Bulb LOg 07-14 Feb 07

[David Nicholson]

Ian, new camera looks and seems ideal but I'm fairly certain that the quality of the "button pusher" has something do with the excellence of the pictures.

For the more photographically challenged amongst us could you explain a little more please (or a lot more!) about how to go about "pushing the exposure up a stop or two to get white snow". My camera is a little Samsung digital, same zoom as yours but not as many megapixels (he said, not likely to recognise a megapixel if it hit him in the face ) which I have had for a couple of years, and I freely admit is possibly capable of somewhat more than this operator is capable of extracting from it.

http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/log2007/140207/log.html

[Ian Y]

David, yes the button pusher does have to take charge sometimes and not leave the camera to make all the decisions.
You have to familiarise yourself with all the cameras features and functions.
Many cameras have an option to increase or decrease the exposure by a variable degree but not all compacts do. Mine does not have this feature but it does have a number of 'scene modes' one of which is for snow and that increases the exposure to give white snow. Another way to trick the metering system when doing close up work with a snow background is to place your spare hand immediately in front of the subject and half push the button this takes a meter reading from your hand which is very close to 18% grey and so gives a neutral reading, move your hand away and take the picture without lifting the button finger and you will get good whites.
I also use the hand trick when trying to get the auto focus to sharpen up on white flowers, something it is not able to do all the time. Once I have fixed the focus on my hand I can move the camera forward about 1 cm and get good sharp focus and correct exposure of a white flower.

[Ian Y]

I also meant to say that the number of pixels is not that important.
I am not using all 7 million of them I mostly shoot at around 5M pixels and that is way more than I need at the moment, my old compact is only 1.3M pixels and gives excellent results it is just bigger and slower than the new model.

[David Nicholson]

I "knocking off" now-going to read the handbook, again!  Thanks for the reply Ian

[Joakim B]

David I just realised that the flower buttom of the camera is to take pics of the flowers and I have had the camera for 3 years.
So have a look at the book or the camera itself.
The camera can make sure it is an OK pic if the camera guy sets it correctly but the camera guy still needs something more to make it a good picture.

Ian You had a Olympus camera (the old one) are You able to put a new big memory card in that? Say a 1 Gig? or does that couse any problem?
I also have a Olympus but slightly newer 4 meg and I can not put a 1 gig memory in it without always having to formate it. That is a slight disadvantage if one want to see any of the pics one take. Do You need to formate the card on the PC and have partitions or what?
Sorry for the slightly off topic question but the camera and memory manual is in Sweden and the Camaera and memory nad me is in Portugal.
BTW it is XD picture cards I am talking about.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Carlo]

Not just for flowers, Joakim...the flower mode on most digital cameras is the macro or closeup mode--very handy for flowers but useful for much more (and I hope you're also using the other modes to take pictures of your flowers).

Carlo

[Ian Y]

David,  the instruction booklet that comes with many cameras is often just a summary to get you up and going there is a more detailed instruction manual in e-form on the CD disc that comes with the camera.
While I am on the subject I would not recommend installing the software that comes with the camera on to your computer, it is never the best and it is not needed to download and view your pictures.

Joakim, I have never tried to put a 1G card in my old camera the picture files are relatively small so there is no need for such a capacity. I use 512KB XD cards in all my cameras and they hold close to 400 jpeg pictures at 5Mpixels plenty for me as I down load my pictures frequently.
If you are formatting your picture card it is always recommended that you do it in the camera and not the computer.

I use a card reader to down load my pictures from my picture card as I find that the simplest way as windowsXP does not need any additional drivers to see the cards.

[Joakim B]

Ian thanks for that info
Joakim

[Anthony Darby]

For those who travel I see that 7dayshop.com are selling 4 gig compact flash cards for less than £17!

[Maggi Young]

A card with that capacity would take even one of our forumists on a world trip with plenty  planty photos, wouldn't it?

[Anthony Darby]

http://www.7dayshop.com:80/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_6&products_id=99857&r=20070214

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

The 4 gigabite card is very handy for a few days away as it can save taking a computer with you. At a 9 megapixel setting it will store around 1,700 images and obviously more at a lower setting.

Anybody advise on good rechargable batteries, A4 size. I find it annoying that they run out so quickly. Also, comment welcome on good experiences with rechargers - quickest?

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Capacity of 4gig card IS impressive, I must say!

Paddy, we have two different re-chargers, I don't know much about them, will get Ian to comment.

I do believe in rechargeable batteries, but wind-up torches and wind up radios are very handy and I'm told you can even get a wind up gadget that recharges a mobile phone now, too. More work for these little chaps........
            

[Lesley Cox]

I reckon you're just winding us up Maggi.

[Maggi Young]

 Moi?