My First Digital Camera/accessories??
ront2
Adapter Kit? What is it used for? The camera runs on AA Alkaline
batteries(x4). It came with a 32M memory card (SD). They push the
SDC-128M, and the SDC-512MSH. Are there many name brands of these? How
many pictures would the 512 hold versus the 32M? Are all name brands
the same in quality? How important are the following accessories and
what are they used for? USB Card Reader, PCMCIA Adaptor, Direct
Interface Cable, High Power Flash HF-DC1?
Are all memory cards created equal? Is the SD the same as the SDC?
The SDC-128M and the SDC-512MSH - Why *M* vs *MSH*? Upgrade to either?
Thanks for your time! Sincerely, Ron (ro...@socal.rr.com)
Daniel Silevitch
An AC adapter kit is a device that lets you run your camera without
batteries, but rather plugged into a wall socket. For most people, it's
not hugely useful, since you're not usually within 5 feet of a socket.
What you should get is a good set of NiMH rechargeable AA batteries and
a charger; you'll get more shots out of a single charge, and you'll save
money in the long run on batteries.
SD memory cards are made by a bunch of companies, and are fairly
interchangeable. The A620 is a 7 megapixel camera, so pictures probably
run about 2.5 megabytes each. A 32 megabyte card will hold about a dozen
highest quality pictures. A 512 card will hold about 200. 512s are
fairly cheap these days; buy one (not necessarily from Canon; Sandisk
and Lexar are two good brands to start with), and get more later if you
feel the need for more storage.
Accessories: The USB card reader and PCMCIA adapter are both ways to
download pictures from a card to a computer. The first plugs into a USB
port on just about any reasonably modern computer, the second plugs into
a card slot found on many laptops. The camera will come with a cable
that plugs into the USB port; the adapters allow you to transfer data
from cards that have been removed from the camera. Pass on these for
now.
The external flash gives you a more powerful flash than the built-in
unit. Pass on it for now; if you find yourself doing a lot of flash
photography, consider it later on.
Dunno about the cable.
-dms
Neil Harrington
"ront2" <ro...@socal.rr.com> wrote in message
news:1128651620....@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Received as a gift, Canon Powershot A620. How important is an AC
> Adapter Kit? What is it used for?
Saves batteries, may be useful if you have the camera turned on long for
some reason (transferring a lot of photos from camera to computer, etc.).
How important that is, is for you to decide. If batteries running down while
transferring is a problem, then it's important. If not, not.
> The camera runs on AA Alkaline
> batteries(x4).
Don't waste your time and money with alkalines. Buy one or two sets of NiMH
rechargeables and get a good fast charger. One highly recommended charger is
the Maha C401FS, but there are other reasonably good ones too. You can get a
cheap fast charger + four cells at Wal-Mart that's actually pretty good.
> It came with a 32M memory card (SD). They push the
> SDC-128M, and the SDC-512MSH. Are there many name brands of these? How
> many pictures would the 512 hold versus the 32M?
512 / 32 = 16 times as many for any given pixel count and quality setting,
approximately. (File size varies slightly for different photos because they
don't all compress the same.)
> Are all name brands
> the same in quality?
They should be close enough for your purposes. Lexar, Sandisk, Kingston,
Viking are all good. (Roughly in that order of preference, but I've used all
those brands and never had a problem with any of them.)
> How important are the following accessories and
> what are they used for? USB Card Reader,
Many people use a card reader rather than transferring direct from the
camera. It's up to you. If and when you need or want one, you'll know it.
> PCMCIA Adaptor,
Are you using the camera with a laptop? That's what that's for.
> Direct
> Interface Cable, High Power Flash HF-DC1?
Aren't those things described in your manual? Get used to the camera first,
then decide what (if any) accessories you need.
> Are all memory cards created equal? Is the SD the same as the SDC?
> The SDC-128M and the SDC-512MSH - Why *M* vs *MSH*? Upgrade to either?
If those are Canon designations for their brand of SD cards, I wouldn't
worry about it. Any good brand of SD card should suit your purposes.
Generally speaking, the camera maker's brand will be more expensive, and for
no particular benefit. Look for other name brands on sale and/or with
rebates, which should be easy to find for SD cards since they are by far the
most common type of memory card. Buy.com is one good source; they almost
always have name brand cards with rebates.
Neil
salgud
lot of fun with it.
Circuit City has a Sandisk 512M card on sale for $25 after $15 rebate
(if you're one of those people who doesn't do rebates, it's not that
good a price).
Some people prefer fast chargers, but I've read that the batteries last
longer if I slow charge them. I bought a Maha 401 that does both and
enough battteries (8) that I shouldn't have to fast charge very often.
With 8 batteries, I'll have 2 in my Canon A520, 2 spares, and 4 in the
charger for the next day. I just got the charger and batteries, so I
don't know how many shots I'll get per charge. I'm told it should be
over 100. I'll know this weekend. It'll be rare that I take 200 photos
in a day (2 sets of batteries), so I should have plenty.
Stick with major name brand cards, avoid the disount ones. Who wants to
take 200 pictures and lose them all because they saved $5 on the card?
Sandisk, Lexar.
My son recently had trouble with a Sandisk card. He went to their site
and downloaded the file recovery software to recover his pics. A few
minutes after he downloaded the software and had recovered his
pictures, he got a call from Sandisk customer service, unsolicited,
wanting to know if he had recovered his images! That's service.
The card reader is cheap (~$15) and just means you don't tie up the
camera while you download.
Neil Harrington
"salgud" <dav...@safebrowse.com> wrote in message
news:1128698487.5...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
[ . . . ]
> Some people prefer fast chargers, but I've read that the batteries last
> longer if I slow charge them.
That depends. Slow charging is easier on the batteries because it keeps the
temp down, until the batteries are fully charged. THEN I believe it the
charging rate is too high, and slow chargers I've seen are dumb and don't
change their rate. Fast chargers on the other hand are smart and fall back
to a trickle charge when they detect that the battery is fully charged (some
do this better than others), and from that point on they're easier on the
batteries than a slow charger would be which doesn't change its charging
rate.
> I bought a Maha 401 that does both and
> enough battteries (8) that I shouldn't have to fast charge very often.
You bet, the Maha C401FS is my favorite charger and I have two of 'em. But
its "slow" rate (which is what I mostly use also) is still much faster than
what is usually meant by a slow charger. A slow charger to me is a dumb one
like the old Maha 124 that takes 14 hours or more to fully charge the
batteries--and sometimes much more, depending on the batteries' capacity.
The "slow" rate of the 401 usually means 5 hours or so, which is reasonably
quick.
Neil
salgud
Thanks for clarifying that, Neil. Maybe you can answer another question
for me. I put the batteries in the 401 last night for the first time,
around 11pm. When I got up this morning around 6, they still weren't
fully charged, which concerned me. The manual says they should charge,
in "slow" mode, in about 5 hrs. They finally showed as charged just
before I left for work at 7. It makes sense that a first charge might
take longer, but 28% longer? Does it normally take that much longer to
charge a new set of batteries?
ASAAR
> Thanks for clarifying that, Neil. Maybe you can answer another question
> for me. I put the batteries in the 401 last night for the first time,
> around 11pm. When I got up this morning around 6, they still weren't
> fully charged, which concerned me. The manual says they should charge,
> in "slow" mode, in about 5 hrs. They finally showed as charged just
> before I left for work at 7. It makes sense that a first charge might
> take longer, but 28% longer? Does it normally take that much longer to
> charge a new set of batteries?
What capacity batteries were you using, and what capacity did the
manual assume you'd be using? Despite reports to the contrary,
I've found all brands of NiMH batteries to have very close to their
full capacity from the first charge, and the time to charge them is
about the same, whether they're charged the first or the tenth time.
If charging of the batteries started at 11pm and finished just
before 7am, that's nearly 8 hours, not 28%, but almost 60% more than
5 hours. If the manual was written a couple of years ago when 1600
mah batteries were common, today's 2500 mah batteries would account
for the nearly 60% greater recharge time. The RayOVac 1 Hour Charger
I bought less than a year ago included a pair of 1600 mah AAs.
Neil Harrington
>
> Neil Harrington wrote:
>> "salgud" <dav...@safebrowse.com> wrote in message
>> news:1128698487.5...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
[ . . . ]
>
> for me. I put the batteries in the 401 last night for the first time,
> around 11pm. When I got up this morning around 6, they still weren't
> fully charged, which concerned me. The manual says they should charge,
> in "slow" mode, in about 5 hrs. They finally showed as charged just
> before I left for work at 7. It makes sense that a first charge might
> take longer, but 28% longer? Does it normally take that much longer to
> charge a new set of batteries?
ASAAR's reply is so complete I can't add much useful to it. :-)
The 5 hours mentioned depends on a number of factors, and brand-new
large-capacity cells will take longer if they start out almost fully
depleted, which is likely to be the case. It's been a while since I've had
occasion to charge brand-new cells, and I don't really remember the time
involved.
I sometimes put the charger on "fast" at first, and switch to "slow" when
the cells become noticeably warm to the touch, since it's the heat rise that
mostly occurs near the end of the charging cycle that's likely to do the
damage as I understand it. At other times I just do the whole thing on
"slow" and when they're ready they're ready. As long as all the cells finish
charging about the same time I'm happy, and that is almost always the case
with a new set. In my experience, one or two cells in a set sometimes take
longer after they've aged, which would be more bothersome if not for the
fact that the C401FS has individual charging circuits for the cells, one of
the reasons I especially like that charger.
Neil
salgud
Both sets of batteries charged up fine, as far as I can tell. I haven't
run the first set down yet with about 40 pics and a lot of viewing.