The Casio
QV-3000 is the latest toy I bought for myself, just in time for Christmas.
It's been a very nice tool, and the savings in film, developing and time getting
pictures for my web site will make the investment worth while. I bought it for
two main reasons. First, I wanted to get away from spending lots of money on film
purchasing and development (the bill for developing 7 rolls of 36 exposure rolls
from my trip to Switzerland almost killed me!), and to make it easier on me when
using images for my web site. It sure beats developing film, scanning them, and
then messing with the images to get them just right.
If you want to get more information about the camera and see some sample image, check out this review from Imaging Resource. They also review other digital cameras and scanners as well.
I spent the extra money for the QV-3000 Plus, which comes
with a 340MB
Microdrive from IBM. The drive is 1.5 square inches or so, and is able to
hold 245 pictures at 2048x1536 resolution at maximum image quality, and up to
2054 pictures at 1024x768 resolution at the 'economy' image quality setting. Any
way you look at it, that's very impressive. It sure beats bringing lots of film
cartridges or Compact Flash cards. The other bonus is that the Microdrive is much
cheaper megabyte for megabyte.
Transferring the files via the USB connection is a snap. My system identifies the Microdrive as an additional hard disk and assigns a drive letter to it. Downloading the images to my computer is simply a 'drag and drop' operation. There's an issue with Windows 2000 and the drivers. I have more information here on this issue, as I use Windows 2000.
Batteries
Like most high powered 3 megapixel digital cameras, this Casio sucks up batteries quickly. Your standard alkaline batteries will be lucky to last 1 hour. I had one set of Duracells that didn't even last 30 minutes!
You will definitely need rechargable NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) or perahps some Lithium batteries. I bought 2 sets of 4-AA NiMH batteries from Maha Energy. These batteries, from their Powerex line, are rated at 1600 mAh (milliampheres), currently the highest rating you can buy right now. It also helps to get a "rapid-charger" unit that can recharge four batteries at once in 1-2 hours. I've also been reading that Maha also tends to underrate their batteries, so it will more than likely outperform other batteries also rated at 1600 mAh.
With the NiMH batteries, I was able to take about 80 pictures with the flash during Christmas, and I still had plenty of juice left. The meter was still showing the power level on medium. I was impressed that they held up so well.
Also, I got an AC adapter for the camera, which is useful for downloading images to the computer, and also when using it to display your pictures on the TV screen. The Casio camera can display pictures on either your computer or on a TV with some cables that are provided in the kit. Otherwise, you would only drain your batteries.
I got my batteries, adapter and other accessories from Thomas Distributing. Their prices are good and the service was quick. Everything arrived in three days.