DIGITAL CAMERA

[Bird]

I know you're a stationary engineer, but if you get much more snow, everything in Buffalo's going to be stationary, isn't it?/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Harv]

YIKES, Frank! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

If nature dumped something like that in front of the door to my place of work, I'd take it as a sure sign to stay home!

Deepest snow I ever saw where I live was gone before I could get the lens cap off the camera.

BTW -- nice picture. Glad you found out how to shoot low-res pictures with your camera, but I still recommend you find and get familiar with the photo-editing software that must have come with it. It'll be easier than you think, and give you a lot more variations in what you can do with your pictures. Then you can throw around new buzz words, like "post processing", too.

 

[jfakerj]

I'm finding this suject very interesting. Maybe some one here can help me out. My brain is starting to fry. I got a cheap dig. camera for xmas and I'm going to take it back. Pics are bad. After reading some of this yesterday I went out and looked today, also on the internet. I have a question about the 510 that maybe one of you can answer. I've read about the lens cover opening and closing (takes time and wear and tear on the lens mech). Is this an issue with this camera. This looks like it could be trouble, also a real pain opening and closing all the time with the flash popping up, need it or not. Also is it true the software that comes with it is sub-par. Also read that the menu is not user friendly, true or false.
I've been looking at the reviews on the following;

Camera ZDnet editors rating user rating

Olympus 501 7.6 9
Fuji 2600 no rating zdmet but rated well elsewhere
Nikon 775 7.5 9.1
Cannon PS A20 7.8 9.5
a step up
Olympus C2040 7.8 9.1

I'm looking for any cons on any of these cameras. Also why one would be better than the other. I'll then look for the best buy on any of the remaining options.
Hope you all don't mind me piggy backing on this forum.

 

[frank_f15]

harv: i did stay home a number of days/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif as for photo editing software i do have a few, MGI PHOTO SUITE, ADOBE PHOTO SHOP5.0 AND A FEW OTHERS. JUST HAVE TO LEARN TO MASTER THEM. all in good time.

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>JUST HAVE TO LEARN TO MASTER THEM</font color=blue>

No, you don't!!!

Programs like Photoshop (my favorite) are so sophisticated that virtually nobody can truly "master" it.

What you can do, however, is learn to do a few handy things, like re-sizing, cropping and minor touch-ups. That'll take care of most of what you ever want to do, and once you're comfortable with those features, you will probably start exploring a little deeper into what else you can do. Just how deep you wind up going is entirely up to you.

Keep it fun and you'll amaze yourself.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...Programs like Photoshop (my favorite) are so sophisticated that virtually nobody can truly "master" it. What you can do, however, is learn to do a few handy things, like re-sizing, cropping and minor touch-ups. That'll take care of most of what you ever want to do, and once you're comfortable with those features, you will probably start exploring a little deeper into what else you can do. Just how deep you wind up going is entirely up to you...</font color=blue>

Very true, well said and worth repeating Harv... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MikePA]

Although, when you pay $600 /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif for Adobe Photoshop, you feel like you have to master it. /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif Paint Shop Pro from <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.jasc.com>JASC</A> is good also at $100.

 

[thumperjb]

WoW I would like to be in all that snow for about 12 hours, just to play. I grew up in PA and don't miss having to drive in the snow but I would like to have it at least one day per year just for fun. Are those cigarette butts stuck into the snow bank?

 

[MossRoad]

I use paint shop pro. Works great. I agree with Harv. Take all of your photos at the highest res possible. That way you can do so much more with them like:

Have nice 8x10 prints made at the photo place. Low res photos do not reproduce well on prints.

Resize them to a smaller res for internet posting.

Save the large file to CD for permanent archiving.

Good enlargements can't be made from low res pictures.

Try this experiment with your digital camera:
Put the camera on a stationary object like a tripod. Take one picture at the lowest resolution available on your camera. Then take the exact same picture at the highest resolution on your camera. Now download them to you PC. The lowest resolution photo will probably be 600X480 and the largest depends on your camera(mine is 1792X1200). Use some photo editing software to resize the high resolution photo to 600X480, then compare them side by side on the PC. You should notice a big difference. Then try printing them out. You should notice an even bigger difference.

The reason is that there is so much more digital information to work with right from the start. With the low price of digital storage media, hard drive capacity and CD recorders, there is almost no reason to shoot low res anymore.

One more tip. Don't store the photos on one hard drive. If the drive fails, they are gone forever. Back them up to a different physical device; CD, floppy, tape, different hard drive, whatever. Just be sure to get them backed up as there are no negatives to go back to./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[frank_f15]

HARVE: THAKS FOR TH INFO, i agree! photo shop is to large to master completly, but here is a pic. i took with my new camera, way up to 5000,000 byts at setting took it at, so i used mgi photo suite to resize it(more used to this program) and thoght i would send it. it is my b2400 after a hard day at work on news years day.