Subject:	Get out your checkbook
Author:	drdread
Date:	12/17/2001 9:58:33 AM
Message:

The little Sima hard drive unit is pretty clever... but I didn't see a statement on their web site of how large the drive is! I presume you can get it in various sizes. I just removed a 4 GB drive from my laptop and replaced it with a 20 GB drive earlier this year. The 20 GB drive set me back $110...so hopefully the Sima guys aren't too proud of their device.

Anyway: you may not need it at all. Consider that a 3.3 megapixel image (i.e. 2048x1600) will compress down to ~300 kB. Thus you get around 3 images per megabyte of storage. Then that 128 MB flash card should store ~375 images. That's a lot of storage, especially when you consider that you can just erase the bad ones. 375 keepers is something I'd never expect to get on the average dive trip! Even counting the marginal images, I bring home maybe 50 per 1-week trip--and that's optimistic.

Definitely get the DS-125 rather than the 50. The 50 will not give you sufficient light for wide-angle work. Also the 125 has manual modes (i.e. full power, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8) which is a really critical feature for WA work.

As for my fabled 35mm CCD, yeah, I *am* waiting for it. One of the major problems I have with digital right now is that the consumer cameras don't allow for interchangeable lenses (the Inon screw-ons don't count), and the pro cameras are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay expensive (as in "greater than $6k"). I really want/need the flexibility of interchangeable lenses, but I also really want/need not to pay $6k for a camera body. :( I'm guessing that sometime in the next couple of years we'll see "prosumer" digital camera bodies from people like Nikon that will give me everything I want. At that point, I'll buy one.

In the mean time, I might buy a digital camera just to have one. The Olympus 3040 and 4040 cameras look great, as do the Nikon 995 and 5000. The 995 is especially attractive because of recent price drops. You can now get one for $800 with a $100 rebate. I can talk myself into $700 for a camera pretty easily, even knowing that it's not going to be the 'permanent' solution for me...

So kwitcher bitchin and go buy the toys. I want to hear a first-hand review, and I want to see the pix!

D

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