The Photography Thread

[NaveT]

Any one had any experience with the Pansonic DMC-TZ1K. Look quite interesting.

Got a [font='Verdana','sans-serif']reasonable [/font]review as well - http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonictz1/

[MartyG]

Never used them, but I've read good things about that camera.

I seem to have been spending much cash this month. Not content on blowing ?300 on that macro lens, I've gone and bought myself a new point-and-shoot. I thought that these cheap jobbies would satiate me. Alas it's not the case, I can't get the shots I want with them (they're just too cheap and grainy). So I bought this: http://www.ukdigitalcameras.co.uk/__..._i4_33322.html and should have that tomorrow or Saturday.

Now I'm off to apologise to the bank manager.

[PeteJ]

Damn Marty! I've been thinking of doing the same to be honest, but I think I'd rather put the money into new glass.

I've read reviews of that camera, looks really sweet.

[MartyG]

It's not that I've not been able to get some shots and make them quite nice with a bit of post process with that ?12 camera:

http://picasaweb.google.com/martypg/Vivitar12CameraShots/photo#4961335810608136210

http://picasaweb.google.com/martypg/Vivitar12CameraShots/photo#4961369572366614546

Just that I don't have the control over the exposure that I really want. I looked at a couple of point and shoots, but I really liked the size, features and price of that one.

[MartyG]

Found what seems to be a useful website for SLR info: http://www.photodo.com/

Got quite a lot of info and reviews on various lenses.

[PeteJ]

Great find Marty, just spent the last half an hour reading some of the lens reviews.

That Sigma 300-800mm is a monster!

[Alastair]

Another go at Light Painting (if that's the right name):
1.


2.


That was really hard to trace round as it was on it's stand that sticks out forward of the edges of the guitar in a few places, you can see I wobbled on the first shot quite a lot at the bottom right.

I like the second shot for the reflection at the bottom of the guitar and the darkness in the middle, see it best by clicking the image.

[PeteJ]

Really cool again - I tried my guitar and it is much tougher than it looks. The effect is really near on both.

Do you struggle to keep the background fully black? Due to the use of a torch I found parts of my room became lit within the shot which ruins the effect somewhat. I had to run it through photoshop a few times to blacken it as much as possible.

[Alastair]

Yep - You can probably see on the 2nd shot that the radiator behind is lit a bit. As the 1st shot was so long (137 secs) it could handle a load of brightness lowering to get rid of the background.

If I had a bigger room to use it'd be OK as I could arrange it in the middle away from any reflective surfaces.

[MartyG]

Found another interesting site today: http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Lots of stuff in there about older cameras, though it desperately needs an injection of info in places.

[MartyG]

Some cool painting by light pics above. Shame they're unappreciated on flickr

I collected my new Casio Exilim Z-850 from the Post Office this morning, and now it's all charged up and I've taken my first couple of pics with it. I must say this is a very impressive bit of kit. The quality of the photos taken with it so far easily rival the stuff I'm getting from the D50. The detail is quite superb.

Now I've found my way around the controls, it's great to be able access stuff like white balance, picture quality, ISO and AF area and shot mode quickly and easily. Again as easy as changing these on my DSLR, and it even has some features that I find useful that I don't have on the D50, such as gridlines ( I really wish the D50 had kept that feature for the view finder, it's well handy ).

The screen on the back is huge, it pretty much takes up the entire back of the camera, and it's really bright and clear. I even like the best shot modes on it, with some kooky image effect processing on it ( as useless as these are in reality, they're still a lot of fun ).

The only thing I don't really like on the camera is the view finder. It's so small that it's next to useless ( about 5mm x 3mm ), and without dioptic adjustment on it, totally useless for the short sighted. Also, the aperture priority mode doesn't really have a lot of room for adjustment; only f2.8 and f4.0 is selectable. Not that much of an issue really though; on a point-and-shoot there tends to be quite huge depths due to the lenses used. Bluring out the background becomes trickier, but using the zoom at the long end helps this along.

I'll upload a couple more pics in a little while; the detail level is such that I think I need a shave before I upload any self-portraits

Overall then, very impressed. In fact, I can see myself taking as many pics with this camera as my main D50, due to it's small size, portability and quality. TBH, unless you really need the greater flexibility offered by a D-SLR, I think this camera ( and similiarly featured point and shoots ) will more than satisfy your photographic needs.

http://picasaweb.google.com/martypg/CasioExilimZ850Pics

Edit - it's so grey and horrible today, I can't find anything nice to photograph :/

Well, with such lousy light, I've taken to doing self-portraits. The crop is as taken straight from the camera, as is the first link. The other two I've done a filtered B&W and focal B&W on in Picassa - can't decide which one I prefer atm.

http://www3.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/213270730/

http://www3.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/213270734/

http://www3.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/213270735/

[MartyG]

Hmm - too many posts in a row ...

Been looking on eBay for an M42 mount camera ( I have acquired some screw mount lenses that I assume are M42, so I need a body to try them on ), looking around I came across this item: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Zenit-FS-12-Ph...QQcmdZViewItem

I have seen them before, but it gives a whole new meaning to shooting film

[PeteJ]

Marty that camera sounds awesome I'm trying to save money damnit!

[andrewfee]

Glad you like the Z850. I've got the 750, which is essentially the same camera with a 7.2 megapixel sensor instead of 8.1 and I love it. Could do a bit better in low-light though, and high ISO is a bit noisy. (which is why I've been looking at getting another DSLR lately)

[PeteJ]

Another one from my trip to the seaside