Re: [OT] Digital Camera

The GZG Digest wrote on 4/26/2005 12:20 PM:

> Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:35:33 -0600 From: "B Lin"
> <lin@rxkinetix.com>
> 
> When using longer exposure times, a tripod is a must for stability.
> With exposure times up to 1 second, any shakiness will translate into
> blurriness in the picture.

The rule of thumb is a shutter speed no slower than 1/focal length. If
you have a 28mm wide angle lens, you can usually get away with shots of
1/30 of a second. If you have a 150mm lens, you don't want to shoot any
slower than 1/125 of a second, and probably in the 1/250 and above
range. The "rule of thumb" tends to break down a little as you go up to
higher focal lengths. I use a tripod with anything over 150mm. I would
never think to shoot my 400mm lens by hand, regardless of the speed.

> 3) Megapixels - more is better.  Decent results can be had with 4
> mega pixels, but 5 or 6 is preferrable as they allow you to "zoom-in"
> by cropping the photos afterwards without any serious loss of final
> picture quality.  Most pictures for website use or printing a 4x6
> look fine at 2 megapixel resolution, so if you start with a 4
> megapixel image, you can zoom in and crop 50% of the area and still
> have a respectable picture.

I think your numbers are a little high for web resolution, as I've been
getting decent results with my 2 megapixel Canon. A lot depends on how
big your picture is going to be, and how much detail you want to show. I
typically keep my images to about 325 pixels on the long axis, but
that's because I want the pictures to work on an 800 x 600 screen
resolution, I use up about 200 pixels in columns on either side of the
main part of my page, and I like to have a little extra border around
them. Since I've had people ask about buying some of my pictures, I must
be doing something right.

I wouldn't go with less than a 2 megapixel camera. I got mine two years
ago, when it was in the US$300 range. Now you can easily get a 4
megapixel for the same price, and even some 6s are in that range.

Just remember that if you zoom in _too_ close, all of your painting
detail -- including some you might not want to show up -- will be very
visible.

I'll add a couple of extra items.

Don't forget that you'll need to buy a storage medium of some sort,
whether it be Compact Flash, SD, memory stick, etc. The more mega
pixels, the more you'll need. I have a 256 MB Compact Flash card. I've
come close to filling it a few times. That's with a 2 megapixel camera.
I go with a rough guideline of a memory card 100 times the capacity of a
single picture (so you can hold 100 high-res pictures), but if you
intend to use it mostly in the home you can get away with less. People
often forget the storage medium when they are pricing a camera, and then
realize that they can only take 10 pictures at a time with their new toy
until the next pay cheque.

You want good low light level ability. Some digitals don't handle low
light very well. You end up with noise in the dark areas, for one thing.
I've tested my camera with exposures up to 10 seconds long (and I think
I could do 20 seconds) and it works rather well.

You want a camera that allows full manual mode. Eventually you'll want
to set your own exposure times and f-stops. You want a camera that
allows this. My Canon does, though because it's a fixed zoom lens I
don't have a huge range of f-stops available. I also noticed that the
Canon doesn't give me a read out of what f-stop/aperture setting to use,
but I get by with an old fashioned handheld light meter.

You want the ability to add "filters". Some of these so-called filters
are essentially a lens on top of your existing lens. Canon's PowerShot
series offers a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens, which are
sometimes called filters. I can also add a polarizing filter and other
special filters courtesy of Cokin. Not only will filters make it easier
to take pictures of your minis, you might as well have the ability to
take crowd shots at conventions, or family shots at the next reunion.

If you are going to buy only one filter in your lifetime, make it a
polarizing filter. Polarizing filters do wonderful things. They make a
blue sky very blue while leaving the clouds fluffy and white. More
importantly, they cut down reflections and glare. This is nice to have
on any occasion, but it's particularly useful on miniatures. Trust me.
If the camera has the ability to add a filter mount, buy the mount and a
polarizing filter at the same time. You can thank me later. (My next
filter purchase will be a neutral density filter, but that's not going
to be a major deal if you can control your own lighting.)

I have a Canon PowerShot A40, which I bought due to its manual setting,
low light capability, and ability to swap filters. At the time, 2
megapixels was pretty good, and it's all I could afford. I still take
better shots with my Nikon SLR, which isn't surprising. When it comes to
minis I get my best results in natural light with reflectors using my
SLR. That having been said, the digital is a _lot_ easier to use, and
has far better colour balance in artificial lighting, and sets better
exposures. I now take almost all my mini shots in the house, using the
digital. I have no plans to upgrade to a different digital point and
shoot. The next camera I'll get will be a digital SLR, which are now
regularly below the $1000 mark and pushing down to $600.

-- 

Allan Goodall		http://www.hyperbear.com
agoodall@cmaaccess.com	  agoodall@hyperbear.com