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If you can get a camera in the $150.00 range that has a wide angle lens 24-28 this what you need on interior photos to give a good overall view. Seems like Sams had one like this. I have switched to disposal rather than rechargable. The cameras need very hot voltage and the recharge don,t fit the bill for me.

We use a Canon Power Shot SD870 IS. It takes great pics at 640x480. It also has a wrist strap so you won't drop the camera. Battery life if unbelievable. Well  worth the money. It uses an SD card for pics and is easily downloaded into any estimating program.

I use the Fuji FinePix E510 or E500, which I learned about on this forum. 

It has the all-important wide angle lens for interior shots.  Very few compact cameras have that.  It uses any AA battery, but I use lithium disposables which last a week or better on a storm.  I don't like messing with rechargeables.  And it shoots at 640x480 up to 5mp (E510) or 4mp (E500).  I buy them used or refurb'd on Ebay for $40 to $50.  They're not sold new anymore.  It's a great adjusting camera.

Also, all of these small cameras have an anemic flash, so last year I started carrying a small auxiliary flash on an optical trigger for large room shots.  When the camera flash goes off - the optical trigger fires the aux flash.

Posted By Goldust on 11 Aug 2009 12:30 PM

I am looking to buy a dependable camera that will take good hail photos as well as inside interior photos.Must of course be able to download to xactimate. Must also have good battery life. I don't want a $400 camera to drop off the roof when a $150 one will work.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS?

 

The answer to your question may be found in this thread.  Pay particular attention to BobH's posts.  He put a significant time and effort into stating why certain cameras are perfect for what you are looking for.  I would hate to see his efforts go to waste.

I now use his recommended Canon Elph and it's been perfect.  Plenty of battery life, wide angle, and a decent macro feature.  Photo size has been adjusted so my photos can upload plenty quickly and with sufficient quality into Xm8.

Yep its the Canon elph. I do not use it YET, but a camera that will give you a wide angle interior shots will get you more work than the adjusters who do not use wide angle. This is the area all adjusters can impove the reports by about 300%..... the photo quality and the label descriptions. Do not be lazy on photo,s and caption reports this is were you sell YOURSELF.

You can prove it to your self on the next open file review when the carriers supervision make a remark like this. Oh Ray, so nice to meet you in person. I just love your photos and reports.... It can not get any better then this compliment.

Weak  adjusters survive by good photos and reports. Good adjusters rise to the top by good photos and reports.

I think Chuck is talking about a smaller memory card than the one that fits in the Canon Elph.
The ones that hold 4 gigs and are smaller than your fingernail, and go in cell phones.  I have not personally seen a full-size camera that uses the Micro cards.

It's Dick Tracy time folks. Amaziing how much data & photos will fit on those tiny memory devices. I would have to tie something to it so it didn't get lost when outside of the camera or cell phone

Thanks for all your input. Hopefully some co. calls me soon to do one of these hail storms that seem so prevalent all around us.

With 10 years experience you would think I would get a call soon.

Most microSD cards come with an adapter that lets them be read in a regular SD slot.  Do these adapters not work in a camera? 

A few of these adapters and it seems it should be transparent to the devices, whether camera or computer.

Just an idea.

Jeff

Posted By dholman on 18 Aug 2009 11:13 PM
Any thoughts on the basic $79 Kodak Easyshare C813 or C913. This is the camera St. Farm issues to the IAs. It is supposed to be very easy to use but was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of wide angle capabilities or battery life

I am using the C813 daily working with SF as an IA.  I use it because I have to - it is NOT wide angle (you can look the specs up yourself, but I can tell you it won't go to like 28mm equiv).  You feel like you have to step back through the wall to get a wide view of the whole room, or step onto the neighbor's roof to get a truly wide view of the roof you are on.  State Farm will not let you use your own camera or connect your camera to their computer.

Chuck I did a little search and per another forum people recommend using an adaptor:

MicroSD and MiniSD cards are compatible with standard SD card slots with an adaptor that is usually included with them. They are just smaller versions of standard SD cards. The main advantage to getting a mini or micro would be if you had a device like a cell phone that would use them. Their disadvantage would be that they aren't available in capacities as large as standard SD cards.

At a casual glance, there is a new Olympus that will use the Micro SD http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spe...gh6010.asp

actually it says in the fine print:

microSD compatibility
A special attachment comes bundled with this camera which provides for microSD card compatibility in addition to being able to use xD-Picture Cards.

and it has a 28mm wide angle to 102mm (short telephoto) which is about what most of us like.  That's what my Canon Elph 870 does, and I like it.

I have sent back some cameras that "do it all" but don't do any of it well.  When you have a camera that claims to be 12x and zoom in on a gnat's tail, it will not let enough light into the camera to get good exposures, you get camera shake because the lens isn't "fast" enough to open up to a wide aperture when needed.  The short zooms like 28-105 are ideal.

This is a paocket camcorder.  Kodak Zx1 Pocket Video Camera $124.23. 

  It appears that you can take video w/voice then in the video mode select frames for printing phots.  Has anyone seen or used this type of camera?