I Love Obsolete Technology
6/10/2
Well, if you were lookin� at the Stuffo back in the 1998 to 2000 time period, you know that I used to have many pictures that I took with my trusty little DC25 and I rarely wrote a story.
These days, however, the stories are actually the Stuffo and there are no pictures. Well, lil� chillins, that�s all about to change.
I�m not saying that I�ll slack off on the writing, which I might if I feel like it, frankly. But I�ll be getting a Digital Camera again. It�s not like I lost the DC25 or it broke. It was the high price of batteries that made me stop. The small 478 by 368, or something like that, photos weren�t worth the price of the 3 volt lithium batteries. I�d pay about $10 for 150 pictures whether they were good or not.
Here�s the new plan:
It seems the Jamcam 3, another camera I�ve fixated on which was designed for kids and teens, takes good quality 640x480 images, uses a 9 volt battery for power, and has a MMC, Flashmemory, or whatever you want to call it expansion slot.
640x480 is good enough for me, frankly. In fact, the older Mavica�s that I was looking at which are now selling for a little over $100 on ebay have that as their highest resolution. For the same price as that, the wonderful DC120 can be had, but it eats it�s AA batteries, but you can still use rechargeables, where you couldn�t on the DC25.
The Jamcam 3, however, can be had, including shipping, for around $20 at this point on ebay. I have bidtamer set for a snipe sometime tomorrow. Since shipping on that one is $5.60, my maximum bid is $14.40. I�ve written the seller and the camera has only been used a few times and has no significant scratches.
The 9 volt battery must be alkaline. However, a charger, priced yesterday afternoon at Target, is $10 and each nickel metal hydride 9 volt battery is another $9. The charger can charge two at a time so I�ll eventually have three. I might just start with one so that Aisai doesn�t freak at my freakish spending.
The standard capacity for 640x480 images is only 8 for the 2 megs of memory that it has internally. However, a 64 meg card can be had for about $30 off ebay, which would up my capacity to 256 images before I had to offload them. I currently have an 8 meg card in the DC25 so I�d be able to get 32 out of that. I�m not sure if it will use both resident memory and the card at the same time. The DC25 has the odd configuration that it will store on the card first, then you have to pop it out and then you can record on the resident memory. On the DC25, that 8 meg card will get me around 56 images.
So, all that sounds too good to be true, and does, in fact, make Aisai�s eyebrows raise as I preach the wonderfulness of blowing $73 to $90 on this setup. However, once bought, it�s self-sustaining. Each of the rechargeable 9v batteries I looked at can take 1000 charges.
I know I spent over $150 worth on 3 v lithium batteries in those two years I used the DC25.
And I don�t have to leap in all at once. Step one, starting tomorrow, or Friday when I�ll paypal the people, if I get this auction, is just the camera. I�ll get some Rayovac 9v batteries when we go grocery shopping and snatch the 8 meg card out of the DC25. Depending on battery life, I�m not sure which will be the next phase, but I�d like to have the cam ready for the Tampa trip.
It�s absolutely necessary that I have the silver Jamcam and not the blue. It might really be a toy camera, but I sure don�t want it to look that way.
But really, for so cheap, how is the picture quality. The easiest to remember URL where there are sample images of a decent size are at www.sandyfeet.com. The gal there bought a Jamcam when her other digital camera wouldn�t work with the iBook she took to Aruba. She also used the Jamcam when she was in China.
I�ll probably half.com the DC25. I also need to half.com the old Webtv Plus. I don�t like Ebay as far as selling goes. Nothing like deadbeats.
In other news, I�m running the lab this week since Labman has jury duty. I �waxed� my car with that Eagle One Wet Wax that�s being advertised so much. Did a great job, but I don�t think the finish will last. Also, seeing my car all mirror shiny, it makes me realize what a crap paint job it has. The front end collision, though, really did make the hood look nice [since it got repainted]. But I think that the paint they use on the plastic panels is different. And the two body panels which haven�t been repainted since I�ve had the car, one of them looks really bad, sun damanged, on the part that faces straight up.
I also need to sell the Kronos. I�m really looking forward to getting a Miata in October.
And this concludes Postwood being materialistic for today.
[It was the bunny. Kiddo also got a bird too.]