Getting images out of a DCS 330?
July 19, 2005 3:27 PM   Subscribe

I have the opportunity to buy an older Kodak DCS digital SLR (a 330) but I'm concerned about getting images out of it.

It has a SCSI port but my G4 Mac doesn't have one, at least not without adding a PCI card. The storage medium in the camera itself is PCMCIA Type III which I don't have a slot for and for which I haven't seen any readers. Would I be better off passing this by and getting something a little more modern (and compatible)?
posted by tommasz to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: From a DCS 330 firmware readme: The camera accepts Type II or Type III ATA compatible storage cards, including CompactFlash cards using a Type II adapter, IBM MicroDrives using IBM Microdrive Adapter and Sony Memory Sticks using a Memory Stick Adapter.

Following this, combine a cheap PCMCIA to CompactFlash adapter and a CompactFlash card. Readers are practically ubiquitous (you may already have one) and cards will be cheap and easy to find (again, you may already have one).

The camera looks huge, doesn't have a large ISO range, and is only 3 megapixels. If you can get it for really cheap, it looks like it'd be fun to fool around with, and you could probably get nice pictures from it.
posted by zsazsa at 3:48 PM on July 19, 2005


Hm. Looking at my last link, and double-checking with the manual, it looks like the camera has a Firewire port (IEEE 1394). If you can find drivers that may be the cheapest option, but good luck with OS X.
posted by zsazsa at 3:53 PM on July 19, 2005


Skip it.
posted by Nelson at 4:08 PM on July 19, 2005


Response by poster: Wow, I was obviously confused about the interface. I would have sworn it was a SCSI. FireWire is definitely easier to deal with, assuming I can get it to work with OS X.
posted by tommasz at 4:15 PM on July 19, 2005


Nelson is right. You should probably skip it.

What price are you getting it for?
posted by bshort at 9:17 PM on July 19, 2005


Response by poster: The price is negotiable, and I've been using eBay as a reference. Is there someplace better to use? How much should I offer?

There's a number of those older Kodak cameras (one reason I got confused on the SCSI) but most of them are fairly expensive. I don't mind the tinkering that will go along with getting older equipment working. I was looking at Kodak's site and they seem to have software that will work with OS X so this may not be so much of an issue.

Now why do you and Nelson recommend skipping it?
posted by tommasz at 4:23 AM on July 20, 2005


Best answer: Old hardware like this can be an adventure, which can be a lot of fun, but can also be profoundly frustrating, especially when you just want to take a picture. I'd be worried about getting batteries for it and continuing software support.

Also, it looks like the memory cards it uses are PCMCIAs, which are rather large, often have very low capacity, and can be pretty expensive. The camera itself also looks ginormous.

If you're getting it for a very very low price, and you're ok with the challenges involved in getting it up and running, then go for it, otherwise you might just want to find a used D1 or a shiny new D70.
posted by bshort at 4:44 AM on July 20, 2005


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