Try the Casio QV-10 digital camera. It stores 96 images on its chip. It
has an extremely large viewfinder (about 1 1/2" square) through which you
first frame and take the picture and then, about 4 seconds later, view the
picture as taken. This feature, all by itself, makes the camera unique and
incredibly fun to use. Put this thing into the hands of one of your
students, then try to take it back: no way. This instant-viewing feature is
more than a gimmick, though: you can also (with a press of a button) view
your last (or any) 4 pictures taken in this viewfinder, or nine, if you
choose, or you can replay any or all pictures in memory (up to 96, as I
said) in a "slide slow" at intervals which you can set, from about 1 per
second to 10 seconds per "slide." Therefore, if you don't like a picture,
simply press a button to delete it; this saves lots of disk space, so the
96-picture capacity is, practically, much greater, because you're deleting
images as you go. All other digital cameras, I think, require you to view
your images on-screen (computer or TV) efore you can start deleting, saving,
bunching into albums, etc.
Be advised that none of the digital cameras (the affordable ones, that is,
under thousands of dollars) will give you the optical clarity of a decent
SLR. This is true of the Casio, of course. It is much more a computer than
a camera. Nor does it have a flash, but I have found that the lens is
sufficiently light-sensitive so that it will record images in very low
light. This is mainly a point-and-shoot, portrait-type, camera. The lens
does swivel around 180 degrees so that a student can take a self-portait,
for instance, and there are a couple of other nice features.
Arnold Pulda
drgus49@cris.com