The Camera Thread

[FatDaz]

Can anyone reccomend decent photography books, guides, tips, how to take pics etc. if it covers editing too would be good. I'm still a complete beginner and looking to improve my working knowledge, terminology, and general differences in lenses, apertures ISO settings etc.

Something easy to read and written in plain language not too bogged down in concepts or terms.

[Victor Mildew]

Can anyone reccomend decent photography books, guides, tips, how to take pics etc. if it covers editing too would be good. I'm still a complete beginner and looking to improve my working knowledge, terminology, and general differences in lenses, apertures ISO settings etc.

Something easy to read and written in plain language not too bogged down in concepts or terms.

I got a magic lantern workshop book specific to my 60d which includes 2 DVDs, one with a guy talking you through your camera model and another generic one with the same guy talking about general photography. It was about £20 I think and well worth it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Lantern-Guides®-Multimedia-Workshop/dp/1454701285

[$ilva $hadow]

Can anyone reccomend decent photography books, guides, tips, how to take pics etc. if it covers editing too would be good. I'm still a complete beginner and looking to improve my working knowledge, terminology, and general differences in lenses, apertures ISO settings etc.

Something easy to read and written in plain language not too bogged down in concepts or terms.

http://www.youtube.com/

[Knoyleo]

Can anyone reccomend decent photography books, guides, tips, how to take pics etc. if it covers editing too would be good. I'm still a complete beginner and looking to improve my working knowledge, terminology, and general differences in lenses, apertures ISO settings etc.

Something easy to read and written in plain language not too bogged down in concepts or terms.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Photographe ... 1905814046

I bought that, and I think it's great. A real back to basics approach to composition and technique, but written in a decent level of detail, and as clear as day.

As for the Sony discussion going on further up the page, I bought a Sony. Wish I'd waited and bought Nikon when they refreshed their line up. Not too bothered now though, as all I seem to be using these days is my fixed lens Fuji X100.

[Poser]

Owing to severe joblessness, the Mrs never got a proper birthday present in July, which I'm looking to remedy now I'm back in work. She may well have forgotten, but I'm looking for brownie points.

She's a keen photographer and wants a DSLR eventually, but I know she also wants a compact for nights out, dog walks, etc.

Will this do:

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electro ... fer=search



£110 is about the limit of what I wanted/can afford to pay, so if anyone has any suggestions for cheaper, good-quality compacts, I'd appreciate it.

Cheers in advance.

[Foxhound]

Owing to severe joblessness, the Mrs never got a proper birthday present in July, which I'm looking to remedy now I'm back in work. She may well have forgotten, but I'm looking for brownie points.

She's a keen photographer and wants a DSLR eventually, but I know she also wants a compact for nights out, dog walks, etc.

Will this do:

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electro ... fer=search



£110 is about the limit of what I wanted/can afford to pay, so if anyone has any suggestions for cheaper, good-quality compacts, I'd appreciate it.

Cheers in advance.

Not sure if you bought that or not. It's a decent camera for £110, but it seems to have gone up. If you can afford a little bit more, the camera Silva has suggested before is a great bet:

Zoom is overrated, the tradeoff for picture quality on anything above 3x zoom on a small camera is not worth it.


Get the 'used-like new' warehouse models from Amazon warehouse.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listin ... ition=used

Get this memory card.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003 ... ers&sr=1-1



Don't buy a Sony, you have been warned.

So buy camera, buy memory card, post pictures and tell us about your camera in this thread on whether it is good or bad.

Canon have announced the S110. Marginal improvements over the S100. Think I'll sick with that (S100) and swerve the Sony. The LX7 is tempting too, but it'll be a fair bit more than the S100 and not that much better.

[Suffocate Peon]

I'm considering either the lx7 or canon s100. Canon s100 on digitalrev is £220, lx7 is £290, both really very cheap. Jessops didn't have the lx7 on display to look at, they offered for me to come again when they get one in and look at it then but they realised even that wasn't possible. They've also taken off the lx5 from display. But their price for it was £470. I had a look at the Sony rx100, which really is small, but the lack of a grip really bothers me, the Sony Nex cameras have grips, as does the Sony hx20v which has the 20x zoom, so I assume Sony figure that a grip is only necessary when the lens is huge or you need it for a zoom, for extra steadiness. I don't want to buy one of those attachable grips. I've read that the rx100 isn't too easy to use, I don't want to go Sony again because I do find their menus less intuitive to navigate. The lens retracts, and there's no need for a lens cap, which is a slight problem i have with the lx7. I wanted to go into a store and ask the staff whether I can try pulling the camera in and out of my coat pocket. Not really, but..really. The rx100 looks monolithic and cool. If it was £50 cheaper, wasn't sony, had a grip, i'd get it.

I was waiting for photokina to see the Olympus xz2, I dislike the fold out screen that increases the chunkiness of it, and the grip isn't too pronounced, plus it's really expensive. I tried the xz1 but found that the mode dial in the corner got in the way of pressing the shutter button, plus there's no grip. I liked the canon s100. The grip is so half hearted, but probably enough. Battery life is 200 shots, it's 330 shots for the lx7. I didn't find the burst mode very good. I saw a squirrel today, it ran past the canal path i was riding my bike on with a nut in its mouth, ran up a tree, over a fence. I didn't have my camera with me, and if I did it might not have been in my camera bag ready for use..an lx7 could have been in my pocket. I could have had 3 seconds to take a photo.

I've ditched games coverage and bypassed iphones, ipods and tablets altogether, following the progress of cameras, even ones more expensive than I can afford, and not knowing what anything means is much more fun, there's so much variety and so much scope for huge differences between cameras, and it's exciting to see how larger sensors are being crammed into smaller bodies...i don't know what that sentence quite means, only that in 5 years time things will be different from how they are now.

There's a new fujifilm compact camera, it looks stylish but like the x10 you have to twist the lens to first to put in standby, then again to twist out the lens, and for a point and shoot i just want to press one button and turn a switch. Plus the auto focus isn't supposed to be too great.

Oh yeah, the s100 macro is to 3cm close, Rx100 i think is 5cm, which doesn't sound right. The lx7 is 1 cm.

[Knoyleo]

I wouldn't actually advise buying anything from DigitalRev, SP.

[Suffocate Peon]

I wouldn't actually advise buying anything from DigitalRev, SP.

Hmm, really? People who have used them say they're reliable. I know they're based in Hong Kong, but shipping to the uk is apparently free, and quick. On reseller ratings.com, they've got 844 5 star ratings, and 41 1 star ratings. I'd buy from there if it's the difference of £50. I'd think that with DigitalRev being not just some camera shop site, and having an online presence with popular youtube camera reviews and people having their own photo space on the site with facebook integration mean it's even more reliable to me.

[Green Gecko]

Be careful that the stock you purchase from any online retailer might not be EU stock and be covered by the manufacturer's warranty. A lot of stores get their prices lower by managing international stock.

[Knoyleo]

Seems odd to assume that because they have a big marketing presence, that they're any more reliable. If anything they just seem to have an army of fans who'll shout down any criticism because it might offend their idols, Kai, Lok C and Alamby (For It Is HER). I can't think of any other YouTube channels I'd be willing to hand over a couple of hundred to on the back of their videos.

Like Gecko says, you're getting grey imports. Their stock may well be originally intended for sale in Asian markets, and as such, won't come with an EU warranty card, etc. Apparently they used to advertise products as being sold with local warranty cards, but they arrived with HK specific ones. They seem to have stopped this now, however, and now offer their own 12 month warranty. Presumably any work done under this will void any original manufacturer's warranty. Another thing I notice they now do that they didn't, is volunteer to pay any import duty, but however, will not cover any customs charges, which the customer is then liable for. Supposedly, they try to avoid customs picking up on their items, by marking them as low value gifts, but if it does get picked up, you fit the bill, and if that is what they do, they're intentionally trying to evade tax.

If it were me, I'd rather buy from a UK based dealer, that wasn't just known for having a YouTube channel.

[SandyCoin]

Camera tech problem here. I had been trying to connect my camera using the basic usb lead. I've had no problems before but all of a sudden it wasn't connecting. Tried different PC's and different leads but it just wouldn't be found on them. So I ordered a USB SD attach stick. I put the SD in it and pics come up on the PC. Suddenly it says error and I can't access the images anymore. I return my SD card to my camera but now no images can be found. Atm it seems like I've lost all my pics from my holiday which has made me feel kind of sick. I dunno what happened, but is there any way any one knows of recovering the images as it's made me rather upset.

I strawberry floating hate relying on computers.

[Green Gecko]

Get another SD card, Sandisk Ultra / Extreme is best.

use Recuva or PhotoRec:

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/download-revi ... uva-139509

http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/step ... mory-cards

PhotoRec (related to TestDisk, which isn't as friendly) is pretty great. I've recovered huge 2GB+ audio recordings before that were lost on a card.

The most typical thing is the file system gets corrupted and while your actual file data may still be there, the organisational system by which it is accessed is broken. Think of it as like the lines on a sheet of paper. Without those lines, the computer can't discern what the beginning and end of a file is and so the data becomes unreadable. PhotoRec in particular can help recover this.

Try PhotoRec first as it sounds like that's what's happened and it can scan for files even if the file system is corrupted and then recover these to a folder.

[SandyCoin]

Cheers. When I sort the internet out at my house I'll give that a try. I really hope it works as I would be utterly gutted if I had lost all my photos. I don't understand why the camera suddenly stopped synching with PCs. Seriously strawberry floating annoying.

[Knoyleo]

The Olympus OM cameras are all 35mm film.

EDIT: Bit jelly, the OM40 seems lush http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Olymp ... 0/20/30/40

How much was it?

[Knoyleo]

Bargain. Providing the shutter and light seals are all still in tact, that's brill.

I still love shooting with my Grandad's old Pentax K1000. Completely mechanical. All I need next is to invest in some developing kit.

[Green Gecko]

Nikon F here. It's a beast, all manual clockwork, no light meter. It's 100% theory.

I also had a Olympus MX something I think. I lent it while I was in Japan to my brother and he conveniently forgot to give it back before I left. I think it was selling around the corner for about £180.

I let him have it though because it was actually his god father's / uncle's and it's a bit unfair to inherit 2 35mm film cameras. I never used it. Even if he gave it to me because I bothered to visit him.

[Holpil]

Can anyone give me their thoughts on the Samsung NX1000?

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/All-Digital-Cameras/buy-SAMSUNG-EV-NX1000-All-Digital-Camera/124520

I have £200 cashback that I need to use on a Samsung product before the month is out, so would essentially be getting this for £200. I'm an absolute beginner to photography, so I'd be reluctant to spend much more. It's been a while since I've looked but I remember a decent starter DSLR being around £300-£400?

[blackoutHERO]

Is this the place to ask what camera to buy?

I want a camera.

Im a complete novice, want something decent but affordable, want everything in the box or kit, want it to have good battery life. Dont mind second hand. Im not spending £600 because Ill probably end up being gooseberry fool.

[IGM]

My work colleague is wanting to buy a smart camera and asked me (as the resident... person who seems to know a lot of stuff but googles most of it) if I had any recommendations. "It's for a Christmas present but there should still be money for other gifts" is the budget. I gave some general advice about looking at reviews for the good lenses as the smartness would likely be pretty standard but I was bluffing for all I was worth. I didn't even know there was such a thing as smart cameras. But the feature that they're looking for is the phonesque ability to upload photos straight to twitface and such.

Does anyone have any ideas?