IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
I just went over to eBay and noticed you can get some used Canon Digital Rebels for ~$500 USD as a Buy-It-Now price. Some were less than that but bidding was still going on. Mine cost twice that amount 18 months ago.
On the subject of cameras...
- Thread starter SpaceMouse
- Start date
jacon12
Member
SpaceMouse said:
Yes, that's the curse of the point and shoot cameras.... they can take forever to focus because of the lower light level inside. One trick is to use the common (read cheap) utility lights that have the clamp and the shiny metal bowl reflector, the kind you can clamp onto any thing when you need some extra light to work by, and put a 100 watt regular bulb in it and place it a few feet from your subject. That should help greatly. Most all digital cameras focus by using 'contrast' in the subject to focus on therefore if the camera happens to be aimed with it's 'focus point' at.... say... the side of a locomotive.. the camera can't see any contrast to focus on so it won't focus on anything OR it'll pick out something that IS contrasty behind or in front of the model to focus on. Usually the cameras have way that you can go into the menu of the camera and set it to focus a certain way such as using the little brackets that you see in the cameras viewfinder. Then you can place the brackets on the model so the camera will focus right there. Using the utility work light to get more light on the subject will help with making the camera use shorter shutter speeds PLUS adding contrast to the picture so the camera can do its job. My Nikon 5700, a point and shoot, was REAL bad about this and would hunt and hunt something to focus on until I broke out the work light. Then it did just fine. Remember, you don't have to light up the whole room, just the area on and around your model. Most of the latter model cameras have a built in focus light that briefly comes on to aid the camera in focusing BUT if that little beam of light hits the blank side of the model then the camera won't focus on it either.
I did the examples below for a little tutorial on a camera nuts website. Even though the camera was aimed at the duck using the focusing brackets, it picked the more contrasty can sitting behind it to focus on..
It's just doing what the manufacturer designed it to do, but if you're not careful or aware of it you'll have your main subject out of focus and wonder why.
Jarrell
I was doing that for awhile, (with an incandscent light bulb) but the photos were turning out with a red cast to the picture. This overabundance of red I decreased using a graphics editor. A lot more than the red was lost in the process. Since then I changed to the new screw in flourecent bulbs and the red cast has been eliminated.
The attached photo is one that had been doctored with the graphics editor but the red is still apparent. The little saw mill is actually a grey color
jacon12 said:Darrell, this is Jarrell. You seen Harrell?
I just had to do that!
I see one of the guys over there directed us to a website with a complete listing. It looks like a lot of them will fit ok, just may lose features like autofocus and sometimes metering capability..
http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/nikon_articles/other/compatibility.html
Jarrell, quiet for now..
Hi, Jarrell, this is Darrell. I saw Harrell stuck in a barrel(l) just the other day. LOL
Great website for information. Unfortunately, all the information indicated that NONE of my lenses will work with the digital cameras. Shot that idea down completely!
That doesn't mean I'm giving up on the Nikon idea, it just means that I will have to look closer at package deals. I normally don't like package deals because the package has stuff I don't want or need, but in this instance, it may be the best way to go.
I am going to have to get busy with some photo work sometime. Maybe pull out the old umbrella stands and tripod and see what I can come up with. Need to clean the layout first. Story of my life: in order to do what I want, I have to do a bunch of other things first!
ONward and UPward!
Darrell, not Jarrell or Harrell or in a barrel, but quiet...for now
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Real good thread here Jarrell. The advice you've given is something even I can understand. In the past instead of a regular incandescent bulb, the other club members alway got a photo flood bulb and took their pix with that in a clamp on fixture. Trouble was it generally blew after being turned on and off several times and these weren't that cheap. How would one of those halogen utility lights work?
Railphotog
Railroad Photographer
Cjcrescent In the past instead of a regular incandescent bulb said:
mushroom2 said:
I imagine the basic kit from Nikon just has those items. I have seen others that include extra lenses, Never-ready camera cases, even a remote control device (for the shutter, I guess!). Plus, with these 'package' deals, you get the lens that's included in the deal, not necessarily the lenses you prefer. There's a trade off with every kit. You get a better price if you're willing to buy what's in the kit. Buy the pieces separate, you don't get the best price.
Years ago, one of the big camera stores in New York used to put together packages. They offered a great price for the package and you could substitute any item in the package with a better quality item for very little extra. Like the Nikon 50mm lens. The package included the 1.8f lens. For a few dollars more, you could substitute the 1.4f lens. For a few dollars more than that, you could get the 1.2f lens. I haven't seen anyone offering anything similar, but I haven't been looking too hard or for very long. The deals might be out there and I just haven't found them yet.
Choices, choices, choices. If the Lottery Lady would only cooperate with me, I wouldn't be faced with all these choices!! LOL
Darrell, not rich, but quiet...for now
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Bob:
I don't know about the rough handling. All I know is that I bought one once and was shocked at the price. After a short session it was blown as well, so it could have been the heat. I was wondering if the halogens had any shortcomings like the color shift like with unfiltered florescence lights. 500 watt halos are sold around here rather cheaply and even the fixtures themselve are now fairly inexpensive as well.
I don't know about the rough handling.
All I know is that I bought one once and was shocked at the price. After a short session it was blown as well, so it could have been the heat. I was wondering if the halogens had any shortcomings like the color shift like with unfiltered florescence lights. 500 watt halos are sold around here rather cheaply and even the fixtures themselve are now fairly inexpensive as well.
jacon12
Member
CBCNSfan said:I was doing that for awhile, (with an incandscent light bulb) but the photos were turning out with a red cast to the picture. This overabundance of red I decreased using a graphics editor. A lot more than the red was lost in the process. Since then I changed to the new screw in flourecent bulbs and the red cast has been eliminated.
The attached photo is one that had been doctored with the graphics editor but the red is still apparent. The little saw mill is actually a grey color
Willis
White balance can be a pain. Most digital cameras have a setting in their menu so that you can set the white balance for incandesant light and that will take care of a lot of the red. Just remember to set it back to daylight or auto white balance when you're done. The next time you're doing some color correcting in your graphics editor and you want to pull out red, try pulling out a little red and at the same time put in green and blue. Usually when you do all correcting in just one color channel... i.e. red.. the picture will go kinda flat on you. So pull out one color and add the other two colors, in your case (and mine) red.
It really can be exasperatin' sometimes and it's easier, if possible, to shoot with a 'daylight' color balanced light, like flash units which are color balanced to give a fairly close representation of daylight although a lot of them give out too much blue.
Jarrell
jacon12
Member
Cjcrescent said:
I agree with Bob, Carey. I had forgotten about the regular Photoflood type bulbs. I used to get them at the local camera store and their 'color balance' should get you in the ball park for good color. Gosh it's been a long time since I use those! If I remember right you just had to be a little gentle with them, especially after they'd been on for a while and the filament was hot, don't bump them or anything like that. They seemed to be most vulnerable then. After they'd cooled off they seemed to be as tough as any other bulb.
It seems like they came in either 'daylight' or 'tungsten'
I haven't tried a quartz light. I have a desk model so I'll have to give it a try and see if it gives off any bad color casts.
Jarrell
jacon12
Member
oleirish said:Jarrell
Let me know if Iam somewhere in the ball park here??
JIM
Jim, as near as I can tell the color balance looks pretty good.
Can your camera get in closer? and maybe sit it down on the benchtop and use the self timer (eliminates the possibility of camera shake) to get a shot of that nice little steamer?
Jarrell
Shamus
Moderator
Well I have been digiatl now for the last 5 years starting with the Olympus C700UZ which was a good camera at the time, then along came the Fuji finepix S7000 and I thought WOW, what a fantastic camera and did loads of photo work on my layout with it. Early this year I was introduced to the Canon (SLR) 350D Rebel and just plain fell in love with it, so I bought one and sold my Fuji. This camera has all the features needed like aperture priority and shutter speed control plus great D.O.F. allowing an f stop of 39 down over depending on what you require.
Here a shot I took of my 0n30 blacksmiths shop at around 5" from the subject.
Shamus
Here a shot I took of my 0n30 blacksmiths shop at around 5" from the subject.
Shamus
Hi Jarrell, thanks for the info. I tried fooling around with some of those settings on manual, with some success and a lot of failures. What it boils down to with me is I have no idea of what I'm doing. I probably should do more reading about it, but for now I guess I'll stick to a tripod, automatic setting and lots of light. Not the greatest but at least I can see the picture and the coloring isn't too bad either. It's only a 2 mpix camera so that in itself imposes limitations
Willis
jacon12
Member
Shamus said:Well I have been digiatl now for the last 5 years starting with the Olympus C700UZ which was a good camera at the time, then along came the Fuji finepix S7000 and I thought WOW, what a fantastic camera and did loads of photo work on my layout with it. Early this year I was introduced to the Canon (SLR) 350D Rebel and just plain fell in love with it, so I bought one and sold my Fuji. This camera has all the features needed like aperture priority and shutter speed control plus great D.O.F. allowing an f stop of 39 down over depending on what you require.
Here a shot I took of my 0n30 blacksmiths shop at around 5" from the subject.
Shamus
It looks good too, Shamus. I envy your modeling skills!
Jarrell
jacon12
Member
oleirish said:Jarrell; This is about as close as I can come,Iam using an barrowed tri-pod for this
ME LIKE TRIPOD!!
JIM
Jim, I think you've got it.
The number one thing that spoils most pictures, whether they're people pixs or mrr pictures (after wrong exposure etc.) is a cluttered background. If you (not you personally, but anyone shooting pictures) would learn to look behind the subject, I mean really LOOK, and either move stray stuff or move the camera to a better position, their photos would improve 100% right off the bat. If you'll notice the pictures in mrring magazines, they would never print a picture with a bottle of glue in the background behind that beautiful locomotive. Unless the article was about glue, that is..
Around here it's different. We're always showing each other progress being made on the layout so we're not about to pick up everything for every shot we post.
Jarrell
