Camera's; the inexpensive type

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cutter17

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May 16, 2006
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OK, I've had it!!! I come on here and see the pics of knives and it just blows my mind at how great they look. The pics I post do appear to be knife like object's, but that is about all. I have been using my phone for the pics and it has a whopping 3 mp's and it shows! So, can someone tell me what I need to get to take better pics, what type of camera and how much I should invest. I am currently on SSI disability and long term disability from the state, so the lower the cost the better (I'm thinking $100-$150? even lower if posssible) I know that I will not get the quality of pics that some people post without spending more, but for now it will have to be this way. I go off long term disability in July and will go on retirement, so then I can invest in a better camera, especially if I become excited about photography! But for now I just want my knife looking pics to be easily identifiable as a knife.

Any help will be much appreciated.
 
Buy a used Canon PowerShot A570is or A590is. They were the end of the line for Canon's Powershot A-series as cheap student cameras. They could be used as point-and-shoot cameras, but they had full manual controls with aperture and shutter priority if you wanted to learn photography. You should be able to find a good one for under $50. Buy an A570is if you want to make movies. If you don't care about that, an A590is is a little better as a still camera and it is a lot easier to find a good one. Canon dumbed down video to 20 fps, and in 2009 they got out of the cheap student camera business.

Download the software from Canon's web site if you can't afford anything better. You can use it to catalog and view photographs and do simple editing on your computer. Download the manual. Want a short course on what all the buttons do? Read the reviews on this defunct web site:

A590is http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a590-review/

A570is http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a570-review/

Buy rechargeable batteries and a charger. These cameras use two AA batteries and they go through them fast if you use the flash, so buy at least four batteries. Buy a cheap tripod but not too cheap ($15). Buy an 8GB SD card, or 16GB Class 10 if you're going to make movies. Need a case? Case Logic CPL-102 fits either camera.

Taken with my 7-year-old Canon PowerShot A570is:

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I have a Nikon Coolpix S3500. They sell for around $90. I really don't know much about cameras or photography, but it suits my needs quite well. Pretty easy to use and there's some kind of Vibration Reduction technology incorporated that makes it easy to take non-blurry pics even if you don't hold the camera perfectly steady.

These pics were taken with that camera:



 
Thanks guy's. I am the same way as far as my knowledge of camera's goes. Btw, fantastic pics from both camera's. Right now I'm just interested in being able to take better pics of my knives. I use Photobucket to host my pics and the edit system does allow me to "clean" my phone pics up a tad, but it is easy to see that that only goes so far! I want to be able to get good clear shots of things like clips, lockup, and other small details that just completely blur out with the phone camera.

Piso, the Canon PowerShot A590is would be the model I would be most interested in atm. I'm guessing my best bet to get one would be Ebay? And would Photobucket serve the same purpose as the Canon software you mention? The type of detail your pic shows is what I am after.

Coyote, the detail from the Nikon Coolpix is also what I'm looking for. Again I'm guessing, but the Nikon would probably be more readily available than the Canon?

Again, thanks for the response's and suggestions. I will begin my search for the camera's mentioned.
 
cutter17 said:
Piso, the Canon PowerShot A590is would be the model I would be most interested in atm. I'm guessing my best bet to get one would be Ebay? And would Photobucket serve the same purpose as the Canon software you mention? The type of detail your pic shows is what I am after.
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Don't know if that's the best place but you will certainly find it there. I would pay no more than $50 for one in excellent condition with everything working, no scratches on the LCD and a solid battery hatch.

Not having a Photobucket account, I will tell you about Canon's software. It is typical free camera software: it pops up when you connect the camera to your computer and offers to download images. You can use it to view, organize and email images, and to print photographs. It can crop images, remove redeye, and adjust levels, color, brightness, sharpness and the tone curve — all the basic stuff. It isn't wonderful, but if you're on a budget and own a Canon camera, it is potentially free and free is good. If you don't have a Canon CD, you will have a problem installing downloaded copies of ImageBrowser (Mac) or ZoomBrowser (Windows). There are solutions here:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/install_canon_software.html

Canon has a newer download, ImageBrowser EX, which does not check for a previous installation or Canon CD. I haven't tried it and probably won't. It installs Microsoft's Silverlight browser plug-in which causes problems on Mac.
 
I just picked up a Canon SX260HS because I wanted something compact that still offered good quality images and also good videos.

Man, am I impressed with this camera. Great macro shots and also 20X zoom with HD video quality! It also offers manual override. Its so good, I sold my Canon G10 because the video quality on this puppy was way better and the zoom kicked the G10's ass.

FYI you can get the model below the 260 - the 240 - for even less because it doesn't have GPS. I dont even use the GPS function but I wasnt aware that it adds a hefty premium to the price until AFTER I'd bought it.

No matter, for what I paid, I am very stoked with this camera!
 
You can get a $50 point and shoot and take great product pictures. Lighting and technique are what make them stand out though. Learn about how to do it right and an iPhone can take pictures almost as good as higher end "pro-sumer" level stuff.
 
What is interesting is that most cell phones are being built with much better, capable, and powerful cameras , and they are making stand alone cameras obsolete. Olympus is or has gone belly up, and other camera manufacturers are suffering in sales from the improvements of cell phone cameras. Combine that will an inexpensive app, you can edit and make very high quality photos without the need of buying what amounts to extra gadgets.
 
I primarily use my Iphone 4s, the camera on it is great, however we do have a nikon and a two Canons which are nice and handy. The little Canon Powershot is a great one, I use it sometimes, but not much as of late due to my phone.
 
I also use a Cannon A590is. I bought it in 2009 and it's still going strong after almost 3,000 snapshots. I agree with the comments above regarding lighting. You can get a good photo with just about any camera of reasonable quality if you can figure out how to make the lighting work in your favor.



 
I am a professional photographer and couldnot agree more with Piso Mojado's post. My "pro" cameras are DSLR's and cost lots, but I depend on them for my income. On the other hand, I have owned several older Canon A series Powershots over the years and found them to be extremely high quality and easy to carry and use. I've made 16x20 prints from files shot with them and have actualy done several magazine travel features with them. Don't tell my clients, but here are a few photos on my professional web site shot with one of these too.

There is currently an A560 - bought on eBay for around $25 - in my EDC bag. About the only other accessory I would recoment is a small padded case to protect the camera. Carry along an extra set of AA's and a memory card and you are set to take on the world!
 
You can use the Apple volume adjustable earbuds as a remotely controlled shutter tripper on both the ipad and the iphone when they are in camera mode. Just touch the volume switch and the shutter trips. You can rubber band an iphone to a wooden block with a 1/4"X20TPI tapped hole (to attach the phone to a tripod). I would recommend a Helicoil insert in the wooden block. I can make you one if you decide to go that route.
 
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