Digital Photography

[SoldierofChrist]

Hey!

Is anyone here into digital photography? I'm interested in getting into this hobby when I get some bills paid off. I'm looking at the Olympus Camedia C-4000 camera which is supposed to be the best camera under $500 with excellent photographic ability.

I'd love to get tips or suggestions on how to get started in this as I'm very interested in it and would like to learn more.

Thanks!

 

[RaptureTicketHolder]

Greetings!

I just adore digital photography! I use Sony's cybershot 3.3 with the Carl Zeiss zome lense. This is an awesome camera! We got it at just under a grand, a large sum I know, but its been well worth the investment.

There is a much improved version of this camera on the market today for about $600.

Look at my web site for just a small sample of what I've done w/my Sony. For excellent shots, its worth the heafty investment!

 

[SoldierofChrist]

Yeah I would love to shell out that kind of cash for a good camera, but, unfortunately I'm a College student. Bible College no less! But I would love to get a least a good start in it, and PC World and some other places have rated the Olympus C-4000 4 megapixel camera to be a best buy because of the excellent quality of the pictures for such a cheap (price-wise) camera.

I checked out your site, those are some great shots! That's what I would love to do. Do you subscribe to any magazines or anything? I'm new to photography period, so I'm only familiar with those point and shoot cameras at this point.

 

[SonWorshipper]

Ohhhhh, just up my alley!

I can only testify to one camera, but I love it! I have a SonyED Mavica, and got it about two years ago for $399, It is lower than that now, and ( SUPER TIP!!!) get it at Wal*Mart and if you don't absolutely love it you have 90 days to return it and get your money back!

This is what it has 10X Zoom lens
3 flash options
A Super long life Battery and charger comes with it. Battery can last for up to 2.5 hours!

Various picture effects, such as ( looking from left to right)

Black and White hard to come by in regular photography anymore (pic 1)
Solarize-- neat effect (pic 2)
Negative effect ( pic 3)
Sepia ( ol' tyme photo look (pic4)
Regular in Picture 5


One of the features that sold me was the ease of what you recorded on. I did a lot of research and the batteries and extras that you have to buy for the USB cable, and cards, and readers is ridicules. This uses a standard PC 3.5 Floppy, you can get up to 23 pics to a floppy on Fine ( best quality) and you can then make a copy with another empty disc right in the camera!

You can also delete a picture if it didn't come out how you wanted and also date and time, and make a email sized copy too, great for sending to your friends!

You also can view each picture as you take it, which is great to make sure that you have what you wanted, and the screen for viewing is very large, 2" X 1.5".

Here are the pictures I just took to demonstrate the different effects.

 

[OpenBook]

I have a Kodak DC 215 Zoom
I really like it.

The only down side to this camera, is if you are taking a multiple subject shot it wants to focus on one subject and therefore kinda blurs out the edge.

I use Microsoft Picture it to edit and play with the photos.I also bought a decent printer to print pictures boy did that make a difference.

OB

 

[ZiSunka]

Buy the best camera you can afford. It will be worth it!

 

[stumpsitting101]

Hey SonWorshipper:
I knew you were a natural at Photograghy.
How many Pixils rating is your camera?
I looking for one which uses the 3.5 floppy but they seem to be getting replaced. I'm really holding out to get one of those movie camera which takes still frames on a small CD.
Wal-Mart? What's That?

 

[retrogeek]

It's a great hobby. I've been fully digital for about six years now. I have a Canon EOS-10D SLR that I just upgraded to from a Canon D30. Before that I used Nikon 950, a Kodak 210, and a couple others.

The only brand that I'd counsel you to avoid is Kodak. In my personal experience their recent cameras aren't all that hot. I haven't used Olympus much but they have a good rep. Nikon is also excellent. And, of course, Canon has a wide range of models in all price ranges.

Here are two really nice sites to research the details of various models before you buy. Their reviews and sample photos are excellent, also. Both sites have forums full of nice folks if you have any questions.

http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

Right now there are some nice bargains on last year's latest-and-greatest that you might want to check into. I tend to agree that you should buy the nicest camera that's in your budget. You'll get a lot more mileage from it in the long run.

It's really wonderful to be able to take photos of anything you like without worrying about the cost of film or developing. And once you get used to tweaking your pics on the PC you'll never want to go back to film. Good luck!

 

[SonWorshipper]

Hey SonWorshipper:
I knew you were a natural at Photograghy.
How many Pixils rating is your camera?
I looking for one which uses the 3.5 floppy but they seem to be getting replaced. I'm really holding out to get one of those movie camera which takes still frames on a small CD.
Wal-Mart? What's That?

Thanks! Actually I was at Wal*mart last night and priced them and it has more gadgits on it now and at $399 I think this is the upper model, they had two when I bought mine the upper was then $499

I LOVE the floppy! No fuss at all!

Pixels? As soon as I can locate the book I will let you know, don't remember off hand. But you can enlarge my pictures and see for yourself, they were taken right here from where I am now sitting looking at that tape box only 2 feet away from me.

It also does great speed shots too. My husband took it to the Pocono 500 and got terrific shots, and it was his first time using it and he doesn't know the first thing about cameras.

 

[psycmajor]

Dude, no offense, but how could you fit anything on a 3.5" floppy?

 

[tonytech]

I use a HP 850. Cost about 400 UK£.
Great camera 4.1 mega pixel 8x OPTICAL zoom (digital zooms just crop the image)
Uses AA batteries (NiMh if U like so U never end up with no power when that sunset happens)
Ive taken lots of photos with this camera and it feels like a propper camera.
T

 

[SonWorshipper]

Dude, no offense, but how could you fit anything on a 3.5" floppy?

What do you mean?

 

[tonytech]

The HP 850 camera I use has 4 milloin pixels, in best quality mode each picture uses over 1megabyte of storage. (ie 1 image would fit on a floppy)
I have a 128MB secure digital memory card in the camera which I can slot into a reader in my PC .
I can use the USB cable & software that came with the camear but with the reader the card acts like a hard drive & I can see the images befor I download.
Tony

 

[JohnR7]

I'm new to photography period, so I'm only familiar with those point and shoot cameras at this point.

Any camera will take pretty good photos from 3 feet to about 8 or 12 feet. I like my olympus 490 because it takes really good macro photos up close of flowers and things like that. I have taken thousands of photos. If your on vaccation and need an extra memory card, they are easy to find just about anywhere. I think the price on the Olympus camera now is about $300 with the 3x lense and about $200 with out the 3x.

Digital cameras are best to use on the computer to share your photos with other people who have computers. My photo album with the morning glories have had over 2600 people view them. I have printed a lot of photos out, for friends, but the ink is expensive. If you need to crop the photo the software allows you to do that as your transfering it to the internet, if you transfer one photo at a time. Other wise you can go though and mark the ones you want to put on the internet in your photo album and transfer them all at once. It takes about 5 min. to transfer maybe 30 or so photos.

Any camera is a point and shoot camera. But you have to remember to push the button half way to let the camera make all the adjustments. Then when the camera is ready you just push the button the rest of the way and click the shutter. It is easier to hold the camera from moving that way. The best way to get a good photo is to not move the camera when your clicking the shutter. Digital cameras are very good in low light situations.

There are a lot of good web sites that will teach you 101 photography and all the basics. Kodak has a esp. good web site with a lot of good and free teaching on it about how to take interesting photos.

My camera is only a 3x optical and 2.0 megapixels. So I am sure it is not as good as a 4 megapixel camera for taking photos over 12 feet away from the camera, but it does ok. Eventually, I will get a better camera, but I enjoy the one I have for now. The only thing that concerns me about my camera is the lens folds up inside of the camera when I am not using it. I wonder if that mechanism will eventually wear out. But for now it has been holding up real good.

A friend of mine has a Casio credit card size camera that is real light and fits in their shirt pocket. Again, it takes good photos up to about 8 or 10 feet from the camera. Most of the photos we take are of people up close anyways. So you can get a good photo of a group of up to maybe 26 people.

Here are my photo albums: http://community.webshots.com/user/expojohnr7

 

[Doctrine1st]

So those who print their own pictures, what are you using for a printer and paper? Is there a good printer out there for pictures?

 

[hollygirl]

I recently got an Olympus Camedia C-4000 and it is by far the most excellent camara under $500! That's what we use on our yearbook. Excellent pics.

Here's an example...maybe if I can get it on here...

 

[hollygirl]

Excellent printer for pictures would be the Epson 2200 and Epson paper. Excellent!

 

[SoldierofChrist]

Wow, great pics, Holly! I think I've pretty much made up my mind. Now I just need to pay off some bills before I make the purchase.

I found the camera at butterflyphoto.com; they seem to have the cheapest one with the best rating for quality service. They also have a good starter pack for it, which I will need as well.

Thanks for the posts everyone, I appreciate your comments/suggestions.

Anyone else have some great photos to share?

 

[hollygirl]

I got mine at Circuit City for $429. Be careful of the buys online. Make sure you buy from an Olympus authorized dealer. There's aparently some unauthorized "copies" out there that come without english on them. I would check out the Olympus site for more info.

 

[SoldierofChrist]

Thanks for the tip