Knife Picture Question.

[Halfneck]

I am looking to get a new Digital Camera - if I could stop spending the money on knives. What size Mega Pixel Camera are posters using to post such good photos of their knives on this forum?

[Ted]

I am looking to get a new Digital Camera - if I could stop spending the money on knives. What size Mega Pixel Camera are posters using to post such good photos of their knives on this forum?

Well, not such an easy question. A lot of factors like the lens and the ability to use manual settings (whitebalanace, aperture & shutterspeed) are also important. With a good 2mp camera you should be able to put good pictures here on the forum. I've used an 8mp Olympus C8080WZ and that gave me the best pictures out of the box, but that camera was not suited for taking shots of fast moving young kids. My current shots with a 6mp Minolta 5D require more work (post processing in Adobe Photoshop).

In summary, you need at least 2mp for a good 800x600 web-shot, a manual exposure setting, a macro option and a manual white balance settings, and a selftimer or remote control. All the rest is extra. :)

[BlackNinja]

I'd have to agree with Ted. 2mp is probably the lowest you could go to get a decent web-shot! As Ted mentioned, there are A LOT of factors involving the camera in dealing with what type of pictures you mainly intend on taking. The higher the mp's, the more you're gonna spend, in generality.

[psimonl]

If you want something not that expensive, trustful, easy to use and very nice pictures, I would go with the Canon Powershot series. Using AA batteries, you save on price (approx. 75.00$ less than those flat custom batteries) you have a very decent product.

Then, I would buy a good tripod for steady shot.

If you want to go for around 1000.00$, I think the Rebel Digital is the way to go. Best bang for your buck for a digital reflex...

My 2 cents...

Simon

[Halfneck]

Was looking at the Nikon Coolpix and Canon Powershots in 3-4 Mega Pixels.

Would mostly be used to take pictures of my 2 boys, to send to the Grandparents, and the occasional Knife post.

[JaM]

I have a Canon Powershot A-60, 2 MP. Perfect for internet-pictures and all that, I am not printing these (although I could). For good pictures I use my minolta, an old "unplugged" camera.

my photobucket account

It's good enough for me at the moment, you might want to get a Canon in the 3-4 MP range for better quality though (had this one for a few years already, I doubt that you can still find it in 2 MP).

Cheers.

[Ookami]

I agree with the above. I have a 6mp camera and I always have to tweak, resize, and downgrade in quality to make the pictures fit the 100kb restriction of the forum.

Ookami
________
FIREPOWER

[deeker]

I use a 3.2MP Fuji. It takes decent pictures, as I don't really have a clue what I'm doing. I leave it in auto mode and adjust the pictures after the fact. I have messed with the flash settings - with mixed results. I usually don't remember which setting did what!

For taking pictures of still objects like a knife, a tripod is essential.

[smcfalls13]

Make sure it has a Macro feature. The awesome closeups everyone does are much clearer when using a Macro.

My camera doesn't have one, and you can see that my closeups are often very blurry.

[Senate]

I agree with the above. I have a 6mp camera and I always have to tweak, resize, and downgrade in quality to make the pictures fit the 100kb restriction of the forum.

Ookami

just use another host for your pics... :)

personnally I would go for more than 2-3Mp, the standard these days is around 4-5Mp and it produces nice quality pictures in a smaller package. unless you want to save the maximum money on the purchase, there's no reason to look for 3Mp, and I don't think you can find them in store anymore :D

[Echo63]

i use a canon eos 350d (digital rebel to you americans)
although i have used SLR cameras for years, have done 2 photography courses, i am still learning about digital cameras, some photos are great - some dont even make it onto the computer, they are that bad

[Rob]

I agree that 2 MP is the lowest you should get. I currently use a 2 MP Minolta and while the pictures turn out to be OK I would love to have larger (speaking of pixels) source files to have more possibilities when I edit my photos. If you ever want to printout some of your pictures in decent quality, try to find a nice 6 MP camera. That's absolutely sufficient for nice printouts (personally I am currently thinking about an 8 MP Minolta but neither do I have the cash right now nor am I really sure if I actually NEED 8 MP :rolleyes: )

However, the resolution is secondary. First you should look for a camera that has a good lens. Manufacturers who produced good quality lenses in the analog era still sell good quality: Canon, Minolta, Nikon,...

Although it's too general to say this, I'd stay away from cameras made by companies that actually started with selling printers, calculators or photopaper and films :D (Hewlett Packard, Kodak,...) unless you know what lenses they use.

When you've found a couple of cameras of which you think that they'll fit your needs, be sure to check some reviews of them online.

Hope that helps a little,

Rob

[TheKnifeCollector]

I am using a 6.3 mega pixel digi cam. It is a Konica-Minolta 7D.

[rs2]

Hi Halfneck,

I use a Canon 20D, which is a 8.2 MP DSLR, and most, if not all, of my knife photos are taken with a Canon 60mm f2.8 macro lens. Click on the link in my sig to see some samples.

[Halfneck]

Very nice rs2. I am more the point & shoot type :) As such I don't see me getting any SLR cameras.

[ront]

I just have an old Olympus C-700 2.1 MP. It works fine. I wish I had a setup like rs2!!

Ron

[spd9075]

Good question! I was wondering that myself. I have an old 1.3 mp Sony Cybershot with macro, buy if you've seen any of my posted pics, they all come out fuzzy. I never really posted many pics before, but now that I am, I guess I need to step up and upgrade! After all, I've seen cell phones with better cameras now! :eek:

[Simona]

Because i have circa 5 yrs.old model of Sony Cybershot DSC P-50, 2.1 mpix, i´m thinking about new camera too...

Probably i want this one:
Sony DSC R-1
10.3 megapixels, Carl Zeiss T* lens with 5x zoom, auto and manual focus, auto and manual exposure, JPEG and RAW file formats, ISO 160-3200, lithium ion battery, no movie mode.


Or Canon PowerShot S2 IS


or
Panasonic DMC-FZ30


Canon EOS 350D


Canon EOS 20Da


Nikon D200


Hard to select :)

[DAYWALKER]

Aloha GG,

Cripes Sia...at least you know what you want! :p I swear though...I saw one of those in Epsiode III, Revenge Of the Sith! :D

God bless and I hope it is warmer there :cool:

[uhiforgot]

Because i have circa 5 yrs.old model of Sony Cybershot DSC P-50, 2.1 mpix, i´m thinking about new camera too...

Probably i want this one:
Sony DSC R-1
10.3 megapixels, Carl Zeiss T* lens with 5x zoom, auto and manual focus, auto and manual exposure, JPEG and RAW file formats, ISO 160-3200, lithium ion battery, no movie mode.

Hard to select :)

Simona, I would highly reccomend the Canon 20Da. GREAT camera for the price, and imaging processor is FAR SUPERIOR to any of the Sony SLR's. Make no mistake, I LOVE Sony for point-and-shoot (I also used a P-51 for a while, and a P-150 currently for EDC camera :p ) but for high-performance and high-quality digital SLR, Canon outperforms Sony in image quality by far!

-Jeff