Subject:
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Re: Which is best digital camera for LEGO photos?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.publish
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Date:
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Fri, 9 Jul 1999 18:04:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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571 times
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Hari Wiguna wrote in message ...
> I'm looking for a digital camera to take pictures of my LEGO robots for the
> web.
> Currently, top on my list is Olympus D340R, and Toshiba PDR-M1 second.
> Same priced at approx. $399.
>
> What's everyone using to take pictures of their LEGO?
> Do you like your current digital camera? why?
> If you can buy a new one which one would you buy?
I'm also planning to get myself a digital camera, now that they're
actually getting to be worthwhile from a value/price perspective. I just
came out of my dark ages recently, and I want to start posting pictures of
some of my robots. It's been awhile, but I used a simple digital camera a
couple years ago, and I can tell you what features I wish I'd had back then.
I haven't looked at too many specific models yet, but here's what I'm
thinking when I evaluate a digital camera.
Things to watch for, in relative order of importance:
1. Resolution. Make sure you get a camera that can take high-resolution
("mega-pixel" or better) pictures. I found that even 640x480 resolution
often did not give enough details in the resultant image, which would
definitely be a factor when photographing Lego models.
2. Lens options. Most inexpensive digital cameras have a fixed-focus lens
which cannot be removed and replaced. This severely limits your field of
vision and focal distance, which is fine if you're always taking a picture
of a group of people from ten feet away, but definitely becomes an issue
when you try to take a close-up shot of a small model. Look for a camera
that at least has auto-focus and better yet, zoom and/or telephoto lens
settings.
3. Internal memory. These days, most cameras have 2 or 4 meg of memory,
which allows them to store typically 50 or 100 compressed JPEG images
between downloads to your computer. Some support floppy disks, flash memory
cards, or other removable media to extend the on-the-road capacity of the
unit. If you are simply taking pictures indoors with your computer close at
hand for uploading pictures then the actual camera capacity is of lesser
importance. But if you want to attend meets and photograph lots of other
people's models you'll want to keep this in mind.
4. View finder. Nowadays, most cameras have a 1.5 or 2-inch B/W or color
viewfinder. These are great for previewing a shot before you take the
picture, as well as for reviewing the shots in the camera in case you need
to delete some to make room for more. Again, this is less important if you
will be working near the computer most of the time.
5. Upload options. Some cameras require you to remove a card and
physically transfer it to your computer in order to upload images. Others
allow you to upload directly via a serial or USB cable. Usually, cameras
that use a cable can be controlled from the computer while connected, which
can be a very handy feature if you're mainly working near the computer.
6. Video capture. A few of the newer models can actually capture short,
low-resolution video clips. This could be handy if you wanted to show a
particular Lego model or robot in action. Unfortunately, the in-camera
memory severely limits the length and resolution of the video, so you should
consider this feature as an extra. If you're really serious about digital
video, then get yourself a digital video camera. They're a bit more
expensive, but the quality will blow you away, and you can actually take
still pictures with most digital cam-corders. (A less expensive digital
video option is a normal analog camcorder and an inexpensive video capture
device, but then you can't take still images as easily.)
I hope this information is at least somewhat useful to you. Good luck
with your new camera, whichever one you ultimately decide to buy. And
please, let us know which model you choose and how it works out for you.
(I'll probably be getting mine within 2 or 3 weeks, myself.)
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