I know digital zoom makes for crappy pics but how much optical zoom do you really need for taking decent train pics? (maybe 1’-3’) I know I want 10xto12x but that’s not in the budget right now. I’m not talking about macro close ups. Just good clear pics. I see some cameras in the $100-$150 range with 4Megs,3 or 4x optical zoom and 3-5x digital zoom. Anybody getting good results with specs like this?
Sure, you should get great pictures like that. I’ve got a 5 megapixel, 3x optical zoom with some more digital zoom on top of that. I never zoom beyond the optical range. Also, I usually shoot 1 meg photos. For my purposes, 5 megs is overkill, and burns up storage space too quickly.
By the way, only 3 years ago, I think, this camera was $500.
I posted pics with one of those for over a year. I dropped it so I needed a new one. I went to 6megs and $230 and I think I get better pics, though not as good as B.G. who has the next level up from mine. The zoom for me was not as important as the megs, the flower setting and a tripod. Good luck.
You don’t need much for posting on the web. This is a 1.2 mgp shot. Choose acordingly.
Loathar,
For 1-3’ range, 4 Mp/3x optical will be just fine. 5x is nicer - just in case you want a closer picture but there are physical restrainsts (e.g. structures, scenery, angle, etc.) that keep you at more of a distance.
I have a Nikon with 4 Mp/3x optical and get some nice pictures and closeups with it. The one thing that I wish I had was shutter and f-stop control so that I could play with the depth of field. The capacity only comes with single-lense reflex (SLR) cameras.
Yes, avoid using digital zoom all together and try and take pictures without using the flash. Unless you have an SLR, the flash tends to wash out the colors.
Tom
Digital zoom is nothing more than a electronic sensor that expresses a color in a Hexdecimal (Binary) form for an image. At certain resolutions the image will fail because there is not enough color dots to fill in the gaps.
Using Optical Lenses to zoom preserves the image itself. It may still be processed into digital form by the camera and hopefully with sufficient capacity to make a good picture.
I am trying to decide if I want one of those mega 1000 dollar Rebels because I tend to have the engine and first three cars in focus while the rest of the train is out of focus bad. (Depth of field)
Space’s picture is pretty good. But the total depth is what… a few inches?
Don’t confuse “Zoom” with “Close-up”. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
You don’t need ZOOM for close-ups. Most digital cameras will focus very close or have a “Macro” setting to focus as near as 2".
Your photos of models will look better at a wide-angle setting. I find that Zooming to Telephoto compresses the subject and its surroundings too much. It ends up looking more toy-like.
I know that with older 35mm cameras with changable lenses you had to have a dedicated macro lense. I’m using a mid range 35mm now with a fixed zoomable lense. 35-80mm. Started scrolling through the menu on it and saw a pic of a flower. I’m assuming this is the close up setting. Any rule of thumb for distance from object on this? 3’? 1’? 6"?. I know I’m asking a lot here site unseen but I hate to waist film. Should I have it set on the shortest zoom (35mm) when using the “flower” setting? My mom just gave me this one and I can’t find the manuals for it. (Fuji 1000)
Chip-Yea! If I could get pics like that it’d be great!
True. This is what I use now for that very reason. (taken with the 1.2 mgp)
The zoom feature is not a usable tool for model photography. When taking pictures of models, you have the physical means of getting close enough to the subject without zooming in. The zoom feature is for when you are standing outside the fence at the railyard and just can’t get physically any closer … THAT’s when you use the zoom feature.
The two important features you need to look for are a manual capability and the highest f-stop ability you can afford. The higher the f-stop, the more focused your entire picture will be from for-ground to back-ground. Most digital cameras today have a macro mode which allows you to focus within inches for close-up work.
Learn to take your pictures without using any of the digital or optical zoom, you’ll get much better results. As for the number of mega-pixels, unless you’re planning on doing a lot of high quality large format prints, you’d be wasting your money. For posting pictures online, you need to use the smallest format to fit anyway, still leaving you 3 or 4 levels of higher quality.
As a quick example, the picture below was shot using a Canon A75 3.2 mega pixel on manual mode with a maximum f-stop of 8.0 - NO FLASH ( never use a flash ) with an exposure time of 5 seconds. Keep in mind too, this is only a $200 camera !!! The engine in the for-ground is about five inches away while the trees on the back hill are more than three feet away …
Mark.
What range is the F-stop? How should one use it? Getting the camera close to the stuff with Macro is not a problem for me. Im used to it. It’s the mid-long range shots … say 2 feet to 20 feet that challenges me.
It is a wonderful photo with the trees three feet away with good detail, but what does it do to that same shot if you reduce the F stop or increase it? To simply state the value of 8 that was used in that shot does not tell me the minimum/Maximum F stop range and does not help me decide how to use it.
Bear with me as I work through these questions. I started with a 35mm Pentrax Film and thought I did good. But eventually I got into digital a little with a tiny macro 3 meg camera and a sony camcorder that does ok but not stellar.
Here is a picture lifted from a Camcorder Video taken of the Gettysburg High Water Monument (Center of the Union Battle Line approx 1 miles or a little more from Little Round Top) on a absolutely flawless April day.
[#ditto] What one really needs is lens and camera that can take pictures with close focusing AND high apperature (f-stop) setting.
I disagree here on the wide-angle setting. Wide angles will “bend” straight lines, make things look like they are leaning backward, or distort them in other ways (people on the edges look fat). The big nose dog pictures would be the extreme example. In my opinion for 35mm size phototraphy the most natural photos will be taken with a lens in range from 40mm-70 mm (I don’t know the ratios for medium or large format cameras). Wider = distortions, Longer = compressing. These general statements are obviously over generalizations. When properly composed good photos can be taken with any length of lens.
Lothar, you are correct that using the flower setting is for close up shots. The limiting distance for you will be the focal distance of your lens. At some point the subject will be too close to the lens for you to be able to bring it into focus. Any point behind that you will be able to take pictures. The thing with a macro lens is that you will be able to reproduce detail at lifesize (ie 1:1 ratio) most lenses on SLR cameras have a range about 1.5:1 or greater (trying to remember what the ranges are on my lenses) and I don’t know what the reproduction will be on a point and shoot camera. The best way to figure out how to get the best “macro” picture is to try taking some pictures with the different settings. Remember to keep a note pad with you and write down the details like distance to subject, zoom length and exposure if you camera supports it (F-stop and shutter speed, but I don’t think you can get this info on your camera). The reason to write them down is that you wont remember the details when you develop the film. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Kevin
f-stops will range from about 3.2 - up. The higher the number, the greater the depth of field.
In my D&H picture that was taken at f-8.0 ( the highest setting on MY camera ), IF I could raise it up to f-16, the items right in the for-ground would be more in focus as would items even further away than my hillside. F-32 would be even better, and f-64 would be stellar.
f-stop referrs to the aperture opening, the hole in the lense that allows the light in. The higher the f-stop number, the smaller the hole. A pinhole camera has something like f-126 (?) !!!
THIS is where you really need your manual setting. Obviously, the smaller the lens apperture, the more light is required to get a properly exposed picture. You have two options here - either flood the scene with mega-watts of external lighting or increase the exposure time to allow the available light to “burn in”. Still, don’t compensate low light levels with a flash, it will destroy all color balance in close range. My D&H picture was shot only using the available room light - nothing extra.
The first picture is taken with Micro with little zoom.
This was taken with micro with NO zoom…Camera was moved closer.
Now at micro and full zoom for close up.
Now for me I found it best to work with the camera sittings to get the needed results with or without zoom and the best MP setting…
Safety Valve,
If your interested in DSLR’s take a look at the Pentax range they are $400-$500 cheaper than Canon/Nikon and the quality is no different, also Samsung now make SLR’s (rebadged Pentax) and have the same Pentax lens available (rebadged) a couple of hundred $ cheaper.
I own a *istDL which was recently superceeded by the K100D it has 6.1mp sensor and a good range of features, mine cost back in september $799 with two kit lens. it now sells here for around $600 with two lenses and about $500 for the body only.
Take a look at my photobucket site, http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e303/OZJIM
All of my recent train related images are shot with my *istDL.
James
A lot of this material is covered in my website for digital model photography - check it out and see, it’s in my signature.
And to clear things up, a digital zoom just takes the center of an image and uses it to make things bigger. Bigger, but of lesser quality. You could do the same by taking an image and cropping out the center, diluting the number of pixels in an image. I recommed to never use the optical zoom feature, it is just a marketing tool.
And using a 5MP digital camera at a lesser setting such as 1MP is just wasting your time. You’d have 80% fewer pixels to make up your images. Memory cards are dirt cheap these days, shoot only at the highest resolution in any camera. If you’re not using all of the capabilities of your camera’s sensor, get a cheapo throw away 1MP one!
Also wide angles on most digital cameras aren’t wide enough to cause the “wide angle” effect quoted previously. Most are equal to 35mm or so on film cameras, hardly wide angles. Use tour camera at its widest setting to get the absolute best depth of field. Once you start zooming in, depth of field decreases dramatically.
Thanks a lot for all the great info. It really cleared a lot of things up for me. Sounds like I was looking to buy WAY more camera than I needed. I just found the manual to this 35mm film camera so hopefully that’ll help too.
Thanks again!
These photographs were shot with my Canon Power Shot A540 ( $179.00 + a 1 gig card for $19.00) 6 mega pixels 4x optical zoom max f8. I do not use the flash or zoom for pics of the models.
You can use the macro for close-ups but you loose depth-of-field. (as in these two shots)
These next are at f8:
I’m still learning as I go…these photos were taken without a tripod…I just sat the camera on the layout and held it steady to shoot. You can get alot better photographs if you use more lighting and read up on some basic photography.
tomkat-13, you seem to imply that you can’t get f8.0 in Macro on your camera…
I also use a Canon Powershot, and I always use f8.0 when shooting Macro.
In Macro, you lose depth of field, but it is not because of the aperture. It is because of the image magnification. If you can’t get f8.0 in Marco, you must be doing something wrong.