AT YOUR MERCY...opinions wanted...

Mongrel

Mongrel

Joined
May 2, 2002
Messages
407
Hey all, need some assurance here :)

I just ordered the following equipment to put together a 'digital darkroom'. I tried to keep it reasonable and yet maintain good quality and flexibility. I have no experience in this realm, so all my research into this equipment was done online.

How did I do?...

Camera: Sony DSC-S75 Cyber Shot 3.3 megapixel camera (also purchased extra battery and a 128mb and 64mb memory sticks and a USB reader).

Printer: This was a tough one! I finally settled on the Canon S820. I didn't want to spend the extra $ on the built in card readers and such so I went with this on instead of the S820D.

Scanner: Epson Perfection 1650 Photo. I really want to be able to scan negatives and old slides so I chose this one.

How does this sound for a start? Any suggestions? Did I 'blow it' in any way? Anything else I should purchase?

BTW I am running WinXP Pro, T-bird 1.4 ghz, 512mb DDR memory.

I appreciate in advance any input from my fellow Knife-Knuts! Especially if anyone has any of the above equipment.

Thanks-

Mongrel
 
Sounds like a pretty decent set-up. Windows XP seems to be well suited as a digital photography rig.

The Epson scanner for scanning slides is a good deal, my dad has a slide scanner and really earned its keep for him.

As for your camera, I havent used it, but I have read up on it a bit. The optical zoom is nice to have on a camera, the digital zoom...well, I could do with or without it, but since its just made that way, may as well have it. The tiff mode on cameras are good to have, but make for pretty huge file sizes...the mode probably isnt used much, but still good to have.

What software will you be using? As with everything else, there are good ones and bad ones.

Main thing is to practice practice practice. Thats the cool thing about digi-cams....even if it takes a dozen shots of one knife just to get one good photo, you havent wasted money on film. They pay for themselves very fast. I probably shoot a hundred shots a week just for fun....I could never afford the film to do that.

Anyways, when you get all set-up, shoot some knife pics and stick them in the gallery forum. Even if you think they suck, post them anyway. The reason being that plenty of people can figure out what is wrong with them and suggest a fix for each problem right away. That just saves you the trouble of spending weeks trying to figure it out....you can profit from others aggrevation :)

Enjoy your new set-up and be prepared to spend lots of time with it.
 
I appreciate the reply Richard, and the advice.

I have not decided on software yet, however I do have copies of PhotoShop LE, Microsoft Picture! Photo, and the Adobe software comes with the Epson I believe (only the basic version).

I'll have to experiment to see which will give me what I want.

Basically the camera will do two things-

1. Take closeup or macro's of my Knives ;)

2. My wife will be using it as a 'point and shoot' to take pictures of boring stuff like my kids etc. :D

Any recomendations?

Thanks-Mongrel
 
My only "concern" might be the Sony camera. I hate memory sticks. Most of the Nikons, Canons, Olympus, etc cameras are compatible with Compact Flash II. CF cards are generally cheaper, and CFII support means you can use IBM Microdrives. A co-worker has the Nikon 995 with a 1 gigabyte microdrive in it. He loves taking photos on vacation, and he take over 1000 high res JPG photos without having to upload them to his laptop.

Good luck!
/mel :D
 
Your software choices sound pretty good. I have Photoshop which I have not bothered to use since I got my new computer with XP.

PhotoDeluxe on the other hand would not work. It said that Windows XP would not support it. Apparently XP is not 100 percent backwards compatable with older versions of Windows. XP does have a 'compatability mode' which attemps to force it to run older software, but I didnt really mess with it. Maybe newer versions of PhotoDeluxe have corrected this...I dont know.

I went out and bought Microsoft Picture it Premium (there are a few different versions) and was so happy with its functions and its extreme ease of use that I havent bothered loading photoshop. Its a great package.

I think ya got a pretty good set-up there and look forward to seeing how you do with it. Let me know if I can help you with anything, hints or whatever.
 
Hi Guys,

Camera arrived 10am this morning (Tues.). Nice to get a brand new sealed box as opposed to the two 'open boxes' my local guy tried to pawn off on me as 'new'.

Charged her up and loaded my 8mb mem-stick (yea, I know that's like 5 pictures in fine mode!), and away I went.

Everything OK so far.....

Printer should be here this week, scanner is on back order. Memory and accessories are on their way also! Oh, yea and theres that $39.99 SS Co-Pilot too....(now how did that get in there?)!

Richard, I decided to load the Microsoft Picture It! Photo (most basic version-on sale for $20 at Staples)to give me the best chance with XP. XP Pro does a decent job on its own though for just viewing and printing. I haven't played with it too much yet. I also have MGI PhotoSuite V8.1, which came with the camera. All of a sudden I'm swimming in Photo software!

Skyline-yes the mem-stick was an issue in deciding which model to buy. However, I still felt that the Sony was the best compromise for what I was looking for-mainly image quality (Carl Zeiss lens), and a good balance between portrait and macro modes. So far this camera has done both well for me, and I have just started using a digital camera today! Also, I have on order a 128mb mem-stick ($68 delivered), and a 64mb mem-stick ($35 delivered), the prices seemed a little high, but fair. I think that with a combined 200mb of storage I should be OK for now. If I need more, I figure it will only drop in price as this format really takes hold. I have already ordered a USB reader, so I can upload and keep shooting.

As soon as I set up my Sony Image Station page I'll try and post some picks for your review.... :)

Richard-thanks again for the advice and kind words, I really appreciate your offer and attitude. I am sure I'll be looking for a hand with all of this in the future!

Mongrel
 
Mongrel-

The prices seem "a little high" on the Memory Sticks? I work for Sony and dealers PAY just over $31.00 each for the 64MB stick; you said that you paid $35.00 delivered? Four bucks over cost is too high?

Trust me, if they are much cheaper elsewhere they are either a) stolen, b) gray market or c) losing money to get other sales (loss-leader).

I'm sure that your comments are relective of what you've encountered in the marketplace, so I'm not directing this at you, but the reality is that $35 is a GREAT price (I pay $32 as an employee!)
 
Hi Mike,

I didn't mean 'high' and 'fair' for 'memory sticks' specifically. I meant 'high' but 'fair' for digital camera memory in general. I know a friend who was bragging because he could get compact flash memory for around $48 for 128mb (I think that's what he got it for). Sorry for the confusion.

Also (this is the hard part heheh...), they aren't 'Sony' memory sticks but are Lexar memory sticks. Hope I didn't do something wrong!

Please don't tell me they'll destroy my camera!!!

Mongrel
 
Nope, they'll work. My misunderstanding.

BTW, I own the exact same camera; I find that it's the jewel of the Sony line (price/features/performance).
 
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