Digital Camera Recommendation

Good comment. I went to a fabric store, and bought some grey felt. A light grey. Old camera technology used a 22% gray sheet of paper to get a good light reading on your light meter. Remember those? If you do, you are an OLD TIME photographer. The grey felt is close enough to 22% to be good. Use it as a backdrop on all your stuff. It balances light, color, plus it increases the sharpness of the edges. If you wrap it around like the interior of a box, and shoot inside that box, it will cut out bright light intrusion from lights in the room, or sunshine from a window, etc.

Cost, about $2.

Steve

"Richard" wrote

Is that like, "We should close the patent office, cuz everything's been invented?"

Subjects and OPs come and go.

Get that IGNORE button checked.

Steve

"jon_banquer" wrote

"Don't get sucked in my massive mega pixel numbers. It's a camera. You need good optics. You want OPTICAL zoom. 18 to 24X Totally ignore any digital zoom claims."

Okay.

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Max about 10-12 optical zoom. After that, you run into pixelization, and you are already zoomed in close physically, with the camera nearly touching the object in some cases. That is a big problem to arrange things where the shadow of the camera doesn't affect everything, and it might take a bit to develop a little stand to hold the item up in the air so you can get a clear shot of it without your camera shadowing the object. For a metalworker, no problem. Small clamps, even magnets work great.

Steve

"F. George McDuffee" wrote

Common photography for ebay stuff lead me into high resolution hummingbird, insect, and close-up flower photography. It might wake up one of the cave men within you.

And damn nice hobby, with no film costs now with digital.

Steve

"Erik" wrote

Damn fine idea. Get the one that have the lever locks instead of the threaded ones. And rubber feet that screw down to let metal spikes come out so you can change it for surface. A crank up base is nice, too. Not expensive, even new, and really cheap at yard sales, or similar venues.

And a shutter release cable. I made a little box around my camera so I could put one on my camera, which was not equipped from the factory with that capability. Allowed me to get 25' from the hummingbird feeder. But closer, it takes the shake out of pushing the button and holding it for as long as it takes for a low light exposure photograph.

Steve

I dunno. Better lighting will almost always make for better photograph.

Not at all. It's like "We had this very same conversation recently - and came up with the same recommendations".

Has nothing to do with patents.

My camera (Fuji S8100) goes to 18x OPTICAL zoom.

The digital part after that is ignored.

The new ones are pretty good.. I took the Lumix to Asia & didn't even bother to bring the charger-- good for hundred of photos (video recording, not so much).

Two clone "EN-EL12" batteries for the Nikon AND a car/wall charger are $11 from China, shipped. Probably don't have the Li ion protection circuit, so beware of fires. Definitely are not UL/CSA, so beware of electrocution. Safe enough for me, but I wouldn't leave them unattended on top of flammable stuff.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

$263 from Amazon for the ZS-20, which has a few more features such as GPS. I predict you'll not be sorry with either one. They are _so_ good.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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Note that depending on what you are doing, built in GPS may be a disadvantage. If you're photographing for publication (on the web, where the image file can be accessed) something particularly desirable to the light-fingered crowd -- or taking photos to show that you have a kidnap victim still alive, having your location built into the photo may not be desirable. :-)

If you're processing it with something like PhotoShop or "the GIMP", you can probably suppress exif data which you don't want.

Enjoy, DoN.

Ha! I remember seeing within the last few weeks where some thug led cops to his door by posting photos with EXIF files containing GPS info.

BTW, I edit images on occasion for a neighbor who shoots them with an iPhone. All the shots include very precise GPS data. You can easily discern not only what room of his house they were taken, but what area of the room. (The image viewing Mac app 'Preview' allows you to read EXIF data, and if GPS data is present, produces a button to instantly plot it on a Google Map.)

Erik

Good point. On Photoshop, "Save for Web and Devices" strips all that stuff, and makes the file a bit smaller.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Same as the ZS20, but without GPS. For the price ($170), looks like a very good deal.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I've been using a Panasonic Lumix for the last several years. Agree with Steve, about the AA cells. I've used up a lot of rechargable cells. The Precharged NiMH are my favorites at the moment. Eneloop is one brand of these, but I've not tried them. I've been using Rayovac and Duracell precharged.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Jon has made a notable comment. Buy one that uses AA batteries, and get some enloop rechargeables. Proprietary batteries are spendy, and a PITA if you are out of the country, need a lot of shooting capabilities, etc. You can pick up AA's anywhere if you forget yours. If you forget your proprietary ones, you're SOL. Friend of mine and I went to Mazatlan. He left his charger and extra battery. He had a Nikon. Oh, well ............ Charger and battery, about $75 if we coulda found one. Steve

"jon_banquer" wrote

If no one has any legitimate objections I'm going to buy the Lumix DMC- ZS19K at Best Buy tomorrow. This gives me over thirty days to decide if I made a good decision or not.

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Read up on depth of field, and take some test shots. My friend's are absolutely fantastic, and he just happened to take the first ones accidentally, then started adjusting for them. I think it would go good with the macro setting, giving you a longer depth of focus.

Nice camera choice. I think you'll like it. But it's just like a computer. It will do more than you think. I still carry my instruction manual (quite large) in my camera bag, and it is quite dog-eared.

Steve

Bingo! The use of a tripod will get best results (some of the better cameras have 'image stabilization', but tripods are still the best you can do).

On still photography, don't worry about 18x zooms; just position the camera to frame the shot, and don't be afraid to crop afterward. A cheapo with no zoom, or 3x zoom, will work for this application.

I came to the conclusion years ago that getting complex modern day point & shoot camera's to do what I want, is much more trouble than just using a DSLR in plain old fashioned manual mode... with just shutter speed, f/stop, focus & ISO to worry about, as opposed to the P&S's menus galore. (The DSLR's preview feature with histogram is a godsend!)

With a DSLR and tripod, there's little I can't shoot. However, it does require a fairly deep understanding of photography fundamentals.

If I'm just after quick pot shots, it quickly converts to P&S by activating program mode, and turning auto focus back on... results are still several orders over a P&S.

Yes, it's larger/heavier & more expensive[1], and I do have a P&S for when thats a factor... but it sees little use. (Actually, my phone camera gets more use than the P&S anymore, as it's always with me... and for what it is, returns good results!)

Just my .02¢ worth, YMMV.

Erik

[1] Actually, the older 6 megapixel DSLR I now have, a Pentax K100D wasn't all that expensive... a little over $500 IIRC and included a 18-55mm zoom. As I mostly shoot on tabletop 'sets', I also bought an A/C adapter to eliminate at home battery consumption

The 18-55mm zoom is slow, but suits my needs. I have a set of extension tubes for macro shots... not flashy, but they work well.

Yes indeed!

Far as tripods go, you don't even have to have an actual tripod... just anything that'll (safely) hold the camera still, and allow you to position it for the shot. You can even use your imagination & cobble up something... camera tripod sockets are 1/4-20. Go easy on the torque, especially if said socket is plastic.

Erik