Photography

[Nurvingiel]

Originally Posted by Elanor's Angel

I've been looking into an Olympus for myself.
What features do you love and what do you dislike? This goes for all you care to give me there opinion. Any camera realy, what do you all suggest?

Love: the quality and general non-bluriness of the pictures. It doesn't like low-light conditions much, but that's because it's working hard to take a not blurry picture.

You'll notice this if you're taking a picture in a dark room, the camera will take one or two seconds longer than normal to take the picture, and you can hear it "thinking" the whole time. Later you'll download your pictures and think, "Wow, I never expected that one to turn out!"

I also love the functionality and easy use of the camera. I didn't even have to read the manual (much)!

Has red-eye reduction flash (it works too). Basically there's a bonus flash before the actual picture taking.

Handles lights and shiny surfaces well.
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/30618738/

Can take panorama pictures.

Can take night shots. I recently discovered the awesomeness of this feature and will explore it more. (I recommend a tripod, but anything that holds your camera still and horizontal will work. eg. a pile of flat rocks, the top of a table, the top of a flat fence, etc.)
A night shot I took: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29376715/

Easy to download from it.


Don't like:
The craaazy flash. I think it's too bright and I don't like it. Pictures look pretty decent with the flash as long as the photographer is 3+ meters away from the subject. You can turn it off though and take an ambiant light photo. I usually do that.

The macro function does not appear to do anything. (Maybe I should read the manual..?)


My camera is one-and-a-half years old now, so you can get a more advanced model for the same price (which I don't know because it was a gift) or even less. Maybe some of my quibbles will have been improved upon.

(I have other photos at my deviantArt account too. </plugging> )

[Meriadoc Brandybuck]

Can I post a picture here from a file; if so, how? I have some nice pictures I want to post.

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by Meriadoc Brandybuck

Can I post a picture here from a file; if so, how? I have some nice pictures I want to post.

Yep! Get a photobucket account. And don't worry, it doesn't publish your name or anything, that's kept secret.
Just to get rid of any prior doubts.
www.photobucket.com

[Elanor's Angel]

Thank you Nurvingiel! That was very informative! I so totally want one now! (Although I don't exactly know where the chicken part came from....)

[Lotesse]

Justin, Grey Wolf and Elfearz, it looks like you guys have to re-post your entries from the last day of down time. All posts made here in Entmoot over the last 24 hours or however long it was that down time lasted, got erased, or lost, very unfortunately.

[Elanor's Angel]

I don't think mine did..... I wonder why.......

[-elfearz-]

hmm no mine seem to still be here...unless it's only me who can see it

Originally Posted by -elfearz-

oooh great thread - I love photography

here's a few from sydney

opera house just before NYE

random ship and random ship in colour

and..our most beautiful shopping centre! window and reflection of staircase

Thanks Lotesse I've only just started to get into photography, so don't have much equipment at all (not even a tripod )! The first 3 photos were taken with my new Nikon D50 (entry level digital SLR) with an 18-55mm zoom lens, and the last 2 were taken with a digital Pentax point & shoot in manual mode

Nice pics Nurv - your camera seems to be doing a good job! You should probably be able to adjust the brightness of your flash in the camera settings somewhere (look in your manual ), and putting your camera into macro mode should allow it to focus at much closer distances, so you can take close-ups (remember to take it out of macro mode when you want to take pictures from a greater distance though, otherwise it wont focus properly).

Elanor's Angel, look at the actual models of cameras as well as the brand - most manufacturers make some great cameras as well as some pretty horrible ones, and price & no of megapixels are a starting point but not always a good guide. This is a pretty good site where you can get a list of cameras that have the features you want, and then read reviews, but it's not always completely up to date with every camera thats just been released. http://www.dpreview.com/ also has comprehensive reviews

If you're going to be taking a lot of indoor pics, make sure you get a camera with an autofocus-assist lamp, otherwise chances are your camera will struggle and take ages to focus, or possibly not focus at all. Not sure what kind of camera you're looking at buying, but a lot of cheap, entry level cameras skimp on this feature, so do check the features if you think of buying one of these. A few cameras without the lamp do a fairly ok job, and some with the lamp still manage to do a pretty awful job in poor light (my old, high end 7 megapixel pentax point-and-shoot with about 3 million manual controls fell into this category ) - so do try to have a skim read of a few reviews before you buy

[Lotesse]

Elfearz, about that lamp - you mean like a standing lighting lamp, one that plugs in like a tall lamp that puts the right light in the area to be photographed? I need to invest in one of those. It seems like such a better way to light an interior instead of the flash from the camera which usually blows out the lighter parts of my photos too much, plus it really causes my people a lot of eye discomfort.

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by Lotesse

Elfearz, about that lamp - you mean like a standing lighting lamp, one that plugs in like a tall lamp that puts the right light in the area to be photographed? I need to invest in one of those. It seems like such a better way to light an interior instead of the flash from the camera which usually blows out the lighter parts of my photos too much, plus it really causes my people a lot of eye discomfort.

I think she means more like an eye. My camera has a small light-sensing eye.

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally Posted by Lotesse

Justin, Grey Wolf and Elfearz, it looks like you guys have to re-post your entries from the last day of down time. All posts made here in Entmoot over the last 24 hours or however long it was that down time lasted, got erased, or lost, very unfortunately.

In fact what i can see is that all my posts are still there. But thanks for your concern.

[Elanor's Angel]

Wow! Thank you all so much! You are all so great!

[-elfearz-]

Originally Posted by trolls' bane

I think she means more like an eye. My camera has a small light-sensing eye.

This is what I meant...but if you have the time to set up a photo, then by all means do experiment with lighting - it allows you to get a bit more creative with your photography.

You can also bounce the flash off another surface to avoid the blown-out effect...but most point & shoot cameras don't allow this

[Rev. Justin Timberlake]

Originally Posted by Lotesse

Justin, Grey Wolf and Elfearz, it looks like you guys have to re-post your entries from the last day of down time. All posts made here in Entmoot over the last 24 hours or however long it was that down time lasted, got erased, or lost, very unfortunately.

This was the only pic I posted that isn't here, IIRC. 'Twas for Rian.

[Lotesse]

That's a really cool picture! I love that angle; very funny & sweet. No, you had a whole slew of photographs posted here, Justin. Don't you remember? All kinds. "Death," and stuff like that. Did I have any new ones posted? I can't remember.

Man, I hate it when posts get lost, I just hate it. There were all kinds of awesome pics here, and now they got disappeared, dammit.

[Elanor's Angel]

Awe!!!! ( i have a Cocker Spaniel named Rosy! She's about 14 now!)
These sights are great! Thank you again!

[Lotesse]

Originally Posted by Lotesse

That's a really cool picture! I love that angle; very funny & sweet. No, you had a whole slew of photographs posted here, Justin. Don't you remember? All kinds. "Death," and stuff like that. Did I have any new ones posted? I can't remember.

Man, I hate it when posts get lost, I just hate it. There were all kinds of awesome pics here, and now they got disappeared, dammit.

Um, nevermind. I scrolled back & found your pics, Justin. I think it's getting kind of late now; maybe I should be getting to bed. Damn memory is playin' tricks on me again. I'm getting too sleepy.

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Rev. Justin Timberlake

This was the only pic I posted that isn't here, IIRC. 'Twas for Rian.

awwwwwww!
*plants a kiss on his cute little nose*

*the dog's nose, not yours!*

*but you get one on the cheek if you want*

Thanks, J!

[Rev. Justin Timberlake]

Originally Posted by Elanor's Angel

What features do you love and what do you dislike? This goes for all you care to give me there opinion. Any camera realy, what do you all suggest?

Full manual exposure control is great. You can control the shutter speed and aperture size/depth of field. On a point-and-shoot, big optical zoom is great, but it helps to have image stabilization to go with it (camera shake is extremely pronounced at something like 10X-12X zoom). I like fixed body cameras (see my camera below) because you can add filters.



I've never used SLR so I can't advise.

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by Rev. Justin Timberlake

Full manual exposure control is great. You can control the shutter speed and aperture size/depth of field. On a point-and-shoot, big optical zoom is great, but it helps to have image stabilization to go with it (camera shake is extremely pronounced at something like 10X-12X zoom). I like fixed body cameras because you can add filters.

I've never used SLR so I can't advise.

Be VERY careful using "zoom." That often complicates matters, because a) zoom could mean magnification, or zoom as in zoom in/out, and b) it's hard to compare it to SLR lenses, which use go by focal lenght, I beleive. This is why I still can't figure out GW's question. Sorry, GW. I wish I could help more.

[Rev. Justin Timberlake]

Originally Posted by trolls' bane

Be VERY careful using "zoom." That often complicates matters, because a) zoom could mean magnification, or zoom as in zoom in/out, and b) it's hard to compare it to SLR lenses, which use go by focal lenght, I beleive.

Hence the "On a point-and-shoot".