DO I need a digital camera?

[Tong Zhao]

I have a Canon XL1s. I need to take some pictures. I would like to get advice on whether I need to buy a digital camera taking good pictures or the pictures taken by XL1s are as good as a decent digital camera already. If not, which digital camera do you recommend? Thanks.

[Dylan Couper]

If you just want small pics to use on your website, the XL1 is fine.
If you want larger photos to print out for publicity shots, or posters or whatever, yes, get a seperate camera.

[Rob Wilson]

Generally, video cameras, although capable of taking stills (and you can capture frames for stills) don't come near the resolution of digital still cameras. And the same holds true going the other way, some digital still cameras can capture "video" but not of a quality that you would want to use for much. I use a Canon G2 and get great results plus I really appreciate the level of manual control offered. Since the G3 is out, good deals are out there on the G2.

[Tong Zhao]

Thank you both. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Aside from resolution issues, consider size. You can get 3 megapixel digital cameras that fit in your pocket for well under $500 these days. Do you really want to lug around an XL-1s?...

[Christopher Hughes]

I have a Fuji F602s a great camera 3 Megapixel (6MP interpolated) that is great camera and flexible. Has all the auto modes AND manual modes you can want. It has 6x optical zoom and so is a great little camera. The next step up would be a pro model which use 35mm lenses. But I love the camera, not as compact as other smaller models, but has more features and controls very easy to use, similiar to my Pro 35mm cameras. I have seen a Digital back for a Hassleblad camera...mmmm great!! but costs about the same as all our XL1s and kits from all of us posted here to buy it!!!

[Tong Zhao]

Great advice! Thank you all. It seems I should get a separate camera.

I already took some pictures with XL1s. How can I get the pictures? I am using premiere for video editing. Do I need another software?

Thanks.

[Keith Loh]

You can export a frame in Premiere. Go to your file menu and look for export.

[Rob Lohman]

I bought a very small Canon digital camera because lugging around
the XL1s to every place (location scouting etc.) is just not feasible
everytime. I drive around the country a lot and I can have this
small camera with me all the time. I put 128 MB compact flash
in it and can store around 110-130 photo's on it at 1600x1200.
It is a 2 MP camera but the current version out it is 3.2.

[Rik Sanchez]

Tong,
here is a great website that has reviews for lots of digital cameras:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html\

I've been borrowing my friend's Olympus E-10 for stills, it's a very nice camera, I'm saving up to get the E-20. I also wish I could get better quality stills from my XL-1.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

The Canon Digital Elph series get my vote for ultra-portable, full-featured point-and-shoots. They take great pictures in daylight and a mighty powerful flash for dark environments--one that recharges surprisingly quickly for the camera's size, I might add.

My PowerShot S110 has been a workhorse since I bought it June 2001. It has paid for itself hundreds of times over in film and processing costs. The newer models have even more features and higher resolution. Probably the coolest feature my camera doesn't have is a camera orientation detection that automatically rotates your portrait-oriented pictures so that they face up (rather than appearing sideways).

The only thing I'm noticing now that I'm starting to put a lot of my pictures on the web is that all the photos taken with the S110 have very similar tonal quality. It's nice to have a film camera around for variety.

Anyway you won't be disappointed if you buy one of these cameras.

[Dylan Couper]

I'm with Robert.
The Powershot S100 digital Elph camera may be the single best toy (err.. tool) I have purchased in my entire life ever.

[Rob Lohman]

I think the Elph is called Ixus here in Europe. I've got the Digital
Ixus v2 from Canon. Small and hard casing. Very interesting cam!

[Dan Holly]

I have a digital camera in my pocket at all times on shoots "just in case". And I get some good pic's quite often.

But, I like to have more of a selection......

Meaning, with DV footage there are a kazillion(don't hold me to the numbers here) frames to choose from on a DV tape, where your digital camera is limited to your memory size per sey.

When it comes to story telling, I have found a lot more choices on my DV tape versus my memory card. Sometimes story telling takes over the shot, and you overlook the imperfections of the mega pixel race.

One could say this was due to my shooting style, but I wanted to throw it out there as an option.