Photography

[DimPrawn]

Hi,

This is something I know NOTHING about.

I would like a digital camera specifically for taking high quality pictures of overseas properties, both outside and in.

I believe you can get things called lenses and filters. These should make the pictures outside seem brighter and more vibrant.

Inside I would like a lens that shows the whole room (wide angle?).

Now, what sort of digital camera can do this? Don't really want to spend too much money.

Any advice or guidance?

Cheers.

DP

[malvolio]

If you get a decent £200 compact digital such as a Canon, Nikon, or Minolta for example, with a fairly high pixel count (meaningless numbers, in reality, but the higher the better), you don't need all the extras because you can manipulate images in the photo-management software that comes with it.

Wide angle is a different problem, since you would need to start with a £500 camera body. How about taking a careful panorama - shoot a series of pictures around the room from the middle and stitch them together? The joy of digital is you can have several goes to get it right!

If you want a camera where multiple lenses, filters and the like will help, and can understand and manipulate ambient and artificial light, you're not likely to be a beginner. Start simple and work up.

[foritisme]

photography

If you are on a budget go for a named make with fewer pixels rather that some obsure make on ebay with a more pixels. The lens will more than make up for the pixel count. Warehouseexpress have a few good offers on nikon compacts - good lens and about the widest angles you can get on compact cameras (28mm - equivelant to to about 40mm on a 35mm camera). As Molvolvio said to get true wide angle you are in the realms of digital SLR.

If your budget can stretch I would suggest looking out of a canon 300d with a 18-55 standard lens - excellent quality and if you can still find one you should get a bargain, now it has been superceded by the 350d. (The 350d can be picked up for around £500)

[DimPrawn]

What's the deal with polarising filters to make the sky and sea have a deep blue?

E.g.



There must be some filter used here, because with a normal digital camera the sky looks a light whispy blue.

If I buy a digital SLR, how do I know which lenses and filters will fit or is there a std across them all?

I don't mind spending up to £500 without lenses? Is it worth buying 2nd hand / ebay?

[~Craig~]

I would say not to get hung up the no. of megapixels unless you are planning on printing a4 and above.

It would be more useful to have a decent level of optical zoom.

[NoddY]

I have a feeling that it might be more cost effective (and easier) to alter the originals in Photoshop.

[malvolio]

If you want to spend the money, buy a Canon 350d, best start digital SLR on the market, get two (maybe three) overlapping zoom lenses (18 up to 300-ish), and filters to suit (they are standard fit according to lens diameter BTW). But before you do that get down to your specialist camera shop (not one of the chains) and talk to them about it. It's way too easy to buy the wrong stuff for the right reasons.

[bogeyman]

Hi,

This is something I know NOTHING about.

I would like a digital camera specifically for taking high quality pictures of overseas properties, both outside and in.

I believe you can get things called lenses and filters. These should make the pictures outside seem brighter and more vibrant.

Inside I would like a lens that shows the whole room (wide angle?).

Now, what sort of digital camera can do this? Don't really want to spend too much money.

Any advice or guidance?

Cheers.

DP

You don't say what the pics will be used for - i.e. print, or web (or both).

If you're not a very experienced photog I suggest a decent 'pro-sumer' or 'bridge' camera like the the Fuji Finepix S9500 (£400-ish).

Only problem is the interiors. Yes, you do need as wide a lens as you can get - and a tripod. Problem with some bridge cameras is that the wide angle end of the zoom isn't very wide (needs to be <= 28mm equiv. to be much use in small rooms). The Olympus C-8080WZ is good in this respect - and quite cheap now for such a solid bit of kit.

If you can afford it, and are willing to invest time learning how to use it, get an SLR like the Nikon D50, Canon 350D or Olympus E500, with a wide angle zoom.

Loads of info and good reviews here: http://www.dpreview.com/

[DimPrawn]

Pictures will be used for web mostly and will be scaled to 640 x 480.

[bogeyman]

Pictures will be used for web mostly and will be scaled to 640 x 480.

In that case, any halfway-decent point-and-shoot compact will do - so long as the zoom goes wide enough for interiors.

You will need a tripod for shooting interiors - don't try to do it with the built-in flash.

Polarizing filters can be used to darken blue skys, cut out reflections and intensify colours, but are only useful on SLRs or cameras with live preview as you need to rotate the filters to see the exact effect.

Otherwise don't worry about filters - just do it in Photoshop or Paintshop Pro.