Subject:
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Re: My Mecha Unveiled!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.publish
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Date:
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Sat, 22 Apr 2000 06:03:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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952 times
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In lugnet.build.mecha, Bram Lambrecht writes:
> In lugnet.build.mecha, Jeff Stembel writes:
> > <http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=361>
>
> Cool mecha, and great, clear, photos, especially:
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3737
> What camera did you use? (I'm sort of looking for a digital camera)
> --Bram
Bram,
Sorry for the slow reply. Jeff let me know that you were interested in the
camera that took the pictures.
I use a Kodak DC 215. I took those photos using the macro mode, with the
flash, and using the automatic timer. I don't have the steadiest hands in the
world, so I lean the camera up against something (or on something) to compose
the shot, then I use the timed release to give me time to get my shaky hands
away from the camera.
I find that in the macro mode, this "poor man's tripod" approach has given me
some great results. (See my gallery on brickshelf.com.) Since I learned this
trick, I think that the pictures that I have taken of Lego models has improved
dramatically.
For those of you shopping for a camera, I think that the DC215 is a pretty
good deal as far as these things go, with the following details to guide you:
1) This is a good camera for close ups and for snapshots, but its infinity
(things further than about 50 feet, realistically) focus is pretty dull, so
landscape shots tend to look a bit "soft".
2) The version of the DC215 that I bought is the Millenium 2000 model. This
varies from the base version in that the 2000 has an 8 megabyte compact flash
ram card instead of the base 4Mb, and the 2000 model comes with a USB serial
compact flash reader.
3) The camera also comes in other "colors" and with different options, but the
electronics and lenses in all of them are supposed to be the same.
4) I paid about $285 for mine. The street price has dropped a bit on these in
the last few months.
BTW: If you pick up any digital camera, I suggest a quick investment in the
following accessories
1) At least two sets of good NIMH batteries. Digital cameras eat batteries,
especially alkalines.
2) Some kind of USB or PCMCIA hookup to dump pictures out of the camera. The
non-USB serial connection in some cameras (including the DC215) are VERY slow
compared to USB or PCMCIA adapters. I can copy 30+ MB (from my large memory
card) of images, representing over a hundred 1152 x 864 images on the
harddrive of my laptom in under a minute. An equivalent transfer using the
non-USB serial cable would take almost an hour!
3) An AC adapter for the camera. For shooting at home, this speeds the
recycle time of the flash, and on the DC215, at least, it seems to speed all
of the operations of the camera up.
Will
P.S. I reccommend the following sites if anyone wants more info on
photography.
www.photo.net -- Phil Greenspun's site is a great place to learn about taking
pictures (and building web pages). This is where I picked up the tip about
using the timer as a tripod-substitute. There is, however, virtually no
current digital camera info on this site.
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