The Photographers' Corner 2013-2020

[Walt34]

Photo guys and gals - do you have a recommendation for a point & shoot camera?

That's tough one because there are so many to choose from. Almost nobody makes a bad camera anymore but there's always the tradeoff between features, performance, and price.

I'd suggest reading several camera review sites and decide what criteria are most important to you and go from there. What is someone else's ideal camera may not fit your needs at all.

 

[timeasterday]

My understanding is that most pro sports shooters shoot jpg because it's faster to clear the camera's buffer and get written to the card and speed is everything in that environment. An architectural or landscape photographer doesn't care about that. But the sports shooter is going to make sure he/she has the white balance and exposure nailed because they are not going to have the wiggle room that a RAW shooter does.

I shot motorports for media in the past and most of the guys shot JPG simply because they don't have any time to edit photos. The photos have to be uploaded while races are going on and immediately after. But they do know how to dial in the exact settings for every situation.

 

[TOOLMAN]

Some pics from today. Fall has come to New England.
Nikon D7000, Nikon - Wide Angle AF-S DX 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED,
ISO 100 f22, tripod

 

[FIREd]

DW is catching the photography bug. She used to use our canon powershot sd850is, but has been using her phone for the past year or so. Today she told me that she wants a "point and shoot". She'll use it almost exclusively for people shots - family gatherings, etc. I'm looking at reviews, but there isn't a clear best choice.

Photo guys and gals - do you have a recommendation for a point & shoot camera?

For something ultra compact, I like the Canon Powershot S110. It's tiny enough to fit in a pocket yet it packs a lot of features for someone who wants to explore beyond basic point and shoot.

For example, I used the shutter speed priority mode to capture this picture. Tea leaves and water swirling around in a bowl. Canon Powershot S110, ISO 160, f/5.9, 1/10s, no flash, tripod.

 

[Ronstar]

Frayne, Walt & FIREd - Thanks for the point & shoot camera tips. Both the Canon G's and S110 look like a good fit for her.

Next weeks assignment in photo class is composition - taking a shot where lines form
an intersection or check mark, and the viewer is drawn along the lines to the intersection. I brewed today so I didnt have time to shoot, but I did come up with this

 

[Walt34]

This was a weird close call.

Shot portrait photos for a church directory yesterday afternoon. The weird thing about that was when I went to import the photos into Lightroom I was seeing images from a series I'd done the day before at an antique truck show but not the portraits. And I DID reformat the SD card in the camera before the portrait shoot. But I was seeing them in the LCD on the back of the camera so I knew they were there.

Uh oh. This is not good. This camera (Nikon D7000) holds two SD cards, and I'd had it set up so the second card was an overflow for the first. So I copied all files in the camera from the 1st card to the 2nd and the portraits imported fine from that.

Whew!

So for the remaining shoots I'll have the camera write to both cards at the same time - "backup" vs. "overflow". And use a different card.

For right now (unless someone has a better idea of what the glitch was) I'll chalk it up to one of the contacts on the card/camera interface not making a solid connection. If it happens again the camera goes off to Nikon for a checkup.

 

[TOOLMAN]

This was a weird close call. Shot portrait photos for a church directory yesterday afternoon. The weird thing about that was when I went to import the photos into Lightroom I was seeing images from a series I'd done the day before at an antique truck show but not the portraits. And I DID reformat the SD card in the camera before the portrait shoot. But I was seeing them in the LCD on the back of the camera so I knew they were there. Uh oh. This is not good. This camera (Nikon D7000) holds two SD cards, and I'd had it set up so the second card was an overflow for the first. So I copied all files in the camera from the 1st card to the 2nd and the portraits imported fine from that. Whew! So for the remaining shoots I'll have the camera write to both cards at the same time - "backup" vs. "overflow". And use a different card. For right now (unless someone has a better idea of what the glitch was) I'll chalk it up to one of the contacts on the card/camera interface not making a solid connection. If it happens again the camera goes off to Nikon for a checkup.

Sounds like a one off contact problem. I didn't find it as a reported problem for the D7000.
Some D7000's have a problem with spots on the sensor. A wet cleaning ($15) at the local camera shop fixed mine. I bought some wet micro fiber cleaning swabs on eBay so I can do it myself the next time.

 

[frayne]

 

[frayne]

 

[ERD50]

... So I copied all files in the camera from the 1st card to the 2nd and the portraits imported fine from that. ...

Thinking in general terms of memory cards and file systems - I would have approached this problem differently. Generally, writing/copying is the last thing you should do if any corruption is suspected. Since things are in an unknown state, it's hard to say what a write/copy operation may do, and it could make things permanently worse. I understand you were copying from the suspect card to another, but since the problem was maybe in the camera, I think this was still risky.

I would have removed the cards from the camera and read them with a computer. If you have problems reading them, copy from the card to a file on the computer, and try some recovery operations there. Last resort, try recovery on the card itself.

Glad it worked for you, but try this approach if it happens again.

-ERD50

 

[Walt34]

Well, I did move the slide switch to write-protect the card. I'm not sure how foolproof that is (I've been out of the forensics field for a decade) but it used to be an "almost" sure thing.

But I'll keep that in mind in the future. No problems with it today. Looking at the contacts with a magnifying glass I did later see some spots of crud (technical term) on them that came off with alcohol. That was probably it.

 

[Ronstar]

A couple from today. Went looking for fall colors but found none.

 

[ERD50]

Well, I did move the slide switch to write-protect the card. ...

Yes, I think that should be very safe. I'm pretty sure (not 100%, maybe 99.999?) that even bad instructions from a bad contact would not allow any writing to happen with the switch set - I'm assuming that is really a hard switch that can't be over ruled by anything other than a lightning strike.

-ERD50

 

[HFWR]

DW is catching the photography bug. She used to use our canon powershot sd850is, but has been using her phone for the past year or so. Today she told me that she wants a "point and shoot". She'll use it almost exclusively for people shots - family gatherings, etc. I'm looking at reviews, but there isn't a clear best choice.

Photo guys and gals - do you have a recommendation for a point & shoot camera?

Get one with a viewfinder. The LCD screens tend to wash out with almost any backlight...

 

[WyndChym]

Fun watching young squirrel - Canon SX40 HS, no editing

He/she eventually went for it but I was too slow with the camera...


Just hanging out...


Scratching an itch...


35 feet above us, loudly screeching at our dog who was digging up stashes of nuts buried in our yard...

 

[Chuckanut]

Interesting comments by Thom Hogan on the stare of mirrorless camera systems these days.

At www.sansmirror.com on 10/3 /13

 

[Major Tom]

Interesting comments by Thom Hogan on the stare of mirrorless camera systems these days.

At Welcome to Sans Mirror | Sans Mirror ? mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras | Thom Hogan on 10/3 /13

I very much want a Fuji X100S. It's pretty close to my ideal camera, but I'm too frugal so will have to be content with lugging my bulky old 9 year-old DSLR around for a few more years.

 

[TOOLMAN]

He/she eventually went for it but I was too slow with the camera... Just hanging out... Scratching an itch... 35 feet above us, loudly screeching at our dog who was digging up stashes of nuts buried in our yard...

nice pics

 

[Ronstar]

My niece's husband did a yoga night photo shoot, so I tagged along and took a few shots

 

[Major Tom]

I used to fancy my hand at street photography, but discovered that it was really hard work. I would spend several hours wandering around with a camera and come away with no good pictures, or maybe just one.

The one at top left was taken at an anti-war protest. On looking at the photo some time after taking it, I noticed something about the young woman that made her presence at a rally for peace quite poignant.

 

[Ronstar]

I see what you mean.

 

[Walt34]

I didn't see it until I enlarged the photo. Yes, poignant.

And I like the contrast (not the photographic kind) in the lower left shot.

 

[FIREd]

Still life of our farmers market purchases:

 

[Walt34]

Still life of our farmers market purchases:

Gee, thanks. Now I'm hungry again.

 

[TOOLMAN]

Fog in the woods.
Nikon D7000 with Nikon - AF-S DX 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED