At 07:00 PM 12/20/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Please forgive me if this is a question that has been asked before....
>
>I recently heard about a type of camera that can be hooked up directly to a
>computer and used to shoot images of collection items and load them directly
>into a database - without the annoying process of scanning and downloading.
> Does anyone have any information on these, or know where I can find out
>more?
>
>There are quite a variety of these available now, the most common (and
about the cheapest) being a Casio QV-10. Which sels here for around 499GBP.
I use one at the science centre and it is very useful indeed, although the
picture quality is not that good, but there are ones at up to four times the
price which achieve considerably better quality. The Casio is the size of an
Olympus MJU or thereabouts and has a big colour LCD screen on the back which
shows the lens image, it is point and shoot and holds up to 96 images at a
time in a 2mb memory. It has a fixed focus and does not need flash. You can
review images immediately after shooting and delete unsatisfactory ones on
the spot. It comes equipped with cables and software so you can download to
a PC or a Mac and even, apparently, a TV or VCR, although I haven't tried this.

        I've used it as a quick way of getting pics for press releases,
touring exhibition brochures and other purposes, and it has proved a
terribly easy way of sending people pics of things, I have been known to
email them as attachments straight from a camera download. This model is not
up to high-grade photographic work, but for simple "note taking" photography
it's great.
>
>
IAN SIMMONS

- A mind stretched by new ideas never returns to the same shape

                                        - RALPH WALDO EMERSON