New A620 and questions!!

[acj]

I cant tell you how much this forum has helped me with my choice for an UW camera. I just got my A620 and DC90 so I am just getting into discovering everything it does.

I have a couple of question:

1-What is the best resolution and compression for taking UW pics? There are a lot of choices on this camera!

2-With question 1 in mind, how many pics can you get on a 1G and 2G card with that resolution/compression? I am trying to decide which size memory card to get. I know that it is best to buy a large enough card to take a days worth of pictures - I like to do liveaboards so I am doing as many as 5 dives/day.

3-For this setup, what are the best dessicant packs to get, that fit this housing?

That's all the questions for now, but I am sure the more I explore this camera I will have many more.

Thanks!!
Lisa

 

[Jamdiver]

1 - Take pics in the highest quality mode possible ie., at the greatest resolution possible for your camera and in 'superfine' mode.

2 - With an A620 and doing that many dives a day and especially a liveaboard situation i'd go with the larger card (2 GB)..

There's a table in the owner's manual (the advanced one) that lists how many pics you can take in varying compression modes with different sized cards.
I'd venture a guess and say that with 2GB the A620 could take maybe 600-700?
When you insert a memory card into the camera it will indicate how many images can be stored on the camera.

About the dessicant packs, don't really know, but 2 dessicants packs sounds like a good number..

 

[String]

Id go for a 1gb card or 2 x 1gb. Im not a fan of having all your eggs in one basket. A lost or damaged card can lose ALL your photos if you keep them all on one.

ID echo the above - highest resolution possible. Allows more room for cropping and so on.

I get roughly 330 max res photos on my 1gb card. Or about 9 mins of video.

 

[acj]

The user guide only lists up to a 512M card. I would like to know exactly how many pictures I will get on a 1g and 2g card. I will be purchasing several, but I want to make sure I get the right amount of memory for my diving needs.

Thanks for all the info!!

 

[ArcticDiver]

I'm a newby with the A620 also, had mine for a couple months and haven't had it underwater yet, but already have determined a couple things.
-No reason to own other than 1GB cards for still shots. They are about $10 more expensive than 512MB cards at Sam's. They are cheap enough a person can own several.
-Several cards help spread the loss risk. Or, you can download to a storage device.
-The screen display is pretty accurate on numbers of images at various settings that will fit on a card.
-This thing Eats Batteries!. I'm only getting a couple hundred images per set(4) of AA batteries. The manual says it should get more. But that isn't my experience.

Havn't found anyone yet who actually has an underwater case in stock. Lots of ads. But when I email or call they want to take my order and let me know when the case comes in. i.e.: The ad is a bait and they'll order it when they get a customer.

 

[Jamdiver]

ArticDiver thought you would have known this already.
But disposable alkaline batteries a la Duracell are a joke.

Spend about $20 on a set of Energizer 2500Nimh rechargeable batteries and a charger, I get about 500 shots out of each charge.
They'll pay for themselves in no time.

And all digital cameras will chew through disposable batteries...
Artic, why not order through Amazon and forget about local retailers??

 

[Enigmatic]

I also have an A620 with WP-DC90 housing. With a blank, formatted 512MB card, the camera will tell you it'll hold 160 images in the full-rez "superfine" quality mode. I've found this to be quite conservative as I've always gotten more than 160-- usually between 170-180. It all depends on the complexity of the image captured since that will govern how much the image is able to be compressed to JPG and retain the detail quality. I've seen the JPG file size in this mode vary between 2.5MB and 5.5MB per picture depending on the image complexity, so your results will vary from set to set.

Having said that, the camera will also register a 640 image capacity when a 2GB card is inserted, with the same res/quality mode. I've yet to fill up the 2GB card in a photo session, but I'm sure it'll hold probably close to 700 images "real-world".

As for batteries, I've never run them out in the A620. I use the Energizer 2500mAh NiMH batteries (get 'em at Wal-Mart, Target, etc) and have gotten more than 450 shots. When taking that many, I'll typically switch out the batteries when I offload the photos. With the 2GB card and 2500mAh batteries, I've always run out of things to shoot before they run out.

 

[acj]

Arctic diver - try http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=313977 they have the housing in stock, I ordered mine from there last week and got it on Tuesday.

I also have the Energizer 2500mAh rechargeable batteries, have not had the camera long enough yet to see how many pics I get on it, but sounds like these are good batteries!

 

[midwestdvr]

The user guide only lists up to a 512M card. I would like to know exactly how many pictures I will get on a 1g and 2g card. I will be purchasing several, but I want to make sure I get the right amount of memory for my diving needs.

Thanks for all the info!!

I have a 1 gig card on my a620. With it empty, the camera indicates 325 shots can be taken. On average (without movie clips) anywhere from 290 to 325 on a 1 gig card.

 

[Easy Rider]

ArcticDiver: You might want to check with HelixCamera on E-bay. I ordered the housing Monday morning and got it a couple hours ago (about 3 pm Thursday). It was about $195 shipped.

Tom