]

Some more about batteries.  You digital camera folks should really be using photo lithium batteries.  You won't have a leakage problem and the batteries will outlast alkalines by a factor of at least 5.  It's all in the engineering of the batteries.  A camera is a high drain device, i.e. it draws lots of current in short bursts.  As in every time you push the button.  This high drain of current burns the inside of an alkaline cell making it so that you only get about 10% or so of the juice out of the cell before it has enough burned electrolyte in it so that it stops working.  This doesn't happen in a lithium cell so you get to use all the power in the cell.  Put a lithium cell into a flashlight or a pager and an alkaline will outlast it many times over.  These are low drain devices and alkaline is the name of the game.  Go to the local discount dept store or Home Depot and spend the $10 for a set of 4 AA lithiums and put them in your camera.  You WILL see the difference.  In the long run you'll end up with more green in your wallet and less frustration from high-priced rechargeables not working well or being discharged just when you need them.  Lithiums also have a very long shelf life and work well as spares.

[Engineer]

Can't help you on what camera to choose, DanG, but I'd sure pitch the one you have and get a new one.  Once the batteries leak, you're done for.  I have a Fuji FinePix S602Z, but that's probably a bit on the steep side, even now.

Also, for all youse guys recommending lithium or whatever - go to WallyWorld and get the Duracell/Energizer/Rayovac or your favorite brand of NiMH AA or AAA rechargeables.  I have a plug-in charger and eight batteries, four of which are in the camera and four stay in the charger.    I also use the AAA rechargeables for every small piece of electronics I have - survey data collector, GPS unit, portable radios, etc.  It's steep to get into the investment for the batteries ($2.50 each) but they last for hundreds of charges and sure beat the cost of regular alkalines in the long run.

[Larry]

Can't say enough good things about my antique Olympus C-2020.  Handles just about any light situation quite well.  Going on 5 years old and still going strong.  Sorta wish I had a little problem with it to justify buying something new with a 10X zoom.  Every picture I have posted was taken with that camera.

Just as important as the camera for good pictures is quality software.  Paint Shop Pro or Photo Shop probably the best.  Freebe is Gimp but it is open source and  hard to learn.          

Sprucebunny, what's your opinion of the Cannon?

[Furby]

Well if ya gonna throw the thing out...................
I wouldn't mind tearing the guts out of it just for fun. Never seen inside one of these yet. :

The optical zoom part probly has a lot to do with weight and size.

I like my FinePix, but my next one will have both auto and MANUAL focus for the darker settings. Once the light starts getting low, focus won't lock on and I don't have an override.

[DanG]

Weight and size mean nothing to me. In fact, I'd rather have a camera I can get my meaty hands on. I spent many years lugging a Pentax 1000dtl with an 80-250 Tamron zoom. Thing weighed about 15 pounds!  I wish they'd make a digi-cam with interchangable lens. That Tamron is one awesome chunk of glass! ;D

[Furby]

Ah..................
DanG they do, and you can use them Tamron lenses with them. You will spend more $$$, but will have something more along what you want. Look around a little before you buy, prices on the digital with interchangable lenses are coming down. Might be worth it if you are going to use it enough. I KNOW I want one, just haven't been able to allocate the funds........yet! ;)

[Ianab]

Hey Dang
They do  
Check this one out, it will use your old Pentax compatible lenses too
A lot of pro photographers use digital SLR cameras now, but they seem to be coming down to prices us mere mortals can afford  :D
http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/product_details?reqID=3&subsection=digital_slr

Ian

[mapleveneer]

I am still a fan of the lithium cells.  NIMH cells will lose their charge just sitting around.  Unless you use your camera a lot and keep them charged regularly you'll be caught with them dead some day.  Probably the spares you bought will also be just as dead.  Not the case with lithium.  For the serious casual user the lithiums will probably last a year and the spares you bought will still be just like brand new when you put them in.  I have had a Kodak digital for 4-5 years now (the company camera) and have over 10,000 images taken with it.  I use NIMH rechargeables and carry lithiums to get me out of the occasional bind when the NIMH are dead (or still in the charger at home!)  But, again, I am using it just about dailiy.  I bought an identical camera off ebay for my son 2 1/2 years ago and it didn't come with batteries.  The original lithium cells are still powering that unit.

[Mark M]

Hi DanG.

Here is a couple of good sites for camera info:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.htm

As for the battery problem, aren't most batteries guaranteed against leakage? I would just take a damp paper towel and wash it out the best you can. You could then dissolve some baking soda and wipe it out with that.

I like Sony cameras, I used to have one with a floppy drive and now I have one with a little CD. Nice thing about them is you can put lots of pictures on a disk and they are cheap. If you get one with a lot of megapixels then storage becomes a problem. I wouldn't go over 4 megapixles and even that is bigger than needed for most pictures.

Good luck
Mark

[Fla._Deadheader]

  We also have 2 screw-on lenses for close-up shots, on our Sony. Detail is amazing, and we can also manually adjust zoom. Right now, I think zoom is 10X ???

[DanG]

Thanks for the info and tips.  I gotta count my pennies before I get too excited. :-/  I dropped $300 on that old trailer yesterday, and $327 on fence wire and posts today.  I'm thinking about cashing in my silo full of beer cans and buying whatever camera that will cover.