[jwblase]

I'm looking into making my school yearbook (of which I am advisor) 100% digital next year. I don't think $$ is going to be a real issue, my budget allows for it.

I've looked into the Mavica CD-300's because of their CD burning tech (Each of my 40 students gets a CD at the beginning of the year for the whole year, buy another from the school if they fill it up).

Has anyone here found any drawbacks (non desktop specific) to the Mavica line? If so, is there another camera that works better with the same type of benefits as the CD Mavicas?

I've been researching cameras for about a month, but can't find this kind of info in magazine and official product reviews. I need a wide range of feedback.

Thanks in advance...

JB

[FXWizard]

Just so I can get a better idea of what you're trying to do, are you equipping each student with a camera or will they be borrowing one camera as needed?

My personal opinion is that I would rather have the CD burning separate from the camera because it allows a single camera (if that's what you're doing) to be moved between students immediately since they can just pop put the card and use it at a Mac that's equipped with a CD burner and card reader, whereas the Mavica with a built-in burner would be tied up until the student finishes burning his/her CD.

Is there a reason you're looking at CDs as opposed to other types of removable media such as SmartMedia or CompactFlash cards?

[jwblase]

I'm only having 2-3 cameras for 40-45 students. I would like to use the Mavica's CD-RW's because then they can close the CD and then sort their images on the computer while they trade up camera.

CD-R/RW's provide us with the best $/MB disposable storage for our class environment.

Besides, if a student loses their CD-RW, it's not as bad as losing a compactflash card ($$$$)

JB

[G4ME]

I don't think the time resrainghts of buring the Cd would have much of a problem, but if the kids want a cd thats their own then you might get into some problem, if you just let the students fill up a cd and then burn it, as sort of a mix, then I think it would work.

But you are talking about a $700+ camera plus CDs wheres you could just go for a half decent regualr SM CF camera and get a but load of cards, the prices arn't that bad what, 64 MB SM card for 18 bucks, not to bad.

I think you need to weigh your options, are the kids going to need all of the fxns on the sony, At our school our year book was all done on small disposable cameras.

BTW how does it work, does it have onboard RAM that it stored the pics in untill you have your 700mb filled up or does it burn pic by pic>

[ 04-25-2002: Message edited by: G4ME ]

[jwblase]

The Mavica's burn pic by pic. With 150+ MB of storage per 3" CD-R, We can't get much better for the MB/$.

Personally, I don't trust all the students with pricey CompactFlash cards, but the little CD-R/RW's aren't that bad. If they lose it, they could just go and pick up another.

We're going digital to save us the $900+ a year on film developing costs. The intital startup for the cameras is more, but in the long term, the value for the classes seem to be better.

Know of any particular problems with the CD Mavicas?

JB

[G4ME]

untill some disty blond "loses, breaks" your 700 dollar camera.
if you do the math,
you can get a decent 3 megea pixle camera for lets say 300, (very reasonable) now you said that you are getting 2-3 cameras, thats 900.
Now you want storage, if its SM very cheap cost wise, lets say its 128 card thats still only 40 bucks a card, now lets say you want 1.5 gigs of storage thats around 12 cards, 12 times 40 is only 480.
You could get 64MB cards and thats 18 bucks a card, so 24 cards is only 432 even cheaper, and more cards for more kids. your grand total for 3 cameras, 128 SM cards is going to be 1380, or 1332 for 64 MB cards

wheres your sony will be 700X3 is 2100, plus CDRs which run at 34 for 50 (my simon pirces), for a grand total of 2134 for 3 cameras and 7.8 GB of storage.

In the long run, 5 years down the line, there will be some mishapps with the cameras, broken door, or Card that won't work but you are talking about a 600 dollar differnce between the two.
Thats a still a lot of cards.

What I am just saying is just because the Sony can burn cds big deal. Its a 700 dollar Camera that you are giving to a student that doesn't realize the worth.

Just think about the costs.

[ianxwin]

The mavica is great for those situations where you need to take a very large number of photographs without being able to download them. If this is the way they will be working - great.
The correct medium to store lots of photographs is CDR, but its usually easier to transfer the pics to a computer and burn your cdr on that. It also means you can use full size CDRs which are a bit cheaper and compatible with slot loading CD drives (I think I'm right about the Mavica using small sized CDRs?)
I would prefer to go for camares using compact flash - they are cheaper for a given capacity (in the UK Crucial are probably cheapest).
If learning to use the camera is part of the educational experience, look hard at either coolpix or Panasonic Lumix LC5 which has very intuitve manual and semi-automatic controls (but SD memory). www.steves-digicams.com is a good resource to check cameras.
Ian

[PeteWK]

I've got a Panasonic camera that uses standard 3.5 inch floppies and the 120mb superdisks. For your use, it's a better camera than the Sony. The kids can put their PC and Mac floppies to use and a superdisk if they want to. If they use high res the floppies hold around 12 pictures. And if they have a superdisk they can hold about 400.

PeteWK

[robby818]

compactflash isn't all that expensive. Two weeks ago I paid $39 for a 128 meg card and $78 for a 256 meg card. In less than a year i'd bet the 128 card will be < $20.

I'd be wary of the sony cam--writing to cd-r sounds like it is ripe for potential problems-there is a lot involved in spinning up the cd and aligning the laser for burning. oh and you have to be a little more careful in handling them. This is just speculation but the sony camera just doesnt sound very durable. Compactflash on the other hand is very durable. I'd consider Canon S30s and 256 meg cards. S30s are about 430 now and if you buy 256 meg cards or even 128 meg cards there should be no need to even swap out the memory cards. Also, these cameras do come w rechargable batteries, which should be a greater concern for you than storage.

[rambo47]

Robby818 is right about durability. It stinks on the Mavicas using cd's. Another problem is battery life. Just awful. I think you'd be much better off with something like the Nikon Coolpix 775 and 32MB storage cards. Cheaper, more durable, and easy to download the pictures to a Mac.

I have always had good luck with Sony electronics. I have uses a Mavica FD-88 for several years now and I like the idea of cheap floppies as film. Unfortunately they only hold 6 or 8 high-quallity pics, and the 1.3 megapixel resolution really limits what you can do with the pictures. That's why I just got the Nikon Coolpix 885 - the 3.3 megapixels mean I can do more than just post tiny snaps on the family Yahoo club. Now I can print 3 x 5's or larger with my inkjet printer and they look fabulous. And iPhoto giving me OS X compatibility for the camera is really great. Combine this with Photoshop 7 and I'm in photo heaven.

[Matsu]

The actual utility and savings of the mavica's is specious. You end up paying a lot for gimmickry. Better quality cameras are available at less than half the cost; SM and CF cards are a lot cheaper than they used to be, and dropping.

Check-out dpreview for a good comparison of digital cameras. Students can always off-load their images whenever they return the cameras. 128MB+ cards will be enough for 2-3MP cameras to take quite a few images. Just keep the images in HDD folders on the computers themselves, no need to do a lot of burning untill you know what you want to keep. CD300's are $900 you can certainly get a 3MP camera, 128MB card and a USB card reader for 500-600.

[nana2]

Originally posted by ianxwin:
<STRONG>The mavica is great for those situations where you need to take a very large number of photographs without being able to download them. If this is the way they will be working - great.</STRONG>

If you want to take a very number of photos then get a camera that can accept a compactFlash Type II card such as the Nikon 995, and a 1GB Microdrive.

[jwblase]

How fast can data be written to the microdrive? Is the transfer rate noticeable? That is the one thing (besides all previous comments) that I don't like about the Mavica CD writing ability.

Also: Does anybody know of a way to lock the memory card into the camera? I don't want anybody walking off with my $300 microdrive if that's what I choose to do.

This thread is really helping. I might print out the whole thing and include it in with my proposal along with the budget requests.

JB

[nana2]

It's slightly slower than a flash ram based card, but far faster than the CD writing mavicas. Theres no locking mechanism that I know of. But then again, what's to stop someone walking off with the whole camera? The Mavicas you actually have to put on a table and not move whilst you are finalising the disc. A gimic and nothing else.

[robby818]

oh i hate to sound like the worry wort but becareful w that microdrive. I was listening to a radio program (computer call in for help format) yesterday morning and one of the hosts described how much he loved his IBM microdrive until the day he dropped it onto a concrete floor from about waist level. That was the end of his drive. As the name implies, the microdrive is a very very tiny hard drive and as such needs to be handled w a bit of care. I'm sure that (affordable) 1 Gig compactflash cards are not too far away.

[jwblase]

As for someone walking out with the whole camera... no one stopped a custodian walking away with our film-based camera, complete with film and zoom lenses.

I'm just worried about someone walking off with the data cartridges. I'm just trying to shut off as many security holes as possible (obviously, unless I get disposable digital cameras, I can't have complete security...)

Anyone else have info about the stability of the microdrives?

JB

I use a canon g2 and love mine to death. The argument about cf and cd is a moot point to me. I can take 50-60 shots and change cards, and get some of the best consumer performance around with no worry about anything.
Shot to shot spped, it can't be beat at it's price level and the image quality is great.

I've always worried about sony and their gadget cameras, as I've felt the always put convience in front of quality.