camera for ssw pics

I'm really enjoying the posts that have step-by-step pictures of a technique or method of doing something. Since I have such a vast reservoir of these techniques that I would like to share, I need to know what is the best type of camera for the purpose. My vast reservoir is about empty when it comes to camera types. Any recommendations? Thanks,

Dale,

I'm no foto-grafer but I got an Olympus D-390 for Christmas and that's what I've been using in the "Next Project" thread. Its pretty easy to drive but when using the preview screen it EATS batteries. I'm told that this is fairly common. Olympus recommends Nichol/metal, hydride (splg?) batteries though they supply cheap lead-acid cells with the camera, they will sell them to you for an additional $40 . I use Duracells and they last me about 2 sessions, roughly 40 exposures.

The batteries are a problem but I found a good solution. Costco now sells a rechargable NiMH battery kit, charger, 6 AA's and 2 AAA's for about twenty bucks. The NiMH seem to last longer than the regular alkalines.

Norm

PS- I have a Nikon Coolpix 3.2 and I'm pretty happy with it. You'll need to get a larger memory card (recommend 128 mega whatevers). Also action shots are kind of tricky, evidently the camera takes some time to figure the focus and exposure, by then the plane has left the picture. It does have way around this.

>I'm really enjoying the posts that have step-by-step
>pictures of a technique or method of doing something. Since
>I have such a vast reservoir of these techniques that I
>would like to share, I need to know what is the best type of
>camera for the purpose. My vast reservoir is about empty
>when it comes to camera types. Any recommendations? Thanks,

It depends on what you are wanting to do with it. If all you are wanting is a camera for web photos, then a cheap little camera will work just fine. You do not need high resolution and all you need are 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 max. If you want the camera for making 8 x 10 photos on your photo printer that you can send to Grandma (or the grand kids) then you will want to go for higher resolution. But a $50 digital camera will do the job. After that, you are going for features.

Find something on sale or close out that is in your budget and go for it. Sometimes if you buy a new computer or TV set they will give you one. Need a new TV?

LAST EDITED ON Jan-28-04 AT 04:29 PM (CDT)
 
Dale,

I got a Canon Powershot A60 for Christmas, and it's great! It's not the latest and greatest, but it does everything I need for now. Some things to know:

Megapixels - this measures how many million bits of picture data the "electronic film" in the camera can handle (best analogy I can come up with at the moment) - basically how big and sharp can the image be.

The latest digital cameras have 3.2 to 5.0 megapixels, but if the biggest print you can imagine wanting to make is 4X6, you don't need more than 2 megapixels. This will save you $$. This type of camera takes GREAT sharp, clear pictures that can appear nice and large when posted on the Internet.

Optical Zoom - this is as opposed to "digital zoom", which makes an image bigger at the expense of sharpness. Optical zoom actually zooms in on objects so you can get a nice clear picture. Vastly preferred. My camera has 3X optical zoom.

The prices are coming down on these all the time. I paid around $220 US dollars for mine, a year ago it would have been more like $350.

The really cheap and simple option is to get a scanner, take pictures with a regular camera, get the film developed and then scan the photos, but the results from this method are decidedly less desirable.

Hope this helps...

Tim

This is a good site for reviews.

http://photo.askey.net/reviews/

Mine's an HP 734 Photosmart camera. 3.24 mega-pixel. Pretty cheap as these things go. I got mine on sale for about $200 at Circuit City. With a 128mg memory stick, it will hold about 435 640x480 pics at decent res or do about 32 very high res pics (about 2400x2400). Nice software, too.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-28-04 AT 07:09 PM (CDT)
 
canon and sony are both real good cameras, get the ones with optical zoom. The only note on Megapixels is, my canon set at 640X480 resolution takes sharper pictures than some of the 3 megapixel cheap cameras. I've also heard good things about the Nikon Coolpix cameras, but haven't used them. Also, Macro mode is good for taking really close in shots that are in focus, and on the canons and maybe the Sony cameras, even on the cheaper cameras you can adjust the shutter speed slightly by changing flash options. For instance on a running engine you can turn the flash off and not have really bright sunlight and the propeller will be a blur, or you can use flash to stop the prop. I can turn the flash off on my Canon and take night pictures.

Here is an example of a Macro shot, and a time lapse night shot of a cloudy full moon in NM(should have used a tripod), compressed to post. And also a picture of my Sig Mustang taken with the camera set at 640X480, that didn't have to be compressed to upload 'cause it was less than 50k. These were all taken with a canon A20, which is a pretty basic canon camera, very few frills.

Sorry about the off topic pics, didn't have any other pictures to demonstrate the features.

Everyon has given excellent advice, you only need mega-pixels for prints.

Austin, I usually only use a plastic bag for my plane after I crash it-

Dale,
I think for general purpose use I would recommend a 3.2 Mega pixel camera. I have a Toshiba with 3x optical zoom. Don't get confused with the digital zoom, they usually just lower your resolution to accomplish that. The Olympus family is very easy to use, but a lot of the newer ones only have 2 AA batteries, the Toshiba has 4. I use Ni-MH batteries. I found a great place to buy them, http://www.batteryspace.com I purchased a charger with 10 Ni-MH batteries for only $25. The batteries were advertised as 2000 mah, but were actually 2250. The downside of the 2250 batteries is that they take about 10-12 hours to charge, but they really hold a lot of power and if you have 10 of them all charged and ready you can take pictures for ever. I also recommend a 64-128 Mb memory card for your camera. My Toshiba only came with a 16 Mb and that doesn't hold very many pictures. My 128 card however stores 119 pictures at the highest resolution and 1244 at the lowest.
Ask questions, but if you are at a Best Buy or Circuit City, you are asking a $8 per hour "expert".
Good luck,
Bill

Pics look great but how do you reduce them to the 50kb limit on SSW and maintain the quality?
Thanks:)

>Pics look great but how do you reduce them to the 50kb limit
>on SSW and maintain the quality?
>Thanks:)

I use Microsoft Photo Editor, and the first thing I do (if it's a large picture) is re-size it to something standard, usually 640X480 - that's a good size for the Web. I also crop it if necessary (select and copy-out only the portion of the picture I need), which further reduces the file size. Lastly, when you save the file, you choose the "quality", which means file size - you can reduce it quite a bit without losing too much sharpness. That's pretty much it...

Tim

LAST EDITED ON Jan-29-04 AT 01:14 AM (CDT)
 
>Pics look great but how do you reduce them to the 50kb limit
>on SSW and maintain the quality?
>Thanks:)

I use a program for "batch" resizing and renaming called Irfanview (irfanview.com). It costs nothing, is a relatively small program and also includes "lossless" .jpg rotation. When you rotate a .jpg image from portrait to landscape, most programs will "lose" some of the image quality, but irfanview has lossless rotation features in the software.

Program does lots of other things but I mainly use it for batch renaming and resizing. It will rename 250 photos in around 15 to 20 seconds.

Steve Knapp

>Pics look great but how do you reduce them to the 50kb limit
>on SSW and maintain the quality?
>Thanks:)

The result of a discussion on this subject at another thread is here:

http://www.clstunt.com/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID1/7455.html#23

Free Serif PhotoPlus 5.5 Software for you Windows users has all the tools you need to crop, resize and variably compress the images is one place to start.

As to cams

My Trusty Olympus D-370 is by now quite dated. I take the highest resolution I can get it to (12xx by 10xx) and frame the shot as best I can, knowing that:

(a) I'm going to crop out the pixels that don't present the airframe/subject, and

(b) I'm still going to scale the resulting width down to some number for use on the web at 72 dpi. Scaling an image down and then doing an "Unsharp Mask" will always result in a crisp image. Scaling an image up will inevitably blur it to some extent.

So this old cam is fine for shooting for posting on the web.

But at the rate things are progressing, I have to belive a better cam will be a worthwhile investment, given how you can take files to the local store, stuff them in a Kodak machine and then get prints out.

Hard copy takes 4 times the resolution of the web/your monitor in round numbers.

Cy.

I'm using a Panasonic DMC-FZ1 which is a 2 Megapixel and optioned up with a 128Meg card. Depending on the resolution you set, this card will hold anything from 147 to 1097 photos. As an added bonus the card (an SD) can be used to store and transfer any kind of files from one computer to another just by plugging the camera in. I think the feature that sold me on this one is that it uses a Leica lens with a 12x optical zoom (plus 3x digital) and an image stabilizer so you don't need a tripod to keep it steady for big zooms. The photo below was taken from about 70 feet away with just the optical zoom at 640x480 (although I cropped it a little to 612x384 to cut the file size down). It uses it's own special battery which is both good and bad. Good in that I've never yet had it go flat and takes less than an hour to recharge but bad if it does go flat because you can't just walk into a shop and get new batteries.

Olympus D-460 with NiMH batteries ($25>$32 with charger at Ritz Cam), and 128meg chip ($70?). MS Photo Editor for compression, cropping and such, tho the software with the camera would probably work ok, I found this a bit easier. Camera operation isn't too difficult, but I do use Macro a fair amount, and flash. I also bought a card reader for another $30, so I don't run down the batteries when loading the pics onto my PC. I mostly didn't read the instructions, just when I had a question, once, I looked up what I needed to know and avoided all the rest. I admit to having trouble with icons. "Tulips" do not jump at me and say "Macro". Maybe an "ant" icon would work better. Steve

I just used the Zoombrowser program that came with the canon camera for the pics I posted. Just right click on the picture and adjust the size until it is under 50k then post. The NM moon is about 80% size and about 80% resolution, the Flower is about 24% size and 40 percent resolution, and the Mustang is not compressed at all.

>I'm using a Panasonic DMC-FZ1 which is a 2 Megapixel and
>optioned up with a 128Meg card. Depending on the resolution
>you set, this card will hold anything from 147 to 1097
>photos.

Downunder makes a very good point.

The very first thing I did with my new Olympus D-370 when I got it a couple of years ago was find the best price on the biggest memory media card I could find that fit the slot and send for one. (That's basically what I also do with any new computer device)

I get something like 475 images on my card at the highest image resolution setting the cam offers. This changes the picture taking experience completely. I can go to VSC, spend all day shoot at anything that catches my eye, never hassle with film, come home and throw out half of them and still have more photos than I end up posting.

Whatever cam you get, make sure you get at least one of the biggest memory modules it will hold (and a fast conduit into your computer) at the onset or you will be missing out on one of the best parts of the digi-cam experience.

Cy.

Thanks, all. I'm printing the replies and taking them to fries/frys next Sunday. I know I'll have trouble working these things, but I've got Linda Bob to figure it all out. Great is my appreciation! Best regards,

LAST EDITED ON Jan-30-04 AT 11:02 AM (CDT)
 
Dale,

I read all of the replies and think something is missing. I use an Olympus C-720 when I'm in a hurry to post something on Stuka Stunt. The main difference in my operation is that I use an AC power supply. OK so I run all over the house dragging a power supply and cord. It is a little clumsy but my batteries are sitting there awaiting the outside job. Since I shoot many more pictures indoors than outdoors, My non-rechargeable batteries may last a very long time.

I also use a cheap scanner a lot. It produces display photos for Stuka Stunt that are impossible to tell from the digital photos, in fact, I don't favor either format.

My digital Olympus has a mind of its own when it comes to flash photography, in fact, any photography. The flash usually fires with full force, usually overexposing most photos. I simply keep shooting with flash and without until I have useful shots and fix the rest with Photoshop. As for cameras, I sugggest at least a 3 mp camera with at least 3x optical zoom and able to use standard dry cell batteries when your rechargable give up the ghost. before Christmas, Fry's had a really neat Panasonic at a nice price.

When the going gets tough, I fall back to my 35 mm Olympus (S-1?). It can always be counted on to do a great job. I then use my scanner to do enlargements and to regulate photos size for posting.

Drop by and I'll show you what I know. I post photos frequently.

I used to be really into photography during college but have yet to jump into the digital realm.

Now that prices are coming down and features going up, I've decided to go for a digital SLR. That way you I get the full system flexibility of interchangeble lenses and accessories.

Pentax has introduced their *ist D model which is quite compact, sports a 6.1 megapixel CCD plus I can use all the existing Pentax 35mm lenses I currently own.

There are cheaper alternatives out there, sure, but this is one really cute digital SLR!