Berries

[geminiguy]

The only digital cam I've ever owned is a Concord duo.... it came with my LexMark printer for free... (or was that the other way around??)
It works "o.k." But, I have noticed that I get better pics from it now from heeding a few of the tips I have gotten from John here n there
But, you have to admit John... An experienced photographer can take a good shot with a lousy camera
And, an inexperienced photographer can take a lousy shot with a good camera...

I think the equipment is 1/2 of the puzzle, while the experience & knowledge is the other 1/2

[haakoo]

Hi,

Okay my camera isn't a crappy 1-2 mpix camera with only auto-focus
It's a 5 year old kodak z700 5 mpix, with some manual settings and 10x optical zoom.

Hans

[raynerj1]

Sorry About that Keith,

It is hard to remember who one is writing to when one posts. Can you get an adapter to switch you back and forth between mounts? I have an adapter to change out from my K-mount to a screw mount for my pentax.

If you Know how to take a manual shot, then you can grab manual lenses insteand of the fancy autofocus lenses. For my camera there is a big, big difference in price between the two.

Haakoo...

Can you take manual shots with yours? Many of your low end camera's only have a few if any manual settings... The minimum I would look for are manual exposure and f-stop. If you have a camera that also has manual focus then you should be able to take many shots that would be just plain luck with a lesser camera. The heart of any camera is the lense. The better the lense the better the shot.

Paul,

I would say it is 25% tools and 75% experience and knowledge. That is giving the camera more points than it should have too...

[haakoo]

Hi,

Had the specs all wrong.
Here are the right ones from kodak site;


CCD resolution 4.23 megapixels (2408 × 1758 pixels)
Image resolution 4.0 megapixels(2304 × 1728 pixels)
Picture quality 4.0 MP—best (prints up to 20 × 30 in. (50 × 75 cm))
3.5 MP—best 3:2 (optimized ratio for 4 × 6 in. (10 × 15 cm) prints)
3.1 MP—better (prints up to 11 × 14 in. (28 × 36 cm))
2.1 MP—1656 × 1242
1.1 MP – good (small prints)

Still format JPEG/EXIF v 2.21
Lens 35–175 mm, f/2.8–4.8 (35 mm equivalent)
Zoom 5X optical zoom
Advanced digital zoom—4X

Aperture f/2.88–5.76 (wide), f/4.9–8.76 (tele)
Shutter speed automatic: 8–1/1600 sec.
Viewfinder Real image optical viewfinder
LCD 1.6 in. (4.0 cm) hybrid (transmissive/reflective) TFD, 72K pixels (312 × 230) indoor/outdoor display
Performance features
Still capture modes auto, SCN, sport, landscape, close-up, PAS
Scene modes children, party, beach, flower, fireworks, snow, backlight, close-up, night portrait, landscape, night landscape, manner/museum, text/document, self-portrait, sport
Color modes color, sepia, black and white
Click to capture 0.43 sec. (prev. on), 0.68 sec (prev. off)
Shot to shot 1.12 sec.
Video mode continuous MPEG-4 compressed video with audio recording during video capture
Video resolution VGA (640 × 480 pixels) at 13 fps; QVGA (320 × 240 pixels) at 20 fps
Video length continuous up to 80 min. based on memory capacity
Video formats QUICKTIME MOV (MPEG-4 compression)
Auto focus TTL-AF
Auto focus selection multi-zone, center spot
Focus range Standard—2 ft (0.6 m) to infinity; Macro, wide—2–4 in. (0.05–still 0.1 m); Macro, tele—10–28 in. (0.25–0.7 m); Landscape—33 ft (10 m)–infinity
Sensitivity ISO equivalent 80–160 (automatic) and 80,100, 200, 400 (manual)
White balance auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent
Exposure metering TTL-AE; selectable: multi-pattern, center-weighted, center spot
Exposure control programmed AE
Exposure compensation +/-2.0 EV in 0.5 EV step increments
First and last burst mode 3 fps, maximum 6 images in any quality mode
Burst mode 3 fps, maximum 6 images in any quality mode
Ease of use features
Built-in flash auto, red-eye, fill, off
Flash range wide—2–12.5 ft (0.6–3.8 m)
tele—2–7 ft. (0.6–2.2 m)

Hans

[raynerj1]

Hi Hans,

A very nice camera, if a little limited. The very difficult to take shots would be almost impossible with this camera I am afraid. You have automatic modes for just about everything, so you should be able to take many of the semi difficult shots and have them turn out well. It seems like a well built consumer grade camera.

If you had the ability to do manual settings, then it would be a pretty nice camera indeed.

[ss-kalm]

Can you get an adapter to switch you back and forth between mounts? I have an adapter to change out from my K-mount to a screw mount for my pentax.

If you Know how to take a manual shot, then you can grab manual lenses insteand of the fancy autofocus lenses. For my camera there is a big, big difference in price between the two.

Haven't seen an adapter recently. I know there was an MD mount to M42 screw 20 years ago (don't remember seeing one the other way), but finding one now would be difficult, if not impossible.

All my lenses are manual lenses - I don't think there was an autofocus lens available when I last used it.

[raynerj1]

Hi Keith,

I dropped you a PM with a link to a good online camera shop... they might have what you need.

[RTK]

I think the equipment is 1/2 of the puzzle, while the experience & knowledge is the other 1/2

I have a diffrent take:

Imagination and a good eye (artistic sensibility) - 90%.

Equipment - 10%.

Steve Newport did (does?) some amazing thing with Xara:

http://www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/sn2/ and
http://www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/sn/index.htm

Using a camera he "still" makes us all look rather sad: http://stevenewport.com/

Risto

[RTK]

As a P.S.

You sometimes see people boasting about thousands of "amazing" shots they have taken (last week (month or year(s)))... If you have thousands of those pictures... OMG! You will never be hungry again (and agents and galleries will be clawing at your face and camping on your front lawn!)

Really... Some perspective is a wonderful thing!

Ansel Adams (the most famous and respected American photographer of all time) said: "Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop."

But then we have Rich that never boasts about anything, and silently comes up with some real gems every other day... Life is not fair!

Risto

[geminiguy]

There definitely are not many of us who don't wish we were Steve Newport
Some of us are lucky if we ever come up with that "one" masterpiece which brings world-wide Ooohs & Ahhhs...... in a lifetime....
Steve does it on a daily basis