The Huber light tent in alamogunr's post is a pretty nifty design. I have been meaning to make one for a couple years now!
The Huber light tent in alamogunr's post is a pretty nifty design. I have been meaning to make one for a couple years now!
I have more camera than I would recommend to a beginner. Therefore, I'll recommend one of those "SLR-like" (as Consumer Reports calls them) or superzoom (as photo magazines call them) cameras. They look like a camera with interchangeable lenses, but they have a fixed zoom lens that goes from wide angle to serious telephoto. Every manufacturer makes some, but for quality/$$ I like the Lumix cameras by Panasonic due to their Leica lenses. Look up Lumix cameras, choose the point-and-shoot, and scroll around until you see the ones that look like SLRs.
No matter what style camera you chose, I'd really recommend a model with an eye level viewfinder because LCD screens are so hard to see in bright sunlight.
You really need to know what you will taking pix of. If your shooting your guns and boolits, you'll need to be able to close focus. If your shooting game pix a zoom might be needed. Norske's idea is quite good, Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus etc all have high end point and shoot. They have excellent optical zoom from wide angle to big zoom. Many have stabilization (anti-shake). I am fortunate to have both an SLR (with interchangable lens) and a high end point and shoot. Central Texas has a great camera store which has great sales people. They try to fit you into what will work for your budget and use. They don't try to up sell. Try a camera store and ask for help.
Ed C
About a year or so ago I bought an el cheapo Fuji at Best Buy for around 75 bucks. I bought it for a spare, thinking I'd keep it in my car or truck. The camera guy at the store said they were as good or better than the other brands. He was right, and I bought it. Used it for a while before giving it to my niece's 6 year old, who took about a thousand "selfie"s with it an still has it, it working order. If I already didn't have a Canon pocket size model (out-dated now--tech items get outdated every time someone sneezes) I wouldn't hesitate getting a Fuji mor my only small camera. Check Amazon, Best Buy, or similar stores for your best price.
The Olympus TG-3 or TG-4 takes truly amazing handheld macro pictures... Can be dropped, kicked, frozen, used underwater. I have a TG-2 and Tg-3... The TG-4 on Amazon is the least expensive way to go. Has an LED ring that snaps on the front... here is a quick handheld shot I just took on the desk next to me this is sized down to 35% of original... the big one is here: http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...pso9pp8vva.jpg
Last edited by gburnstein; 08-15-2015 at 05:38 PM. Reason: add link
Not sure if you were looking for a specific brand and model or just general advice. I wanted about the best I could find that was not a DSLR because I'm not a photographer. I settled on a Sony RX-100 which has a lot of manual control if you want that or you can set it to 'idiot' mode like I do and sit back and enjoy the great pictures. Video is exquisite.
Good luck in your search.
Try Craigslist of Pawn shops for cameras and find one that has a good macro mode. I have a Nikon coolpix 10Mp 5x optical zoom that set me back $20. Has a great macro mode which is better than a later 16Mp Nikon. Anything less than 16Mp is a give away. I have been picking up 2nd generation cameras for 15-20$ when I travel overseas and if I am somewhere they might get appropriated or destroyed(ie Naples) I really don't care. My 16Mp 10X optical zoom nikon was bought for $40 is the same camera my daughter in law bought 2 years earlier for over 2 benjamins. You are buying the optics not the electronics.
Nikon and Olympus have the Highest Quality glass in their cameras, Canon is a very close third as they uave to buy their glass from a third party. Nikon and Olympus both own their own optics companies with Nikon actually having a proprietary blend used in the "Nikkor" brand lenses.
GRANDPARENTS AGAINST RETINOBLASTOMA, BECAUSE NO CHILD SHOULD HAVE CANCER
Anyone still use a film camera or lens??
Switched to digital a few years back once the resolution got to the point where they were a good replacement for film. Since your biggest investment in a SLR was the lenses that you bought for it, if your DSLR can still use those SLR lenses, that is a great advantage. Not all DSLRs can do that though.
I still use the camera on my cell phone though if I need to take a quick photo of something that I will be posting on the web (bullet powdercoating, etc). Usually end up taking the photo inside and it's at night, so it's not as good as it probably *could* be, even given a crappy cell phone camera.
(full resolution version link)
Last edited by NavyVet1959; 01-24-2016 at 03:12 AM.
I took this photo with a cell phone with a 8mp camera.
It happened to win one of the contests but I just snapped the photo when I found it.
For "keeper" photos that I may enlarge or I may want to play with exposure, depth of field, etc, I use a Nikon D200.
Was pretty expensive new but DSLR's loose value pretty quick as the new ones come out.
Still using one of the cheaper ($135+/-) Nikons I have had for several years .
Well? Where is your photo for the above post? Lets see one!
Last edited by JonB_in_Glencoe; 01-26-2016 at 11:30 AM. Reason: cross post item for sale deleted
Thanks Sam, your camera takes a very sharp picture indeed! Nice gun, I suspect that you will get some serious interest in it, hope need not be listed for very long. Good luck, thanks for the picture. Yes, please, add more photos!
In my view use principally for firearms and reloading components disposes of the need to consider either a film camera (without digital delay) or a DSLR (as you can get as near or far as you like, rather than change lenses.
One of the biggest traps you can fall into is going for the maximum number of megapixels. Having a really large print made, or finding detail in a picture which must be distant (such as an aerial one) are the only reasons why you need more than about 4Mp. Your friends won't thank you for being e-mailed very large files, and websites like this size them down to a relatively small file size as you upload.
I've got a Nikon 1V1, a sort of marginally pocketable compromise between pocket camera and DSLR, because my wife got it at a very large discount for being an online dealer support consultant for Nikon. I think that may have been because it was a liability in their line, though. It takes marvelous pictures, but nowadays they all do. It refused to recognize the non-automatic 400mm. lens from my 1970s Pentax, and it has one feature most irritating to someone with a very short-sighted left eye, like me. It has the usual viewing screen, and a simple through-the-lens viewfinder for use when the sun makes the screen hard to see. I should be able to put my eye very close to the screen, and get marvelous composition and view of how it was autofocussing. Others could do the same, very usefully for closeups and document copying, with a simple magnifier and cardboard pyramid. But the camera switches off the screen when the light is blocked off by my face, to save the rather ample battery life. I believe more recent models have made this shutdown optional.
I am also about to call Nikon about either a fault or a mysterious incorrect setting which is making telephoto virtually unusable. The screen is fine at wide angle, but darkens as the focal length is extended. This is just what an old-fashioned film camera at would do, so whatever causes it to compensate isn't working. Maybe it is pilot error, but there are times when you need a camera that won't throw up such problems.
So I fall back as much as marital relations will stand on my grossly obsolete Sony DSC S85, from the days when digital cameras were expensive luxuries. It has a very good Carl Zeiss lens (and I prefer to avoid the plastic lens used on some of the cheapest ones.) The macro facility gets closer than the Nikon's. The only thing I really miss is a self-opening cover on the lens for more lenses get damaged by cleaning than by accident. But it has threads on both the front of the lens and the fixed surround, which I found invaluable. I have a portable copying stand made for my ancient Pentax, which holds the camera perpendicular to the document, and I was abto turn down the aluminium mounting ring and epoxy to a filter system adapter fitting the Sony threads. The Glasgow city reference library has the full set of early British patents, with drawings, in large and fragile volumes which they won't let you upend on the photocopier. But I can get away with photographing them.
I don't see much use for a built-in flash for firearms pictures, although it can be useful for cutting shadow in sunlight outside pictures. A very useful item I found at far less than photographic accessory prices, was a little clip-on table lamp with a ring of LEDs, through which the lens can neatly poke. It gives shadowless lighting which is invaluable for photographing existing pictures or documents. Mine is for mains electricity, but they are available for car voltage, which means a pocketable battery.
More important than even the camera, possibly, is good photo editing software. I use another museum piece, Micrografx Picture Publisher 10, from a company Corel bought and discontinued both supply and support, just after I had sprung for the pro version. But like the Sony it does as much as very expensive modern ones will, and I know every bit of it that I have found useful. It runs on Windows 7 64 bit if you use the compatibility control, and I'm told the same applies with Windows 8 at least. These programs allow you to adjust brightness, contrast or colour balance. That allows you to compensate for the colour cast of fluorescent or tungsten lighting. You can add text or mask off part of the picture, feather its edges and cut and paste it somewhere else. Or you can smear something, like pencil artists do with a stump of rolled paper. Here are a fake case label I made from a share certificate for my Pieper shotgun, and a friend (to have printed on a coffee mug) before and after I reduced the number of his gin bottles.
There is nothing like helping others, for helping ourselves. The above prompted me to look on eBay to see if they had any copies, and I bought or £10, as a spare, possibly the last shrink-wrapped new old stock copy in existence.
Last edited by Ballistics in Scotland; 07-16-2016 at 04:08 AM. Reason: removed ebay link
Digital zoom is meaningless. Optical zoom is real, so base any comparisons of zoom range on that number.
Virtually any camera over $100 is a very good camera these days.
A translucent white trash can with the bottom cut out makes a great light box for photographing small objects like knives and guns. I often put things on my deck rail inside my "photo trash can" and I get nice, soft light with good detail but no harsh shadows.
Last edited by Elkins45; 01-26-2016 at 09:24 PM.
NRA Endowment Member
Armed people don't march into gas chambers.
Last edited by NavyVet1959; 01-27-2016 at 12:48 AM.
I have a $1500 camera setup with macro zoom lens but use my iPhone 99% of the time. The photos are usually good enough to show what I need.
Keep moving forward!
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |