Digital camera for rocket photography???

then go for the coolpix 5000. under $400 3x zoom then drop $40 to $60 for the 2x adaptor. 6x and 5mp

can I bend over that far yes. especially since I am as of this momet 92 pounds lighter than the last time you saw me :-) and still loosing.

Chris Taylor

There is a lot of good advice here. My previous camera, a rather expensive SONY Mavica, had the "ON" switch's lock fail within a month, three times. So I definitely wanted to find somebody who could design an "ON" switch on my next digital camera.

If you're visiting Steve's digicams, you're at the right spot. I like to compare the sample photos of that red brick building with the telephone lines. You can see how well or badly each camera handles compressing grass. Some of them do a fairly miserable job. And let's face it, there's often a lot of grass in rocketry photos, it might as well look right. Also, the telephone lines at the outer edges of the sample photos will give you a good idea of the purple fringing with each camera.

The FZ10 has a priority mode that you can set for either aperture, shutter speed (up to 1/2000) or full manual. It also has a manual focus mode with a focus assist button, so you can have the focus established well ahead of the countdown . On the other end of the spectrum, it has a continuous autofocus mode as well.

Keep in mind that all lens have an optimal f-stop somewhere in the middle range. At either extreme range, the suffer from various abnormalities. With its faster lens and constant aperture, it can let a lot more light in, allowing you to use higher shutter speeds than comparable models.

The 12x lens is the equivalent of a 35-420mm lens. At full zoom focus can be a little challenging. Since most digi-cams focus using a contrast based system, the image stabilization can help with getting an accurate focus quicker, regardless of the shutter speed. Stabilization also works in the movie mode.

Panasonic is proud of the fact that their camera use all three color channels for luminosity, which they claim increases diagonal details by as much as 50%. That's why the cameras are branded Lumix.

Also, you definitely want to budget for having at least a 256 mb memory card because they write, read and transfer to your computer faster.

Did my homework before and after buying the camera.

Certainly, the more expensive DSLR are superior, for numerous reasons and I would give anything with having to decide between some wonderful models that are out right now. But, if you're strapped with a lower budget like I am, the Panasonic is a great "little" camera. Most owners love them and there are user groups at

and yahoo.

The Digital Rebel is starting to come down in price. You should be able to buy the kit (with lens) for under $900.

The PowerShot Pro looks very nice, but it doesn't appear that the lens is removable, so I can't use my existing EOS system lenses. My existing 75-300mm image stabilizing zoom is very nice for catching rockets and kid's sports and I'd like to keep using it. And consider that the PowerShot has a maximum ISO equivalence of 400 (vs

1600 for the Rebel) the Rebel looks even better. 8MP sounds nice, but 6 isn't bad.

Mike Pears>

Good for you! Looking forward to seeing you in a month.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Congrats on the weight loss. Losing is hard, keeping it off will be harder. Good luck with that too.

Randy

My mistake; I mis-read the info, and thought that the PowerShot Pro did use the L-series lenses, but it appears to be hard-mounted. The Rebel does have interchangable lenses.

Bob,

Use Film Use a manual camera read the manual until you understand the following :)

set apeture for fastest shutter setting camera can allow, stand where you need to to frame the pad in the lower 1/2 of the frame. focus. release shutter when you here the propellant go whoosh, not when they say "launch" or "zero"

look at the gallery on mars-rocketry.com (or my descon entries) especialy last years photos. most are off film (and I havent missed with film) one of the members bought a digital camera and i can get it to work, but the autofocus is a pain (although once set, shutter speed is instant)

also, when you know what shutter speed teh camera uses, you can confirm the models speed by measuing the blur (hard to do at 1/500s)

Exactly what I've done for 3 decades with my old 35mm SLR.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

yeah if you can afford it :-)

I had to stop using film because I simply could not AFFORD to use film anymore.

when I did the colorado naram in film do you have ANY idea how much money that cost me ? (over $220 for the whole trip JUST in film and developing)

that is why I can not do film anymore.

if you can afford it ABSOLUTELY stick with film !! its still superior in the realm of quality and being able to "blow up" the image. IF you can afford it.

Chris Taylor

Besides, film has been getting consistently better over the years - these days, for example, 100-200 speed is the _low_ end speed range for ordinary color film, and even the 400 and 800 speed stuff is decently crisp: I remember when "High Speed Ektachrome" (125 or 160 speed) was a big deal... and you had to put up with some grain and loss of resolution to get that much.

A digital camera will never be any better than its image sensor... in a few years, it will be as obsolete as a PC with a 386 CPU and a 20 meg hard drive. A good film camera is forever, or at least until it dies of some mechanical failure or they stop making film.

-dave w

The platters from those 20 meg drives are great for motor retension & thrust plates. What do you mean obsolete? 8-)

That's because it's analog

Doug (ducking)

It'll be in her hands on Thursday, I probably won't be able to touch it for a couple days.

HAHAHA She said it'd have to be an auction :)

as for selling points of the FZ10 over S1-IS Slightly larger zoom, slightly higher resoloution, manual focus ring (a big plus in my book)

The price of my camera has dropped about $200 in the 14 or so months that I've owned it. I'm pretty confident that I've taken $200 worth of pictures from it. (roughly 4000 shots)

Look at it like a consumable, it's easier to deal with that way.

BTW, If you haven't noticed the post already, my LDRS pics are at:

-Dan

But Chris, it's ANALOG, not DIGITAL!

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

I've got some platters form 5 MB drives. They are too big: 14" diameter. In fact I have one sub-MB platter that is one METER in diameter!

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Well, I think I'm going to delay buying the camera for a while. Too many things going on right now and I'd really like to have a chance to play with a new camera BEFORE the trip so I can get the bes tuse out of it. DO let me know what you think of the Lumix, it's still at the top of my list.

Remind me again what camera you took these with. Was it the Olympus C-740? Lots of shots with blue sky that could have used more zoom. I suppose that's true of just about any in flight shot. But there is one htat really needs the story behind the picture:

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

i worked with them but never had the desire to save any. Do you have any drums?

Nope. No rod memory. One BYTE of vacuum tube memory. A core board. PDP-1 generation flip-chips. A PDP-11/70 front panel with all the purple and dark pink switches. Two genuine Grace Hopper Nanoseconds. And assorted other stuff.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Yep, I use the 740, and I'd have to recommend that if looking at the Oly C-7xx series, go ahead and look at the newer models but don't touch anything below the 740. As that's where they brought in a new lens design which was a major improvement.

As for lots of blue sky in my shots, it's pretty hard to track a rocket on its way up. (especially with a camera that's less than 4" square) I back off the zoom a bit so i've got a better chance of catching it all the way up. The pros with lenses that extend out 12" have a much easier time in "aiming" at the rocket on the way up. Imagine shooting a gun, with the gun right by your side. Now shoot with the gun at arms length in front of you. Which shot has a better chance of hitting the target? That's why I don't get too close. However, if you're *only* looking for a single liftoff shot, than you put your camera on a tripod, zoom in real close and pray for a fast trigger finger. (even then, there are so many variables, LCO finger delay, type of igniter, type of motor, etc.. It's much like using "the force" to sense when to snap the shot)

That "Bat Rocket", I don't know who owns it, but i think it was 3 or 4 D-12's in a marginal cluster arrangement. The shot previous to the one you mentioned looks pretty cool though, no?

Just pick a camera you like, buy it, and master it.

-Dan