If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#41
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
Scott W wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote: Thank you for some information. Do you happen to recall which of the :"many recent models" are prone to these problems, and do you recall where it was that you came across this information so that I might be able to read it for myself? HP is a pretty minor player in the digital camera world and as such their cameras don't seem to be reviewed much. Here is one review that I found http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/R707/R7A.HTM If you go to PBase.com you can see that very few people are using HP cameras http://www.pbase.com/cameras/hp If you compare that to Canon you will see a large differance http://www.pbase.com/cameras/canon Or just about anybody else. Seems to me the low number of HP reviews and relatively poor ratings in the few that are available may be the result of an effect analogous to one seen in the automotive field: A large, LARGE majority of car users are disinterested in anything but the transportation aspects of their vehicles. They just drive them to get from where they are to where they want to be, carrying what they want to carry, oblivious (or at least uninfluenced by) style or performance beyond certain parameters. People who _are_ interested in style and/or exceptional performance are more likely to seek others with similar interests, to read and contribute to publications reflecting those interests, to home in on characteristics of cars that just plain have no significance to the majority, and to be vocal about their interests and choices. I like coffee, drink it with great pleasure, but a coffee-maker is just an appliance, to me. I think your typical HP camera buyer's purchase experience is like my coffee-machine-buying experience: it should make good-enough coffee quickly and with as little muss, fuss, and bother as possible, at a reasonable price. Of course I know enough about cameras to choose a camera-maker brand rather than a computer-maker brand. The latter seem to me to be opportunistic and unlikely to reflect any dedication to the art of camera-making or to sincere camera users. Just for your information: I was in the market for a basic PnS digital a few months ago, to be gifted to a young person, resident in Mexico. I went through the HP, Kodak, and Fuji lineups. I'd almost settled on the Fuji (HP? A maker of OK computers, but the shots I saw looked like ISO400 film prints from a mis-adjusted machine. Kodak? Not too bad, but my negative experience with their photo sharing software put me off.) when it became apparent to me that Keeping It Simple Señor requirements could best be met with a film camera. I bought a sixty-dollar Olympus in a blister pack, some spare AAs, and a dozen rolls of ISO 200 film. That and enough cash for film development has brought plenty of simple, satisfying joy. My coffee "machine" is an inverted cone with a flat base, rests on either a single cup or a four-cup Mr Coffee replacement carafe. I buy 12-cup filters by the hundreds from Smart and Final, fold them in quarters, stick them in the cone. Spoon in the Yuban, pour hot water, m-m-m-m-m, enjoy. There is no rule that says every solution must be the best possible, nor is every person required to appreciate sophistication and elegance. -- Frank ess "You know my method, Watson. It is founded upon the observation of trifles." -Sherlock Holmes- |
#42
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
I have the Kodak C330.
here is what you should do to view the pics on screen in highest quality: use IrfanView options - properties -viewing = use "resample" |
#43
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:34:42 -0800, Frank ess wrote:
My coffee "machine" is an inverted cone with a flat base, rests on either a single cup or a four-cup Mr Coffee replacement carafe. I buy 12-cup filters by the hundreds from Smart and Final, fold them in quarters, stick them in the cone. Spoon in the Yuban, pour hot water, m-m-m-m-m, enjoy. I find the coffees sold by those that import and roast their own coffees to be better than supermarket brands, but not so much better that I don't often use Folgers or Yuban. I recently tried bags of ground coffee from Dunkin Donuts (not bad) and Starbucks (awful). I had always used filters, either above a Melitta carafe or in a Kitchen Aid electric drip, and the resulting coffee was similar. When I ran out of filters about a year ago I remembered I had one of the "gold" metal filters and tried that. It did slightly improve the coffee, but I don't think it had much to do with any difference between paper and the gold filter. My guess is that some of the fine coffee sludge that gets through the gold filter is responsible. I've been using it ever since. Even better tasting coffee is made by the Bunn coffeemaker that my parents use. The coffemaker and filters are "free", the only expense being for the individual pouches of coffee, usually Martinsons. There are other coffee choices, such as a "house" brand and IIRC, Yuban as well. The taste difference may be partially due to the speed of brewing, since the Bunn machines are quite fast, and I've read that the more bitter compounds take longer to extract. |
#44
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
"ASAAR" wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote: Hmmm, I just looked at the "Steve's Conclusions" section on the five and six megapixel digital cameras on www.steves-digicams.com, and all five of the HP models reviewed, specifically models 935, 945, 707, 817, R717, seemed to have favorable judgements given to them. The 945 is the one that I recalled getting favorable reviews. The others may be decent cameras, but Steve's reviews tend to be less critical than most. When judging cameras you have to take into account things that the reviewers leave unsaid. Apparently favorable reviews on dpreview.com for cameras that get a "Recommended" rating usually show several flaws that might be severe enough to make the cameras poor choices for some, and which are easy to miss if the entire review isn't read carefully with a critical eye. Some people don't even think much of some of the cameras that get the "Highly Recommended" rating. While the HP cameras you listed are probably decent performers, they're unlikely to be among the best in each of their categories. I hope they don't have the apparently dismal battery performance of the HP517. But even the lesser HPs should satisfy most of their owners, since I'd think it's the rare HP owner that would often make prints 8" x 10" or larger prints. For that some would say you'd need a camera of the quality of the recently discussed 10mp (interpolated) Bell & Howell. cough cough Yes, I do agree with your general sentiments here, of course. Jon |
#45
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
"ASAAR" wrote:
Frank ess wrote: My coffee "machine" is an inverted cone with a flat base, rests on either a single cup or a four-cup Mr Coffee replacement carafe. I buy 12-cup filters by the hundreds from Smart and Final, fold them in quarters, stick them in the cone. Spoon in the Yuban, pour hot water, m-m-m-m-m, enjoy. I find the coffees sold by those that import and roast their own coffees to be better than supermarket brands, but not so much better that I don't often use Folgers or Yuban. I recently tried bags of ground coffee from Dunkin Donuts (not bad) and Starbucks (awful). I had always used filters, either above a Melitta carafe or in a Kitchen Aid electric drip, and the resulting coffee was similar. When I ran out of filters about a year ago I remembered I had one of the "gold" metal filters and tried that. It did slightly improve the coffee, but I don't think it had much to do with any difference between paper and the gold filter. My guess is that some of the fine coffee sludge that gets through the gold filter is responsible. I've been using it ever since. The gold filters (of which I also am a user), product coffee similar to using a French press, in which there is no paper to absorb and retain the aromatic oils in the brew. Mind you, because the gold filter pours though so quickly I let the grounds "steep" (to borrow a tea term) in the water for a few minutes first, then it goes through the gold filter to make the final brew. A lot cheapre than relying on filters, too. Jon |
#46
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
"Bill Funk" wrote:
"Jon Danniken" wrote: Thanks, I appreciate that. I am not quite sure that one or two bad models, or bad camers, justifies a universally low opinion of HP though, but I do appreciate information about that particular one, at any rate. Jon HGP's reputation was so bad that HP itself admitted it: "At press briefings during PMA 2004 HP staff quietly admitted they had finally realized that the company's digital cameras suffered from something of an 'image problem'." (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/hpr707/) That reference was to the physical appearance of the previous line of HP cameras, not to image quality. Here is the entire quote to provide for the correct context: "Big, seemingly designed to resemble a house brick, and made from the kind of materials normally found only on the dashboard of a 1980's hatchback, the Photosmart range simply couldn't compete with the slick, shiny and keenly priced Far Eastern offerings." Jon |
#47
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 12:50:39 -0800, Jon Danniken wrote:
The gold filters (of which I also am a user), product coffee similar to using a French press, in which there is no paper to absorb and retain the aromatic oils in the brew. Mind you, because the gold filter pours though so quickly I let the grounds "steep" (to borrow a tea term) in the water for a few minutes first, then it goes through the gold filter to make the final brew. To clarify a bit, in the Melitta carafes I've only used paper, and only Melitta's own brand. The gold filter has only been used in a KA 4 cup machine which despite the small capacity still takes a fair amount of time because the water isn't preheated. I've done that too, manually, but very infrequently and it didn't seem to make much of a difference, but I've only done it when using paper filters.. Absorption of the oils sounds plausible and probably has some effect, but I think my "sludge" theory is also correct, since I've noticed several times that the dregs have a slightly richer taste, and they're no longer poured down the drain, but savored. g |
#48
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
just buy a freeking HP camera and save us all the missery. it stopped
being funny 2 days ago. |
#49
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
"ASAAR" wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote: The gold filters (of which I also am a user), product coffee similar to using a French press, in which there is no paper to absorb and retain the aromatic oils in the brew. Mind you, because the gold filter pours though so quickly I let the grounds "steep" (to borrow a tea term) in the water for a few minutes first, then it goes through the gold filter to make the final brew. To clarify a bit, in the Melitta carafes I've only used paper, and only Melitta's own brand. The gold filter has only been used in a KA 4 cup machine which despite the small capacity still takes a fair amount of time because the water isn't preheated. I've done that too, manually, but very infrequently and it didn't seem to make much of a difference, but I've only done it when using paper filters.. Absorption of the oils sounds plausible and probably has some effect, but I think my "sludge" theory is also correct, since I've noticed several times that the dregs have a slightly richer taste, and they're no longer poured down the drain, but savored. g I know what you mean about the sludge. I've learned not drink the last little bit of coffee in my cup, and to pour it out before I refill. My coffee isn't "good to the last drop", but up until that point I find I prefer it that way. Jon |
#50
|
|||
|
|||
5 problems with digicams - solutions/recommendations?
Yeah, your right about that, the old HP was good.
I was thinking present day. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II problems resolved | [email protected] | Digital Photography | 0 | November 13th 05 08:41 PM |
Canon BGE2 Battery Grip problems? | Gizmo | Digital SLR Cameras | 6 | March 27th 05 06:05 PM |
increased color saturation solves hyper-contrast problems | David Virgil Hobbs | Digital Photography | 1 | October 26th 04 12:23 PM |
Canon 300D - focus problems | Martin Wildam | Digital Photography | 31 | September 22nd 04 09:41 PM |
Nikon D70 colour problems | David Kilpatrick | Digital Photography | 7 | July 15th 04 12:04 PM |