Need advice on buying digital camera

erinelliott · Feb 20, 2006

Hi... newby here!

I am an artist and am looking to buy a digital camera to photograph my paintings.

I am looking to spend under $300 and need good clean quality photos because I post the photos on the internet and the paintings must be able to be seen clearly and cleanly.

My current camera doesnt hold up without massive light so I spend tons of time in photoshop trying to clean the photos up, but never get them to look as good as they need to be.

***my gateway DC-T50 5.25mp
I found someone on this forum who was taking a photo of a photo. The advice was 2 lights at approx 45 degree angle... I have that set up right now (not great lights on this artists budget), but my gateway DC-T50 5.25mp leaves me with grain unless I am in super bright light. Maybe there is a setting I am not aware of but I just think it may be the camera.

If I need to save more $$ to get the quality I need, let me know.

I am not shooting action photos or landscapes so that isnt an issue for me.

I can actually see the pattern in the canvas on other online paintings when I click to a really large photo.

I looked at specs on cameras, but the specs on my current camera looked good so I dont really feel I can trust specs at this point.

Other artists are not very willing to share info.

So I am turning to this forum hoping you pros can lend some advice.

Pleeeeeeeeeease help!

Rob · Feb 20, 2006

Tripod the camera, force the ISO as low as it can go (100?), set the aperture to two stops down from fully wide. Ensure you're in the highest quality shooting mode.

Rob

erinelliott · Feb 20, 2006

Thanks Rob..I will give that a try.

Was looking at :
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Olympus EVOLT E-300 Digital SLR Camera with Digital 14-45mm Zoom[/FONT]

and
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Mexgon c580 10mb[/FONT]

I will try what you suggested and with any luck I can use what I have.

If anyone knows about those cameras I would love to hear.

I do have a friend who desperately needs a camera so if I can upgrade a bit I am going to pass my gateway on to her.

thanks again for the help!

Rob · Feb 20, 2006

The Olympus is a great camera. I've never heard of whatever the second thing is.

Good luck

Rob

Rob · Feb 20, 2006

Oh, it's a a bunch of Panasonic bits put together for another company. Hmm. I'd probably avoid it, unless it's very cheap. It's not true 10MP, it's digitally interpolated up from 5MP, not that this is very important. The sample images I found in an advert for it were dreadful, but that doesn't mean too much.

Rob

erinelliott · Feb 20, 2006

just peeked at the Sony DSC-H1 you mentioned to someone else in this forum.

looks really nice. hmmm. maybe a good option

erinelliott · Feb 20, 2006

I agree with you on the sketching no name camera. I saw on a forum that it wasnt a true 10mp or whatever but was just checking with the folks who know. Looking at the Olympus on ebay. thanks.

Rob · Feb 20, 2006

erinelliott said:
just peeked at the Sony DSC-H1 you mentioned to someone else in this forum.

looks really nice. hmmm. maybe a good option

It looks nice, and it feels pretty good. It's got a good lens range and a decent sensor size, which is much much more important than MP. Many of those all-in-one cameras have a tiny sensor which makes for problems with your images. The Sony has got good reviews and is IMO pretty good for the money. It is probably more expensive than an entry level DSLR with a kit lens though, so think carefully and look at what you want to do with the camera.

Rob