My two cents on digital cameras

[Disnurse2B]

As far as software goes, if I don't use photoshop, I'll go with the hp software that came with my printer. For making simple adjustments like contrast, cropping, etc, it is very easy to use and seems to work great. That brings me to my other suggestion. Get an hp photo printer! I got the photosmart 7550 a few years ago, and it has been the best investment I have ever made. It has several slots to hold different types of memory cards; so you just pull the card out of your camera, pop it into the printer, and it uploads the photos to your computer. So simple. I have never even used my USB cable! The quality of prints is wonderful, too. Another suggestion I have for improving the quality of your photos: utilize your contrast and color saturation tools on your software. By just bumping up the contrast a tad, and bumping up the saturation a tad, it can make an incredible difference in your pics. If the sky just isn't looking quite as blue as you'd like-don't try to adjust the actual color- it will make everything look blue (including skintones!) Instead, just increase the saturation and the difference will be amazing. By adjusting the contrast just a little, it will make your photos "pop." I don't know how to explain it any better, but if you play around with it a little you'll see.

 

[KarenB]

Ahh...perfect timing for this thread. As you can read (and hopefully reply to) I m trying to make a decision on a new camera.


http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=793655

Karen

 

[n6ashh]

hi im thinking of getting the Olympus C765 can anyone tell me what this camera is like

 

[BeadyLady]

Great Idea!
Set up a nice still life with some natural light. Like a small table with a plant and a lamp on it near a window. If you have a tripod, great use it, if not you can either hand hold it, or prop it up on another table or something. Take pics of your still life on all the different settings. Try every button there is! Auto with a flash, auto without a flash, turn the flash intensity up and down, change the white balance (white balance is SOOO important), turn the exposure up and down... so on and so forth.

Download those pics to your computer and look at them over noticing the differences between shots. Most cameras record the setting used to take the pic, so you will know which picture had the exposure up or down. You will learn a lot by doing this! "Huh, all my pics come out blurry like this one without the flash, but this one is great - with the flash on!". Or, "My pics are always overexposed, but this one with the exposure turned down by 1/3 is great!". More than anything, you'll find yourself saying - "So THAT'S what that does!" or "I didn't know you could even DO that!".
QUOTE]

Thank you! I bought the Pansonic F25and I need to learn so much within the next three weeks, that this idea is worth Thanking For!

I use Shutterfly to print larger quanities of pictures, quick prints are done at home on a HP 7660 photo printer. May I suggest something that i read - if you print (at home) to glossy paper - please let the page dry for 24 hours before putting in the phote album, otherwise it retains moisture - I learned this the hard way.

 

[BeadyLady]

Ahh...perfect timing for this thread. As you can read (and hopefully reply to) I m trying to make a decision on a new camera.


http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=793655

Karen

Have you gone to: http://www.dpreview.com/ for reviews on all sorts of digital camera. Try to think about if you want to carry the camera easiely or will a SLR body be ok. How big are you going to print your pictures? You might not need 8 megapixel when you won't be printing poster size pictures. I always liked the look of the Fujifilm 550, it is supposed to have a quick start-up time- which can be very important!

 

[disneyjunkie]

Can someone please explain white balance? Does this have something to do with the flash?

I just purchased my first digital two weeks ago,(Kodak CX7430), to use on our upcoming Disney trip.

I've been playing around with to get an idea of how everything works.

I took a bunch of pictures last week in PA while on a college tour with my son's school. All of the outdoor pictures came out great. I played around with the auto, landscape, and sport settings.

Many of the indoor pictures came out very dark. I assume this happened because of the flash settings.

Under the white blance on the menu I can pick auto, daylight, tungsten(please explain what this means )or fluorescent.

Auto seems to have worked fine for 90% of my outdoor pictures. However, I have no idea which setting to pick for indoor shoots.

 

[Renysmom]

A hint I learned for shooting through glass, windows, etc is that if your digital has presettings (fireworks, mountains, landscapes, etc.) turn off the flash and set it to mountains. Works everytime for me, no glare no reflections, etc..

We are on our third digital, an Olympus Evolt (E-300), a D-SLR.. I have had it for about 2 weeks now and LOVE it.. Great photo's, easy to use.. It is a bit pricey ($500-$800) but well worth it as this one will be the keeper!! The speed is fantastic, it has burst mode for action shots that I am practicing with and I can't wait to use the pre-set fireworks setting to see how then do.

There are some test shots on my website, as well as other pics if you want to look.. Here is a link.. http://tinyurl.com/6z7lb

Kelly

 

[DisneyJen0504]

Just want to subscribe to this thread. I recently got the Canon A85 for my first digital camera and I am a little discouraged at the quality when I printed myself. Will pictures come out different if they professionally printed off the card?
I think I am going to take everyone's advice and really get familiar with the camera first! Thanks for all the tips!

 

[Sk8Leigh]

Just want to subscribe to this thread. I recently got the Canon A85 for my first digital camera and I am a little discouraged at the quality when I printed myself. Will pictures come out different if they professionally printed off the card?

Yes, I think so. Pictures look much better if they're professionally printed as opposed to printed on your printer, IMO, so I would try taking them to the store and getting them done. Those kiosks in grocery stores are fine, IMO. They look like normal pictures, whereas the printed ones look like you printed them at home.

 

[safetymom]

I disagree. I use Epson photo printers and they look better than the ones you get done at Wal-Marts, online, etc.

The Epson prints are also rated to last longer than traditional developing. You might want to look at www.wilhelm-research.com

The Epson Picture Mate is very easy to use, prints 4x6 prints. Cost is 29 cents per print if you pay full retail for the ink and paper. Prints are rated to last 200 years, and are waterproof and smudge proof.

Not all home printers can make that claim. Look for printers that use all pigmented inks for the longest archival life. I have had many pros look at my prints and run out and buy an Epson photo printer.

The benefits of printing your own is wonderful and you get a longer archival life than if you went and had them printed.

 

[Renysmom]

I am with Safetymom on printing at home.. We have the Canon i990 and the quality is unreal.. Many have commented that my photo's look like they were professionally processed. Home printers have come along way over the past 2 years, most manufactures now are making ink that will last 100+ years.

Print quality is determined on both the camera and the printer.

 

[Sk8Leigh]

Ok, I'll give on that one, I don't have a current photo printer and the pictures that I've seen printed are probably not from one. I was looking into buying one a while back, but decided that since I wasn't printing very many photos I didn't want to deal with the research and the cost of finding a great printer.

One question that I have, though, is how long does the ink last? I have a regular color inkjet printer, not for photos, and the color ink seems to run out very fast, or at least one of the colors out of the three. Photo printers must be better than that, because if I were trying to print photos on this one, I wouldn't make it past a few before I had to change the cartridge!

And I do stand by trying the professional photo printing if she doesn't like what she's getting from her own printer. It might be better. It's worth a try.

 

[safetymom]

If you doesn't have a good photo printer then yes taking them somewhere would be better. You can buy a photo printer for $99.

It is hard to say about the ink. It all depends on what you are printing. The Epson's that I have use individual carts. so I can replace just the color I am using. I have seen 8x10 costs for ink and paper to be about $1.50-1.75. Still cheaper than going to the store and having them printed.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

There are too many posts to wade through but I'd like to add:

1. Before buying a camera, go to their respective manufacturers' websites. Choose the ones with the LARGEST sensor you can afford. For example, a Canon G6 at 7.1 MP will yield a noisier (grainier) image than a Canon Rebel at 6 MP. Why? The sensor on the Rebel is 4 times larger than the G6.

2. Getting a cheap lightweight tripod is a mistake. You want light? Get a carbon fibre tripod or magnesium fibre tripod. Light tripods are susceptible to vibration, might as well not use a tripod at all.

3. Use either timer or cable shutter release if you're taking fireworks. Less vibration = sharper picture.

4. For most users, don't bother with high speed media faster than 16x, your camera can't write that fast anyway. The main difference is during the download from the card to the PC, which I personally don't care whether it takes 10 minutes or 20 minutes to download my pics to the PC.

 

[cocoa's family]

Why, what difference does it make? I do mine in my PC all of the time - no issues.

I sell HW and have taken many courses on the operation of digital cameras and this has never been a suggestion...so I am curious as to why you say that?

Hope I'm not replying twice, but my knuckle hit a key and the message I was typing vanished. In response to safetymom's comment about whether to format a memory card in the camera or on a pc, I recently got an Olympus C-740 digital camera, and the manual says to format non-Olympus brand cards in the camera. Apparently the software in the camera may not function properly if the card is formatted through another system, so it may depend on the brand of your camera whether you can be free to format the card in a pc. I'm taking my time learning to use the camera before our Disney trip in June. I'm happy with most results so far. It has a sports photo setting for action shots that helps eliminate blurring that would otherwise because of my unsteady hand. I'm finding it very helpful for portrait shots.

 

[sbutkus]

Doesnt Disney now offer this service instead of film developing? any comments/suggestions aobut this service would be appreciated.

 

[sbutkus]

I see that you stayed at Pop Century a few times. We're arriving on April 29th and Im worried about the distance to the parks/ hard time getting there early. Any advice?

 

[bride03]

I see that you stayed at Pop Century a few times. We're arriving on April 29th and Im worried about the distance to the parks/ hard time getting there early. Any advice?

I think that Pop has a great bus service. I have been there 2 times and have never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus. I like that they have their own busses. Also, there is no problem getting to the parks on time. I have only stayed there in December, but we have always gotten there in plenty of time. Distance to the parks is not too bad. I think Magic Kingdom is the furthest away and it only took like 15 minutes. Don't quote me on that though. I hate busses and it wasn't bad for me though.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I am looking for a camera with great battery life. Anyone have any suggestions. I also want one that I can plug in and charge at night and one that won't die in the parks. I am very technology-literate but I just want something dependable in this area.

 

[sbutkus]

thanks for the info on pop century...as far as a camera goes, I spent $1000 on a camera that I know very little about. It plugs in at night which I love because my old digital ate AA batteries like crazy. I would never go back to that kind. My camera is a Sony DSC-F828 7X optical zoom and 8.0 megapixels. dont know much about what that means and I've wanted to take a course but havent gotten around to it.
good luck!

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Well, the F282, although it's a great camera, quite unfortunately only have about 1/3 of the size of a dSLR camera which (Canon 300D, for example) can be bought at exactly the same price.

The number one thing? You can use ISO 1600 on the 300D and the digital noise/grain will be no more than an ISO 400 setting on the F828.

I used to own an F828 for a week and was planning to use the camera as a non-serious camera to walk around, I returned it back to the shop. Besides, the 8MP is using 4:3 frame (not 3:2 as the photo industry standard is, the frame of a 4x6 print), when you're print it at 4x6 the image will be cropped and you don't get more than an approx 6.3 MP.

WRT cameras with AA batteries, I also used to use Canon A80 and now replaced by A95. It uses 4 AA and I can fill up an entire 512 Mb card using it's highest resolution with a single charge (about 200 shots, 20% w/ flash, 100% w/ LCD on, 100% of the pictures reviewed and deleted as necessary)