Train Pictures Digital Camera recommendation

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

OK, so I have an old SONY Cybershot Camera that I want to update. So I have got my hands a little dirty with digital cameras. I want to be able to take pictures that I can submit to TRAINS for publication. One issue with the Cybershot that kind of ticked me off is I could not adjust the F stop to adjust out the blue on photos taken on high elevations (Cat walk on top of the Canadian Rockies near Jasper). So in the future I would like to have that option at least. I have a trip comming up starting Friday where I want to take some pictures of an old Milwaukee Road railroad town along the spur that used to connect Eagle, Wi to Elkhorn, WI…there is a small town in between I can tell was laid out by the railroad. So I would like to buy the camera next week probably in Wisconsin. Any inputs on brands or makes that would be a good fit here? Like I said I have had some digital camera experience prior but not a lot. Price range $200-800.00 Don’t want to look like a tourist from Japan or anything…wanting to keep it fairly simple.

Also, is a tripod necessary? My hands are pretty steady still.

Also, any recommendations on how I can be really obnoxious and get arrested by the railroad police…OK just kidding on that last part (lol). I always stay off the property including ROW and service roads.

2

I’d recommend going with a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR).

In general, they look like your average 35 MM camera, and usually offer interchangable lenses as well. So you’ll look like a tourist - or someone who knows what they’re doing and has the tools with which to do it.

Most of the “low end” DSLRs will fit in your price range.

And you can find plenty of reviews on-line as well.

The learning curve can be as steep or as shallow as you want - my Canon Digital Rebel offers a fully automatic mode for “point and shoot” ease, or you can play with the parameters and tweak your exposures.

When I bought my camera, 8 megapixels was pretty good - nowadays even the inexpensive point and shoot cameras are nearly double that. Shooting in JPEG gives you very usable images. My files are in the 4-5 megabyte range.

If you’re into post-processing (digital darkroom work), many DSLR cameras will let you shoot “RAW,” allowing you to later tweak your images. RAW takes a lot of space in your memory - I can fit over 250 JPEGs on my memory cards, and only about 60 RAW files. (Buy extra cards!)

Oftimes the advice for such purchases is to buy the best you can within your budget - I think the same applies here.

3

I’m going to take a different approach. DSLR’s are wonderful, even the cheapest of the lot. However, you do have to have at least one lens attached. Before long, you’ll decide you need a different capability than the one you have, and you’ll want another lens, maybe even a third before long. Translation: $$$

Lugging them can (not will, but “can”…) become a challenge or an outright annoyance before long. Will you have the right one attached when that golden opportunity passes in the span of 10 seconds?

The fact is that the modern compacts, or point-and-shoots are so good that you can publish images in large format with all but the cheapest or least capable. I always have with me a cigarette-package sized CANON Digital ELPH 330 that has won over the people who purchased it to such an extent that they flew off the shelves. Over at DPR, guys were asking where they could be a used/refurbished one. Several reported they bought a second just in case once they saw its versatility and competency as an imaging device.

The ELPH 330 has 10X zoom, very modest, and 12 mpix. Its low-light capabilties are really very impressive. Video is excellent, and it is wifi capable. It was a $180 camera when I purchased it three summers ago. I can’t say enough about it. Just to set the context, my ‘grown-up’ camera is the astounding Panasonic Lumix FZ-1000. It’s a consistently $990 camera up here in Canada, now three years into its issue. It, too, is so good that the stores simply don’t have to discount it more than $50.

I won’t suggest a brand or model to you because CANON, Nikon, Panasonic, and Fuji make scads of <$300 compacts that don’t need an additional lens bag. Their quality is astounding. Even as good are the recent Go Pros and similar cameras. Many video cams offer stills capability in the 8-12 mpix range that are sharp and in focus

4

There are Photographers and there are picture takers. Which category you place yourself in will rule your purchase.

5

Picture taker but I want some of the photographer features as I said before on filtering out blue light at high altitudes but I do not need all the rich features and can do without seperate telephoto lens’ and such.

6

Thanks!

7

Thanks, will probably be a CANON or NIKON as they had the reputation when I was a lot younger. Panasonic…I kind of avoid that brand, not such good luck with their audio or video stuff years ago. Maybe they changed.

8

You should be able to do this on most digital cameras.

Check the ‘White Balance Modes’

"Digital SLRs, and point-and-shoot models, all come with pre-set white balance modes. You can find them under the white balance settings menu. Here are a few of them and what they do:

Cloudy Day: This mode compensates for the diffuse light you get on a cloudy day. It adds more warmth to your colors, as if the sun were setting on a fall evening.

Fluorescent: A mode designed to compensate for fluorescent office lighting. It neutralizes the blue tinge you normally see in offices.

Shady: The light in shaded areas isn’t as warm or direct as sunlight. It tends to make you

9

“Incandescent Lighting: This mode cancels out the harsh effect you get from lightbulbs in your home.”

Got fooled by some lighting in a restaurant. Thought it was incandescent and set the WB accordingly. Turns out it was CFL set to mimic incandescent. Resulted in a bunch of unusable photos.

10

CMStPnP (8-29):

I too used a Sony Cybershot for years, and that was kind of OK for posting here at the forum. But, the fact you have used a Cybershot suggests you may not have the eye for quality, such as demanded by TRAINS Magazine in publishing photos. Over thirty years ago I used Nikons, Mamyias, even a Hasselblad, so I know the quality demanded by publishers and what types of cameras are needed to meet that high quality demands.

It sounds like you would be helped by renting a few known to be higher quality brands and expose yourself to the quality each produces, and compare that quality and sharpness (“sharpness”) to the output of your Cybershot, which likely will be as night and day.

Then, too, one should not be fooled by a name. One brand advertised had a great range in their lenses pricing. Obviously some of those lenses weren’t so good, while the high prices were. And when “good” is said, sharpness is referred to.

Then, within brands, one has to be educated as to what is good and not good. Nikon for example … There is Nikon Coolpix and Nikon DSLR’s. Nikon Coolpix just won’t produce the quality of a Nikon DSLR. Again, educating oneself is the key.

Some of the cameras of the recent past had megapixels of 6 and 8, or 12, etc. The latest fad is 24 megapixels. My DSLR Nikon has 24 megapixels. Some Hasselblad equipment has 51 meg

11

While most any new camera, point&shoot, DSLR, even most newer cell phones, will get good looking shots, most times, with someone who knows what they are doing. My smart phone can rival my DSLR in many cases.

But, for action shots, such as when you are railfanning, or shooting sports, etc… DSLR is the standard of choice, even among amateur photographers, for a reason.

Once you miss a great shot once, due to not being able to focus fast enough in the correct spot, not being able to get the right lighting setting (simply not available in many cameras), or some other silly reason (caused by the camera), you will want the standard, a DSLR.

Case in point: Once, while railfanning around the Altoona (Horseshoe Curve, Cresson, Gallitzin Tunnels, Juniata shops, etc…) area, with friends, there was a few times that all of us got a “great shot” in the day. (Most of the shots were simple, and easy for even the most novice picture taker to get.) And then, near the end of the trip, we had one more opertunity, just east of Altoona, entering the yard area, kinda behind the shops, where two intermodals were approaching, one eastbound, one westbound. Both were coming at track speed, for that area, and they would meet just off of the overpass we were shooting from. All of us attempted the very seldom seen “meet shot”, where the lead units would be just beginning to pass each other. All of us came away with our attempts, but, the two of us with a DSLR are the only ones with a usable shot.

Why?

The DSLR’s were able to get both units into focus, while the smaller point&shoots, while matching or besting on megapixels, and able to keep pace on the simple, one train shots, simply couldn’t get both lead units into focus quick enough to get the shot. They would get one clear, one blurred, or both blurred. They simply don’t have the ability to ge

12

And this leads us to composition - that thing that turns a snapshot into a portrait.

For many years an aunt had a cottage on Lake Ontario. When my sister went there (visiting from CO), a nightly ritual was to walk over to the other side of the point to take pictures of the sunset (assuming one could see it). She (and many others) usually stood on the shore to take their pictures. One time I accompanied them. I stepped back about 10 yards and framed the sunset with a tree and a bench. Made a bright dot on the horizon into a wall-worth image.

There are plenty of other tips, but that’s a topic for another time.

13

This is what I ended up ordering…

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=E22CNDRT51855&ref=PLA&omid=103&catargetid=230005120000595188&cadevice=c&gclid=CL_ayv3f9c4CFQUDaQod87wCcA

As far as smartphone I have a Samsung S3 which I probably need to upgrade to S7 once they get the exploding battery issue fixed. It does take good photos as well and they are easy to transfer to my PC using the USB / power cord option. However, would rather stick with a Camera for that as I tend to think I would get better pictures and could control environmental factors such as at altitude bluing, etc.

14

[quote user=“ricktrains4824”]

While most any new camera, point&shoot, DSLR, even most newer cell phones, will get good looking shots, most times, with someone who knows what they are doing. My smart phone can rival my DSLR in many cases.

But, for action shots, such as when you are railfanning, or shooting sports, etc… DSLR is the standard of choice, even among amateur photographers, for a reason.

Once you miss a great shot once, due to not being able to focus fast enough in the correct spot, not being able to get the right lighting setting (simply not available in many cameras), or some other silly reason (caused by the camera), you will want the standard, a DSLR.

Case in point: Once, while railfanning around the Altoona (Horseshoe Curve, Cresson, Gallitzin Tunnels, Juniata shops, etc…) area, with friends, there was a few times that all of us got a “great shot” in the day. (Most of the shots were simple, and easy for even the most novice picture taker to get.) And then, near the end of the trip, we had one more opertunity, just east of Altoona, entering the yard area, kinda behind the shops, where two intermodals were approaching, one eastbound, one westbound. Both were coming at track speed, for that area, and they would meet just off of the overpass we were shooting from. All of us attempted the very seldom seen “meet shot”, where the lead units would be just beginning to pass each other. All of us came away with our attempts, but, the two of us with a DSLR are the only ones with a usable shot.

Why?

The DSLR’s were able to get both units into focus, while the smaller point&shoots, while matching or besting on megapixels, and able to keep pace on the simple, one train shots, simply couldn’t get both lead units into focus quick enough to get the shot. They would get one clear, one blurred, or both blurr

15

[quote user=“dmoore74”]

ricktrains4824

While most any new camera, point&shoot, DSLR, even most newer cell phones, will get good looking shots, most times, with someone who knows what they are doing. My smart phone can rival my DSLR in many cases.

But, for action shots, such as when you are railfanning, or shooting sports, etc… DSLR is the standard of choice, even among amateur photographers, for a reason.

Once you miss a great shot once, due to not being able to focus fast enough in the correct spot, not being able to get the right lighting setting (simply not available in many cameras), or some other silly reason (caused by the camera), you will want the standard, a DSLR.

Case in point: Once, while railfanning around the Altoona (Horseshoe Curve, Cresson, Gallitzin Tunnels, Juniata shops, etc…) area, with friends, there was a few times that all of us got a “great shot” in the day. (Most of the shots were simple, and easy for even the most novice picture taker to get.) And then, near the end of the trip, we had one more opertunity, just east of Altoona, entering the yard area, kinda behind the shops, where two intermodals were approaching, one eastbound, one westbound. Both were coming at track speed, for that area, and they would meet just off of the overpass we were shooting from. All of us attempted the very seldom seen “meet shot”, where the lead units would be just beginning to pass each other. All of us came away with our attempts, but, the two of us with a DSLR are the only ones with a usable shot.

Why?

The DSLR’s were able to get both units into focus, while the smaller point&shoots, while matching or besting on megapixels, and able to keep pace on the simple, one train sh

16

You will like the camera, and I have both of these lenses, they do well.

The camera itself is a upgraded, newer version of what I have. Once you learn it, you will be amazed at what you can do.