What Camera have you got?

Talk about equipment such as cameras, accessories & storage, lighting and lenses

Moderators: John, Sharon, Fossil, crusty_bint, Jazza, dazza

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby BrigitDoon » Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:18 am

I've got a Canon EOS 300D which is my workhorse. I rarely use anything else. My previous was a Sony Cybershot DSC-P1.

Some of my older photographs, particularly the grainy aviation photos on MM&FM thread were taken with either an Olympus OM-10 or a Chinon (and I'd have to dig it out to find the model). There's a Minolta in here somewhere too.

I've got some stuff to go through and I'll put some up for grabs at some point.

If anyone's up for meeting in town at any point, I'll bring some stuff down.
UXB
BrigitDoon
Third Stripe
Third Stripe
 
Posts: 4232
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:03 pm

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby Digitographer » Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:42 am

>>So it nots just what youve got, its partly how you use it....<<

Absolutely.

Some of the best shots I have ever seen have been taken on older / smaller / cheaper cameras. The equipment is only the tool - the real art is in how the person behind the camera uses it.
Will
www.askyofhoney.com
User avatar
Digitographer
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 156
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:22 am
Location: Lanarkshire

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby scottwramsay » Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:14 am

But you can only get so much control out of a cameraphone. You've got to have something decent to start with. Maybe it's a distinction you make in your head and assume that it goes without saying, but I really don't believe you can get a photo that's as good as something on an SLR taken off the automatic settings when you're using a grainy sensor on a fixed aperture. Or maybe the distinction you're making internally is between getting a good finished product, and finding & framing a good subject - you can obviously do the latter but that's about as far as your creative control extends.

P.S. I'm not a snob - I've got a 400D!
http://www.flickr.com/scottwramsay/
User avatar
scottwramsay
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 360
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:26 am
Location: Glasgow

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby rotten milk » Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:28 am

it's all fair do's tho, scott.

i suppose it all comes down to context, when, who, where etc

a lot of photos, even 'classic' ones come down to it was taken at that moment, ie content/light/composition, sometimes grabbed onthe hoof so underexposed etc. but the photo 'works'
at the other end of that you have a shot that was planned, exposed, metered, set-up etc etc , but it still looks 'nice picture' instead of 'wow!'

if it's where you have the time, i would say worry more about the (whole) composition first - a technically-deficient snap can still be a great photo, but a technically-exquisite 'so what' pic is still a 'so what' pic - does that make sense

of course the whole thing about photography is there are all these 'rules', but everything in a situation is so fluid

and remeber too, it's all too easy to take lots of (possibly indifferent) pics these days - when you only had film to rely on, you had to make the pic 'count' more, simply because otherwise you were wasting film/processing costs!
i'm sure all of us could take 36exp digitally in no time at all, but how many of them would be good enough, irrespective of the complexity of the camera?

btw hope this doesn't count as a rant :oops:
just, you can take a great phot with an 'inferior' camera (well, as long's the lens is ok), just takes a wee bit mor thinking time
whereas,with a modern, bells'n'whistles jobbie it's incredibly easy to take an ultra-high-quality pic of little interest.

*funboythree* it ain't what you do it's the way that you do it *funboythree*

::):
hey, d'ye think it's ootside yir in?
rotten milk
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 107
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:32 am
Location: the far east

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby Lucky Poet » Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:09 am

A few days ago I managed to kill a 'what camera' thread on the 'Amateurs' group on Flickr. :D Some nugget from Hong Kong was boasting about the quality of his magic box's images... Like I said there, I've got a camera, some lenses, and when I'm careful I get some useable photos. It's a two-way contest between the camera and the user, I guess: some jammy sods would get beautiful art out of a shoe box with a hole in it; others buy top of the line DSLRs and do damn all with them beyond possessing an expensive thing. Most of us live somewhere inbetween. A DSLR and some funky lenses gives you the opportunity to manipulate reality to your liking though...

Having said that: aye, technically exquisite but uninspiring photos remain uninspiring. I guess a photo is 'good' if the viewer likes it. Depends what you want a photo to be :)
All the world seems in tune on a Spring afternoon, when we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
User avatar
Lucky Poet
-
-
 
Posts: 4161
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2007 1:15 am
Location: Up a close

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby scottwramsay » Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:45 am

rotten milk wrote:it's all fair do's tho, scott... just, you can take a great phot with an 'inferior' camera (well, as long's the lens is ok), just takes a wee bit mor thinking time
whereas,with a modern, bells'n'whistles jobbie it's incredibly easy to take an ultra-high-quality pic of little interest.


I didn't say the camera was more important than the photographer! Maybe I should have been clearer about what I assumed was taken as read. Better cameras aren't going to give you better photos, but they're going to give you more control to get them right. I was picking up on Digitographer's post:

Digitographer wrote:The equipment is only the tool


We all know a hammer's a tool, but a chocolate one won't exactly live up to the job. Setting your depth of field - one of the most basic and most picture-enhancing effects - just can't be done on a point-and-shoot. And it takes hours of selecting, alpha-channeling and graduating on photoshop to replicate as well if you don't manage to get it done in-camera.

I'm not trying to push expensive cameras - my £5 charity-shop film SLRs are obviously many many times cheaper than what you'd get fresh out of the box but I can get so much more control from them.
http://www.flickr.com/scottwramsay/
User avatar
scottwramsay
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 360
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:26 am
Location: Glasgow

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby potatojunkie » Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:39 pm

rotten milk wrote:you can take a great phot with an 'inferior' camera (well, as long's the lens is ok), just takes a wee bit mor thinking time

There are things you can do with a tilt/shift lens or a medium/large format bellows camera (for example) that you couldn't accomplish with a million years of thinking time. If you want closeups of wildlife then thinking time is a poor substitute for a telephoto lens. When taking gig photos in a poorly-lit venue, fast apertures and well-controlled high-ISO noise trump thinking time hands down. Good luck triggering a set of studio lights with thinking time. And so on and so forth. It depends on what you're trying to do.
I will shoot you: http://www.stuartcrawfordphoto.com/
User avatar
potatojunkie
Third Stripe
Third Stripe
 
Posts: 746
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:49 am
Location: St. George's Cross

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby Digitographer » Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:08 pm

>>Better cameras aren't going to give you better photos, but they're going to give you more control to get them right<<

That more or less sums it up, although I would add 'necessarily' after "aren't". I think we are coming from slightly different angles, but heading for much the same place.
Will
www.askyofhoney.com
User avatar
Digitographer
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 156
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:22 am
Location: Lanarkshire

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby rotten milk » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:11 pm

ditto

sorry if i got the wrong end of anybody's stick and i didn't mean to sound as if i was criticising either :oops:

quick, somebody buy a camera to get the thread going again ::):
hey, d'ye think it's ootside yir in?
rotten milk
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 107
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:32 am
Location: the far east

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby Digitographer » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:24 pm

No worries - it began a good discussion :)
Will
www.askyofhoney.com
User avatar
Digitographer
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 156
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:22 am
Location: Lanarkshire

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby Delmont St Xavier » Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:20 pm

I just purchased a Canon EOS 450D with kit lens and a Tamron lens. Previously had a Fuji 'point and shoot' digital camera, before that a Kodak Digital (one of the early models) and my all time favourite, Fuji APS with the panoramic setting.

Don't ask me what type of lens, etc - I have to take crash course in DSLR photography - at least I know how to switch it on!
"Listen, it's too big a world to be in competition with everyone. The only person who I have to be better than is myself. And in your case, that's enough."
Delmont St Xavier
Third Stripe
Third Stripe
 
Posts: 726
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2006 10:04 am

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby scottwramsay » Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:12 pm

Delmont St Xavier wrote:I have to take crash course in DSLR photography


The "Photography: Camera Techniques" course at the Glasgow Met is really good. It runs on a Tuesday night or a Saturday morning over 3 hours for 10 weeks, and if you meet their criteria ILA Scotland will pay the fees for you (it's not listed on that page, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't pay for it any more - I know they were overhauling their database a few months ago and had problems making sure all the information about eligible courses got back into the right places).
Last edited by scottwramsay on Wed Mar 04, 2009 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
http://www.flickr.com/scottwramsay/
User avatar
scottwramsay
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 360
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:26 am
Location: Glasgow

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby Digitographer » Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:47 pm

Oh now that's handy to know - thanks, Scott :)
Will
www.askyofhoney.com
User avatar
Digitographer
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 156
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:22 am
Location: Lanarkshire

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby BrigitDoon » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:11 pm

Mum's just sent me a load of my old kit plus some family stuff that's now redundant now that they're using digital.

Image

Image

Chinon CE-3 Memotron

Image
Image
Image

Prinzflex screw-fit lens for the above.

I believe these are Pentax-compatible.
UXB
BrigitDoon
Third Stripe
Third Stripe
 
Posts: 4232
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:03 pm

Re: What Camera have you got?

Postby rotten milk » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:31 pm

by screw-fit, i take it you mean M42?

i think (dangerous, i know!) that M42 stuff is pretty much compatible with any make of M42 camera? all they seem to have is the little pin sticking out on the mount for stopping down the aperture.

i think there's still plenty knocking about too - even my local cashconverters had about 6 items inc. 3-piece extension tubes set and an f4 200mm, none of them dearer than a fiver!

ok, they might be not great quality, but a cheap way of trying stuff out! :D

as long's there's no scratches or bloom on the glass and the iris doesn't stick, that'll do me. :P
hey, d'ye think it's ootside yir in?
rotten milk
Second Stripe
Second Stripe
 
Posts: 107
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:32 am
Location: the far east

PreviousNext

Return to Equipment

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests