the Photo thread

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Thanks Bish. More luck than judgement!

[thebish]

Thanks Bish. More luck than judgement!

well - in my fairly large portfolio of bird pictures - I have no woodpeckers at all! I envy anyone who has managed it!

[davroduk]

Got myself a Samsung NX5 a few years ago, with the intention of taking some great pictures.
Got some good pictures of the grandaughters, and the dog, but other than that cant really be ar$ed carrying it around with me, so mostly use a Pentax Optio pocket camera bought of QVC.
Not as good as he Samsung but pretty damn close, and less than half the price.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Thanks Bish. More luck than judgement!

well - in my fairly large portfolio of bird pictures - I have no woodpeckers at all! I envy anyone who has managed it!

They do tend to fly away as you press the shutter button. Took about a roll of film to get that shot! I've a couple of similar finch shots in a box somewhere. Inspired me to go through my photos this weekend

[Always hopeful]

I've got a DSLR (Samsung) but I wouldn't be without a point and shoot. I've had a couple of Panasonic Lumix cameras of that type and I've been very happy with them. The current one sports 20x optical zoom. The crappy one, a bit bashed with a feeble 10x zoom, gets lugged around with me when I don't have the other two. If I'm in the right place at the right time it still takes a decent photo (even if I sometimes have to pimp them in Photoshop).

That said I wouldn't say no to having a Lumix G5 too.

I've had a Lumix TZ1 point and shoot for a good few years and it's served me well. Whilst I've been very pleased with it, I want something better, without it costing me too much. The G5 would be nice, but this would put me in the same position as if I'd bought a DSLR. I'd still need to buy a load of lenses to cover the range that the FZ200 would cover.

Ultimately, I guess its like most things in life. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

what is it that you want a massive zoom for? (are we talking night-time peeping tom work - or wildlife photography?)

Come to think of it, I'm not sure! I think it's more a case that the bridge cameras seem to come with big zooms as a matter of course, which means that once the investment's made, there's no need to be looking to buy any addidional lenses in the future. Plus, it means you don't need to lug a bag around with you, with all the lenses you might need. Its all there in one package.

Having said that, a large zoom would be very handy to take action photo's of my youngest lad playing football, so it's not as though it would never be used.

does he move that fast ??

No. But he looks quite small on the pitch. Or maybe that's because he's far away.

[Always hopeful]

what is it that you want a massive zoom for? (are we talking night-time peeping tom work - or wildlife photography?)

Come to think of it, I'm not sure! I think it's more a case that the bridge cameras seem to come with big zooms as a matter of course, which means that once the investment's made, there's no need to be looking to buy any addidional lenses in the future. Plus, it means you don't need to lug a bag around with you, with all the lenses you might need. Its all there in one package.

Having said that, a large zoom would be very handy to take action photo's of my youngest lad playing football, so it's not as though it would never be used.

I only ask because i know next to nothing about Lumix cameras - but I do know that it is always worth checking what they mean by ZOOM when they tell you about ZOOM...

there are basically two kinds of ZOOM - optical zoom and digital zoom..

the optical zoom is proper zoom - and involves the lens moving out of the camera - getting physically longer - this is zoom worth having

digital zoom is often simply the camera taking the picture - then cropping it and stretching the pixels - which is fine for some uses (such as a grainy image of Miss Perkins deshabille by the open bathroom window) - bit not great if you were trying to get into wildlife photography and wanted sharp and clean images from a long way off...

as I said - I don't know anything about Lumix cameras - so this isn't a comment about them - just a word of caution about ZOOM!

Thanks. Yes, the Lumix has a 24x optical zoom, which by all accounts is relatively weak in the bridge camera range. Many have 30x or even 35x zoom! The 24x is an equiuvalent of 25 - 600mm in old 35mm terms, so it's quite a beast. It goes up to 46.9x if you use the digital zoom, but as you say, the clarity would be lost, so i wouldn't bother with it.

[Always hopeful]

Some photos from where I've spent and continue to spend many a happy hour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBHnFO93 ... 63dkQ6MZsg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq0LENZJ ... 63dkQ6MZsg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...and no, I'm not Graham Houghton.

[bobo the clown]

Some photos from where I've spent and continue to spend many a happy hour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBHnFO93 ... 63dkQ6MZsg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq0LENZJ ... 63dkQ6MZsg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...and no, I'm not Graham Houghton.

The first one is ace. I spent many, many, many days up there as a kid from that end of Horwich.

[clapton is god]

Some photos from where I've spent and continue to spend many a happy hour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBHnFO93 ... 63dkQ6MZsg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq0LENZJ ... 63dkQ6MZsg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...and no, I'm not Graham Houghton.

The first one is ace. I spent many, many, many days up there as a kid from that end of Horwich.

Super set of photo's there. I still get up to the Pike at least twice a year. In 2001 during the Foot & Mouth outbreak, Rivington was one of the first areas in the country to be opened up to walkers. I went up to the Pike every day for a month to try and keep my fitness levels up. Anyway, I think 'Graham Houghton' has answered your questions about the Panasonic Lumix FZ200!

If you haven't got some post-processing software though don't forget you'll need some. No need to go overboard and buy Photoshop but Elements is a good one to aim for. Every image that comes out of a digital camera needs tweaking in some way and doesn't look its best until its been manipulated to some degree, and in any case, that's half the fun.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I've been playing around with a bit of software that stitches photos together into a panorama (strangely enough it's called Panorama Maker 4). The software is good but my stock of photos that could potentially create panoramas is limited... but then I came across a series of 5 photos I took up in Scotland of Beinn Eighe. I'd rejected them from my album because as individual photos they weren't great for two reasons: 1) the mountain grandeur was contained in the whole scene which each photo failed to convey and no one photo had a good visual balance, 2) I was on a mountain, Ruadh stac-Beag, to the north and was shooting directly into the sun.

Anyway, the panorama as revealed when the photos were stitched together:

Beinn Eighe (its usually hidden north side) 240º panorama



Now I know that the software works, I can't wait to get out to the mountains again and do some 360º stuff

[thebish]

I've been playing around with a bit of software that stitches photos together into a panorama (strangely enough it's called Panorama Maker 4). The software is good but my stock of photos that could potentially create panoramas is limited... but then I came across a series of 5 photos I took up in Scotland of Beinn Eighe. I'd rejected them from my album because as individual photos they weren't great for two reasons: 1) the mountain grandeur was contained in the whole scene which each photo failed to convey and no one photo had a good visual balance, 2) I was on a mountain, Ruadh stac-Beag, to the north and was shooting directly into the sun.

Anyway, the panorama as revealed when the photos were stitched together:

Beinn Eighe (its usually hidden north side) 240º panorama



Now I know that the software works, I can't wait to get out to the mountains again and do some 360º stuff

I LOVE panorama photos - and that's a great example!

I should do more of them... I even have (somewhere) a roll of photographic paper to feed through a printer so I could actually print them off...

Panogio is a good place to upload them - I have one there (one of the very few I have done) of Dunkery beacon on Dartmoor... click and drag left and right - and the photo pans round...

http://www.panogio.com/united-kingdom/208100810788

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I LOVE panorama photos - and that's a great example!

I should do more of them... I even have (somewhere) a roll of photographic paper to feed through a printer so I could actually print them off...

Panogio is a good place to upload them - I have one there (one of the very few I have done) of Dunkery beacon on Dartmoor... click and drag left and right - and the photo pans round...

http://www.panogio.com/united-kingdom/208100810788

That's the bee's that is
I've been inspired - I'm definitely going out to look for more opportunities this weekend. Panorama is the future (until my next fad).

[thebish]

I LOVE panorama photos - and that's a great example!

I should do more of them... I even have (somewhere) a roll of photographic paper to feed through a printer so I could actually print them off...

Panogio is a good place to upload them - I have one there (one of the very few I have done) of Dunkery beacon on Dartmoor... click and drag left and right - and the photo pans round...

http://www.panogio.com/united-kingdom/208100810788

That's the bee's that is
I've been inspired - I'm definitely going out to look for more opportunities this weekend. Panorama is the future (until my next fad).

HDR pans are the future!

btw - check out some of the awesome 3d panoramas on here: http://3dpanorama.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Wah! The Nature/Wheatfield is amazing! I could probably hide in there all day.

[Lord Kangana]

My dad's camera lets you do four-frame panorama photos. You just take one, then line an x up that appears at the edge of the screen, and repeat. Wouldn't that be simpler?

[thebish]

My dad's camera lets you do four-frame panorama photos. You just take one, then line an x up that appears at the edge of the screen, and repeat. Wouldn't that be simpler?

simpler than what?

[boltonboris]

I can do that on my iphone..................

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I can do that on my iphone..................

Canon EOS/Nikon D4 v iphone debate. Hmmmmmm I wonder which one I'll choose?

[boltonboris]

Can your Canon phone people though.........

Besides, I was being sarcamatastic

[David Lee's Hair]

I'm guessing you look less Japanese with an iphone though...