Amiga.org
Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: X-ray on August 20, 2005, 07:15:46 PM
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In 2001 I bought a Sony CD Mavica digital camera for the 'bargain' price of £850. At the time it was the business: 3.3 megapixel, CDR/CDRW, very good Carl Zeiss lens and very good macro. The reason I chose that camera is because I was going to do my gunshot research in Johannesburg in 2002 and I didn't have access to any computers. Plus, the images are sensitive in terms of patient confidentiality and the images were numerous: 1600 in all. I thought it would be better to have them permanently archived on CDRs at 50p a pop. Anyway, the camera came with me to JHB and survived quite a lot: it was knocked, dropped, smeared with blood, cleaned with strong hospital disinfectants, taken up in a military and police helicopter and also used on various live-fire testing of ammunition in quite harsh conditions.
The camera performed beautifully and all was glorious until January 2003. I was using the camera in the operating theatre here in London (taking shots for a how-to poster involving a fluoroscopy system) when disaster struck. I had to pull the equipment away from the operating table in an emergency and I forgot all about the camera. I lowered the X-ray arm (it is hydraulic, very heavy) and I only noticed my screw-up when I heard the sound of plastic cracking. I had crushed the camera under the X-ray arm! When I raised it again the control knob had been pushed clear into the chassis and the camera looked like Bob from The Black Hole. Amazingly it still worked after I prised the knob back out and bent the on/off lever straight, the only thing was I couldn't change any of the settings. So I sent the camera in to Sony and they 'fixed it'. Well, it was never the same. The control knob always felt a bit off and sure enough after a few months the settings selection on the knob wouldn't work. By now (late 2003) I wasn't keen on spending more money on the camera, for repairs. Better units were already out and dealing with Sony for repairs is a big pain. But the camera worked fine, I just couldn't finalize any of the disks and had to copy them via DirectCD (UDF access). It even survived being placed in a 1,5 Tesla magnetic field when I crawled into the bore of a magnetic resonance scanner to photograph ferrous bullets swinging on a string.
Now, today I went paintballing down in Whiteleaf South and I got shot by a whole lot of people all at once (I suspect they engineered it) because now I have 5 bruises on the right shoulder and back and a very nasty close-range one on the left shoulder with a white center and little subcutaneous haemorrhages in a ring around it. I was so impressed with that one, I wanted a photo to show the {bleep} who did it. Ja, I set it to timer mode, took all the pictures, reached for the camera and saw it topple off my desk in slow motion. It landed on the extended lens mechanism and pressed the lens assembly into the case at a 15 degree angle. I couldn't get it loose and I have opened up the camera and found that the sleeve that is attached to the motor and which encloses the lens is cracked on one side and completely buckled on the other. In short, this camera is now deceased. It is a pity, because I took many pictures with this (all the ones I contributed to the Amiga.Org photo album were done with the Mavica, except the raytraces). So it is a bit sad, but now that I think of it philosophically it paid for itself back in 2002 and gave me good service, perhaps beyond what it should have done. And let's face it, the camera is dated now.
So I am now going to have to look for a new camera.
I am going to give the batteries and charger to my sister (her camcorder uses the same) but if anyone has one of these cameras and wants spares (the CD-drive, LCD screen and chassis are all good, as well as all the PCBs) just let me know and I'll send these to you).
But that's the end of the line for a very useful camera.
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Can't you "accidently" drop the camera down the stairs and claim on your home contents insurance for a new one?
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@ mdma
That would be Very Naughty ... even if I had insurance. I rent a room and I don't have many possessions that the insurance would be able to replace. There's my computer and some arbitrary electronics, but the stuff of real value (my research, my forensic samples, my X-ray films) are irreplaceable. I suppose the A4000T is also irreplaceable.
Oh well, the camera died and another will be born. I'm cool with it.
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So, people, any last minute advice before I buy a new camera? Did you get one and it sucked, or it was very good? I mainly need good macro and fast start-up. I don't need CD anymore but I would like a good amount of megapixels, say 6 or better.
Any recommendations?
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Canon EOS 300D?
I've had three Canons
Canon IXUS II APS
Canun Ixus v3
and Canon EOS 300V
and I must say they've all been great. Sold the APS, but that was the best point and shoot I've had...
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@ Cyberus
Ja, that EOS seems to be popular...and the price has come down so that it is affordable. But what about the 350D? And there seems to be a strong contender in the Nikon D70. Damn, why do there have to be so many choices?
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Tis a shame what happened, I've got the 500 series of that camera, only problem is, the CD hub in the drive has cracked and fallen off. Sony want around AU$700 to fix it, any chance of me securing said hub? Cheers.
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I've been using a Kodak DX7590
5mp with 10x optical lens, comes with USB camera dock
The optical lens varies from wide angle to telephoto
(38 to 330, f2.8-3,7 35mm equivalent)
5.6cm display
32M internal memory, expansion slot for SD/MMC card
nice mid range digital camera
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@ ADZ
Sold to the man Down Under!!
(Well, err, not sold, but given away). We can organise this in PM, yes?
Ja.
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@ thread
I'll probably not get a digital SLR at this point, because of costs (particularly of macro lenses).
I am looking at a review of five compact digital cameras, all of which are 7 megapixels. These are at dpreview (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong6/). One of them, the Canon G6 has a very nice ring light (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong6/Images/Accessories/mr-14ex.jpg) for macro pictures and a few other nice features that make close-ups easier. When I'm finished all the comparisons, I'll have to choose one. These are the contenders:
Canon PowerShot G6
Casio EXILIM EX-P700
Olympus C-7000 / C-70 Zoom
Pentax Optio 750Z
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3
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The G6 is a spectacular looking bit'o'kit, hmmm, do I dare look down the upgrade path??? Nah, the missus will kill me :lol:
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Okay, here's a small problem. The G6 is the best of the lot for me, and it is advertised for about £360. BUT...the frikken ring light is more than £400 !! :-o :-o :-o
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Well, I'm using a Sony Cybershot DSC-V3 now. I had one of the older Cybershots, but finally moved up when this one came out. I haven't had any problems whatsoever with it, and the photos are brilliant. The thing that surprised me most about it though, was with Sony pushing their Memory Stick, it comes with a Compact Flash slot as well - you can choose between CF and Memory Stick with a switch next to the LCD screen. The 2.5 inch screen is great as well, haven't seen another one (apart from Sony cameras) with that size screen. Anyway, it's definately impressed me, I'd say it's worth taking a look at. :-)
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X-ray wrote:
Okay, here's a small problem. The G6 is the best of the lot for me, and it is advertised for about £360. BUT...the frikken ring light is more than £400 !! :-o :-o :-o
Yikes, thats a tad bit pricey!!! :-o Still reckon they could have come up with a better name than "ring light" :lol:
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X-ray wrote:
Okay, here's a small problem. The G6 is the best of the lot for me, and it is advertised for about £360. BUT...the frikken ring light is more than £400 !! :-o :-o :-o
I can think of better things to spend that kind of money on. :-o
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adz wrote:
Still reckon they could have come up with a better name than "ring light" :lol:
Good for illuminating tight spots...
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Karlos wrote:
adz wrote:
Still reckon they could have come up with a better name than "ring light" :lol:
Good for illuminating tight spots...
:lol:
I've always had this preconceived notion that anyone who is really into photography and fancy cameras is a pervert.
Terrible sweeping generalisation I know, but thats what I think.
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Ja, the macro ring light is pricey and has a highly dubious name.
@ mdma
Yup, there are probably better things to spend the money on, but at the moment a good macro picture is a big necessity for me, considering the types of pictures I take. I might look for an alternate light source, because there has to be something fundamentally wrong when the light costs more than the camera!
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Okay, the G6 is here. It will need a lot of going over because it has many more features than the Mavica 300. One good thing for me is I can hook it up to the computer, mount it on a small tripod and then control it entirely from the computer. All the settings are then mouse controlled: the zoom, flash, macro, everything (except moving the camera itself obviously). This will be handy for taking a bag-load of macros.
First impressions: it is a lot more precise in terms of where it focuses. It is quite fast too and doesn't chew batteries like the Mavica. I got a 1GB CF card (50x speed) so it will store 330 images taken at max detail jpeg, 7.1 megapixel.
It's not pretty though...in fact it is one ugly mofo but at least I have a camera again.
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Congrats...Just remember, practicality comes before aesthetics :-)
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"...Congrats...Just remember, practicality comes before aesthetics..."
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Ja, that's what I tell myself every time I look in the mirror :lol:
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Okay, I have been checking out this G6 in more detail and I have some advice for anybody who might get one: in Macro mode it is very fussy with focussing. You know what I mean: you have to have things just so, or it won't be sharp.
But....in Super Macro mode (you can't be on auto) it is much more reliable and very impressive indeed. You have to tinker with the ISO and with the ND filter, but afterwards you can save all those settings and they are instantaneously applied when you turn the dial to C1 or C2.
It is not an easy camera to get used to, especially after the Mavica (I had not previously appreciated how good that Mavica is with its focussing) but once the tweaked settings are saved I expect to take some good pictures with this G6.
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@ Adz
Thanks for the chocolate, mate. It arrived today. I scored good there, this stuff is the business :-D You UK dudes should try it - Black Forest rules man!
/me wonders if they have Black Forest up there in Scotland...
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@X-ray
Glad it arrive intact, grab yourself a glass of Port and enjoy :-D
As for camera's, I'm currently looking at the G6 along with the Panasonic Lumix FZ30, although I'm leaning towards the FZ30, its just so feature packed.