Camera recommendations for school?

Our village school (ages 4 to 11) has had good use from a couple of Sony
Mavica cameras - big and clunky but with the great advantage that they
used floppy disks, so each child could take their photo, remove the
disk, pass the camera to the next child and get to work on their PC
using the photo on the floppy.

One Mavica has now failed, and the other must be getting towards that
point. Repair costs are prohibitive.

So we are wondering what to buy in their place. Resultion of around 1.3
megapixels would be fine, but data transfer is the key issue.

The cost of multiple memory cards, plus a card reader per PC, would be
fairly high - and cards are so small as to be easily lost. I'm also not
sure how well the typical camera would stand up to being opened up and
having cards swapped as often as this would imply.

Bluetooth is presumably an option, but we'd need to find a really simple
way to download to the server after each shot.

Ideas, please


John Geddes
England

Bluetooth is presumably an option, but we'd need to find a really simple
way to download to the server after each shot.

Wi-Fi is my recommendation:
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/niko...1-reviews.html

I don't know what you mean by "really simple."

Dear John,

See if you can get the cameras and cards donated to your school. Or, see if
the students could do some fund raisers.

Cheers!
Dave

"John Geddes" wrote in message
...
Our village school (ages 4 to 11) has had good use from a couple of Sony
Mavica cameras - big and clunky but with the great advantage that they
used floppy disks, so each child could take their photo, remove the disk,
pass the camera to the next child and get to work on their PC using the
photo on the floppy.

One Mavica has now failed, and the other must be getting towards that
point. Repair costs are prohibitive.

So we are wondering what to buy in their place. Resultion of around 1.3
megapixels would be fine, but data transfer is the key issue.

The cost of multiple memory cards, plus a card reader per PC, would be
fairly high - and cards are so small as to be easily lost. I'm also not
sure how well the typical camera would stand up to being opened up and
having cards swapped as often as this would imply.

Bluetooth is presumably an option, but we'd need to find a really simple
way to download to the server after each shot.

Ideas, please


John Geddes
England

In article ,
John Geddes wrote:

Our village school (ages 4 to 11) has had good use from a couple of Sony
Mavica cameras - big and clunky but with the great advantage that they
used floppy disks, so each child could take their photo, remove the
disk, pass the camera to the next child and get to work on their PC
using the photo on the floppy.

One Mavica has now failed, and the other must be getting towards that
point. Repair costs are prohibitive.

So we are wondering what to buy in their place. Resultion of around 1.3
megapixels would be fine, but data transfer is the key issue.

The cost of multiple memory cards, plus a card reader per PC, would be
fairly high - and cards are so small as to be easily lost. I'm also not
sure how well the typical camera would stand up to being opened up and
having cards swapped as often as this would imply.

Bluetooth is presumably an option, but we'd need to find a really simple
way to download to the server after each shot.

Take a look at Fujifilm products especially the F402, 420, 440, 450 and
455. All these cameras have a 'picture cradle' for downloading pictures
and recharging the battery. No-one needs to open the camera at all.

Stewy wrote:

Take a look at Fujifilm products especially the F402, 420, 440, 450 and
455. All these cameras have a 'picture cradle' for downloading pictures
and recharging the battery. No-one needs to open the camera at all.


Kodak easyshare cameras also use a docking cradle that makes
transferring pictures to a PC easy and keeps the battery charged.
Sounds like either Kodak or Fuji would be the easiest way to go.

On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:22:04 +0000, John Geddes wrote:

Our village school (ages 4 to 11) has had good use from a couple of Sony
Mavica cameras - big and clunky but with the great advantage that they
used floppy disks, so each child could take their photo, remove the
disk, pass the camera to the next child and get to work on their PC
using the photo on the floppy.

One Mavica has now failed, and the other must be getting towards that
point. Repair costs are prohibitive.

So we are wondering what to buy in their place. Resultion of around 1.3
megapixels would be fine, but data transfer is the key issue.

The cost of multiple memory cards, plus a card reader per PC, would be
fairly high - and cards are so small as to be easily lost. I'm also not
sure how well the typical camera would stand up to being opened up and
having cards swapped as often as this would imply.

Bluetooth is presumably an option, but we'd need to find a really simple
way to download to the server after each shot.

Ideas, please

Check ebay for more Mavicas.

ASAAR wrote:

Lastly, you didn't mention how the pictures would be used. If
they are printed at the common snapshot size of 4" x 6", you might
want to select a camera that has an optional resolution having a 3:2
aspect ratio, which could be used so that the students wouldn't have
to deal with cropping until they're ready for it, if ever.

I greatly prefer my Kodak with the dock to my older camera with AA's and
a charger. I also have a wall charger I take when traveling. It is no
more expensive than an AA charger. I just prefer a single battery pack
than separate AA's. The low end Fuji or Kodak cameras that include the
docking cradle are actually rather inexpensive.

Instead of a dock or card reader it's pretty simple to just use a USB
cable to a PC for transferring the pictures. Just buy one cable per PC
and leave them connected to each PC. Should be an inexpensive solution.

I think Mavica are out of date. I'd recommend the latest Kodak
EasyShare cameras for quick and easy shooting. Kodak is well known for
user friendliness.

The point about Bluetooth - why not use USB to transfer the pictures?
Does your school server have a USB connection?



Best Regards,
Gary Hendricks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Powerful photography techniques in your FREE report:
"7 Digital Camera Tricks Used by The Pros"
http://www.basic-digital-photography.com/report
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John Geddes wrote:
Our village school (ages 4 to 11) has had good use from a couple of Sony
Mavica cameras - big and clunky but with the great advantage that they
used floppy disks, so each child could take their photo, remove the
disk, pass the camera to the next child and get to work on their PC
using the photo on the floppy.

One Mavica has now failed, and the other must be getting towards that
point. Repair costs are prohibitive.

So we are wondering what to buy in their place. Resultion of around 1.3
megapixels would be fine, but data transfer is the key issue.

The cost of multiple memory cards, plus a card reader per PC, would be
fairly high - and cards are so small as to be easily lost. I'm also not
sure how well the typical camera would stand up to being opened up and
having cards swapped as often as this would imply.

You want to avoid three things:

1. Continuous insertion and removal of the memory card
2. Continuous insertion and removal of batteries
3. Having the kids have to connect/disconnect cables

Look for cameras with a docking option.

You could either buy one dock for each PC, or set aside one PC for
docking, and share a directory on the hard drive of that PC (assuming
the computers are networked).

Two good options:

The Fuji E510, which sells for $170 (see "http://tinyurl.com/nl5ad") and
a dock (see "http://tinyurl.com/l7jvq") which is $38.

$38 per dock isn't that much, so it may be better to just have a dock
for each PC. You'll have lots of spare battery packs, since one comes
with each dock, but unfortunately, you need a special charger to charge
these packs, and it isn't easily available, so you may only be able to
do in-camera charging.

The last thing you want young children doing is swapping individual AA
batteries, since they are easily incorrectly inserted, and the battery
doors on most digital cameras are not very rugged (it's one of the most
replaced items on digital cameras). It's also a hassle for the teachers
to have to deal with charging AA batteries outside the camera, and
keeping track of which cells are charged.

The best option is the HP R717 with dock. This camera is $317 with the
dock. It has several advantages over the Fuji E510:

1. Uses SD instead of XD cards, which are both larger and cheaper
2. More ruggedly built
3. No pop-up flash, like the E-510, which is an item that is easily broken
4. The dock can recharge the internal battery, as well as a second battery.
5. Includes a remote control, which can be fun for the kids in certain
scenarios.
6. Uses Li-Ion batteries instead of NiMH batteries, which means longer
battery life, and less hassle.

However the spare docks are more expensive ($68) besides the camera
being more. But in this case, since the cameras are likely to not be
treated with the utmost care, I think the R717 is the better choice.
It's a well-built camera, and the lack of a pop-up flash, and the Li-Ion
batteries, make it worth the extra cost.

Steve
http://digitalcamerashortlist.com

SMS wrote:

However the spare docks are more expensive ($68) besides the camera
being more. But in this case, since the cameras are likely to not be
treated with the utmost care, I think the R717 is the better choice.
It's a well-built camera, and the lack of a pop-up flash, and the Li-Ion
batteries, make it worth the extra cost.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the Li-Ion battery for the HP R717
is the same as what is used in many Fuji, Kodak, Casio, Pentax, Ricoh,
Olympus, and Samsung cameras, so it's widely available and pretty
inexpensive. Look for the Fuji NP-60 battery, i.e.
"http://sterlingtek.com/fujnpeqbatpa.html"