CompuServe Messages

Steve: Well, howdy! Welcome aboard! If you don't get satisfaction here, you might also try the Desktop Publishing Forum and the Multimedia Forum… >What do you suggest for photo equipment and software to get a guy's picture into a form that I can save it in an Access database? Will a common VCR camera do it? Do the little gold-ball-on-a-gooseneck cameras do any good? What do you recommend?< Couple ways you can do it–easiest is probably to get a digital camera (and of course I can't remember the names offhand, but I know both Kodak and Nikon make 'em) and "shoot" directly into your computer. If you'd rather not do that, you can always get a camcorder and capture a still frame (the "Snappy" that's being discussed earlier in this folder is a good choice for still frame capture, and at $199 it's cheap). Or you *could* always shoot the photo the old-fashioned way and scan it into the computer w/a flatbed scanner (there are good flatbeds available for around $500-$800 at stores like Staples or The Wiz)… Most of these option come bundled w/some sort of image manipulation software that can, most likely, convert the image into a format MS Access recognizes (BTW, what graphics formats *can* MS Access recognize? I don't know the software offhand). >I understand I can print a pretty good photo (wallet size for an id card) with just a 1200 dpi printer, right? Is that all I need on the output side? What do you recommend? What if we want color?< You *could* even get away w/a 600 or 800 dpi printer if you don't mind "newspaper photo" quality (like the HP 4 for around $1,500). 1,200 dpi printers are still pretty expensive, relatively speaking–I think the LaserMaster Unity 1,200 (one of the cheapest and best) is about $6,000 and has to be ordered direct from LaserMaster. As for color, the Fargo Primera w/photorealistic option (around $1,500) might be worth looking into… Hope this helps, Tim Liebe