Going on a techy shopping spree...recommendations?

[Kat79]

The office wants to get a digital camera and a CD burner and well, I hardly know where to start looking.[nbsp][nbsp]

The CD burner will mostly be for archiving information but we want to be able to make music CDs too. :)[nbsp][nbsp]I don't know CD-R from CD-RW from CD-ROM, could someone explain which CD-??? I'm looking for?[nbsp][nbsp]Any brand recommendations?

As for the digital camera, I've done a lot of research and *my* personal fave so far is the Olympus 490Z.[nbsp][nbsp]Any of you have experience with it?[nbsp][nbsp]Like it?[nbsp][nbsp]We're looking to spend up to $500 or so, maybe a little more.[nbsp][nbsp]The pictures will be used on our website (a small real estate firm) and some printing, but mostly web.[nbsp][nbsp]Any recommendations would be great!

Thanks a million!

[dank]

I *highly* recommend Plextor CDRW drives.[nbsp][nbsp]I've been through Ricoh, HP, and Sony, and none of them come close to the Plextor in pretty much every respect.[nbsp][nbsp]Plextor is also cheaper than many of the alternatives.

As far as digital cameras, someone was just showing me a new Olympus they bought (not sure of the model, but I think it's 1200 or something).[nbsp][nbsp]Verrry nice![nbsp][nbsp]Puts my Canon A50 to shame, although I consider it quite acceptable for most things.

By the way, for anyone with a Canon Powershot A50, there's a little secret to saving roughly $70 per rechargeable battery that even the dealers don't appear to know about...

Dan

[Brian]

Depending on the use I would recommend you get an SLR type camera (the big ones) as they are much easier to manage and get a good picture.

I own a Sony DSC-D770 and love it. I think it can be had on the net for around $500. Depending on your needs they make a newer one that stores images on a small cdr (MVC-CD1000) although its around 1000$..

-Brian

[BOF]

OK, Dan - put me out of my misery![nbsp][nbsp]What's the secret?[nbsp][nbsp]I have a Canon S10 (great little machine, BTW) - maybe your battery secret applies to this too? ;)

I'm using an Iomega Zip CDR/W - a bit slow, but very adequate.


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Chris
Hong Kong
www.simplyaromatics.com (http://www.simplyaromatics.com)
www.plainwebdesign.com (http://www.plainwebdesign.com)

[dank]

I think that uses the same battery, but the issue is mis-labeling that applies to the A50 (I think it's labeled correctly for the S10).[nbsp][nbsp]According to the packaging and availability lists, the only way to buy the NB-5H battery is to spend $80-100 for the entire rechargeable kit, which includes charger, adapter, battery, etc.[nbsp][nbsp]Kind of silly to have to buy two chargers just to get a second battery...

One day I happened across a couple listings at buy.com that showed the battery available separately for about $26.[nbsp][nbsp]The model # was just barely legible in the picture, but the part # was something totally different and the product label indicated it not matching the A50.[nbsp][nbsp]Turned out to be the exact same thing.

I mentioned it to a few Canon dealers (I had asked around beforehand as to the availability), and it was news to them.

I can't seem to find the buy.com pages right now, but I'll post them if I do.

edit: Ok, here's the battery by itself:

http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10058923

It shows it as matching the S10, as I thought it did.[nbsp][nbsp]The page for the full rechargeable kit is around somewhere...

Dan
[This message has been edited by dank (edited 03-22-01@9:20 pm)]

[Matt]

PlexWriter 12/10/32A (IDE) has worked great for me as well as an older Plexwriter 8/20 (SCSI). The newer 12x burner hasn't had a bad burn yet. Plextor's up to 16x now for burning (!), but you'll probably be able to get a good deal on the 12/10/32A as a result. Also, the Plextor and TDK (I believe) have 24x audio extraction (nice for some things ;) ).
-Matt

[Kat79]

Okay, I'm looking for Plextor and not having much luck finding it online.[nbsp][nbsp]I see Maxtor drives...but Plextor doesn't seem to exist.

Help?

[dank]

http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10252769&loc=101

Dan

[BOF]

Dan - thanks for the battery tip. :)
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Chris
Hong Kong
www.simplyaromatics.com (http://www.simplyaromatics.com)
www.plainwebdesign.com (http://www.plainwebdesign.com)

[Dean B]

Same as Matt, a Plexwriter 32a.[nbsp][nbsp]Has performed faultlessly so far.[nbsp][nbsp]I absolutely love my Olympus 3030Z dig camera :)

-Dean