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Thread: Photography Needs....Need Affordable Camera

  1. #1
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    Photography Needs....Need Affordable Camera

    I am in need of a decent digital camera...I cant spend a lot on this but do need one I can take good pictures of some of the stuff ..mainly flutes and bowls I make in my shop. What do you have guys use? ....Thanks in advance !!!

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Turner View Post
    I am in need of a decent digital camera...I cant spend a lot on this but do need one I can take good pictures of some of the stuff ..mainly flutes and bowls I make in my shop. What do you have guys use? ....Thanks in advance !!!
    What does "affordable" mean?

    I'm sure you can get almost as many recommendations for cameras (and photography methods) as there are readers here! Most of it boils down to how much you are willing to spend.

    I have had many cameras over the years and I far prefer one with an interchangeable lens. These cost more but the prices are coming down. For example, the Canon 70D I use (with one lens) has dropped about $300 since I got it 3 years ago. However, I don't necessarily recommend this particular model for everyone - one good extra lens for this camera will cost as much or more as some other useful cameras. Some models can be quite inexpensive (relatively!) and quite capable. If you have a budget in mind it will help a lot towards getting useful recommendations.

    For woodturning I especially want two things - the ability to focus manually and the ability to focus closely. You don't always get both on a POS camera but with most digital SLR you can your needs and add an additional lens in the future. (A year or so after I bought the 70D I had saved up enough for a good macro lens.) Some POS cameras do allow manual focus but not by turning a focusing ring but by accessing a menu - this is so slow and cumbersome it is useless. IMO.

    A couple of other things help with woodturning photography - one is a custom white balance setting on the camera.

    With photography, the biggest things are light and background. You can get professional results for small things like turnings with almost no cost by building a quick photo cube. This one is made from PVC pipe with thin white cloth held on with safety pins. The background is a piece of matboard available at art stores and framing shops, bent into a curve to give a seamless backdrop. The lights are photo CFLs in cheap swingarm fixtures plus a small LED light for highlights.

    photo_cube.jpg carved_bowl_IMG_4195.jpg

    I use different colors of matboard, mostly grey, some darker and some lighter depending on the effect I want. Another nearly free way to shoot is to simply use a piece of matboard without a photo cube, but the lighting is much harder to get right. One trick is to use separate lights but shoot in a dark room so daylight and room lights don't mess with the color balance and shadows. This is what I used to use:

    P1114198.jpg cocobolo_boxes.jpg cedar_vessel.jpg

    JKJ

  3. #3
    also depends on what you are shooting bigger pieces gets more complicated and prralax will enter into it. I see stuff in magazines for years that looks great and really the photography makes it look better than it is. Im on my second bridge camera and fairly happy with them time for the newer one most likely. As much as i wanted a real camera with interchangable lenses I see my friends son with over 5k in camera stuff and just not ready for that. IM pretty hard on cameras the first one has spent alot of time hanging off my tool belt while im working. Second one too heavy for that but its had a tough life as well. they spend alot of time in the shop, drives my camera guy nuts.

  4. #4
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    JJ--good post.

    MT--define affordable.

    Many smart phones have a pretty good camera these days. Point and shoot pocket cameras are ill equipped for this. But a DSLR, even an obsolete one (mine's a Nikon D200), is much more versatile. Plus a macro lens. I too use the CFL bulbs, but in cheap clip-on work lights. Add a backdrop of black velvet to the previous suggestions.
    "Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Lake View Post
    also depends on what you are shooting bigger pieces gets more complicated and prralax will enter into it. I see stuff in magazines for years that looks great and really the photography makes it look better than it is. Im on my second bridge camera and fairly happy with them time for the newer one most likely. As much as i wanted a real camera with interchangable lenses I see my friends son with over 5k in camera stuff and just not ready for that. IM pretty hard on cameras the first one has spent alot of time hanging off my tool belt while im working. Second one too heavy for that but its had a tough life as well. they spend alot of time in the shop, drives my camera guy nuts.
    That would drive me nuts too! Remind me not to loan you any camera equipment!

    Perspective and parallax can be addressed by moving the camera away from the piece and using a longer lens. Respectable DSLRs can be had for (relatively) little money - you can find a decent Canon Rebel with lens for around $300. (I would far rather use one of these in the "studio" than a compact PAS camera.) Even the Canon 70D with lens is not much over $1000.

    Again, it mostly boils down to the budget and balancing the compromises. There are some very respectable small point and shoot cameras that will do almost everything except easy manual focus. We carry the little Canon Powershot cameras when traveling.

    One little story about little cameras. When in Glacier nat park I talked to two guys weighted down with photo equipment that probably cost way more than my new car. I asked them if they saw the moose in the lake down the trail and they were stunned speechless when I showed them a photo on my little pocket camera:

    moose_binoc.jpg

    I held the camera up to the eyepiece of my tiny Leitz binocular to improvise a telephoto lens. (not the sharpest shot, but hey) This is a shot without the binocular, with the little camera fully zoomed:

    moose_long.jpg

    JKJ

  6. #6
    Used photo equipment can be a good deal. I picked up a Nikon D60 with a basic zoom lens for $220 from a local dealer for portfolio shooting, a bit outdated but it works fine, has a full menu including custom white balance, and can use a range of Nikon format lenses. A decent close focus macro lens is in my future. I use a light tent like John Jordan's for small pieces and it works well.

  7. #7
    my experience is you can control parralex by your camera height and position away but thats sort of useless you are now shooting in a pre determined spot to get around what the camera does that our eyes do not do. The best shots wont be in that position most of the time and if you shoot a kitchen it will look like crap compared to the pros. Ive looked at the Bespoke stuff from England and give those guys the biggest thumbs up for photography huge straight photos that fill the screen and make the work look very nice. Same with some of the US companies photos of their kitchens five or more years old they look nice. Then newer ones night and day as all that stuff has been adjusted so they are straight and large. On the run now but will post my first camera, it could be an add for panasonic. Lens cap is a plumbing fitting from Home depot that blows away the lens cap that it came with or the newer Panasonic as well.

    Agree on the cell phones see some amazing photos from friends but also see many that are lacking as well. For fast and quick they are amazing. I have a Crown Graphix and several backs it sits lonely

  8. #8
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    If you want a system dedicated to shooting you turnings as opposed to a rig you may want to grab and take on vacation with you, it can be done pretty cheaply with an excellent setup that will last for a very long time. Forget the latest and greatest, look on Ebay fr used equipment - there's a ton of it. Unless you're hoping to print images to fill the backdrop of a trade booth at several feet long, you really don't need more than 6 - 10 megapixels. you can pick up a well used canon 10D camera body for about the same or less than a little point and shoot. Invest in a 50 mm macro lense and you're in business.

    these are professional-grade systems. Be careful to know how many shutter activations are on it, and look out for those that may have spent ghard desert duty with a journalist or industrial photographers. In addition to Ebay, look at used equipment companies like The Columbus Group or KEH Camera. they resell pro gear. they recondition their gear and offer return options.

    Going for the newesrt technolgy is overkill. the basic technology doesn't change that much. a system we bought for our studio when first making the switch to digital 18 years ago cost over 35,000 - and that didn't include the camera. It is only 6.3 megapixels. I could sell it today, if anyone wanted it for maybe a couple hundred. The thing is, it still produces images that are as goog as, and in some ways superior to what is availble today.
    Last edited by Jeffrey J Smith; 07-29-2017 at 1:44 PM.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Lake View Post
    ...I have a Crown Graphix and several backs it sits lonely
    Hey, I have a Crown Graphic too, with the bulb filament projection focus, Polaroid and other backs. Still in the original case, hasn't been out for years. I used to shoot Tri-X with it and print with an Omega D2 enlarger on large paper. Even had a little photo business shooting B&W portraits with the 4x5 and a Rolleiflex. Anyone want a bunch of Nikon equipment including a Nikonos in excellent condition?

    If someone had told me then that today Kodak and film would be nearly extinct and with even a simple camera I could shoot tens of thousands of photos for zero incremental cost I'd have thought they were a somewhat optimistic. Last time I shot honeybee macros I took over 400 photos to get six good ones - you'd have to work for National Geographic to try that with film!

    BEE_P6210931e.jpg

    And cell phone cameras have an amazing capability considering the optics and sensor size. I had one spontaneous shot with my DroidX phone used for a journal cover:

    Llama_Mag_Cover_IMG_2014072.jpg

    JKJ

  10. #10
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    JJ--the bee photo is great.

    Another large format fan, including Crown Graphic and a couple view cameras.
    "Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."

  11. #11
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    lenses and bees

    Quote Originally Posted by andy bessette View Post
    JJ--the bee photo is great.
    Another large format fan, including Crown Graphic and a couple view cameras.
    Do you still use the view cameras? If so, do you have a use for a lens for a view camera, I think, mounted on a plate with a leaf shutter. I think the lens is 135mm. I've been looking for a view camera person for years to give it to. (Assuming I can remember or discover where I put it!)

    Thanks for the bee picture comment. That two days was fun - the bees are in a Golden Rain tree for about a month every summer from before sunup to after sundown. I've estimated over 2000 bees in each of two trees during the day but that is probably low. The photos were challenging, especially at shallow macro depth of field - the bee was moving, the branch and flowers were moving in a breeze, and I was moving - not a good time to use a tripod! Besides trying to get a shot framed and in focus I had to pay attention to getting a clean background. I shot from a deck which put me at a perfect position part way up the side of the tree.

    Procedure: bee is approaching a flower near me, quick: shift camera, focus, frame, ack! background: shift viewpoint, focus, wait, refocus, now! shoot! Rats, try again.

    Here are a few others from that same project:

    01F_P6230988ecSMALL.jpg bee_golden_rain_2.jpg BEE_golden_rain_tree_comp.jpg

    I went through the same exercise when spotted a bunch of bees working my sunflower patch. Believe me, pictures of bees crawling around on a big sunflower are boring so I tried to get one in flight.

    There were so many bees I was silly enough to try to use a tripod that time - it was an experiment with a method much different from the Golden Rain tree shots. Procedure: Adjust tripod, frame and pre-focus perfectly on a flower and wait for a bee. Patience expires, no bee, move to another flower. Repeat. Bee coming!, quick, shoot!, shoot! Rats, missed. Repeat. I got many dozens of worthless shots. I realized watching for the bee in the viewfinder was too late so I started watching the area instead.

    Finally, I saw a bee approaching and took a shot. I got her coming in for a landing - the wings in motion are only a ghost.

    bee_sunflower_P6273907ecrSMALL.jpg

    Good clean fun!

    JKJ
    Last edited by John K Jordan; 07-29-2017 at 10:58 PM. Reason: mistake

  12. #12
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    JJ--really like that last photo with the bee in flight. Quite a challenge. Thinking a strobe would be useful.

    Thank you for the offer of the lens, but I confess I have that focal length and much more (Nikkor), none of which I'm currently using. Have just about everything for a complete LF (B&W) darkroom too, another incomplete project!
    "Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."

  13. #13
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    Can you still get film for the 4x5 cameras?

    Jay Mullins

  14. #14
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    JM--sure you can.
    "Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    .... And cell phone cameras have an amazing capability considering the optics and sensor size. I had one spontaneous shot with my DroidX phone used for a journal cover:

    Llama_Mag_Cover_IMG_2014072.jpg

    JKJ
    Is there really a Llama Journal?
    Bill

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