DACS General Meeting
November 2010
Meeting Review:
Digital Cameras and Photo Gifts

By Andrew Woodruff

Gary Spring of Ritz Camera returned to give his third annual presentation about photography and current cameras. Gary has worked in this industry for 30 years, and his store has been in its present Plumtrees Plaza location in Danbury for 11 years.

We conducted this general meeting at the Danbury Music Centre, due to a room conflict at our usual Danbury Hospital location. We appreciated this nonprofit organization’s thoughtfulness in loaning us their space for the evening.

Gary demonstrated several cameras that were priced in the range $200-700. His least expensive camera was an Olympus Stylus Tough 3000, designed for underwater enthusiasts. Hence it can, of course, be immersed in fresh or ocean water. Beyond that, this model included an alternate method of underwater operation via taps on certain buttons, avoiding the difficulty of underwater adjustment of small rotary controls on typical cameras. And Olympus says they tested the toughness of this camera by letting some preschoolers play with them … and none of them broke.

He demonstrated a Nikon Coolpix S1000pj that can project directly onto a projection screen, a Fuji F-300exr that can stitch together multiple images to create a 360-degree panorama, and a Sony A33 that can shoot 3D images and features a transparent mirror.

Gary explained the new “mini four thirds” digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera, a new standard for small digital cameras with interchangeable lenses. This type of camera is shorter and smaller in diameter than those typically used in the DSLR cameras. The camera is smaller than a conventional DSLR because it has no mirror assembly. He showed one example of this camera, a Sony NEX3. One can outfit this camera with a zoom lens or a single focal length “pancake lens” that is just 16 mm thick. The complete camera with this lens is barely bigger than a pocket camera, but it produces much better photos.

Gary pointed us toward his company’s www.RitzPix.com website, where one can order many gifts with personalized photos embedded in them. These include notepads, refrigerator magnet items, greeting cards, luggage tags, cups and beer steins, wrapping paper, bathroom ceramic tiles, pet dishes, and placemats.

Gary distributed coupons to DACS members who attended this meeting. These coupons provide a free 5x7 print and a free 8x10 print, and they are valid until December 1. Members who attended this meeting but who neglected to pick up coupons may visit his Ritz Camera store (at Plumtrees Plaza on Newtown Road), ask for Gary, and mention “DACS Presentation”.

Reviews of Gary’s previous DACS presentations are archived here and here.