Saw it on ARS, and found it very useful. With everyone getting digicams these days, but without any real experience with photography, it's a good read. I know there's some serious pic-shooters on this forum, so please, if you have any remarks or additions, speak up!
http://arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/01q3/photo/photoart-1.html

Wow thanks Tam!

That was a good read.

------------------
Manu Narayan

Apparently there's more 'chapters' on the way, so I'll keep checking and will add it here once they have it. It's very useful

Thats cool, let us know!

------------------
Manu Narayan

Good stuff for the budding artsy photographer.

I've been using a digital weekly (sometimes daily) for about 18 months, and I'm just now getting comfortable with it. I've got two cams (Olympus 3000 and 2100), and I'm pleased with their performance. I take primarily sports/action shots, so THE most important thing in the world for me is light. If I have light, I'll get good pictures.

If you guys are thinking about digital photography, I'll make one SERIOUS suggestion. Regardless of what kind of camera you get, make sure you purchase THE biggest memory chip you can. I've found that, unlike shooting a gun, "spray and pray" works on occasion with digital. If you take ENOUGH pictures, a few of them will turn out well. One or two will be GREAT.

When I shot 35mm (and funds were tight), I tried to be "super photographer" and catch the perfect shot from the perfect angle. I RARELY made it. Now, with my 2100 and a 128meg card, I get LOTS of great shots without having to pray for the photography gods to smile down on me.

Feel free to check some of the shots out:
www.wtso.com (http://www.wtso.com)

The Viking SSFDC3/128 128MB Smart Media is currently going for $60. The Olympus chips cost more, although the Olympus memory has the built in feature for the pan feature that generic chips don't have.

I am looking at the Olympus D-510 for $300 on Amazon. I may just get the Viking chip and use the 8MB for panning to see if that feature is really something that is even used much.

Snouter-

I think my dad currently has the model bellow, that...you wn't be disapointed, great camera!

And with 2 128 sticks, you can take about 500 pics.

All I have to say is that the Olympus cameras are the best that we carry at Best Buy. You will get excellent pics off of the D-510, but the main thing is making sure you have a printer that can get good quailty. If you don't have one, Canon is comming out with the S820, and if it is anything like the S800 you will not be dissapointed with the quality.

I just ordered a D-510 from Amazon to avoid the tax and they had the price down to $279.99. I added a 128 meg card for it for $60. I have a battery charger but will have to pick up 4 AA Ni-MH 1,600 milliamp batteries. I was looked at all the reviews for the 700 UZ, but the additional $170 for a 10X zoom just didn't seem worth it. If I was out on a boat when a zoom would be useful for sunset shots and distant light houses, I would be bouncing so much with the waves, all the pics would be blurry probably.

My objective is to view the pics via the PC although I do have an Epson Photo 870 which should delivery decent printouts on the special paper, although the will fade unlike regular old fashioned photos.

Like I said man, won't be disapointed...once my finances are a bit more settled (recently moved) I wanna think about a new digicam, mine is OLD (thanks Grover :P)

Snouter- If you're going to WANT prints, or if these will be photos you want to share with family/friends and THEY may want prints, check out ofoto.com It is a RAD service.

It is 100% free to use (for now at least.) Basically what they let ya do is to upload your images via their desktop software to their site. They let ya organize them into albums, add captions, rotate, etc. Then when viewing a picture you can click on 'order print' and get a print on photoquality (nearly) for about 35 cents I think. Not bad at all. You can also send links to family/friends and they can view/order prints. Damn fine service.

Also, the image quality is amazing. My parents went on a trip to spain, so for their anniversary last year I wanted to get them a photo of the two of them and blow it up/get it framed. Most of the film photos we have are of the kids...they have few that are just the two of them. So I find their spain photos, found a great one of them on a hike with the city in the background. Cropped it, enlarged it, and got it printed 8x10 on thick photopaper for 5-7 bucks, I forget what. Bought a 20 dollar frame, and bham! A great gift, and you honestly cannot tell it was a digital camera.

So if you're into nature photography...you can get some awesome prints for your home that you've taken yourself.

In my experiences into digital photography I originally had a Polaroid 320x240.... how sad.. LOL

I then went to an Olympus 510 and I ended up returning it for a Canon A20. I am happy with the Canon A20 and the next camera I get will probably be a Canon Digital SLR.

I had started a thread on this topic in hobbies here (http://www.discussanything.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4738)