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Thread: Camera Corner

  1. #41
    Registered User martingold's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by philsmove View Post
    Because we are all control freaks
    dont we all know it

  2. #42
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by martingold View Post
    no confession needed philsmove i would be surprised if all pros didnt use auto functions when they want speed
    Missed this comment earlier. The reason not to use Auto function is that are many.

    I use man. nearly all the time now. Simply when I started I didn't because I did understand how a camera worked, hence it was safe to auto.

    20 years laters, most of the time it far quicker to set what I want than have to try and force an auto mode to do what I want.

    An example is: I now understand that for great flash results the cam needs it's settings fixed, and the flash can be in auto. Controlling the setting myself means i can reduce the nasty dark backgrounds (with out using using bouces flash). Having both in auto mode causes more problems than it solves and adds nothing.

  3. #43

    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicklet View Post
    chums

    I am thinking of buying a new digital camera, previously I have just had a pretty basic point and shoot Canon 5mp (cos that was lots when I bought it honest!) with a 3x zoom. Idoit proof really, although I never did manage to figure out how to switch the flash orf.

    This camera got a dunk in the Indian ocean in Jan and while it still take pics, I feel it and I are ready to move on.

    I would like something just one step up I think, smallish, with more zoom, pref with an easy switch to black and white.

    I AM prepared to read the manual this time.

    Is £300 budget reasonable?

    Look forward to considering all recommendations...
    many thanks

    C
    With your budget it has to be an SLR that you go for!
    my wife bought me a Sony A200K SLR - i've seen this on amazon for £245.00 - it is a 10.2mp camera - with a lense kit too! it has built stabilisers etc..
    the D40 Nikon is also a good buy - to be honest both these cameras are fairly evenly matched!

    it will blow you mind with the quality of pics you can capture with one of these SLR's!

  4. #44
    Registered User martingold's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by ashenfie View Post
    Missed this comment earlier. The reason not to use Auto function is that are many.

    I use man. nearly all the time now. Simply when I started I didn't because I did understand how a camera worked, hence it was safe to auto.

    20 years laters, most of the time it far quicker to set what I want than have to try and force an auto mode to do what I want.
    .
    absolutely right

    I learned how to use a camera on a zenith E almost 40 yrs ago this was really basic slr with over lens light meter not even ttl and certainly no auto modes
    So i didnt have the luxury of auto focus or auto exposure having said that i am pleased about that as it meant i had a real good understanding of the controls which means i can now use auto controls for the best effects and not just switch it to the green square (although even that is useful on some occasions)
    The thing a lot of people will not understand is all of the auto controls are meerly tools on a sophisticated piece of equipment they would do well to understand how these tools work before blindly turning them on

  5. #45
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by ashenfie View Post
    An example is: I now understand that for great flash results the cam needs it's settings fixed, and the flash can be in auto. Controlling the setting myself means i can reduce the nasty dark backgrounds (with out using using bouces flash). Having both in auto mode causes more problems than it solves and adds nothing.
    until i stared using the the Nikon Creative lighting system I would have agreed with you . The Nikon Creative lighting system is amazing

  6. #46
    Registered User killingtime's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    With your budget it has to be an SLR that you go for!
    It depends. If you want a camera for photo trips, or you take to dancing with you when you think "I am going to take some photos tonight" then maybe an SLR is what you want. If you want a camera you stick in your pocket and take everywhere on the off chance you'll see something you want to take a photo of then maybe a small point and shoot is what you are looking for.

  7. #47
    Registered User martingold's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by killingtime View Post
    It depends. If you want a camera for photo trips, or you take to dancing with you when you think "I am going to take some photos tonight" then maybe an SLR is what you want. If you want a camera you stick in your pocket and take everywhere on the off chance you'll see something you want to take a photo of then maybe a small point and shoot is what you are looking for.

  8. #48
    Registered User Chicklet's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Well many thanks to all for the views and info posted.
    Last night's class was soooper doooper. We talked mostly about white balance and aperture and I think I understooooood! Have spent this evening with a snowdrop in a pot close to me in the (long) hall changing the aperture down, or is it up lol, to get the flower in focus and the hall blurry. Was a good excercise as I thought I was going to have to log as the start of a big spreadsheet write up where I try and keep track of what settings I used to make each image, but then I remembered this gem!

    Quote Originally Posted by martingold View Post
    Check the exif information that will be embeded on any photo which should give you a reminder of shutter speed apertuer focal length etc
    you will be able to find this info in your image manipulation software and it will remind you how you took the shot
    so I was able to confirm for my own eyes that the details of the shot I liked/ had been trying to get did indeed line up with the theory I'd been taught.

    So many thanks for this Martin, I'm sure it will be mentioned in class one day but it's the kind of thing that if you're brand new, you certainly couldn't ask about because you wouldn't have a scooby that such a thing might exist.

    To all, I have taken in all sides of all sides of the suggestions for learning!
    For me, I think the looking at others' pics is going to be useful in a wide sense but less so in the immediate weeks, related to the above JUST BECAUSE, (this is really hard to put into words ) when I look at something I don't know enough to recognise what is special about it ie what settings might have been used that I think I would want to know to do something similar. Horrid sentence, but hopefully makes some sense .
    I think taking my own, and using the tool or a notebook or both so that I start to equate a given pic with its detail is going to be the key to being able to know how and what I want to do in any given situation.

    But obviously this could all change by the weekend.

  9. #49
    Registered User Feelingpink's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicklet View Post
    ...when I look at something I don't know enough to recognise what is special about it ie what settings might have been used that I think I would want to know to do something similar. ...
    Makes total sense. A friend is about to do a series of day-long workshops for Calumet (photographic equipment chain) on children's portraiture throughout the country and she is going to have this as one of the interractive parts of the day - getting into groups and figuring out how various photographs have been taken and possibly why. She thought this might be fun for people are experienced portrait photographers and those who are still on page 10 of the camera manual ... sounds as if it would be! Glad it's fun and exciting.

  10. #50
    Registered User martingold's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicklet View Post
    Well many thanks to all for the views and info posted.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To all, I have taken in all sides of all sides of the suggestions for learning!
    For me, I think the looking at others' pics is going to be useful in a wide sense but less so in the immediate weeks, related to the above JUST BECAUSE, (this is really hard to put into words ) when I look at something I don't know enough to recognise what is special about it ie what settings might have been used that I think I would want to know to do something similar. Horrid sentence, but hopefully makes some sense .
    I think taking my own, and using the tool or a notebook or both so that I start to equate a given pic with its detail is going to be the key to being able to know how and what I want to do in any given situation.

    But obviously this could all change by the weekend.
    sounds like a good course indeed if the tutor is starting with aperture and white balance

    as for the looking at pics you can never see enough pictures and if you start trying now to see how they are done it will help get your eye in quicker
    look for things like the highlight in the eye to work out where the light/ lights are shadows etc
    and of course now you understand it depth of field and white balance
    have fun

  11. #51
    Registered User Chicklet's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Sooooo had a fabby time on my ten week course and will without doubt go back after the summer for more learning and info n stuff and can go to t'intermediates!

    Am already taking the camera out with me on the off chance far more often than I ever would have done last year and have picked up some cool shots.
    No more bought birthday cards from me!

    But I am really on to ask if anyone here does blipfoto? and/or would comment on how they like it?
    taaaa

  12. #52
    Registered User killingtime's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicklet View Post
    But I am really on to ask if anyone here does blipfoto? and/or would comment on how they like it?
    taaaa
    I've not. I use Flickr for most of my uploading (and backup; though it's a bit of a pain to get photos from Flickr) with some photos going to Facebook or Picasa Web Albums (unfortunately not any where near as good as the client is for photo management). I do a random photo challenge thing for fun.

    This thread was probably an influence on me buying a Canon 450D (well a Rebel XSi but the same thing) which I love.

  13. #53
    Commercial Operator StokeBloke's Avatar
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    Cool Re: Camera Corner

    I know I've come to this thread a little late, but if anyone is considering buying ANY form of digital camera I would strongly recommend looking at the shutter lag for the model you're looking for. The difference between cameras can be enormous. The last thing you want when you see something cool happening at a freestyle is to wait 5 seconds before your camera is ready and the moment is gone.

    When looking at shutter lag the lower the time the better. But you need to consider two aspects of it - firstly how long you need to wait from switching on to taking the shot, secondly how long it takes from being off to shooting five frames. If you're looking for something to capture moments with - THIS is more important than how many megapixels your sensor has, or if it comes with a mink carry case....

    Just my thoughts on a camera for dancers

  14. #54
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by StokeBloke View Post
    I know I've come to this thread a little late, but if anyone is considering buying ANY form of digital camera I would strongly recommend looking at the shutter lag for the model you're looking for. The difference between cameras can be enormous. The last thing you want when you see something cool happening at a freestyle is to wait 5 seconds before your camera is ready and the moment is gone.

    When looking at shutter lag the lower the time the better. But you need to consider two aspects of it - firstly how long you need to wait from switching on to taking the shot, secondly how long it takes from being off to shooting five frames. If you're looking for something to capture moments with - THIS is more important than how many megapixels your sensor has, or if it comes with a mink carry case....

    Just my thoughts on a camera for dancers
    I remember how disappointed I was when I tried to take stills of a busk. I thought I could compensate for the delay by anticipating. Knowing the Ceroc moves I could press the button before the lady turned to face the camera. I was not far enough in advance.

    The photo I have uploaded was a frame from a movie clip. If you really do not need all of that resolution shooting movie clips and picking the best frame is one solution.

    Reading the instructions is another useful tip. It turns out the camera had a -ve shutter speed option. Press the right magic button and the camera records what was in the viewfinder before you pressed the button as a series of images.

    To make it clearer, the camera is always recording what is in the viewfinder as fast as it can, and remembers what it was pointed at for a short time. It can save those to its acessible memory when you select the right option.

    I have never tried this, preferring to shoot movie clips. The stills from them are good enough for me.

  15. #55
    An Eclectic Toaster
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicklet View Post
    But I am really on to ask if anyone here does blipfoto? and/or would comment on how they like it?
    taaaa
    After one year and a few months I've started again I'll restore the link to my siggy eventually. It's a nice little discipline, to have to think of a new picture each day.

  16. #56
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    Re: Camera Corner

    I spent some of my precious time at Sunday laze experimenting with movie clips. The afternoon sun streaming through the open doors ensured there was sufficient light. I would position the camera, set it going, and try to capture myself dancing. Sadly I used cheap batteries, which ran out. The camera detects low battery condition, and I assumed that it would cease capturing and save before switching off. Using a pack of 8 batteries I managed to capture only 9 secs of action, and 6 seconds of that was a close up of someone leaving the floor.


    Does anyone know if there are any cameras which save a movie before switching off?

    Or have a power saving "tripod" movie mode, where they switch off the LCD to save power whilst movie recording?

  17. #57
    Registered User Chicklet's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Stuart M View Post
    After one year and a few months I've started again I'll restore the link to my siggy eventually. It's a nice little discipline, to have to think of a new picture each day.
    Hoorah!
    That's me nearly four weeks in and loving it. I even have two subscribers which is something I NEVER thought would happen. Rarely leave the house without the camera now and have figured out how to do a few things in photoshop that can sometimes "boost" an image. Some of the images that folk put up are just magnificent, some of the stories folk put up to go with the images are also magnificent, but some stuff is just plain weird (and yes, some is just crap to be honest). It's a super challenge, really makes you look at the world around you in much more detail....and it's FREE with NO advertising!!...can't be many websites left like that (no that's not a dig, I happily pay my pennies to lurk on here and would have for blip too).
    www.blipfoto.com/chicklet if anyone's interested....I have a theme...

  18. #58
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    Re: Camera Corner

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicklet View Post
    Hoorah!
    That's me nearly four weeks in and loving it. I even have two subscribers which is something I NEVER thought would happen.
    Make that three

  19. #59
    Registered User Chicklet's Avatar
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    Re: Camera Corner

    hoorah!
    thanks bud, I shall return the favour but more than one electrical appliance per week and Ill be orf.

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