Cameras are Volatile

[Gusman1188]

Watch out, the cameras that FIRST gives teams to take pictures have volatile memory. Make sure you have fresh batteries and don't take them out before uploading the pictures or better yet just use an SD card. Our Lego competition pictures randomly disappeared.

[MattK]

dont those cameras kinda stink anyways

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by MattK

dont those cameras kinda stink anyways

No, they don't. Those cameras are the very best kind: free.

I would like to politely and respectfully suggest that if you don't like them you should keep it to yourself. Insulting sponsors and their donations is a Bad Thing. Didn't your mother teach you to always say, "thank you" for a gift?

[MattK]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

No, they don't. Those cameras are the very best kind: free.

I would like to politely and respectfully suggest that if you don't like them you should keep it to yourself. Insulting sponsors and their donations is a Bad Thing. Didn't your mother teach you to always say, "thank you" for a gift?

All I am going to say is dont put all your eggs in 1 basket, it does not help anyone if the camera looses its memory when someone is depending on it. I am not insulting a sponsor- I LOVE google (I have google desktop and google talk running right now) and I LOVE the software that comes bundled with the camera (picasa)

[Greg Marra]

If you use an SD memory card, the pictures will be saved even if the batteries die.

[Zyik]

Keep in mind if you hit the slip that holds down the batterys then your pictures are erased as well. This happened to my team, 973, however now that we know we don't really on it as much and take only small amounts of pictures before uploading them. Another thing to watch out for with them: the small bits of plastic holding the cover down break easily. However, tape should hold it down enough to work.

[Rohan_DHS]

yea I lost a bunch of pics too...i was wondering what happened to them :| now i know...thanks for the info

[Nuttyman54]

keep in mind these cameras are meant to make sure that ALL teams have something to document their building with. They aren't high-quality cameras. If you have your own digital camera, I'd suggest using that one. But for those teams who do not have access to nicer ones, these will suffice.

[Rohan_DHS]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

keep in mind these cameras are meant to make sure that ALL teams have something to document their building with. They aren't high-quality cameras. If you have your own digital camera, I'd suggest using that one. But for those teams who do not have access to nicer ones, these will suffice.

In my opinion, Evan's right. They gave us something so that we have at least something to use. If you want to use something else, go right ahead.

Also folks, it has been said time and time again please don't come on here and start complaining about how something isn't good enough. Please show some respect towards our sponsors.

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

Might I suggest something?

Don't say something in the Chief Delphi Forum that you won't say to the person in real life.

Are you willing to come to one of the west coast regionals, sponsored and supported by Google, walk up to their CEO or any of the Google Engineers who are helping with FIRST teams, look them in the face, and say "This is really crappy, give me something better".

Are you willing to gamble the reputation of yourself and your team because of something you should've think twice about before saying? Think about what you are saying here. Google has no reason to give anymore than what they already gave, and every reason to except our deepest thanks for the things they already gave. They didn't owe us anything when they decided to support FIRST, they did it because they feel it will provide a worthwhile, meaningful experience for you.

Tell them you don't want it, because they will gladly give it to someone else who might actaully benefit from it.

Think about that for a minute. And I expect you to do the right thing as soon as you thought about it.

Think of it this way, if I were to offer you $10 000, would you reject it saying that it wasn't enough.

I don't know why, but this issue keeps popping up in various threads on CD.

PLEASE folks, think before you post.

Thanks

[Daniel Morse]

My team had somebody donate a camera of slightly higher quality than the one given to us. I think the camera donation was a good thing, and I was glad that Google gave them to FIRST; however, they are difficult to use in the sense that if you do not know about how it operates (i.e. you take out the batteries and lose the pictures) you can lose a lot of valuable team photographs, which is certainly a problem. I was really most pleased with the gesture, because it gave teams that may not normally document an easy option to do so, which is always nice to have. I merely wish that some of the inherent drawbacks could have been fixed somehow, so that people would not lose all of their hard work. I mean to cause no controversy or problems, and certainly mean no disrespect to a generous sponser. Thank you for hearing me out.