I have a Canon Power Shot A400 digital that I have used almost exclusively over the past couple years; rather than my Minolta Maxxum 3xi---would the digital be sufficient for the majority of photos on the BOI tour (museums/churches); or would you recommend the Minolta for better zooming/closeups, etc. Thanks...
Italiandad (Joe)

I found the digital was perfect. You can delete/retake pictures on the fly. I have a 7 pixel and ended up with 350 pictures. Would have had double if I used my SLR. Plus some pictures had to be retaken which I would not have known if I used the SLR. I used a 1 gig stick and needed a little more.

Once you started using digital it is difficult to use film again. Digital can cope better with changing light conditions and you do not have the problem of carrying all those films along. There is also the major advantage of being able to change your ISO, which is essential as you will mostly shoot handheld. I don't know the specs of the A400, but some zoom facility is useful (probably essential). You will find that in most instances you will need the short side of your lens and will seldom use very long lenses. Although I carry lenses up to 300mm, I mostly use lenses in the 17 to 135mm range. The most important aspect of digital is to ensure that you have sufficient storing space, either by means of a number of compact flash cards, a portable storage device or hope for a facility where you could write your photos to a cd.

Thanks for the input--I was leaning towards just bringing the digital and now I feel better about doing just that. The A400 does have a zoom function, and I have memory cards of 256 and 512mb; 3.2 megapixel; should be sufficient. Happy Trails to ALL!!
Joe

A 1GB card can be purchased for less than $100 at BestBuy or Circuit City. Do yourself a favour, and get a larger memory card - then you wont need to worry about which shots to keep, and can set you camera to maximum size and level of resolution (level of "fine").

I have to agree with Token User, you probably do not have enough memory. You will likely end up with having to delete a lot of shots that you would have like to keep and/or having to change to a very low resolution. I am shooting in RAW format, which obviously results in onsiderably bigger files, but on average use in excess of 10GB on a tour. Even considering that you would shoot in JPEG and have a lower megapixels camera, I still believe you are completely underestimating the number of photos you are going to take.

I have to agree with Token User and Koot - I don't think you have enough memory. I have a 3.2 megapixel camera and I used a 1 GB card plus a good portion of a 512 card during my trip to Italy last year (and that was with lots of editing of pictures en route).

T

You can also take a jump drive and down load pictures from your memory card to that. I have a 1 GB memory card and a 1 GB jump drive. I thought I would be good to go but now I am wondering if I should buy another.

With the cost of memory cards dropping dramatically in the US (sorry fellow Aussies, I know you are still getting screwed locally) it doesn't make sense to skimp on them. If you can wait until Memorial Day (depending on departure dates), just your local Circuit City, or Best buy. They will have some great deals during those sales. I am hoping to pick up an extra couple of cards myself.

Remember - if you are going to print any of te shots out later, you will want to take them using the max resolutionand quality you can. RAW is perfect if you camera can handle it.

Italiandad,
I would strongly recommend you buy a Photo Storage Device - PSD -that will allow you to backup your digital photos as frequently as you need (every night can be a good idea). My dreadfull experience was to have my digital camera stolen right at the end of the trip, and so went all our memories. Friends on the trip gave me copies of their digital snaps, but it really is not the same. PSD's are not expensive but the peace of mind is really worth it.

JJA