Hi-
I have had experience with several cameras, all used to take pictures
directly to a Mac 5300 for use in Photoshop and other programs. We used
the Kodak digital camera, an analog video camera (mounted for use with or
without speacial adaptors for using with a microscope), and a BRILLIANT
camera called "Vizcam" by Canon. (No I dont; work for them!)
I agree that the quality and time involved with the Kodak camera was a
disappointment, especially the quality of the images. This is a serious
problem if you want to shoot any kind of close ups, or get any real detail.
The analog camera with video-out plugged directly into the AV jack of the
5300 worked very well. We used Apple Video Works (comes with system 7.5.?)
to save images and quicktime movies instantly.
The best of all was the Canon Vizcam, that is yes, $1000. Fabulous images,
great controls, incredibly easy to use, just plug it in and go! It even has
a microphone on it.
BUT: We did not need to take the camera on any field trips. We used them to
photograph our dissections, and then built web pages with them.
If you have an AV Mac, I would definitely recommend looking at this camera,
or the Flexcam, which is about 1/2 the price and boasts close up
capability, though I;'ve never used it).
If you want to see the pictures/movies we used for our dissection pages check :
http://bhs.berkeley.k12.ca.us/departments/science/anatomy/cat
Though the actual images are much better, these are gifs, so they lose a
bit, but still...
(I can't vouch for our server, it goes up, and it goes down. It's a summer
thing)
Jamie Marantz
jlm@sirius.com
Science Teacher & Technology Fiend
Berkeley High School