Is there any camera on earth meeting 4 simple requirements (AA,CF,7x)

Bob Ward wrote:

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:41:56 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:


You can use an ordinary CF card in a microdrive hole, but you can't stuff a
microdrive into an ordinary CF hole.

What is this "microdrive hole" you talk about?

OK, how about "slot"? You know, the place in the camera that you put the CF
card or microdrive.

http://www.compactflash.org/info/cfinfo.htm
CompactFlash® is a very small removable mass storage device. First
introduced in 1994 by SanDisk Corporation, CF? cards weigh a half
ounce and are the size of a matchbook. They provide complete
PCMCIA-ATA functionality and compatibility plus TrueIDE functionality
compatible with ATA/ATAPI-4. At 43mm (1.7") x 36mm (1.4") x 3.3mm
(0.13"), the device's thickness is less than one-half of a current
PCMCIA Type II card. It is actually one-fourth the volume of a PCMCIA
card. Compared to a 68-pin PCMCIA card, a CF card has 50 pins but
still conforms to PCMCIA ATA specs. It can be easily slipped into a
passive 68-pin Type II adapter card that fully meets PCMCIA electrical
and mechanical interface specifications.

CompactFlash cards are designed with flash technology, a non-volatile
storage solution that does not require a battery to retain data
indefinitely. CompactFlash storage products are solid state, meaning
they contain no moving parts, and provide users with much greater
protection of their data than conventional magnetic disk drives. They
are five to ten times more rugged and reliable than disk drives
including those found in PC Card Type III products. CF cards consume
only five percent of the power required by small disk drives.

CF cards are also available for data storage using the Microdrive. CF
I/O cards are available as modems, Ethernet, serial, digital phone
cards, laser scanners, BlueTooth wireless, 802.11b WiFi LAN, etc.

--
Cheers,
Bev
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Of course SoCal has four seasons:
Earthquake, Mudslide, Brushfire, and Riot

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 22:22:21 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:

Bob Ward wrote:

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:41:56 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:


You can use an ordinary CF card in a microdrive hole, but you can't stuff a
microdrive into an ordinary CF hole.

What is this "microdrive hole" you talk about?

OK, how about "slot"? You know, the place in the camera that you put the CF
card or microdrive.

The microdrive fits in a Compact Flash slot. There is only one size
of those, as my cite below spells out.



http://www.compactflash.org/info/cfinfo.htm
CompactFlash® is a very small removable mass storage device. First
introduced in 1994 by SanDisk Corporation, CF? cards weigh a half
ounce and are the size of a matchbook. They provide complete
PCMCIA-ATA functionality and compatibility plus TrueIDE functionality
compatible with ATA/ATAPI-4. At 43mm (1.7") x 36mm (1.4") x 3.3mm
(0.13"), the device's thickness is less than one-half of a current
PCMCIA Type II card. It is actually one-fourth the volume of a PCMCIA
card. Compared to a 68-pin PCMCIA card, a CF card has 50 pins but
still conforms to PCMCIA ATA specs. It can be easily slipped into a
passive 68-pin Type II adapter card that fully meets PCMCIA electrical
and mechanical interface specifications.

CompactFlash cards are designed with flash technology, a non-volatile
storage solution that does not require a battery to retain data
indefinitely. CompactFlash storage products are solid state, meaning
they contain no moving parts, and provide users with much greater
protection of their data than conventional magnetic disk drives. They
are five to ten times more rugged and reliable than disk drives
including those found in PC Card Type III products. CF cards consume
only five percent of the power required by small disk drives.

CF cards are also available for data storage using the Microdrive. CF
I/O cards are available as modems, Ethernet, serial, digital phone
cards, laser scanners, BlueTooth wireless, 802.11b WiFi LAN, etc.

The microdrive fits in a Compact Flash slot. There is only one size
of those, as my cite below spells out.
----------------------------------------------------
Not true.

CF comes in two flavors, type I and type II. Microdrives are type two and
will not fit into a type I slot. The type I (slimmer) media can be used in
either a type I or type II slot.

DS

Bob Ward wrote:
On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 22:22:21 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:


Bob Ward wrote:

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:41:56 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:


You can use an ordinary CF card in a microdrive hole, but you can't stuff a
microdrive into an ordinary CF hole.

What is this "microdrive hole" you talk about?

OK, how about "slot"? You know, the place in the camera that you put the CF
card or microdrive.


The microdrive fits in a Compact Flash slot. There is only one size
of those, as my cite below spells out.



http://www.compactflash.org/info/cfinfo.htm
CompactFlash® is a very small removable mass storage device. First
introduced in 1994 by SanDisk Corporation, CF? cards weigh a half
ounce and are the size of a matchbook. They provide complete
PCMCIA-ATA functionality and compatibility plus TrueIDE functionality
compatible with ATA/ATAPI-4. At 43mm (1.7") x 36mm (1.4") x 3.3mm
(0.13"), the device's thickness is less than one-half of a current
PCMCIA Type II card. It is actually one-fourth the volume of a PCMCIA
card. Compared to a 68-pin PCMCIA card, a CF card has 50 pins but
still conforms to PCMCIA ATA specs. It can be easily slipped into a
passive 68-pin Type II adapter card that fully meets PCMCIA electrical
and mechanical interface specifications.

CompactFlash cards are designed with flash technology, a non-volatile
storage solution that does not require a battery to retain data
indefinitely. CompactFlash storage products are solid state, meaning
they contain no moving parts, and provide users with much greater
protection of their data than conventional magnetic disk drives. They
are five to ten times more rugged and reliable than disk drives
including those found in PC Card Type III products. CF cards consume
only five percent of the power required by small disk drives.

CF cards are also available for data storage using the Microdrive. CF
I/O cards are available as modems, Ethernet, serial, digital phone
cards, laser scanners, BlueTooth wireless, 802.11b WiFi LAN, etc.


Sigh. WRONG!
There are type I and type II. The Microdrive TypeII, and requires a
slightly thicker 1.1mm thicker, card, and thus a bit wider opening.


--
Ron Hunter

Why AA bateries?
Chargers for AA's come as 110 volt. If you travel to Europe or South
America, you need a 220 V charger.
However, AA chargers don't accomodate bi-voltage, at least it didn't when I
was asking about it a year ago...
In the case of dedicated single cell batteries as my Canon's, the charger
works on any current. All you need is a small inexpensive adaptor for the
pins.
Marcel



"Susan (Graphic Artist)" wrote in message
oups.com...
MY QUESTION:
Can there not be a camera on earth that meets these 4 simple goals?
- AA batteries
- Good photo quality
- 7x to 10x optical zoom
- CF media

I ask for your help in that I've only found ONE camera which comes
close to meeting these 4 simple (and, I'd bet, pretty univerally held)
requirements:
- AA batteries (never again will I buy electronics with battery packs!)
- Excellent picture quality (I trust in Consumer Reports measurements)
- 7x - 10x optical zoom (equivalent to about 200 mm or more)
- Compact Flash media (I already have many CF cards & PCMCIA readers)

Searching endlessly, I can only find one camera coming close:
- Canon Powershot S1 IS (3.2 MP)
But I'd like a 5 megapixel or larger (for enlargements if needed).

Also this digital camera doesn't have a macro capability.
(Ad copy says it can focus at 4 inches so that seems like a built-in
macro non-macro to me ... what do you think)?

Is there any AA,CF,7x, camera with good photo quality on earth?

Susan Henderson

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:01:34 GMT, Ken Weitzel
wrote:



Big Bill wrote:

snip


Forgetting the charger will not go away with AAs.
A rush may be an emergency for you, but...
$75 batteries? CU can't show you how to buy something other than OEM?
Adapters for foreign countries will still be required for that AA
charger. And AA chargers still need to be arried around.
And AAs go bad, too.
It would seem that you've not really thought this one through well.

Hi...

I have thought it through, and agree that I do indeed want
AA's whenever possible...

Example. Few years ago visiting South Dakota... darned
memory... the former US presidents carved into a mountain.

Standing close to some folks who had a really really heavy
English accent. We said hello to one another; and they asked
if I knew of a close place out of the "tourist trap" where
they could get some AA alkalines, because there batteries were
close to gone. I didn't - not local, not even American.

But I did loan them my fully charged spare set; we walked
back to the parking lot and put theirs on charge in our car,
and went back to have lunch which would of course give them
at least an hour or two's charging.

They wouldn't take no to paying for lunch; so - given that
our trip was almost over, we didn't take no to them keeping
our spare set of NiMh's.

Everything's so much easier when everyone helps one another,
but could we have done that if it weren't for the compatability
of AA's?

Running out of batteries (or charge) is a unhiversal problemthat's
easily fixable,without the need to use AAs.
The ability to remedy a problem that continues to crop up *because of
a lack of recognition* of that problem is nice, but it's far better to
recognize the problem *beforehand* and plan for it.
IOW, the fascination for AAs here as a solution to a problem seems to
be rought about by a lack of ability to ensure the problem doesn't
occur. In my case, using a Digital Rebel/300D, I have *NEVER* run out
of battery charge. Why? Because I plan ahead, not because of using
AAs. It's isn'thard, isn't very expensive, and is no problem at all.
True, I can't lend any AAs to British tourists who don't plan ahead,
but that really doesn't ruin my day.

Ken

--
Big Bill
Replace "g" with "a"

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:27:29 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:

"Susan (Graphic Artist)" wrote:

Anthony Matonak wrote:
The limiting factors are AA batteries and Compact Flash.
I was wonderin' why there was only 1 or 3 cameras on earth which
satisfied what I thought was a very simple and universally held set of
4 needs ...

it's easy enough to work around memory and batteries ...
I'm sick and tired of proprietary battery packs going bad or forgetting
them or forgetting the charger or carrying them all around or plugging
them in or bringing european adaptors or buying hugely expensive
75-dollar batteries in a rush without being able to shop for price ...

My husband made a battery pack for his walkman out of a double D-size battery
holder from radio shack, some wire and a plug. D batteries are way cheaper to
use than AAs.

When I had an Oly 3030, I used a small 6v gell cell battery as a
battery pack. I got a nylon camera case that fit it, and carried it on
my belt. A home-made cable connected to the power jack, and it would
power the camera all day easily, even in museums where flash use was
the norm.
Definitely better than a pocket full of AAs.

--
Big Bill
Replace "g" with "a"

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 05:48:16 +1000, "Rod Speed"
wrote:


Ken Burns wrote in message
news
- AA batteries (never again will I buy electronics with battery packs!)

That means that you will never again buy electronics.

Thats just plain wrong, some products are tending towards the use
of standard format rechargeable cells, most obviously cordless phones.

Yes, almost every cordless phone (as opposed to cell phones) I've
owned have had battery packs that consist of bundled rechargable AAA
batteries; size isn't a paramount consideration.
But with other devices (cell phones and cameras, as examples), small
size *is* important. That's one of the major reasons their batteries
are the way they are; AAs and AAAs don't allow the small sizes the
consumers obviously want.

--
Big Bill
Replace "g" with "a"

Susan (Graphic Artist) wrote:
MY QUESTION:
Can there not be a camera on earth that meets these 4 simple goals?
- AA batteries
- Good photo quality
- 7x to 10x optical zoom
- CF media

The Pentax *ist-D with a Tamron 28-200mm zoom would meet this requirement.
It ships with 2 CR-V3 cells, but 4xAA can be used as well.

I am seriously considering upgrading to a Pentax *ist-DS (uses SD cards)
because I already have a Tamron Adaptall 28-200mm with Minolta MD/MC
mount (which I use on my XG-2) and have found a cheap supply for an
Adaptall K-mount.
It also looks atractive because M42 lenses can used (with a K adapter)
in manual or apeture priority mode.

Big Bill writes:

When I had an Oly 3030, I used a small 6v gell cell battery as a
battery pack. I got a nylon camera case that fit it, and carried it on
my belt. A home-made cable connected to the power jack, and it would
power the camera all day easily, even in museums where flash use was
the norm.
Definitely better than a pocket full of AAs.

I'd take the pocket full of AAs. For the same amount of energy
capacity, NiMH cells are a lot lighter than the lead acid gel cell. So
I'd be carrying around less weight for the same amount of shooting.

Of course, I'd have to stop to change batteries occasionally, and have
some system for separating fresh from used cells. But with the gell
cell, I'd have a cord connecting the battery to the camera all the time,
which is also an inconvenience. I think these two roughly cancel each
other, so weight remains the main difference.

Dave