Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dutchman]

Hi all,
I'm planning to buy a digital camera soon. Any advice? Are you happy with yours? How much did you pay?

[Dan]

cameras cost almost the same over here as in the US. which makes them infinitely more expensive considering here when you consider your salary

[Derrek]

Dan, you are incorrect.

Digital cameras and cameras in general are much more expensive here. About 1/4 or 1/3 more on average in most stores. You will pay more unless you go to a certain shop or two in Nandaemun that sell illegally (bypassing import fees). A guy I know paid 430,000 for a camera that costs 530,000 everywhere else -- that's a lot of savings.

Buy a Canon digital camera. Nothing else even comes close.

If you plan on printing your photos, buy a 2 or 3 megapixel. If you are just e-mailing, then save yourself some money and buy a 1.3 megapixel or 2. Unless you plan to print 11x17 or Poster-sized photos, there is absolutely NO reason for anything above a 3 megapixel.

Trust me... I've owned five digital cameras by Sony, Ricoh, Canon, Kodak, and Nikon. And I've shot photos with other brands.

If you want a good entry-level camera for nice snapshots and great indoor photos too (many digitals can't get the indoor lighting right), go with the new Canon A100 or the 2 megapixel A200. They have fixed-focus lenses, but there's something to be said about not having to fumble with a zoom and sometimes unreliable autofocus zoom lenses. The fixed-focus lenses are cheaper, and you can fire off a shot right away without having to wait for the camera to focus. The fixed-focus ones also do better in low-light and don't have the "barrel distortion" around the edges caused by the zoom lense (a kind of partial fish-eye effect). I think you can pick up an A200 for somewhere around 250,000 won. Maybe less. Back in the USA, they are like $179.

Another great camera for the money (with a zoom) is the Canon A10 or the A40. They are a bit bigger, and not really "pocket-sized", but you can buy lense attachments for them and have more fun that way.

You might see a lot of Koreans around taking photos with the VERY popular Canon IXUS cameras. The current model is the IXUS v3. They are really compact, made of metal on the outside, and take fabulous photos. You can really feel the quality. Expect to pay around 400,000 or so for one of them.

I don't work for Canon, or have any allegiance to them other than to say they make incredible cameras. Although not a flashy name, I like the Kodak cameras for cheap, easy-to-use models. But Canon image quality is more superior, and since Canon came out with the A100 and A200, there's no reason to buy Kodak or anything else. Get the A200, in my opinion -- for the money you may as well go for a 2 megapixel. If you decide to print 4x6 or 5x7 photos one day, you'll be glad you did. 8x10s are doable with a 2 megapixel, although I personally like having at least a 3 megapixel for those. Most wouldn't notice or care.

If you want to see sample photos from many cameras, see the site www.steves-digicams.com.

Good luck. I love my digital...a Canon S30. Wow! I've had it 2 weeks and have taken nearly 400 pics with it already. By the way, if you want a photo printer, go for HP. I had a Canon printer and took it back after one day. HP quality was better, although their ink is overpriced. People like Epson for photos too, but I HATE the text quality of Epson printers. Just awful, with little dirty black specks all over around the letters. I own an HP 3820, which I got for 115,000 won at Techno-Mart. There is an entry-level HP 3420 model that's small, cute, and works well, and sells for around 90,000 but DON'T buy that. The ink cartridges are tiny and are used up very fast. It's not a printer -- it's an ink dispenser created to sell expensive ink! If you need a basic printer that does well on plain paper and is great just for regular prints, website in b/w or color, etc., go for the cheaper Canon models. Their ink is much less to refill or buy replacements for. Their photo output isn't so great though.

I am using snapfish.com to upload photos, have them printed, and mailed back home to family in the USA from within the USA.

[Play_Doh]

I would recommend FIJIFILM FINEPIX 40i (look on there web site)
They are very small and have video and MP3 functions. They use SMART CARDS which can hold 128, which is 2 hrs of music plus hundreds of photos.(Dont think these are some gimic, infact a very solid performer).
Mine is actually from Japan but you can get them here for around 800?
These were not available in North America when I was last there.

[Hotuk]

I like Derrek's very thorough response, but have a couple points to add:

1. If you look around in Yongsan and bargain like a banshee you can get a camera for within 10 percent of the price you'd pay at Best Buy in the US. Go armed with price quotes from Korean on-line shopping sites. If your Korean is good, use pricequiz.com, a domestic shopping search engine.

2. 300,000 can get you a very good 2.2+ megapixel camera with a decent zoom. They're coming down in price all the time. If you're not making gigantic wall-sized blow-ups, don't bother with anything above the 2-3mpxl range.

3. I own two Epson printers - the bottom level ones - and love them. They gulp down ink, but I don't experience any of the text-spray problems Derrek is speaking of, and I'm picky about that kind of thing. I paid 50,000w for my 2nd one (a C41UX) at E-mart last month. And the photos it prints on good Konica photo paper are spectacular.

just my little bit...
H.

[Captain Obvious 2.0]

[Derrek]

If you buy online, you don't pay sales tax.

Personally, I'm the guy who store owners love to hate. Unless I feel some interal allegiance to them, or worry about service, I will shop around at small stores, Best Buys -- wherever -- and buy the lowest-priced online from a reputable online store.

No tax.

An interesting note about newer Epson printers.... they're implainting their cartridges with a special microchip so that you can't buy/use 3rd party cartridges or refills. If you refill the cartridge yourself, the chip doesn't reset and tell the computer that you have put more ink in it.

I hear that the printer still won't work, because it thinks the cartridge is empty.

Sounds very similar to the lawsuit that took place in the USA against printer companies who said they'd void your warranty if you used ink from anyone but them. The courts ruled they can't do that. This sounds like exploiting a loophole.

[Hotuk]

[Derrek]

The Finepix 3800 is great if you take lots of outdoor pics. You can add some fun lenses too -- something my Canon S30 can't do (am scared how much money I'd spend if I could add lenses!). The Canon A40 can attach lenses -- but like the Finepix 3800, it's made of plastic and is larger. I was going for a pocket-sized model I could take with me, and I like the metal finish on the Canon S-30.

The Finepix 3800 doesn't do well indoors in rooms without a ton of light though. Unless there's a fair amount of light in the room already, it doesn't get enough light to focus properly -- that's a very normal problem with most digitals, and another good reason to stick with a simple "point and shoot" fixed-focus lens like the Canon A200 (if you plan to just take lots of nice, simple, high-quality shots). The Canons with zoom have a low-light focus-assist feature that I really love.

With that said, most people like the Finepix 3800.

It all depends on what kind of pics you plan to take. I would have bought a Canon IXUS v3 because it's so small and does so well, but I wanted some more artsy features. There's a lot to be said about being able to carry a digital with you wherever you go, and not even realize you're carrying it.

And yes, if I can find a local guy with a price that's close, I'll defiantely buy local first.

[Hyalucent]

Derrek, you mentioned the S-30 as being your camera but is that what you used for the videos on your website? Could you fill me in on how long the battery/recording lasts? I assume that most of the shots were taken in a single day without recharging or being close to home to upload and go back for more-- but you really managed to capture a lot in each video.

What software did you use to put it all together with background music/voice?

Fantastic work BTW. I was looking for a chance to ask you about this for some time.

[Anda]

I've been playing around with memory cards of recent, mainly Sony. Sony is about to or has just released new memory cards that store a huge ammount of stuff. These new cards won't fit the current digital cameras. So if you want to take heaps of photos then check out what Sony is about to release.

[Derrek]

First off, in my former life, I was a TV Writer/Producer/Editor for 9 years. Now I'm a teacher, and I finally feel like I'm doing something worthwhile (even on the days when it's more like babysitting).

On my website, I use a Panasonic Mini-DV video camera model PVDV-51D. There are several models almost exactly like it, but with different model numbers. Panasonic really confuses people this way, because they sell thru big chains like Wal-Mart and Sam's Club and Best Buy -- they do a number change so that they can claim the model for sale at the competitor is "different", therefore they won't have to honor their price-matching policy. Lots of electronics are like this. I paid about $650 US a year ago. Mine is the one without the night vision, but it does have EIS (a kind of image stabilizer) which I consider essential in a palmcorder.

I input the video directly via Firewire (I think I bought the Pyro-DVD card). The video was edited with Adobe Premiere LE, which was packaged with my Pyro card (that's why I spent a little more for the Pyro card -- came with the $100 LE (light) version of Premiere. The Pyro card and software was only about $80 US.

I have actually made 3 or 4 BETTER videos that are compressed and saved onto an interactive mini CD-R. Now THAT is cool. Can't decompress them and recompress them into the format I need for the site though (ARGH!!!!). The raw video was shot on several different occasions. The winter footage is from my trip here exactly 1 year ago (when I got my job). I then returned home to the USA, and came back to Korea to start work in late May of last year. I shot a lot last summer too. No, it wasn't all shot on the same day... it was hours of work -- literally. But I love doing it from time to time. Helps me keep up to snuff with the basics of my old job. As for the battery, I think it lasts a good hours worth of solid recording if I don't allow myself to open the side color viewscreen and burn up the battery faster.

After I produce the videos with Premiere, I export them as AVI's (can't remember which AVI off hand -- maybe the DV AVI setting). Then I use Microsofts free Windows Media Encoder, which saves them into a .wma (I think) file. I then save that file on my website with a link. When you click on the link, the .wma file automatically launches your Interner Explorer.

If you go to my web page below and see my videos, be sure to scroll down and click to see Jiyan's site..... he's a former teacher here who helped me learn to get this stuff on the web. He's got some really artsy and awesome videos from Korea.

Anda mentioned that Sony has a new picture card coming out. You might have heard that Olympus and Fuji went together to make the XD Picture card. This tiny dime-sized card will be made available to hold as much as 3 Gig or more. Wow.... but my 128 meg card holds well over 40 RAW uncompressed .bmp 3 megapixel photos if I want it to. Add a little compression, and I'm able to get well over a hundred photos on that card --- several hundred if I bump the megapixels down. I think they are making these new high-capacity cards for future mini-cameras, and more video clip capability.

[Seoul Newfie]

What I would be worried about it how you plan on getting it here if you did buy it from home.

Most places will not ship to international destinations, which mean you will have to have it shipped to your home address (costing you money). Then you have to have it shipped to Korea (costing you more money).

After all that, you have to worry about the tax you have to pay on it through customs. A co-worker of mine had to pay 25% of the camera's value before they would let him get it.

Something to consider before you make you decision.

Good Luck!

[Derrek]

I learned that lesson once a few years back when I bought some speakers off of Ebay. A guy was selling "used" Paradigm speakers, which sell for a much lower price in Canada than they do in the USA. I paid an import fee on them, and was not happy.

The way to bypass it is to have your parents or a friend repackage it with some personal items -- making it look like a used thing, and send it via US Mail if you are from America (UPS is more strict about checking for import fees). I still don't think it's a good idea, though. Best to buy here if you can.

[Seoul Newfie]

Good point Derrek.

But the co-worker I spoke of went that route. And Korean customs and immigration (being the wonderful people they are) still decided to rip it open and charge him anyway.