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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

2002 Cheapskate's Guide addendum, more or less


Dec. 15, 2002


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, The Post-Standard

   The publication of my annual Cheapskate's Buying Guide last week unloosed a flood of e-mailed questions about the items Santa and I covered in the guide. (You can read here: http://technofileonline/texts/tec120802.html.) Here are some of the questions, with brief answers:
   
   CAMERAS
   
   Q: Does it matter how many megapixels a camera has?
   A: If the camera has at least 2 megapixels, it's got enough for most families who want to take pictures they can send to grandma by e-mail and good enough to make 4X6 or 5X7 prints.
   
   Q: Why do you keep writing about image software? You get picture software free these days with a camera or scanner.
   A: You get what you pay for. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (for Windows and Macintosh) can make lousy pictures fair, fair pictures good and good pictures exceptional. Not bad for a one-time cost of $50 to $80, depending on discounts.
   
   Q: Is digital zoom a good thing? Is it better or worse than optical zoom?
   A: It's a bad thing. It enlarges the image after the camera has captured it, so all the pixels are blown up. This is bad for family harmony, because Uncle Bill will looks like the Ugly American when you use a digital zoom. Optical zoom enlarges the image in the old fashioned way, by magnifying it in the lens. Ignore the ratings for the digital zoom and look for a camera with an optical zoom rating of 3 or more.
   
   Q: My brother-in-law says my computer is too old for the digital camera I want to get. This sounds like nonsense to me. Why would he say that?
   A: He's both right and wrong. Computers that cannot support USB can't handle direct connections to today's digital cameras via a USB cable. But you should be able to buy a floppy-disk memory-card adaptor that gets around the problem. Ask at a good computer or camera store, or search the Web for "floppy disk memory card adaptor" without quotes.
   
   SCANNERS
   
   Q: Santa might be bringing me an all-in-one printer, scanner and fax. Is the scanner in this kind of unit as good as a separate scanner?
   A: Sometimes. But these devices are seldom good buys. Most people don't need a fax machine at home, so they're paying for a fax for no reason in most cases. The printer might be fine, and the scanner might be OK. But choose the printer on the basis of how well it does, and get a scanner separately.
   
   Q: I have a lot of 35mm slides I want to scan. Scanners that can also handle slides seem like a good buy. Do you have a favorite?
   A: They're a terrible buy. Consumer-priced flatbed scanners are not good at scanning slides and negatives. Even a truly cheap slide scanner does a better job. My choice: The PrimeFilm 1800 slide and negative scanner, which discounts for $160 or so. Use "PrimeFilm" (without quotes) as the search term on my site for more information.
   
   PRINTERS
   
   Q: Ink costs so much money! How can you recommend a Lexmark printer when Lexmark ink cartridges cost so much more than Epson cartridges?
   A: Lexmark puts the print heads in the ink cartridge. You get fresh print heads and a guarantee of good print quality every time you put a new ink cartridge into a Lexmark printer. Epson makes you reuse the print heads. You save money with the Epson and get declining quality. You choose.
   
   Q: You're a Macintosh OS X user. I'm getting a new iMac. Do you have a recommendation of a printer that works with the iMac?
   A: My Lexmark Z52 and Z53 printers work fine with Macs running OS X. The newest Lexmarks such as the Z55 work well also. Go to the printer manufacturer's Web site and look for drivers (sometimes under "Support" or "Downloads") for the model you're interested in.
   
   COMPUTERS
   
   Q: You failed to mention that support costs are just as important as the purchase price.
   A: Correct. It's vital to choose a computer that has good support. I didn't mention the support costs for my top choice, an Apple iMac, because Apple ranks at or near the top in customer support and reliability.
   Many Windows brands have such poor support that you would be wise to stay away from them no matter how low the purchase price is. A telltale sign: The average customer support person at major PC manufacturers has been on the job only two months. That's the longevity figure supplied by the tech-support industry. And in many cases the person you talk to won't even be located in the United States and won't have a clue about typical American life.
   Most of you know much more than the hapless soul who's paid to help you, and all of you know more about the way Americans live, work and play than all the offshore tech workers (typically, in Bangalore, India) who are paid as little as possible so that the PC industry can make more money.
   
   OPERATING SYSTEMS
   
   Q: Without Microsoft, you'd be out of a job. Get with it. Windows is on 94 percent of all computers because it's good, not just because it's from a company that knows how to compete. Nobody wants that wimp OS from Apple anyway.
   A: Casual readers may not realize that I get letters like this regularly.
   My employer is not Microsoft. Microsoft was found guilty of a criminal monopoly. Whether that means it knows how to compete or not is better left to the courts. Apple's "wimp OS" is a version of Unix and needs no defense.