Can someone help me figure this out?

[Prowheel]

Recently, I got my own computer, which I am still learning about. I also found one of my children's digital cameras, an Ixla Digital superpro 640. I downloaded how to take pictures with it, but now I'd like to be able to hook up the camera to the computer. What kind of cables (if any) do I need? I only have the camera, not anything else that came with it.
What else do I need to do to be able to view my pictures? As you can tell, I am computer and digital camera illiterate. Please tell me what else I need to get for it, and WHAT TO DO WITH IT.
Thank you in advance
Prowheel

[George Riehm]

Recently, I got my own computer, which I am still learning about. I also found one of my children's digital cameras, an Ixla Digital superpro 640. I downloaded how to take pictures with it, but now I'd like to be able to hook up the camera to the computer. What kind of cables (if any) do I need? I only have the camera, not anything else that came with it.
What else do I need to do to be able to view my pictures? As you can tell, I am computer and digital camera illiterate. Please tell me what else I need to get for it, and WHAT TO DO WITH IT.
Thank you in advance
Prowheel

This is a 640 x 480 sub MegaPixel fixed focus camera introduced in 2000. All (2MB) memory is internal and you can download images via a standard A-B USB cable. You will also need to load a driver for your computer (if you haven't done that already). You can find it here:

http://www.driverforum.com/inputdevice4/2899.html

This is a 5 year old kiddie-cam/webcam, so don't expect much as far as image quality. And since there is no LCD to review your pics you will have to download to see how they are coming out.

All I can say beyond that is that you may want to look at more recent 3 Megapixel cameras down the road, as 640 x 480 is barely printable at 4 x 6, so don't waste too much money down at the local digital printing kiosk at Wal-mart or your favorite drug store. Since the memory is not removable you may have to bring the whole camera to the developing station, or transfer them to a CD, or other flash memory through a card reader/writer, to get prints.

Good luck.

[David Metsky]

Upon reading George's answer, I withdraw my original reply. :(

-dave-

[George Riehm]

Upon reading George's answer, I withdraw my original reply. :(

-dave-

Yeah. Luckily I had time to google it... so I'm not as smart as it seemed. ;) Believe it or not, Steve did a review on this camera in March of 2000.

Personally I think this little camera is more of a pain than it's worth, but as long as it's used as a webcam-type camera, and good prints aren't required, prowheel should get some use out of it.

Even the new $20 single-use (Ritz) Dakota is more feature rich and I think is up to 2 MegaPixels in it's latest form. But these require a driver hack, and modified Palm III USB cable to be able to use at home (again, not really worth the trouble but a fun project non-the-less). :rolleyes:

[Prowheel]

Dear George and David:

Thank you both very much for your help and insight into my dilemma. I had read that this camera was not the most advanced thing you could get--even my 2 teenage sons had refused to use it when they got them because they thought they were inferior to the one their father had (which probably has all the GOOD stuff--zoom, preview feature, high-resolution (1600x1200)--you get the drift.) I know NOTHING about this stuff-I'm just quoting my 19-year old son.
Anyway, he says we have the cable somewhere in the house, so all I have to do is find it and hook it up.

Thanks again for all your help.

Prowheel

[George Riehm]

Dear George and David:

Thank you both very much for your help and insight into my dilemma. I had read that this camera was not the most advanced thing you could get--even my 2 teenage sons had refused to use it when they got them because they thought they were inferior to the one their father had (which probably has all the GOOD stuff--zoom, preview feature, high-resolution (1600x1200)--you get the drift.) I know NOTHING about this stuff-I'm just quoting my 19-year old son.
Anyway, he says we have the cable somewhere in the house, so all I have to do is find it and hook it up.

Thanks again for all your help.

Prowheel

Yeah. Sorry to harsh your camera, but it was a $99 camera 5 years ago. Also Like I said any A-B USB cable will work. So if you have an extra USB printer cable, that would work.

Looking at the latest Geeks listing I see that even the $29 camera is 1.3MP so maybe your 19 year old son has a point. I see the Kodak 7330 is even down below $100 ($99). A nifty 3 MegaPixel point-n-shoot with 3X optical zoom.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CX7330-R&cat=CAM

You don't need an $800 dSLR to have fun. ;)

[Rhys]

Isn't it amazing how the price has plummeted?

I remember in 1998 that a VGA camera was the best available at the time. I saw one used by Major Maklakovs, the Pro-Rektor, when I was working at the military academy in Latvia. I subsequently saw one on sale in Britain some months later for just a hair under GBP 500. That GBP 500 was a bargain at the time. Now they almost fall out of cereal packets.

In 1990 the Nikon FM2 with a 50mm f1.8 lens was GBP 400. Now the Nikon FM3a is GBP 500 (approx) - body only.

Given that film cameras have stayed relatively stable in price if not actually declining in real terms, it would seem to me that at some point in the next couple of years there will be a price convergance with digital and film cameras costing approximately the same.

Ritz sell the Rebel XT with the kit lens for $1,000 approx.
Ritz sell the Canon K2 with a kit lens for $200. I believe they're pretty similar cameras.

I'd say that within 5 years we'll see both formats priced similarly.