UBB.Developers Forums General Discussion Chit Chat Digital Photography

Recently got a new camera since my wife made me drop mine atop the Eiffel Tower A Canon Digital Rebel XT I saved a couple hundred dollars by finding a good site at www.pricegrabber.com - just don't fall for the upselling most sites try to do once you purchase their inexpensive main equipment - you can almost always buy better quality for less money for the accessories they try to upsell you on.

Who is in to digital photography? What camera do you use and what do you like about it? Do you have any favorite websites to learn from/ be inspired by?

I have been into digital photography for several years now. I had an Olympus D500. I bought it used off of my boss. It was one of the first fixed SLR cameras out. When he bought a new camera a few years back, I bought his current Olympus D620L. It's not the most advanced camera out these days, but it serves me well. It has burst mode for taking 3-5 shots in an instant. It has a real macro and all the other basic features most cameras have. It's low on pixels, 1.3 I think, but it still takes nice pictures.

[img]http://209.204.184.164/gallery/gallery%2FStilgar%2FWinter%5FFun%5FFest%5F2004%2Fwff%5F04%2D148%2Ejpg[/img]





I don't have any inspirational links, sorry.

Enjoy your new toy.

I heart digital photography...

I have a Sony Digital Mactiva, it takes pictures to floppy disks as I wasn't interested in dealing with any "cards"; our next one will likely be either an SD or a DVD camera...

I have a load of pictures availalbe on Corthell.info , some examples:

the second one is the one that looks the most like you gizzy

those are great pictures, especially for the pixel amounts. I ran the wheels off a sony mavica until it eventually just started corrupting every floppy I put into it. It took thousands of pictures tho

There's a great article by Ken Rockwell at:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

- about how pixel count really doesn't matter, we'd need 25megapixel cameras to even get close to film quality at 4x5 and 100+ mp to get close at 11x14 and larger sizes - the difference from 4-6mp or whatever isn't really enough to make a difference. Most of the pictures he has on there were taken with a 3mp camera, even award-winning ones. A lot of his medium format pictures are taken with a camera he bought for $3 or something

He has a lot of great articles on there if you are shopping for a camera:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/buydigicam.htm
or just wanting to learn how to take great pictures. Most everyone could learn a bit there and the articles read easy

I recently took a class titled "Basic Digital Photography" for my BA, and for that class I purchased a Kodak DX7630 , and it worked very well. I took over 800 pictures in 8 weeks with this camera and only had to change the battery a couple of times.

The camera is a 6.1 MP, so you do need a hefty card to get a decent amount of images. It is easy to use, has plenty of macros, and even limited Manual mode. The price wasn't too bad either for the camera.

Nice I understand Kodak is coming on strong after ignoring digital cameras for a while.

Longhorn is supposed to support RAW images built-in:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121085,00.asp

That'll make it easier to do things on the higher end with pictures. Those files can be huge tho

One reason I bought my rebel xt is that I already have a couple canon products - a powershot s50 (slowly getting worse for the wear) and a canon elura 50 or something (digital video). All 3 use the same battery and compact flash cards, so I save a bundle in not having to buy extras A friend of mine is a professional photographer too: http://www.clemwebb.com/ - he gets some great results from his canon cameras

Here's a shot I took with my Kodak for my class:

http://thegeeksinc.com/subzero/coaster.jpg

PhotoShop CS has built in Camera Raw support; previous versions have to purchase a seperate plugin (i knew i should have copied that when i worked for support)

my sister has a 5mpix kodak camera that she bought around a year ago. Works great outdoor and ok indoor and has a real optical zoom.

5mpix is great if you want to blow up the pictures you take

I think maybe I enjoy this type of photography a little too much. My most used cams are the Canon Pro 1, Canon 350XT and the Pansonic FZ5. I have a Fuji 602z Pro that gets pulled out in the nicer weather as well. Thank goodness for external hard drives!

Gizzy, I started with a Mavica FD91 because I felt the same as you did about the media.

If anyone is interested in the EXIF info for online photos there is a little program called IExif that lets you see the camera info if they haven't been renamed.
http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/index.html

FastStone Image Viewer seems like a neat little program too.
http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

Your Canon 350XT - is that the same as my canon digital rebel xt? It's also called the 350 in europe I believe

Yep, it is Allen. I visit a forum photo forum and it's always referred to as the 350 but you're right it's the Digital Rebel XT on this side of the pond.

Currently I have a Mostek 800, which was very good for 1998. It did it's purpose for the time, but compared to pictures nowadays it's like a 4 mb ram computer. I'm actually keeping an eye out for one to buy, that's not too expensive, probably 500$ range.

Gizzy: You have made my day with that 2nd picture and my new desktop picture.

hehe... man I have hundreds of pictures of my dog... My saying is, "if you want one great picture then you must take hundreds of crappy ones".

But there are like 20-30 great pictures of my dog on there hehe... We just got him groomed so I need to take more pictures of him (well, after i re-brush him, he had an accident last night and puked everywhere, including on himself)

Now that's an accident

I took a buncha pictures of the astros getting whupped today It woulda been a great game but for the 3rd inning when the cards got 8 runs

ah, ok. I've seen it referred to as the XT and the 350D, I thought maybe I missed an upgrade to the 350XT

BTW, for anyone interested; if you look in my dog's left eye you can see my wife taking the picture ... The dog is looking at me in it .

What do you recommend for a case? Enough size to hold multiple lens or your fave lens and the body? As big as some lens are it might require a backpack

I received similar advice in my Digital Photography class. That's why I took over 800 pictures in 8 weeks for an 18 image portfolio which was half my grade. I got an A in the class, of course Also learned a few tips in Photoshop for fixing images too

Yeh, you can never have too many photos; besides, with digital you can always delete what you don't need

Hehehe... I have many many photos on My Personal Website

I have thousands (>3,000) on my hard drive, probably 4-5,000 on my old work computer and a few thousand on my personal site: www.praisecafe.org and maybe a thousand on some compact flash cards I haven't downloaded yet

I was never the camera geek growing up, but in the last few years I've more than made up for it. This is my first non-point-and-shoot camera tho

Tell me how you like the 70-300 IS, I am borrowing an old 75-300 or something like it from someone I work with for my little trip in a few weeks, It seems to work pretty well, IS would be nice tho

Where do you get your hard-copy prints done? At home? If so, what kinda printer? I've used Walmart recently for some nice black and white prints and another site online for larger prints (can't remember right now). I think it's cheaper to get them done by someone else right now, printers are not that expensive, but the paper and ink is crazy

I like Walmart or WalGreens; even KMart... they all have the card scanner/disk/cd drives on the Kodak machine and it's come out decent... In fact, that's what we're having the baby pictures printed out on ...

Their photo station is quick and pretty cheap. I've liked the black and white and the sepia prints we've done so far

Nice collection of pics Gizzy!

I don't print my own either. I've used Walmart, Sams and an online service for printing... I can't remember the name right now either. I believe some places have profiles for different cameras... but I've never done that myself. If you're interested in books, MyPublisher.com has a 2 for one deal until the end of the month if I'm not mistaken. The books I've seen have turned out quite nice.

The new lens didn't come today... crossing my fingers it comes tomorrow. I'm seriously considering the 400mm prime right now. The only other contender is the 300mm IS prime. They both seem to have great reviews.

BTW, my May 2005 folder has over 2,000 pics. June 2005 will most likely have more.

How does everyone organize their pics? I have the year as the main folder with all of the months inside starting with '1_Jan', 2_Feb, 3_March and so on. Perhaps someone has a better idea.

Organization of pictures/albums: yyyymmdd-#####

As for ordering; Gallery (Melto Gallery) allows you to order prints through differant servies on a picture by picture basis as well

I organize some by date, some by topic (if the topic is pretty important, like my wedding ) I go to the huge Sema show in vegas every year and take a bajillion pictures there, usually that gets its own folder, sometime broken down into makes (dodge, bmw, etc). or trucks/cars/ mutated ill-tempered sea bass with frickin laser beams - you can see most anything in vegas

If it's a big trip I'll give them it's own folder

My events are organized by name, then the pictures by YYYYMMDD usually; most pictures i'm too lazy to rename from "MVC-xxxxx" hehe

My wife's birthday is Saturday, I ordered her a Casio - getting rave reviews here:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/casio/exz750.htm

I have a Pentax Optio 430RS which has served me well over the last 2-3 years. I wanted something that was small enough to keep in a pocket, but not so small that it fits in a mint tin

The small form factor makes me more inclined to bring it with me, and as a result, I've accumulated quite a few pictures since having it. I know that I wouldn't have taken nearly as much with a Digital SLR, although I'd prefer the SLR for astrophotography. Not sure whether or not I want to eventually buy a SLR or a CCD camera when I decide to take the plunge.

Since I'm fortunate enough to own Macs, I use iPhoto to organize them.

-tacks

What's the advantage/disadvantage of using a prime lens over a zoom? Is it sharper since it is made exclusively for one particular shot?

I have some good photos from our trip to Fort Vancouver today and we did a quick drive by through the Soldiers Row in Vancouver as well... Not sure when I'll have them up, but should have them online within a few nights (as they're next to me, but i'm tired and want to sleep)

For anyone interested in photos of Fort Vancouver (the heart of the Hudson Bay company's pacific fur trading) I have a nice little gallery (350 photos) up here ...

BTW:


And, do I ever listen?:

The answer is 'yes'

I've been spending a lot of time at a photo website: http://www.nobsphotosuccess.com - a great site if you are seriously into digital photography and want amazing pictures

I keep a few of my trip photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/22849320@N00/

the "oddbar", it taunts me so...

Primes are good They are sharp, but bear in mind they are not zooms, so only good for particular jobs - I will use a prime usually for sport (cricket, football(soccer) etc..) - of course a decent prime is expensive - my 400mm F2.8 cost around £6,000 ($12,000 on current version rates)!!!

If you have any photography questions just ask. I am a canon man myself with the following kit...

1DMK11
1DMk11N
400mm F2.8
300mm F2.8
100-400mm
70-200mm F2.8
16-35 f2.8
15mm Fisheye
1.4x converter
2x converter
various filters, flashunits etc... (and the odd item, I have forgotten)

Another good site is http://www.photography-on-the.net

oh my goodness that's some expensive hardware

I have a rebel xt with a 50mm 1.8, the kit lens and a 70-300mm with IS and a speedlight 430ex flash

Give me all of your old unused hardware and I shall put it to good use :nod: lol

The best thing photo related that I've bought is a Canon Selphy CP510 Dye-Sub Photo Printer. My wife used to always complain that we had 1,000s of pictures stored on the computer, but none that she could put in an album or share with other people. I bought it a year ago and she prints as many pics as she wants, lots and lots of baby pictures - real nice quality too