26 May
2007
26 May
'07
8:39 a.m.
Based on your reported interest and usage, the MPixel size is not of importance.
Your concern is to get as much Zoom as you can afford in a package you are willing to live
with.
For web-work 1024x768 resolution is just fine, go above that into the >3meg range and
you will need/want
to use a photo editor to reduce the image to a more workable size for transmission and
viewing on-screen.
For years my favorite camera for web work was an old Sony Mavica with a 14x zoom < $100
on ebay
these days. When you slow down the camera to force the lense to close down you will find
you want a
tripod and cable release unless you are going to get serious with the lighting. You will
find that many of the
current generation of camera phones will provide you with acceptable results. Just a
thought ...
later
Bob
On Sat, 26 May 2007 01:38:05 -0700, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Richard wrote:
> Would you be willing to visit and take a more comprehensive set of
> detailed pictures?
I would if I had a digital camera. Looks like bear has
it covered anyways.
I've been wanting to get a digital camera but have to work up the enthusiasm
to brave the shopping malls.
Which reminds me I have a question for camera buffs.
If I can justify asking this here, the main motivation for getting a
camera is taking pictures of old equipment for addition to web pages. I'm not
into photography in a big way, in my life I've probably taken more photos for
tourists ("take photo please, just press button") than I have for myself.
My main concern for taking close-up (oblique, not just
plan view) photos of
equipment is depth-of-focus. I know/figure it's mainly a function of aperture
size (smaller --> longer depth-of-focus) and (optical) zoom (to minimize the
ratio of focus-depth to lens-to-object distance). (And smaller aperture means
less light which requires longer exposure.)
If I have the above principles about right, the
practical question(s) are:
Is your typical $200 / 3*-optical-zoom / 5-MPixel
camera good for this or
does one have to go to something higher end with a special lens, etc.?
It's subjective as to what's adequate of course, but I'd be interested in
opinions.
Is there a spec regarding the aperture range that I
should be looking for?
By way of example, I like this photo:
http://www3.telus.net/~bhilpert/tmp/markusToshibaBC1624_diode.jpg
although I guess one could say the depth of focus is not really that great (?).
(It's the internals of a late-60s nixie desktop calculator (the diode farm
is discrete logic gates, of course). It was sent to me by a fellow calculator
collector a few years ago but I don't know what camera equipment was used.)
