i just up graded to the Canon digital Rebal XT and what a differance from the canonpower shot A70 which is a good camera too.
I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT as well; awesome camera. I selected thus model primarily for railfanning. I started with a Nikon CoolPix but found it did not have a fast enough cycle time (i.e., the time between snapping a photo and when the camera is ready for the next shot). The CoolPix took about three seconds, which typically gives you one good shot of a moving train.
- Luther
I use a Canon FD 50mm 3.5 Macro lens on any one of my five FD mount bodies(A-1, T70, T90, TX, FTb). For film I like to use 400UC for ambient light or E100G with flash. Also use a Vivitar 283 flash where apropriate, and always off camera.
Have several high dollar cameras for other work ( photography is another one of my hobbies), but for most layout items, I go with the Kodak Easy Share. Simple, yet takes good photos with little messing around.
Luther, and everyone else, you can speed up to some degree, the shots per minute of most digitals by using fast, high memory cards. There is a huge difference between a 120 meg card and a 1 GB card. Plus you can get more, higher quality photos…
Dennis
I have a Fujifilm S5200-S5600 digital, & I think a 256 GB card.
Mine is a Kodak EasyShare DX7630 digtal camera, 6.1 megapixels.
Nikon Coolpix 5600 digital from Ritz Camera.
5.1 Megapixels
I use an Olympus D-540. Great for low light photos. I’ve always been interested in photography. The Digital cameras are really marvels of technology.
sony dsc-s50, 6x’s precision zoom, cyber shot with 2.1 mega pixels. this thing takes great pictures in really low light and i havent had a problem with it yet.
Canon 10D with 17-40 & 28-135 Canon lenses
I use a Sony MVC-CD500 Digital Still Camera with a 5.0 megapixel resolution and a Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar 3X optical lens.
Three years ago I started out with a very nice Olympus that didn’t break the bank and I think did a fine job. Last January I made the giant leap to a Nikon D70s which is just an incredible camera. I do have a web site now and soon will post that url with the new pics of the train rooms. Jon
a kodak easyshare p880 set on the flower ( close up ) mode
george
I use a Kodak EasyShare DX7630. No layout yet, but have taken some railfan pic’s with it[:)]
This is my second 7630 - I left the first one on an Amtrak ride to Chicago. $400 mistake!
An old HP 720 and they don’t make them anymore. It is a very rugged camera, ideal for taking into the field for my work.
I was fortunate enough to use CSX John’s camera at my last visit and it is awesome.
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Thanks Buckeye!! I was trying to get the same exact camera as Spankybirds, so I could get as good a pictures as him !! Maybe another 20 years of practice I’ll have it !! [(-D][(-D]
Thanks, John
The reason I ask this question is that I was looking at CTT the other day at the photo album section. Where it said to send it to they ask [name, add, phone #,a description of image and the type of equipment used]. Then it said digital photo must be taken with a 3.3 megapixel or higher.
How come ??? or Why
The more pixels the better image. Magazines want the highest resolution possible. If you could take a magnifying glass to a digital image you would see thousands of little dots (pixels) thus the more dots (pixels) crammed into that picture the better the resolution. Jon
I use a Sony Cybershot digital camera. CTT needs large digital image files so that they will look good when printed. A small file will tend to pixelate. Jim
Truthfully, more pixels don’t really make all that much of a difference. In order to see a significant difference when comparing two images side by side, you would need to quadruple the number of pixels. In other words, 4 megapixels are noticably better than 1, 8 better than 2, 16 better than four, and so one.
What does make a big difference is the physical size of the pixels on the sensor. 12 megapixels on a chip the size of your pinkie fingernail will look like crap. This is because each pixel is so small that it’s not very sensitive to light, and the camera has to amplify the signal more. This increases noise(digital grain) so it looks bad. 12 megapixels on a sensor 16mmx24mm look really good because each one does not have to be amplified so much. 12 megapixels on a 24mmx36mm sensor looks great for this same reason.
There’s a reason why Nikons current DSLR meant for photojournalists(D2H) only has 4 megapixels. This allows it to perform really, really well in low light without flash and not get noisy at high ISOs.