Digital Cameras

[markopolo]

It's an old thread but I thought I might as well use it.
Those photos are great Mike.

I bought a Casio EX-H20G with GPS, 14 megapixel & 10x optical zoom for about $130 on sale but I had to return it. The quality of the photos was way worse than my 10 year old Canon Digital Elph.
I made the mistake of assuming that, after 10 years, the base quality would be ok.

The GPS feature was really cool though.

My results were like this:
http://www.gpspassion.com/fr/articles.asp?id=283

Live and learn.

[Davydd]

I still and use my Olympus E520 DSLR and my Canon S95 subcompact point and shoot that I have mentioned in this forum. Both cameras have improved versions now if anyone is buying new.

I now also have the Apple iPhone 4S with an 8 MP camera. So far I am liking it and getting good low-light shots with it. It has GPS tracking and location if that is important. What I really like is it is a good enough camera to be my every day carry around camera that is always with me. The other thing I like about it is the internet social media capability for directly posting to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Photobucket, etc. Then there are the hundreds (maybe thousands) of photography apps for taking photos and editing photos. That part is a hobby in itself to experiment and play with. One such is an app called Instagram where you take a square photo, apply filters and upload to a social media photo gallery. All this activity is called iPhoneography. For example by far the most photos being posted to Flickr right now are coming from an iPhone.

Here are some websites that explain what this trend is all about if you are curious:

http://www.iphoneography.com/

http://iphoneographydaily.blogspot.com/

http://campl.us/

http://instagr.am/

http://www.foodspotting.com/blog/posts/ ... of-iphones

[Davydd]

Here is one my first Instagram postings with my iPhone 4S.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by markopolo

It's an old thread but I thought I might as well use it.
Those photos are great Mike.

I bought a Casio EX-H20G with GPS, 14 megapixel & 10x optical zoom for about $130 on sale but I had to return it. The quality of the photos was way worse than my 10 year old Canon Digital Elph.
I made the mistake of assuming that, after 10 years, the base quality would be ok.

The GPS feature was really cool though.

My results were like this:
http://www.gpspassion.com/fr/articles.asp?id=283

Live and learn.

I guess so. I use the pictures from our trips as screen savers and wallpaper. We're both impressed with the
improvement quadrupling your pixel density makes for an amateur. The camera is idiot proof, which allows
me to take some fairly good pics. I like it. btw, they still make my series of cameras (Fuji Finepix) if anyone
is interested in a nice little point and shoot (with many manual settings, too) faux DSLR camera. Best Buy
Canada carries them, and I think BB USA does too. Easy on the wallet, < $300, and easy on the batteries, too.

[Davydd]

I've been going through thousands of slides for digitizing from the 60s and 70s that I took and have come to one conclusion. Digital cameras must make one a better photographer. I can't believe how many crappy slides I have. I think being able to see your image better with an LCD view screen and the ability to make instant adjustments when your first shot doesn't satisfy you are two major reasons you have better results with digital. Also, I have saved and improved a lot of shots with post processing in exposure, color adjustment and cropping. The last thing, and it actually took me some time to overcome film camera habits as an amateur, is that I have loosened up and am not as frugal in the number of shots I will take to get just the right one. For instance with film I would have never shot off a whole roll on a sunset. I would have just bracketed three and then hoped for the best. With digital I will keep shooting a rapidly changing scene.

Here is a sunset shot on Caddo Lake on the Texas/Louisiana border. In this instance on a moving pontoon tour boat I had to see in advance and make a fast decision. Still I missed by just a bit in getting the sun centered right between the tree groupings. But to get this shot I had taken a few before and made some settings adjustments.

[markopolo]

More zoom fun
I got a Nikon Coolpix S9100 from Amazon to replace the returned Casio.
You can get a lot of zoom in a simple camera for less than $200 now.

Full wide angle:


Full optical zoom (18X):


Full optical zoom (18X) plus full digital zoom (4X):


I used a tripod

[Photog]

Impressive zoom power and focus quality, when maxed out.

[markopolo]

Tonight's moon



Full optical zoom (18X) plus full digital zoom (4X) on a tripod.

[markopolo]

Interesting effect today
This was a long zoom shot, no tripod. I didn't change any settings and the photos before and after look like normal photos.
This one looks like a painting. It is re-sized to fit on the forum. The "painting" effect is even more pronounced in the full sized image.

[Mike]

Perhaps some of us missed out true callings?
I think if I take enough shots, I might get one or two keepers. Law of averages.
I wish the Fuji had a remote shutter release. Actually, maybe it does, I haven't really looked into it.
And I should get a tripod for those night/low light shots to avoid blurring.
Other than that, shoot lots, one or two might turn out.

[Photog]

The Fuji and most of the other cameras will have a timed-shutter. This is designed so you can push the shutter release and get into your own photo (typically for family photos).

This delayed shutter release can work in place of a remote release, to prevent camera shake.

My Pro camera and my Canon G11 have a 10 second timer and a 2 second timer. The 2 second timer works great in place of a remote release.

[Mike]

DOH!!!! Forest? Trees?

Thanks, Brian. I would have figured that out eventually. In a year or two.

[Ron J. Moore]

Thanks to all for the great photos. I appreciate good photos and the folks who can get these pixs and share with us all. Safe travels.