DTP


 
Lively discussions on the graphic arts and publishing — in print or on the web


Go Back   Desktop Publishing Forum > General Discussions > Photography

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-16-2009, 08:58 AM   #1
ktinkel
Founding Sysop
 
ktinkel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: In Connecticut, on the Housatonic River near its mouth at Long Island Sound.
Posts: 11,187
Default In love w/an unreleased camera?

I like to take pictures but I am more of an art director than a photographer. But I like to take snapshots and used our first digital camera a lot (ca 2000) — it was a true point-and-shoot, but with (at the time) decent zoom, so I could catch the shy birds that appear along the river as well as snapshots of people in the house.

Then in 2003 Jack got a 10X optical zoom camera with lots (I mean lots!) of controls. You need to rotate one dingus then push a bunch of different buttons just to go from shooting to viewing, for example. After five years, its main user still has to refer to the print-out documentation to do anything less common than that. Consequently, it drives me crazy, and I never try to use the thing. When I need a picture for my food site, I ask Jack to take it, even though I prefer to do it myself.

Well: Lately I have been seeing previews of the Olympus SP-590 UltraZoom, which is due out in March: Digital Camera Review, Digital Photography Review, and DC Views.

Its headline feature is 26X optical zoom — probably more than I would use — but it appears to do a good job with it (aside from need for hand support for the longer range shots). At least as interesting to me, it does a good job with macro shots as well (I am a little hazy on the means for that).

The best part for a photo noodnik like me, the camera has been redesigned, with an intelligible menu interface, big icons, and written labels. It has multiple modes, including a basic point-and-shoot, which sounds like my cup of tea. The other modes seem to offer as much control as any Type A camera buff could ask for without going to an SLR (maybe even with a DSLR).

The only memory card mentioned is a 2GB xD (said to support the Olympus panorama feature). I wonder what other cards would work, as 2GB doesn’t sound like much for as many pixels as this thing could potentially gobble up.

Amazon has its pre-order price at $450 (plus a card, not supplied).

Definitely on my wish list for now.

   
__________________
[SIZE=2][COLOR=LemonChiffon]::[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
ktinkel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2009, 11:39 AM   #2
terrie
Sysop
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,478
Default

Looks pretty slick!

Terrie
terrie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2009, 01:00 PM   #3
annc
Sysop
 
annc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Subtropical Queensland, Australia, between the mountains and the Coral Sea
Posts: 4,592
Default

Over in Snarkish, Alan has been answering questions about which camera to buy, and one of the things he has against the Olympus cameras is the proprietary memory cards.

   
__________________
annc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2009, 02:30 PM   #4
ktinkel
Founding Sysop
 
ktinkel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: In Connecticut, on the Housatonic River near its mouth at Long Island Sound.
Posts: 11,187
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by annc View Post
Over in Snarkish, Alan has been answering questions about which camera to buy, and one of the things he has against the Olympus cameras is the proprietary memory cards.
We have two others, and haven’t had problems with the memory cards. In this case, though, I was concerned at the small capacity. They like to sell you packs of three of them, but one big one should be better.

I didn’t realize the Olympus card was proprietary.

   
__________________
[SIZE=2][COLOR=LemonChiffon]::[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
ktinkel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2009, 05:10 PM   #5
terrie
Sysop
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
kt: I didn’t realize the Olympus card was proprietary.
It may be different now but when I had my Olympus C-4040, if you used the Olympus-branded memory card, you could do panoramas but if you used a 3rd party card (appropriate form factor), then you could not do panoramas but any other short of photo was fine...

Terrie
terrie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2009, 05:30 PM   #6
Hugh Wyn Griffith
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 2,485
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by terrie View Post
It may be different now but when I had my Olympus C-4040, if you used the Olympus-branded memory card, you could do panoramas but if you used a 3rd party card (appropriate form factor), then you could not do panoramas but any other short of photo was fine...

Terrie
That is still correct but since I have some Olympus cards and some Fuji and some SansDIsk (who make them all I believe) and have not yet tried panorama it doesn't bother me <g>

There's no real downside to using Olympus branded cards since I've not found that they are premium priced.

   
__________________


Hugh
Hugh Wyn Griffith is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-18-2009, 12:40 PM   #7
terrie
Sysop
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
hugh: That is still correct but since I have some Olympus cards and some Fuji and some SansDIsk (who make them all I believe) and have not yet tried panorama it doesn't bother me <g>
Didn't bother me either as I wasn't intending to work with panoramas...


>>There's no real downside to using Olympus branded cards since I've not found that they are premium priced.

It's been too long since I had my C-4040 for me to be sure but as I remember, the Olympus-branded cards were more expensive so I went with another compatible brand...

Terrie
terrie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2009, 07:36 PM   #8
Steve Rindsberg
Staff
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 7,714
Default

Hm. I was thinking of picking up a few big ones for a trip to Japan but after a bit more thought, I jumped at a chance to pick up a stack of 512mb cards from a friend.

In practice, it worked out well. No card holds more than than will fit on a CD, so I can copy the card to the laptop that travels with me, burn a CD or two and I'm safe. I leave the images on the lappie as well. Then I reformat the card.

It also seem to make it easier to segregate the images by place/subject. Leaving the flea market and going to visit a church or temple? Swap in a new card. Wastes a bit of CD space, but who cares at today's prices.

Another way of looking at it, y'know?

   
__________________
Steve Rindsberg
====================
www.pptfaq.com
www.pptools.com
and stuff
Steve Rindsberg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-17-2009, 07:02 AM   #9
ktinkel
Founding Sysop
 
ktinkel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: In Connecticut, on the Housatonic River near its mouth at Long Island Sound.
Posts: 11,187
Default

True enough. Makes sense to me.

   
__________________
[SIZE=2][COLOR=LemonChiffon]::[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
ktinkel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-17-2009, 07:14 AM   #10
Mike
Staff
 
Mike's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Llanwrtyd Wells
Posts: 1,450
Default

Zooms are certainly improving. This is a hand-held photo I took the other night with my Canon SX100IS. The picture's not perfect but it seems to me pretty good for a camera that only cost £150 (about $225).

The picture is straight out of the camera but downsampled to allow posting - the original is 3264 x 2448 pixels.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	moon.jpg
Views:	87
Size:	92.3 KB
ID:	1426  

   
__________________
Mike

www.welshframing.com
Mike is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Snapshot from iMac built-in camera? ktinkel Hardware & Gadgets 10 04-30-2008 11:31 AM
Digital Camera recommendations michelen Photography 46 02-15-2008 03:14 PM
From digital camera to print ktinkel Images 11 08-23-2006 09:10 AM
Captured on speed camera Kelvyn The Corner Pub 15 05-22-2006 01:13 AM
Photoshop CS2, Camera Raw Updates terrie Images 0 05-16-2006 02:24 PM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:33 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Contents copyright 2004–2019 Desktop Publishing Forum and its members.