Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

[pugwash]

Come on, everyone admit to what you use.
I can see that this section will be of use to all that post piccies
BUT
if you use a point-and-press, a DSLR or a Brownie Box Camera then obviously the results will be different, there are so many variables.
If you want a little advice no problem, but tell us what you are using and life will be easier. I am not a pro, only a keen amateur.
I think most here use digital compacts, and there too there is a huge difference between the possibilities of the cameras, let alone the person holding it.
So please, when you ask a question, try to say what you are using and what the effect you want to acheive is.

 

[Elmtree Line]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

For normal shots i use a Nikon D80 with an 18-135mm lens.

For Macro and low light shots i use a Konica Minolta Dimage G600.

 

[pugwash]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Strange, that. I would have thought the Nikon would be better for low light with the ISO bumped up?
My biggest niggle with compacts is the fixed, relatively large aperture thus giving a fairly large depth of field (DoF). For the non-techies the DoF is the portion of an image, from foreground to background, that is in sharp focus. This means with a small DoF you can have your beloved loco in sharp focus but the plants in front and the garden fence behind will be blurred out of focus. This seems to be a recurring complaint from people so far, and to be honest a compact can't usually be made to do otherwise - after all they are made to try and get as much of the image in focus.

 

[railwayman198]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

There is no such thing as the perfect camera for every occasion but my favourite so far has been my Olympus C5050. This was my first digital camera and was blessed with a superb lens and a tilting screen which is very handy for low level shots. It was bit chunky for a compact but gave excellent results.

After a few years the on/off switch failed so I bought another Olympus compact, this time the 790SW, one of those shock and waterproof jobbies. This is great for holidays and such being tough and easy to slip into a pocket but the picture quality is far inferior to the C5050. Just goes to show that more pixels are no substitute for a decent lens. And the flash is harsh and nasty.

I also have a Pentax K10d DSLR with a lot of lenses and other goodies but almost all of my garden railway shots are taken with the compact. I just find the DSLR a bit cumbersome for some shots and without a liveview screen you need to be a contortionist to see what you are getting sometimes. I'm searching on ebay for a Zigview finder to solve that issue but I've yet to find one at a price I'm willing to pay. I often find that the greater depth of field that you often get from a compact can be helpful for garden railway shots, if I want the whole length of a train to be in focus, for instance.

 

[nico]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

i use a canon eos digital rebel xt with an sigma dg 28-300mm 1:3.5-6.3 lens
and fujifilm 10.2 sometimes

 

[Steve]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

I use this

Sony Cyber shot optical Zoom3x 5.1 mega Pixels MpegmovieVX with a 256MB card , height of tecnology.

 

[spike]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Kodak Z730 5Mpix......got a nice lense as standard.

 

[Miamigo259]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Started Digital with a Sony DSC-P72, 3.2mp "point & click" camera in 2004, initially as an experiment, I must admit.
Finally dispensed with the "real cameras" when I bought a Fuji Finepix S6500fd camera in 2006, albeit reluctantly. The Fuji can get good images of fast moving objects (aircraft in other words...), but despite being a 6.9mp camera, the "point & click" Sony still comes up with some good quality stuff!

Still miss using slide film though at airshows!

 

[Spule 4]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

While I do have a Brownie.....

Fuji Finepix like a couple others above. Great camera, the only catch is the prorietary (discontinued and soon to be un-supported) xD card format on ours.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

I try to use a camera without much success, as frequently demonstrated on this forum

According to the label, it's a Technika SH-A366

I think it's Tesco's own special - it has a zoom lens, which I can cope with, but it has some controls on a dial by the shutter button - and they confuse me.

The trouble is that the dial gets knocked - it's OK if it's on A (Automatic) but after that .................................

 

[whatlep]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

A Canon A720 (8 megapixel) which has image stabilisation (anti camera shake) and 6x optical zoom as standard. It also has some nice SLR-like features, including ability to lock down to either speed or f-stop. The speed option comes in handy when photgraphing real trains!

 

[Miamigo259]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

While I do have a Brownie.....

Fuji Finepix like a couple others above. Great camera, the only catch is the prorietary (discontinued and soon to be un-supported) xD card format on ours.

Didn't know that...............

There was me thinking the Sony Memory Stick in the P72 was non-standard!

I bought the Sony one after borrowing the one from where I worked at the time to see how it performed. Was impressed with the results so bought one - even after being told by the shop that the model had been discontinued!

 

[pugwash]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Eek! sorry boys but the idea of my posting was what did you use to take the picture, and what was the idea you were after.

 

[pugwash]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

According to the label, it's a Technika SH-A366
I think it's Tesco's own special - it has a zoom lens, which I can cope with, but it has some controls on a dial by the shutter button - and they confuse me.

PERFECT! This is what this section is about. Now, what are the confusing bits?

 

[pugwash]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Noooo way, we are all too modest, shy and self effacing. And glib fibbers.
Seriously, I meant by the original post that someone who tried a shot that didn`t work should ask why, but should say what they were after and what they were using.
Sorry, my ambiguous mistake. Dunces cap, corner...

 

[minimans]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Taken with a Sony DSC-R1 on Auto just trying for that perfect sunset shot when the damn plane got in the way................................

This camera is my favourite Digi so far 10mp with a Carl Zeiss lens, as somebody already mentioned it's the lens thats really important not the total MP. It also has two memory card slots a flash card and sony's own stick so I never come close to running out of space even at 10MP

 

[pugwash]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

I use this

Sony Cyber shot optical Zoom3x 5.1 mega Pixels MpegmovieVX with a 256MB card , height of tecnology.

That's a speed camera

 

[Rhinochugger]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

According to the label, it's a Technika SH-A366
I think it's Tesco's own special - it has a zoom lens, which I can cope with, but it has some controls on a dial by the shutter button - and they confuse me.

PERFECT! This is what this section is about. Now, what are the confusing bits?

Well, all the other symbols really

Moving clockwise:
P
Scene
Tv
Av
M
something that looks like a spanner
something that could be a lorry with a loudspeaker on front, or an attempt at an old movie camera

And that's before we go to the MENU

 

[Rhinochugger]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Noooo way, we are all too modest, shy and self effacing. And glib fibbers.
Seriously, I meant by the original post that someone who tried a shot that didn`t work should ask why, but should say what they were after and what they were using.
Sorry, my ambiguous mistake. Dunces cap, corner...

Wot, like this one - the train that almost got away :-

Or this one - the train that hadn't quite got there yet :-

I blame the camera - first it's too slow, then it's too fast

 

[vsmith]

Re:Come on, everyone admit to what you use.

Nikon Easypix 3200:

Nikon Easypix L18:

Good for closeups