 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
I'm looking for a moderatley priced digi-camera and advice to adding the snapshots to my inmate system. I do not have my own website, but does AA allow posting for members? Last but not least, should I clean up my unimpressive music room and remove the stacks of unsorted LPs, CDs and empty pizza boxes? go for the Natural or 'Jazzed up' look ? :-)
Follow Ups:
I've been really happy with my Canon digital camera, but there are a lot of good brands around. You are a contributing member to AA, so you can create a Gallery and post photos there. There's a camera setting which takes "smaller" size photos which can then be posted within the download file size requirements at AA.
Any recommendations on a Digital Camera that would take good closeups of Jackets & Labels for Ebay??
"If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's probably not for you".
OK, there's a photography/camera ward in the "MY ASYLUM" area on the home page. You may want to post your question there for more expert advice.I'd say any camera at about 3 megapixels will be fine for what you're doing. You'll need a tripod. I find it very hard to hold my hand steady enough to take clear close-up pictures with my digital camera.
Optical zoom lenses are better than the digital zoom. Try typing in "Digital Camera Review" in google and see what turns up. That should be good for a number of days of casual research.
Here's just one example. I have the Canon S50 which is a 5 MP camera. Probably overkill for my needs but the camera is really nice.
I recall reading that Nikon is considered top-notch for close-up work. You might want to check out the camera reviews at www.dpreview.com. It's a great digital photography site.
I just use a small, 2.0 megapixel Nikon, and like the pics - for close up work, it has a nice Macro setting, really decent for the $$.Mark
Yeah, me too. I'm using a Coolpix 8700, which I really like. I had a Nikon D70 digital SLR on order at my local camera shop, but decided at the last minute that the 8700 was better for my needs.
nt
Just use the lowest reolution setting (email) to take your pictures. Then download them to the AA Gallery. You will have to contribute at least $25 to post your pictures on AA.
Regards,
Mike
I bought a Canon G3, partly on the basis of recommendations here and on Shutterbug Strasse.It's been a really good choice, but one problem I have in taking pictures of Audio equipment, such as a preamp or amp, is that the line of the faceplate top is not parallel to the line of the back of the amp -- the line at that back is "wonky".
Any suggestions as to how to avoid that?
Tbanks
Jasc Paint Shop Pro has really handy tools for correcting pincushion and barrel distortion. It's also a heck of a lot cheaper than Adobe Photoshop.
Yes PSP or Adobe can help, though "fixing it in the mix" in not always best IMHO. Better to get it "right" the first time. Learn the personality of the lens/camera is always best. A camera is simply a tool in the overall craft.Enjoy the Music,
Steven R. Rochlin
Pincushion or barrel distortion is usually caused by lens aberrations and most visible when using wide angle lenses. Diverging parallel lines, however, are caused by perspective distortion. Your camera is not responsible for this distortion, but the way you take your pictures. If you want to avoid converging/diverging of parallel lines the object plane, the lens plane and the film (or sensor) plane all have to be oriented in parallel (look for a tutorial on large format camera photography for more in-depth info about this subject). With large format cameras you can adjust the lens and film plane independently and thus, correct for perspective distortion.
With a regular 35 mm camera it gets a little more tricky. As mentioned before you can do it through software (I use Picture Window Pro, which has a very neat feature for perspective correction, but PSP or PS should be able to do the same. Its not the same as pincushion or barrel distortion correction, though). You can also do it, when shooting. Imagine taking a picture of an amp. You want all the lines framing the faceplate to be be parallel, yet the sidepanels and the top should be visible. Imagine, pointing your camera straight at the faceplate, the camera/filmplane is parallel to the faceplate and so there is no distortion. Now move the camera to the left and up without tilting or rotating it (you have to step back far enough, so the faceplate doesn't fill the entire frame)!!! The side and top panels become visible, but since your camera is still parallel to the faceplate, there is no perspective distortion of the lines framing the faceplate. Your amp will be in the lower right corner of the picture, though and you have to crop away most of the picture that doesn't show the amp. Hope, that wasn't too confusing...
on sale off and on for the last couple of months.Sharp, clear and easy to use.
I was waiting till I saw a major brand name 4 megapixel for $200.00 when my wife saw that in a Wolfe camera ad. This was in my local papaer for $199 several times for walk in purchase.
User friendly - I've been happy
_big grin_
Regards
Ken L
First I must admit that I'm a bit bias because I'm a Minolta user for the past 13 years, currently I'm using 7xi. I have use Nikon when I'm working with other photographers and somehow I didn't like it and funny thing is that when I handed them my 7xi it took them just a few minutes to master all the functions.It would be helpful if you tell me your budget. For arond $300 I would check out the Minolta Xg a very compact 3meg cam, and Minolta Z1 with super long zoom. Other company I would consider in that range would be Canon SD110 Elph which is very popular.These cams would be a good start. But if you want a great all in one cam check out Minolta A2, 8meg cam with image stablizer and high-res screen a very fomidable machine. I would say this is the best 8meg all in one cam in its class. All for about $1000 or less.
Anyway, I hope this help and for more info on Minolta cam and its history check out this great site www.konicaminoltaphotoworld.com
Buddy
NYC
Actually, this is a little known piece of photographic heritage: Minolta some time back. I would only estimate that it was not 13 years back but somewhere 25-30 years back. At that time Minolta did their normal mechanical cameras, they were OK, nothing special and suddenly totally out of blue they did something absolutely ingenious: 50/1.8. It was a default optic with many of their cameras along with their 50/1.4 and it cost no money. However, what that 50/1.8 lens did image-was was absolutely remarkable. Even the Zeiss Planar lenses did not work as interesting as that Minolta 50/1.8 did. It was pretty much the only serious product Minolta even did and I am sure it as a accident and thy themselves did not even knew how spectacular the Minolta 50/1.8 was…Yep, those time are long gone..,
The Puss
Too bad you have no facts to back them up.Take it from a former professional wedding photographer - Minolta made lots of great equipment.
You don't agree? Too freakin' bad. Go be rude somewhere else.
Do I have to agree with "wedding photographer"? Minolta made lots of good equipment but it never was “great”, besides the mention lenses. BTW, your comment that I have no facts to back up what I said was based upon what you know or what you believe you know? I never thought I was rude, but I actual can if you wish.
and sell them for what YOU think they are worth, I would be a very wealthy man.No need for you to prove just how rude you can be. I've seen your kind too many times to be impressed.
Wedding photographers know good equipment. We live and die on it. Most makers have good optics - it's reliability and speed that counts. I did not use Minolta gear but that is what I have for home use. My Minolta has taken thousands of pictures and is still going strong at 20+ years.
I used Mamiya 645, Nikon FA and 8008, Canon F1, and Pentax SF1 bodies and lenses for my wedding work. I was in the business for years. I can repair camera bodies and I do know what I am talking about.
I just wonder why you get off on dissing people. Does it make you feel important.
Don't bother sending a reply. I won't answer.
I have both they are excellent , try Tristate cameras in N.Y a good company to deal with .
nt
The A2 is great. I don't have one but I'm waiting for the 7D SLR to come out. With buitl in IS all of my Minolta AF lens would turn into IS capable! Imagine a 28mm f2, 35 f2 and the great cheap 50 f1.7 turn into IS lens!!!!Minolta is a very inovative camera company. The only thing... well two bad about them is that they don't take care of pro and they are bad at marketing. Still thier cameras (mid to upper level) are excellent. Turely a real sleeper and the underdog in photography world.
I'm in NYC and I usually go to B&H photo www.bhphoto.com
Buddy
NYC
I've dealt with many of the photo shops in NYC and elsewhere that advertise in Popular Photography, and the best overall has been B&H (bhphoto.com). Fast, great service, no problems with returns when unhappy with an item, very low prices, and fair shipping charges. They're also an excellent source for consumer and pro video gear and accessories, and some mass-market audio equipment.
I saw Srajan (www.6moons.com) at CES in January with a new camera. He was able to take some very close-up shots, and if you look at his site, you can see that they come out very well.
Regards,
Geoff
The camera mentioned was the Nikon Coolpix 5400. I bought it especially for the extreme macro capability. Jeff Day at 6moons bought one too. He occasionally complains about the auto focus not locking properly in dim light. Apparently this model doesn't use IR and seems a bit more sensitive. Personally, I hardly ever encounter this but it's fair to mention that it seems to be a generally considered weakness of this model. For my specific needs and budget, the Coolpix 5400 is everything I need - hey, the darn thing is way smarter than I am and can do things I'll probably never use. What I like most? The swivel monitor. It allows to take pix from truly odd angles or with the camera butting up to a wall, or from far above your head...The MUSEUM setting in the scene mode is great for non-flash dim light scenarios. I hardly ever use a flash to avoid reflections but do manipulate pix in Photoshop afterwards where lightening up an image, altering contrast and saturation etc. is easy...
Doug Schneider at SoundStage likes to use an auxiliary flash that points at the ceiling or some reflective secondary surface to get better light without reflections from the subject you're trying to capture. That's more advanced than what I do but I seem to be able to do okay without it.
it does macro pretty well for a dinky pocket camera. I've been able to get close ups of the acid etched codes on small 9 pins.Chris
Use the Canon S400 here. Some background: Grew up using Leicas (yes plural) and have owned a Hasselblad (complete 503 kit with large flash, TTL meter, etc).Srajan mentions close up photography and the Canon easily can do this in both low and "normal" light. While the S400 is not fully manual, there are a half decent amount of adjustments in the "manual" mode. i HIGHLY recommend you check out reviews of various digital cameras at www.dpreview.com .
FYI: The S400 is FAR from my first digital camera as the ones i have owned include:
Kodak D40
Olypmus D360L
Olympus D600L
Canon D30
Canon S400
...and a few others.What i enjoy about the Canon S400 is the good color/white balance, it does well in variable lighting, small form factor, durable metal body, and ease of use. It is nearly set and forget. In an ideal word i would rather have a Hasselblad with digital back, a few umbrellas, a softbox or two, some large white "cards", a few muslins, and other bits. Covering shows means one must be light, fluid, and as such compromises need to be made. This is especially true at the Germany show where chrome and glass are the norm.
No matter what camera you choose, it is your photographic talents/eye that matters most IMHO. It matters not if you use a Leica or an old Pentax K1000... beauty is in the eye of the photographer.
S300 for me, after a couple of others.
All the pics posted here at AA for CES were done with my Nikon 5400, as are all my review & show pics at 6Moons. It works great except for occasional closeups in very low light - but that is helped immensley by using a good tripod - the ultra versatile SLIK Sprint Mini in my case.
Terrific little camera. Great macro mode and fairly low distortion lens. I don't think you will get better pictures without going to a digital SLR for mucho more money.
nt
I love mine as well. The pictures are just amazing. However, I am experiencing some delays between shots. After I snap a picture, I usually have to wait at least 5 seconds before the camera is done "saving" the picture and lets me take another one. Have you all experience that as well?FrankC
Maybe you should pick up a faster CF card? I was surprised to find out that they come in various speeds. My local camera shop recommended that I use a 40X [?] card with my Coolpix 8700 for faster performance.
Personally, I have a lot of trouble with jitter.
Nt.
Great cameras...I have the A60 and am thrilled with it. Very nice photos, great lens, tons of manual modes...
Depends on how much money you're willing to spend, but I've been through a lot of small digital point-and-shoot-type cameras and not been overly happy.The new digital SLRs have the feel of real SLRs, and have great expandability. The Rebel Digital is a great camera.
Doug Schneider
Nikon's new SLR, the D70 is getting all the ga-ga from the current issues of the digital camera mags. They seem to like it better then the Rebel. Infact 'What Digital Camera' made a comparison with the very expensive Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1 (Leica Digilux-2) and the Olympus Camedia C-8080 Wide Angle. They liked the Nikon the best, with the Lumix LC1 falling into second place.
The dpreview concludes their review with 'Highly Recommended'.
I have an older Nikon (Coolpix 880) and the bigist frustration is trying to tell when it took the bloody picture. With my old Cannon AE1 and A1 you hit the shutter release and it went click and you new you were done. Are the newer SLR type cameras more like the older film versions in this respect?
Bingo -- fighting with shutter release, awkward focussing, poor metering capabilities, etc., is why I stick to the SLRs.One *can* get very reasonable results out of a point and shoot, but the new SLRs are so much better (still not perfect, but significantly better).
Doug
I agree with Doug Schneider (Hi, Doug!) that the Digital Rebel is an excellent camera, but I think that if you're not heavily into photography you might well be satisfied with a good point-and-shoot. My photos that were used by Stereophile as part of the magazine's coverage of the HE-2003 and 2004 CES shows were taken with the Canon S400. (The photos that accompany my show report on the Montreal Festival Son & Image in the July issue were taken with the Digital Rebel.)Bob
If all you're really interested in doing is shooting pictures for posting on a website or email, then I would agree with others that about any relatively inexpensive "point & shoot" digicam currently available will get the job done. However if you're like a lot of us, you will become addicted to digital photography, and will want a higher quality camera. You will then start wondering about the high-rez $1000 (or over) type cameras (I know this may not be in your cards yet...but hear me out). You will learn that there are at least 5 different 8 megapixel digicams capable of taking very good pictures -- still basically P&S but offer amenities that "pretend" to make them look like SLRs. However for that money, there are two excellent "entry level" digital SLRs that most serious photographers would say beat the high megapixel digicams hands-down. They are the Canon Rebel and the new Nikon D70 -- both have received excellent reviews. Having recently bought one of the 8 megapixel digicams, and quickly discovering its shortcomings (high noise, etc), I'm leaning toward selling that camera and moving to an SLR (probably the Nikon D70). Sort of a long-winded comment but I've been the P&S digicam route & unless you have absolutely no real interest in photography, you WILL eventually want to consider a digital SLR.
and that is its use of a "porro" mirror viewing system instead of a glass pentaprism, as is used in the D100. Have a look; you'll find with the D70 that the image appears to be down a tube, whereas with the D100 it's right there. The D100 is heavier, and $500 more expensive, but you may find that it's worth the extra money....
I will have to take a look. Not sure if this "porro" viewfinder would bother me or not. Likely not. I also think the D100 is faster but I could be wrong here.The extra weight of the D100 really doesn't bother me because the D70 is not exactly light. $500?? Well that may have some say in this. Hard to say at this point.
Being somewhat of a purist, maybe I went a little too far calling it a "major" shortcoming. There's no doubt that both the D70 and D100 are excellent cameras, it's just that, for day-in day-out use, I'd be willing to pay the extra for the D100 (and am seriously considering making the plunge). But that's just me, and is based on decades of using Nikon F2's with glass prisms.
We don't get this many post in a month over there. I would like to invite continuation of this or any other by these same members from General.Choose in Pulldown menu up in header (More Asylums)
I own a 1.3 megapixel Vivitar. It's large and uses 4 AA batteries, definitely not state of the art. But - the lens is excellent with very low distortion and large glass area, the autofocus works vary well (it has no zoom) and the light metering is just about optimal.
I recently bought el-cheapo 3.3 megapixel camera that's small and light, but when it comes to quality of picture for posting on the web, I find that the higher resolution buys me nothing, since I always reduce the size of the image files to acceptable levels, and that would require reducing the resolution anyway.
I end up going back to the old trusty Vivitar...
Of course, if I'd paid $400 for the new camera then probably it would have benn closer in optical quality to the Vivitar. But I recall you saying a "cheap camera"...
So my advice is to look for the features you need, not just the megapixel or bells and whistles that you don't.
I have a HP Photosmart 720 3.2mp 3x optical zoom. When I purchased it, it hit the price/performance sweet spot and was highly rated in evey review, but that was fall of 2002....As I have come to learn, there are more important factors than number of megapixels and zoom capability of lens.
In my case, I have to be carefull how I take pictures. The camera only has average type metering- IE it takes a reading of the average light level in deciding exposure. If the backround is brighter than the subject, or if there is a bright component in the field of vision then the reading will be thrown off and the actual subject will be underexposed.
Also, a 3x optical zoom is not enough.
So- using what I have learned- look for at least 5x if not 8-10x optical zoom. Look for a "fast" lens f2.8 or lower number. Most digicam lens are f3.5 or 5.6. This figure refers to the amount of light a lens allows in. Lower is better and is an indicator of quality of the lens.
Investigate the type of metering. Look for one that has at least center metering- meaning that the object in the center box/portion etc of the viewfinder generates the reading.
One that takes generiac AA size batteries. Many manufacturers try to lock in the purchaser to an obscure battery size, which coincidentally are only available from a few vendors. Mine takes AA and I use re-chargeables.
Sorry for the dissertation-
Best,
Ross
Macro or very close up shooting. I like being able to use an off camera flash system as well. Also I value having the Card Slot readily available without removing the camera from a tripod. A swiveling decent sized view screen, with enough contrast for daytime shooting would make life easier too.A big bug-a- boo is the time it takes for the shutter to fire off a shot, after first mashing down the button. This Shutter lag improves as one moves up to an SLR type of consumer cam.
I'm sure there must be more features others may bring to the table they find useful.
| Register / Login |
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
