Re: RC: Digital Cameras <long, probably useful>

[Lynne Glazer <lynne@glazer.org>]

Sorry to ridecampers that don't wanna hear this, use the <delete> button.

I shopped hard for digital cameras for at least 3 years before 
buying.  You can't say, "would you do it over again?", there have 
been 3 models of newer cameras to my 1 yr, 4 month old once since my 
purchase late in its model life!

What do you want to photograph?  I've shot thousands of photos with 
my Olympus D500L, a discontinued model that most closely compares to 
their current D620L.

My next camera, I hope, is the Olympus Camedia 2000, at this point. 
What I like most about the Olympus, in descending order, is the photo 
quality/color saturation, form factor (ease of holding for hours on 
end), speedy lens, built-in 3x zoom for 150mm equivalent in a film 
camera, intuitive nature of controls, the media type (SmartMedia 
cards), flash performance, battery life, availability of accessories.

I've had a lot of clients and friends buy the Olympus models on my 
recommendation, and all have been very satisfied.  Most of them 
weren't beyond the point-and-shoot stage, and have done great.

I would recommend a mid-range megapixel camera.  The best part of the 
dig, for me, has been the ability to take a gazillion photos and 
experiment, try lots of techniques, to really speed up improvement in 
my photographic eye.  Of course, in the end, you're only as good as 
your ability to compose and properly execute the shot, not to mention 
retouching it in PhotoShop, PhotoDeluxe, etc.  I have found, that 
with my Olympus, I can adjust the image size down from 1024x768 (5x7" 
print size), use the "auto levels" tonal control in PS and then 
merely "unsharp mask" at 50%, and I'm done.  Not possible with 
cameras that don't *start* with high quality image capture.

I use a PCMCIA adapter in my laptop that accepts SmartMedia cards. 
They instantly mount on the desktop (or My Computer, for you Windoze 
types), like a volume, quick and easy to copy to a target directory. 
*Don't* plan on using the serial adapter the camera ships with, in a 
word, S-L-O-W.  Next best is the FlashPath floppy adapter, in which 
you insert the SM card for transfer.   Some people like the cameras 
that store the images on internal floppy disks.  I don't.

There are three kinds of storage media besides SmartMedia cards, when 
considering the other brands as well.  The Sony "memory stick" and 
the Flash cards.

The SmartMedia cards the Olympus family uses are 3.3v, come in 2 mb 
(useless), 4 mb (practically useless), 8 mb (optimal, IMO), 16 mb, 32 
mb.  Not all cameras can handle all sizes.  There are also 5v 
SmartMedia cards for other brands.

I have multiple 8 mb cards, and find I can store 40-50 images each, 
depending on image "information" like colors, contrast, and this is 
at the middle setting of my camera, 1024x768 ("HQ").  "Standard" is 
worthless at 640x480, not enough color info to survive retouching. 
"SHQ" (super high quality) severly limits the amount of photos that 
can store on a card, but has the most color information for higher 
quality images.  It's too hard to manage more images than that.

I have a personal rule--I try like crazy to NEVER delete an image in 
the camera, unless it's obviously completely fuzzy.  Some of the 
neatest effects don't look "right" in the LCD panel.  See the shot 
"Framed.jpg" in the gallery section of my site, I almost threw that 
away right after shooting it.

If anyone wants to see the Olympus' output, go to my 
just-getting-started website below and click on Photography.  90 
percent of the images were shot with this camera.  Also the photos on 
the Tevis main page, as well. <http://www.foothill.net/tevis>  On my 
site, there is of course a horse section, which has portrait, action, 
gallery (mostly eye shots) and humor.  The camera captured every drop 
produced by a peeing horse at one ride, I oughta put that shot up 
there, too.

Digital cameras in general don't do well at night, the lens is fast 
enough, but it has trouble metering in low light.  Yet, with the 
subsequent use of PhotoShop, I could shoot in nearly pitch darkness, 
and see that it was focusing nicely despite the lack of available 
light--I actually shot cutting horses with no problem stopping the 
action.  The biggest downside of digital cameras within consumer 
price range is the time it takes to store each image, about 6-7 
seconds for my camera, so since cutters work for such a short time, 
so for that kind of action, try film. <g>  Check the "Demon Cattle" 
shot on the website, shot in pitch darkness, actually I called it 
"class of '99".  Been too busy  to caption the photos yet, these are 
filenames.

Remember that digital cameras store the images as JPEGs.  That's a 
lossy compression method, so be careful with your retouching to avoid 
loss of quality; every time you save the image it loses quality. 
They don't do well enlarged, in general, though look at this year's 
Sportack catalog's inside back cover to see one from my camera that 
was enlarged, the color balancing isn't representative of the usual 
output, that was a printer glitch, I guess.

Decide if your primary use will be emailing shots to friends, or 
posting on the web.  That's what this sort of digital image is best 
for.  Printing on 6 color "photo" printers is not film quality, but 
stands reasonably close examination.  I haven't seen printouts from 4 
color printers (Epson Stylus 740 or equiv)

My favorite photography site is http://www.photo.net, follow the 
links to their discussion of digital cameras.  Keep in mind that 
we're talking consumer quality cameras here, not the $20-30,000 
models I would LIKE to have!  :-)

That's enough for starters, don't you think?  Any more probably 
oughta go private.  I'm getting lots of questions about digital 
cameras right now, the features vs. price has finally become 
attractive.

Lynne
computer geek to the stars

Ontario, CA  http://www.lynnesite.com
Norco Riverdance Ride (PS) 9/2/00
and Rem-member Me, Celesteele





At 11:05 AM -0800 11/11/99, Joan Dowis wrote:
>Hi, all --
>
>I am starting to look at digital cameras, and need to learn about 
>them from people who have been using them for awhile.  I would 
>appreciate any ridecampers who take digital pictures, and I know 
>there are quite a few, posting me privately - 
><mailto:jdowis@foothill.net>jdowis@foothill.net -with any tips, 
>likes, dislikes, things I would do differently, must have features, 
>etc., you may be willing to share.  Specific questions I would like 
>answers to:  (1) what camera(s) do you use now, (2) if you had to do 
>it all over, what would you buy, and (3) what advice would you give 
>a newbie to these gadgets as far as buy small $$ vs buy big $$ to 
>start, or buy in between.  Thanks loads!
>
>Joan D.


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