SLR Cameras

[scrollersmoke]

Forgive me if I put this in wrong spot but i thought it would be considered a tool for pattern making.
I have a question on what to look for in a good slr digital camera for ex. the digiatal i have now dosent take good action photos when i snap a pic. and the subject is moving its just a blur not good at all but if you snap it with a film 35 m camera it turns out good so what would i need to make sure that one had if i was going to buy a slr diigatal camera? I have never owned one and no nothing about them so any info would be good info.
I am hoping that some of you all have used them and can help me out.
Thanks for helping
Rick

[MacS]

Rick,

I have used a 35mm SLR camera for years, I use these photos for woodworking magazines.

I recently bought a digital camera, and I would never go back to a film camera again.

Even a $200.00 digital camera works wonders.

I did not buy a SLR digital camera, its a 7.3 mega pixel, with 2" x 2" screen, and this camera eliminated most of the bells and whistles which this camera adjust for, the camera was about $150.00, no freight, I bought it through yahoo.

I love it, and you will too.

Mac

[workin for wood]

I have no idea what SLR is. I paid somewhere's in the 200 range for my 7.2 mpx sony. It blurs sometimes when I take a picture, but not always. The thing is that the camera is alot smarter than I am, and I don't understand the manual. It can do just about anything if you know how it works. My brother in law can take a closeup of an insect and you can see the hair on it's legs, with my camera. When I try, it looks like a bug stuck to the bottom of my shoe.

[BobD]

With digital cameras I tell people to set everything on automatic, press the shutter button down 1/2 way so it will autofocus, then press it down the whole way to snap the photos. Most cameras are smart enough to do everything for you!

Bob

[PuzzledMoose]

Jeff: SLR (Single lens reflex) camera is camera in which you view the scene through the same lens that takes the picture - as opposed to seeing the scene through a separate viewfinder.

The other feature that's different is the availablity of interchangeable lenses for them, although to some extent this is at a much earlier stage compared with the way the market was for 35mm cameras. There are certainly not the range of (generally cheaper) 3rd party lenses available that there were for 35mm cameras.

I have one of these: http://www.vistek.ca/details/details...ID=DigitalSLRs
- not from this site but bought locally here for around C$800 but with 2 zoom lenses 14-45mm and 45-90mm. (The equivalents in 35mm terms would be 30-90mm and 90-180mm)

I've been extremely pleased with the quality of the pictures - it's an 8megapixel camera - and its operation. It can be used either manually or automatically as far as picture taking goes and has numerous preset program modes . It can take around 400 shots on average before the battery needs recharging ..

It wasn't cheap but if it lasts as long as my Olympus OM10 35mm which I've owned now for over 25 years then it will be worth it ...

I'm not saying by any means that this is the best digital SLR on the market, as I haven't used others - I guess I bought it from brand loyalty and VFM at the time.

There are various forums you can find where you could ask about digital SLRs but asking which is the best is akin to asking which is the best scroll saw HTH.
Ian

[William Young (SE BC)]

Mine is a 5 megapixel one and also has a 215 page online manual that I can't make head nor tail of. Way too many bells and whistles. So I just use it in automatic mode. It is written in professional photographer language which I am not.
Most important about your blur problem is probaly you are moving it ever so slightly when taking a picture.
I got a cheap camera stand which helped considerably but later after finding how much that helped I got a real good heavy duty tripod stand on sale and that helped a LOT. Sometimes I am too lazy to set up the tripod and I find that if you take a deep breath in and hold it while snapping the picture, you will eliminate most of the movement.
Don't forget to start breathing again after you take the picture or it could be your last one
There are some digital cameras available now that will take excellent pictures even if the object you are shooting is fast moving . But those are mucho money .
W.Y.

[Minnesota scroller]

I just read in the latest issue of Outdoor Photographer, modern advanced compact point and shoot digital cameras come with almost as many bells and whistles as the DSLR's and are capable of taking just as fine a photo. I just purchased a Panasonic with a 12X optical zoom. It shoots up to 6 mp size, which is more than enough for even a 12 X 18 print. It has 14 different scene settings including sports, program mode, shutter priority and aperture priority. Mine also has image stabilization. This can help a lot with the jitters. I used to own a few Nikon 35mm SLR's and this camera has pretty much all the functions those cameras had. I don't understand why they classify these as P & S. This Panasonic also has 5 exposure metering modes and 5 auto focus modes. I can take up to 320 photos on a charged battery and store hundreds of photos on the memory card. This camera costs around $300, versus a decent DSLR with a couple good lenses for well over $1000. If you go to my photo gallery, which is linked under my signature, you will see a photo of a bald eagle in flight and an owl, which I just shot last weekend. You be the judge.

[PuzzledMoose]

Originally Posted by Minnesota scroller

This camera costs around $300, versus a decent DSLR with a couple good lenses for well over $1000.

If that's the case in the US sounds like my C$800 was a good deal .. I am sure they will become considerably cheaper over time anyhow as the market increases.

I wouldn't argue about the quality of pictures from cheaper non-SLRs - there are some excellent cameras about as you've said, Mike. I was replacing a non-SLR 3 megapixel Olympus cam which I'd had for over 10 years - and frighteningly cost almost as much as the DSLR I just got - even though I bought it "cheap" in Hong Kong!

It depends what you are going to do with the pictures to some extent and how much control you want over the camera. Even 2 or 3 megapixel cameras give perfectly good images for most internet use.

A few things I like about mine is the speed that you can shoot off frames in automatic mode and still get good results, it's easy to deliberately shoot silhouettes, and the 8 megapixel size means that you can do some serious cropping and enlargement in Photoshop and still retain a very good quality image .. Oh and it feels like a "real" camera ..lol

Having said all this, my mother has a point and shoot digital cam - I forget the make right now - that she paid around the equivalent of $300 for. I love it - pics are great - reasonable zoom and it fits easily into a shirt pocket!

[Pop]

"I have one of these" ...Ian

That is about the best digital for the money I've seen so far Ian. I've been watching that one for a while now... mainly because it also accepts the 'smart media' cards my old Olympus C-2100 UZ uses now. The Olympus SM cards are getting harder and harder to come by unless you want to spend a mint. I buy the Olympus brand because it adds the panorama feature to my camera that generic brand won't do. I've seen that one as low as $540 on-line with one lens. If you can, find yourself a nice used FL-40 digital flash unit and TTL-TTL cable (about $150 + $10). You think the camera is smart...this cable and flash almost takes the pictures for you. My old Olympus (about 8 years old) is only a 2.1 MP image but because of the Zeiss lenses it usually gets mistaken for 5.0 pixel shots. I also added close up lenses (from my old 35mm archives) that screw into the base lens. That's how I got the crisp image of the QC II on my post about changing the blade holder on my old Delta.

[PuzzledMoose]

Thanks for the tip about the flash, Pop. I'll keep an eye out for that.

When my sister and brother-in-law were over here last August we'd looked at the Olympus I bought and considered buying one then - 3 weeks later they had a deal on dropping the price C$200 and throwing in a 1 gigabyte card free - I couldn't resist!

I know what you mean about the SM cards being hard to find - I have about 6 or 7 here from the old cam but they're only 8MB cards - the limit at the time! How things change!