Digital cameras and other stuff...

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I just bought a 3.1 megapixel Kodak digital camera and I have a couple of questions about stuff relating to it.

#1: What is the ideal number of megapixels for 4" by 6" prints?

#2: Is the $79 Kodak EasyShare Dock worth getting?

#3: Is it better to buy a photo printer for home printing, or to take the memory card to one of those digital picture printing machines at stores?

#4: If home printing is better, which printer would be best...and speaking of home printing what about that $200 printer/camera dock from Kodak?

 

Its all subjective Kitrax, depending on how you use your camera.

A 3.1MP camera will easily produce 6"x4" photos for home use, but its no good for photo journalism where photos or small sections of photos may be blown up to A4 size.

The dots per inch resolution and method of colour ink handling of your photo printer will determine the quality of the pics.

Home photo printers are fine for snaps if you use glossy photo paper, but will always be slightly fuzzy. They drink ink by the bucket even though it is sold at $1/millilitre. The print heads will dry up if you don't use the printer continuously. Your bank account will dry up if you do use the printer continuously. The printer will break after 1 year + 1 day.

If you have more money than time, and spend hundreds of dollars on photos every year then docking stations are worth it. If you only take photos at weddings and birthdays then spend the money on gifts for the person who invited you instead.

Photo albums are a thing of the past. Store and distribute your photos on cheap rewritable CDs, then all your great-great-grand children can have a copy.

 

Wow...that sucks. I think I'll stick to my so-so printer and use the printing station at the store when in need of prints.

 

You can re-fill your inkjet printer cartridges. Just make sure that you don't empty it completely because there's a chip that tells the printer when the cartridge is empty. If you use a cartridge til it's empty, then re-fill it, the printer still thinks it's empty and you won't be able to use it.

It'll end up costing a fraction of what you'd pay were you to buy factory cartridges.

 

I have a 2 Megapixel Kodak camera and I am very pleased with it.

I don't know which model you use, but if it takes 2 AA sized batteries, it probably can use the CR-V3 battery.

This battery is designed specifically for digital cameras. AA batteries usually die in a couple hours of use, CR-V3 last much, much longer.

 

I have used a HP Photosmart printer for printing some of my digital photos on 8"x10" paper and have framed them and hung them on my walls. The pictures look great at that size - no fuzzyness and perfect colour.

In terms of cost per picture, if you want standard 4" x 6" prints it is generally cheaper to use a photo developer while for large sizes it is better to print them yourself. I found that the photo developers around here will tend to charge you an arm and a leg for 8" x 10" prints so that it was actually cheaper to print them myself.

Of course the cost of the photo/poster/print is almost always insignificant compared to the cost of the frame but that is a completely different story.