I bought the cart before the horse

I bought Visioneer PhotoPort TV 100 ($29.99 local discount store.)-it's
2years old new out of the box.

I want to buy a digital camera-for vacation photos. Visioneer has a
camera on their website that is clearance priced and has a Smart Media
card slot, but Smart Media card not included. Are these readily
available to buy at Walmarts and places like that? Price?

Photoport accepts Smart Media, Compact Flash, or Microdrive up to
512mb--of these 3, which will be less obsolete??

Do any of you have the Photoport 100? I bought it to be able to record
it's slide show on vcr.

At $29.99 I am wondering if there would be any wisdom to buying a second
one? I have Webtv and had to replace it. I know I can do photos/video
with Webtv but I want to have the Photoport hooked up to different
TV/VCR with no external connections beyond electricity.

Thanks-

[posted and mailed]

faq9856 RemoveThis @webtv.net (Z Z) wrote in news:10005-40953270-5@storefull-
3232.bay.webtv.net:

 > I want to buy a digital camera-for vacation photos. Visioneer has a
 > camera on their website that is clearance priced and has a Smart Media
 > card slot, but Smart Media card not included. Are these readily
 > available to buy at Walmarts and places like that? Price?
 >
 > Photoport accepts Smart Media, Compact Flash, or Microdrive up to
 > 512mb--of these 3, which will be less obsolete??

SmartMedia is essentially dead. They are still available at some
retailers, though not for a long time. They reach a max of 128MB in
capacity.

Compact Flash is your best buy. It is cheapest in $ per MB, and it is
the standard for more professional level cameras and should be around a
long time. They currently range up to 8GB in capacity.

Microdrive is Compact Flash type II, essentially the same format. It's a
little taller and needs a slightly taller slot in the camera.

Check out <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.bhphoto.com" target="_blank">http://www.bhphoto.com</a> and <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.newegg.com" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com</a> for some
prices on Compact Flash. You may be able to do better with local stores
having deals. This week, CompUSA has 256MB Lexar cards for $40. On a
2MP camera, that would hold over 400 photos.

Look around before buying some bargain-basement no-name camera. You
could probably do better, and the camera may not suit your needs.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->