GTAYLOR -- Your camera??

[Brenbess]

I saw the pictures in your Photobucket of Cupecoy Beach and I felt like I was right there on the beach myself! What fabulous color and detail, not to mention wonderful composition on your part.

 

What camera did you use to take those? And please forgive me if you're a professional photographer and I'm not giving these photos enough credit, you see, I'm hoping you'll tell me it's an automatic. ;s

[gtaylor]

Gee, thanks!

 

The Cupecoy pictures (and most of the rest) were taken with my Fuji Finepix 3800 that I've had for a couple of years now. I believe that it has been discontinued, but you could probably still find it online somewhere.

 

I think it's an excellent camera, and I love the 'feel' in my hand (I'm an old 35mm SLR guy). The only area where I wish it could perform better is in low-light situations.

 

Although the camera is capable of 3.2 megapixels, when on St. Maarten I usually use the 1-meg setting, so that I can fit 400-500 shots on the memory card.

 

I almost always use the automatic setting.

 

FYI; the first shot, dscf0288, was a native 1280x960 (320k) that was uploaded to Photobucket at 960x720 (141 k).

 

Gary

[Brenbess]

Thanks for the reply, Gary! Yes, that first picture IS captivating... the splash against the rocks, the depth to the water, the intimate feel of a remote alcove... and to think it is even more vivid than that in it's original composition!

 

Well, now for the embarrassing part. That's MY camera exactly!!! Rrrrr. I, too, loved the feel of the camera, and I waited a year before buying it but never found one I liked better (or that got such good reviews). Alas, I just haven't gotten it to show me what it can do yet. ;7

 

(...guess I'll keep it!)

[kal]

With any camera (film or digital) you always have to have a good subject, proper lighting and excellent composition. With film, the image is "absorbed" onto a plastic medium but the TYPE of film is very critical as it will have a dramatic impact on color. However, with digital, you must ALSO have a good OPERATING SYSTEM (i.e. computer chip) as that converts a visual image to an electronic signal (pixels). Now there are 2 issues - the photographer and the computer.

 

Once you have a good image, the trick is to be able to retain image quality when you provide it to others for viewing. This is difficult because a computer monitor is not capable to displaying the same quality as contained in the printed image. This is due to limits on monitor screen resolution. Thus, to retain much of the quality, you upload to the net as large a file size as reasonably possible. Normally, the file size for most internet images is in the 20-60 kb range. This is largely to allow viewing using dial-up modems. If the image file size exceeds 100 kb more quality is retained, but viewing is slow with dial-up yet no problem with hi-speed transmission (DSL/Cable).

 

As Gary indicated, the image size is 141 kb, thus that parameter alone will provide a better quality than many others you see on the net.

 

Also, if you're not careful you can significantly degrade image quality if you use the camera "digital zoom" function or in any way manipulate the original image using photo software. Thus, subsequent management of the image plays a huge role in quality.

 

If you want a great site to compare digital cameras and get excellent reviews go HERE. Make sure you check out Canon as it is the market leader in digital technology. In addition, HERE is very good site (although quite technical) about digital images.

[gtaylor]

Agree with kal, but for the record, the camera produced the original picture as jpg at 1280x960 (320k) that was posted to Photobucket at 960x720 (141 k).

 

Photobucket did that conversion at upload time because the free version has limits on file size.

[Brenbess]

Thanks for the tips, Kal, and the explanation on uploading capacities. I had to read it twice -- digitally challenged -- but I understand it now, lol. ;)

 

I'd visited that dp site when I was shopping for a camera, but it was a bit advanced for me. I'll spend some time there soon and see if I can catch on now that I've had the camera for a year or so.

 

Thank you both for the tips and your time!

 

Brenda