Digital Photo Camera

wsjb78 · 02-28-2003, 05:36 AM

Hiya,

I'm a n00b regarding digital photo cameras and I'd just like to get some input of you. What models can you recommend? What is good? Where do I need to pay attention to?

After readin Vid's article on YNot I thought I'd better first get some feedback here. Some of you sure know what's important here!

Usage: Just personal pictures, nothing out of the extra-ordinary!

Evil Chris · 02-28-2003, 11:06 AM

We bought the Canon S200 Elph last year and it serves us very well!

Except when you drop it in the ocean.

Seriously, it's a good little camera, and they have a newer imprved model since we bought ours.

Purple Haze · 02-28-2003, 11:19 AM

I'm no professional photographer either. When I researched for a digital camera, I looked for something that was small, light weight and took good photos in any background. I ended up getting the Sony Cybershot DSCP9 4.0 megapixel camera. It takes great pictures and its easy to use. It comes with a lithium battery. I upgraded the memory stick from 16 to 128, well worth it.

I have now turned into one of those people that you see taking pictures of everything-just because I can!

Hope that helps.

Purple Haze

wsjb78 · 02-28-2003, 03:04 PM

I've done some readings and the Olympus C-50Z seems to be quite popular... however half of the people say it's a really great cam the other half says it's not.... hmmmm

Purple Haze · 02-28-2003, 04:04 PM

My brother-in-law uses that camera. Its a bit bulky, but he likes it.

Purple Haze

webgurl · 03-01-2003, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by wsjb78
Hiya,

I'm a n00b regarding digital photo cameras and I'd just like to get some input of you. What models can you recommend? What is good? Where do I need to pay attention to?

After readin Vid's article on YNot I thought I'd better first get some feedback here. Some of you sure know what's important here!

Usage: Just personal pictures, nothing out of the extra-ordinary!

Great Brands include,
NIKON , CANON and (NEWER SONY)

wsjb78 · 03-01-2003, 05:00 AM

Oh well, I'm just collecting specific models right now... and do some research of them online. After my exams I'll cut that down to about 5 cams I'd say and then go to a shop and try them all out there... in direct comparison...

Any good advice for the field testing?

03-01-2003, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wsjb78
Oh well, I'm just collecting specific models right now... and do some research of them online. After my exams I'll cut that down to about 5 cams I'd say and then go to a shop and try them all out there... in direct comparison...

Any good advice for the field testing?

Yes.

Whatever model you pick, if it's in the prosumer market, try to shoot 200 full-size high res jpeg pics at a rate of one pic every three seconds and see how the camera behave.

DPReview.com does not mention thermal behavior of the camera.

My fave models, from specs only, is the Minolta DImage7Hi for it's wide angle, bright lens, and fast frame rate. I need very little bellzanwhislez because most of the time, I shoot in full manual mode. But I have no idea if the camera can handle the heat of a sustained shooting and retain it's image integrity.

It will get hot. Well, no, that's a mis-saying. It will get HOT .

You will most likely be able to cook eggs on the compactflash card.

The batteries will also be too hot to handle, most likely.

When you do that, check out if the color balance remains stable. Many cheap cameras have their white balance shift when they are overheating.

ALSO

check of if there are pixels or groups of pixels that suddently appears funky or saturated at some color.

The trick to find them easily: shoot a black card, shot a white card.

Do so with the camera cold, do same with the camera hot (after 200 frames, at 15-20 frames per minute)

Some will show up on the black image, some other on the white image.

Shoot a standard grey or color card when cold and when hot, and look for color shift.

In any experiments, try to vary only one variable at the time. I.e. shoot under same lighting condition ( I suggest a halogen spot, 3200K), preferably with a single light source (be sure not to cast shadow on your target or let other ambiant light sources of different color temperature screw up your tests.

Do not use natural light for tests, for it varies with the slighest whimsical cloud passing by.

wsjb78 · 03-01-2003, 01:02 PM

Feynman:

thx for those tips and tricks *print*

I assume you do more than just taking occasionally holiday pics?

03-01-2003, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wsjb78

I assume you do more than just taking occasionally holiday pics?

nope. Nothing more than holy day pics. *Every* pic I take on any given day is holy.

The holier the subject I take pics of is, the more I like the occasion.

Mister X · 03-01-2003, 02:00 PM

As exhaustive as Feynman's list is I think he missed a few things. First thing is to take a few of the actual kind of pic that you will be taking with the camera. If they'll let you take the camera outside then do that and take some pics with different backgrounds. And since you will most likely be using mainly the automatic modes at first, test in those too. A good test of how well the automodes work on a camera is a shot of someone or something in a fairly dim setting with a window behind them that shows a considerably brighter scene. Take a picture of someone standing against a white wall with and without the flash. The sad truth is that the flash on most digital cameras is really only useful in fill mode to soften shadows if you shoot in bright light. Some cameras have idiosyncracies with focus, etc. that just won't show up when you shoot controlled test shots of cards.

JFK · 03-01-2003, 03:13 PM

Try looking at http://www.dpreview.com/ , but you can get bogged down with the technical details! You can get one of the lower end Olympus models 2 megs or so, and they take excellent pics !

wsjb78 · 03-01-2003, 03:29 PM

Well, I think the Olympus-C50 is in so far cool that you can put in a 256MB xD Card... a friend got a digi-cam with a 8mb stick and that's full after a few pics...

JFK · 03-01-2003, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wsjb78
Well, I think the Olympus-C50 is in so far cool that you can put in a 256MB xD Card... a friend got a digi-cam with a 8mb stick and that's full after a few pics...

I have an Olympus d200 among others, it has a 128meg smart card, and on low res it will do about 700 pics .

Raya · 03-02-2003, 01:00 AM

I just got the Fujifilm FinePix S2 Pro 6.1 mega pixals and my Nikon lens work on it. I am very happy with the photos. It does take some getting used to but with a 50mm lens I can shoot in room lighting when bringing the studio lights is not possible.

Hope you find what you are looking for.

03-02-2003, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mister X
As exhaustive as Feynman's list is I think he missed a few things. First thing is to take a few of the actual kind of pic that you will be taking with the camera. If they'll let you take the camera outside then do that and take some pics with different backgrounds. And since you will most likely be using mainly the automatic modes at first, test in those too. A good test of how well the automodes work on a camera is a shot of someone or something in a fairly dim setting with a window behind them that shows a considerably brighter scene. Take a picture of someone standing against a white wall with and without the flash. The sad truth is that the flash on most digital cameras is really only useful in fill mode to soften shadows if you shoot in bright light. Some cameras have idiosyncracies with focus, etc. that just won't show up when you shoot controlled test shots of cards.

I just assumed that the obvious did not have to be discussed.

I did a post on PJ that explained the whole thing, how your modus operandi influences the type of camera you buy, but he, you know what happened of PJ archives...

I don't think I kept a copy of it.

Anyhow, I LOVE automatic settings on cameras.

Automatic works acceptably in some precise contexts.

The great thing is , most people using auto mode are the one who do not want to bother understanding how auto-mode works, are too lazy to learn the true nature of light metering. They end-up with photosets that have inconsistent color balance and / or exposure.

And that's why I LOVE these cameras.

Business is WAR -japanese proverb

PaulSweet · 03-03-2003, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Evil Chris
We bought the Canon S200 Elph last year and it serves us very well!

Cool thats the one I was looking at getting!

03-03-2003, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Raya
I just got the Fujifilm FinePix S2 Pro 6.1 mega pixals and my Nikon lens work on it. I am very happy with the photos. It does take some getting used to but with a 50mm lens I can shoot in room lighting when bringing the studio lights is not possible.

Hope you find what you are looking for.

What lens are you using? Straight 50mm ?

What 35mm-equivalent focal lenght does a 50mm lens gives on your camera ? Probably around a 90mm ?

I find that for shooting in cramped quarters, I like to have a good 35mm-equivalent to a 28mm focal lenght.

Cramped quarters means cheap hotel suites.