What kind of camera?

[dcopley]

Looking at Jessie and Terry's excellent photographs in the "shocking bore" thread made me realize that it's time to upgrade in the photographic department. Naturally, I am blaming all the limitations in my photographs on poor equipment rather than poor technique, and it makes a good excuse for some retail therapy. So I'd be interested to hear what types of cameras board members are using or would recommend, especially for close up shots of flute features.

Dave Copley
Loveland, Ohio

[JessieK]

Hi, Dave. I love my camera. It's considered old now. It's an Olympus Camedia C 2020 Z. I use Smartmedia cards with it.

[Wormdiet]

Looking at Jessie and Terry's excellent photographs in the "shocking bore" thread made me realize that it's time to upgrade in the photographic department. Naturally, I am blaming all the limitations in my photographs on poor equipment rather than poor technique, and it makes a good excuse for some retail therapy. So I'd be interested to hear what types of cameras board members are using or would recommend, especially for close up shots of flute features.

Dave Copley
Loveland, Ohio

What a wonderful phrase!
I'm not sure that technique works for a poor embouchure

[Craig Stuntz]

Dave, don't forget that the key to a good photo in cases like these is lighting. That's something that point and shoot cameras will never do a great job of fixing for you. It is, generally speaking, more difficult to get good lighting with a flash than with careful attention to natural or artificial light. So as much as I hate to deprive you of retail therapy I'd recommend this approach:

1. Find a place to photograph your flutes with good natural light or set up good artificial lighting. I tend to prefer natural light myself, but there are days when the sky doesn't cooperate...
2. Turn off your camera's flash.
3. Spend time carefully positioning your subject and camera. A tripod will be helpful. Pay attention to highlights, shadows, and reflections. Remember that the camera's exposure range is a lot narrower than your eye's, so if there's a big difference between the brightest areas and the darker areas then something will get lost.
4. If using a digital camera, white balance the camera. If using a film camera, either buy correctly balanced film for the type of light you're using or use a corrective filter. If you don't do this you can fix it PhotoShop or the like later on, though.
5. If your camera allows manual exposure overrides, bracket the exposure (i.e., once at the metered aperture, once at a wider aperture, and once at a narrower aperture).

I find that the only time the flash is really useful in photographing a flute or whistle is when you want a picture of the inside of the instrument, like this.

A new camera will help if your present camera doesn't have the resolution or exposure latitude you need, but it won't fix lighting problems. I think lighting should be the first step.

If you're ever in Columbus or I can get to your neck of the woods I'd love to take some pictures of your instruments. My teacher, Brian McCoy, says great things about them.

-Craig

[I.D.10-t]

Wouldn’t the lens make the most difference for close up shots? I thought most cameras needed a certain distance for non-blurry shots.

[Craig Stuntz]

You're right that all lenses have a minimum distance to the subject. On average, the longer (more telephoto) the lens is the further you have to be from the subject. On the other hand, the longer the lens, the closer you appear to be to the subject in the final print. Hence, you can take "close up" photos with a long or a wide lens. There are some differences between them, though, notably the perspective distortion and depth of field.

Some lenses have macro modes and there are special macro lenses which are useful for extreme close ups, but you should be able to take good flute and whistle pictures without them.

-Craig

[Cathy Wilde]

Looking at Jessie and Terry's excellent photographs in the "shocking bore" thread made me realize that it's time to upgrade in the photographic department. Naturally, I am blaming all the limitations in my photographs on poor equipment rather than poor technique, and it makes a good excuse for some retail therapy. So I'd be interested to hear what types of cameras board members are using or would recommend, especially for close up shots of flute features.

Dave Copley
Loveland, Ohio

What a wonderful phrase!
I'm not sure that technique works for a poor embouchure

That is a great phrase! And, if my flute collection is any indication, retail therapy may not be an actual cure for poor embouchure, but that doesn't mean I'll quit trying ....

[BillG]

Dave -I'm very happy with my Cannon Power Shot A80 digital camera. It can do settings from automatic to whatever else you chose. There are many lens and speed adjustments depending on what is it you want as a result. I take many pix for my son to put his wares on eBay. Sorry but I don't have samples as I don't have a web site to host them.

I have an eMac with many photo adjusting applications which are great for digital photography - can touch up most mistakes.

BillG

[Loren]

Hmm, I'd suggest finding the right flash/accessories for indirect/diffuse lighting: An umbrella, or perhaps buying or fashioning a soft box.

I am, however, not an expert on photography, by any stretch, just going by the results I've seen others get using the above mentioned.

Loren

[Terry McGee]

Looking at Jessie and Terry's excellent photographs in the "shocking bore" thread made me realize that it's time to upgrade in the photographic department. Naturally, I am blaming all the limitations in my photographs on poor equipment rather than poor technique, and it makes a good excuse for some retail therapy. So I'd be interested to hear what types of cameras board members are using or would recommend, especially for close up shots of flute features.

Dave Copley
Loveland, Ohio

Hi Dave

The Macro mode is the key to the close ups - I imagine any modern digital camera has it, but you'd hate yourself if you didn't check first!

I've put a lot of hints on photographing flutes at:

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/photos.htm

Terry

[Jumbuk]

There are plenty of good digicams for quite competitive prices.

My current camera is the Fujifilm S5600 (S5200 in USA). You can get one for about USD 300. It came out last November as an upgrade to the popular S5500 (S5100). It features:

- 5 megapixels
- 10 times optical zoom
- CCD goes up to ISO 1600, which means you can capture pictures in fairly low light (they are a bit noisy, but usable)
- pretty simple to operate, despite looking like a mini SLR
- very competitive price!

I also like the fact that the lens housing is fixed - not retractable like most of the long-zoom cameras.

The one thing missing is Image Stabilisation, which is near essential for long-zoom cameras, if you are to get the best pictures. Of course, long zoom is not required for flute photos!

If I had the money, my best pick would have been the Panasonic FZ30. This has Image Stablisation, 12x zoom, a fixed lens housing and (best of all!) manual zoom and focus rings like a SLR lens! I tried one, and it's a beautiful thing, but my budget didn't extend that far (USD 500+) at the time (having just bought a flute!).

[Screeeech!!!]

I use a Fujifilm S602Zoom. It rocks. Tons of adjustments you can make on it manually for difficult shots. Or for everyday stuff simply set on auto and blatt away.

[brianormond]

-I like a Canon Powershot A620 purchased recently. Its a good general purpose 7.1 megapixel camera with a viewfinder and flip-out/rotatable LCD screen, and uses AA batteries. It can be had at Big Box (well, BB anyway) for about 300 dollars, less from online discounters. The fairly high pixel count means photos can be cropped and enlarged while retaining good resolution.

-Its macro feature is easy to toggle on for closeups
taken up to about a centimeter from the
subject.

-The A620 has similar or same processing guts as the pocketable Canon ELPH cameras but is larger, less expensive and easier to handle without pasting fingerprints on the lens. The first one purchased had trouble with one large dust segment and a bunch of smaller ones stuck between zoom lens elements -either from the factory or getting in during squeeze bulb/brush lens cleaning. The Geek Squad couldn't repair it and BB exchanged it. -This one is fine but I remain uncertain whether its zoom elements are well sealed and won't use the squeeze bulb/brush again. -Sure takes nice pictures, though.


-Some older Canon digital cameras reportedly experienced problems in the form of the "E18" failure, (google it) but mine has performed without glitch, and a cousin's ELPH has been a good camera for years. My ancient Canon EOS SLR film camera has worked reliably for years.

-Check out the A620's review here as well as comprehensive reviews of other digital cameras:

http://www.dpreview.com/

[Craig Stuntz]

I've put a lot of hints on photographing flutes at:

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/photos.htm

This is good advice!

[Kevin Popejoy]

Dave - Sorry but I don't have samples as I don't have a web site to host them.


BillG

Easily solved Bill. Here's a free hosting site I've used for some time. The price is right and I've found it very useful:

http://imageshack.us/

Cheers, Kevin