Digital Camera For Gun Photos ???

[David]

I am looking for a good and inexpensive (under $250 if possible) digital camera to take photos (including CLEAR CLOSE-UPS) of my firearms, as well as for general family use.

Any ideas?

Thanks...

[Skunkabilly]

If you go with a mousecamera, you will be forced to go with available lighting since direct flash on shiny objects (guns and knives) sucks.

I don't know much about mousecameras, but I know Nikons have really good macro. I'd look into one of their budget cameras, hopefully it'll be as good as their compact digitals (but probably not).

I've played with the Canon A70 and S400 (middle end subcompacts), I don't know how much they ran but they were surprisingly good.

Is $250 an absolute limit...or will congress authorize you to spend a little more?

For taking pictures of family I REALLY like to have a camera that has a hotshoe. It's the camera equivalent of a picatinny rail for attaching a Surefire. The hotshoe allows a big flash to go on top. The flashes are really handy for bounding light, because you can redirect which direction the light goes. My recipe is pointing my flash at the ceiling, which diffuses the light and puts out a lot of it. Imagine the difference between pointing a Surefire M3 at the ceiling--it lights up the whole room and the light isn't as harsh and there's more of it, and poing an E1e directly at something from inches away.

But if your budget won't allow, you can get some really good photos with available lighting, however you're really limited in the hours you can shoot if you're a working stiff.

PS if you really want to be tactical, if you're in a really dark area and your camera is having problems focusing, take out the surefire and light up your subjects so the autofocus has something to grab onto :)

[ocabj]

If you're shopping for a digital camera for just web use, you can get away with a 2.1 megapixel camera. 2.1 is pretty lowtech as far as current digital cameras go, but is perfectly fine to take pictures for your webpages and what not (2.1 mpixel will net you 1600x1200 resolution pictures which is fine for web development).

If you are actually going to do anything more with the pictures, ie print them out on photo paper, archiving family activities, etc., you'll probably want to get something a bit more. Canon makes great point and shoot cameras. The Canon S50 is an excellent 5megapixel camera at $450-500. On the lower end they have the new A80 at 4mpixel for about $350-$400.

Avoid the pro-sumer cameras like the Canon G-line. I have a G2 I bought a couple years ago, the current model is the G5. Most people looking to buy a digital camera have no use for the features from high end consumer cameras (the level between basic consumer cameras and the high end digital SLRs). These cameras tend to be a lot bulkier than point and shoot style digital cameras.

Basically, I'd tell you to spend around $350 and get a 3 to 4 megapixel camera. Canon, Nikon, and Olympus are solid brands.

[ocabj]

BTW, here's some links to help you shop:

http://www.dpreview.com (http://www.dpreview.com/)
http://www.dcresource.com (http://www.dcresource.com/)

[David]

thanks...:D

[TechBrute]

I have Canon and Kodak digital cameras. I like the Canon better, but the Kodak is a higher megapixel and has a convenient dock that charges it and offloads the pictures.

[DigMe]

I have a 3.1 megapixel Canon Powershot A70 that I bought last summer for 299. It's probably cheaper now. It's a really versatile camera that takes fantastic pictures and it was highly rated. I purchased this over the Sony DSC-P72 because the Canon had more options and seemed more versatile and Canon is known for quality lenses and cameras. Both cameras had good reviews though.

If you want to see some pictures that I've taken with it then click this link:

http://f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/bradandjess@sbcglobal.net/lst?.dir=/My+Documents&.view=l

All those photos were taken with the A70.

Here's one for anyone that doesn't want to click:

Edit: Oops...that pic was just too big and I don't want to be annoying. Click on the link above to see all pics.

None of these pictures were taken with the camera on it's highest quality setting (otherwise they'd be 2megs or more!).

brad cook

[jdege]

If you want professional-quality pictures, you'll need something with interchangeable lenses and external flash, and you won't find that for anything like $250.

Canon has a new EOS Rebel that's something like $7-800 for the body (lenses, flashes, and filters not included.) Which sounds like a lot, but last year the cheapest digital SLR bodies were $1500, three years ago they were $7,000, and five years ago they were $30,000.

What might work, with a point-and-shoot digital, are slave flashes. You can buy these cheaply, and little pocket tripods, which are also cheap. Use some cardboard to reflect the camera flash away from the subject, and arrange the slave flashes to provide the proper lighting.

[DigMe]

If you want professional-quality pictures, you'll need something with interchangeable lenses and external flash, and you won't find that for anything like $250.

You should probably re-read the original post. No offense..your post was just irrelevant to what he was asking for.

brad cook

[Tomac]

Check out the Pextax Optio 33WR: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/optio33wr.html . Besides taking excellent photos (including macros) it's also weather/water resistant enough to withstand accidental immersion to 1 meter. Usual list is around $350 but searching the 'net shows several sites selling it for $250+ (I paid $265 for mine). Yeah, the flash is a bit weak for doing banquet rooms and such but you can get the Vivitar DF200 Digital Slave Flash which programs itself to your camera's flash characteristics for those times when you need more lighting (it even comes w/it's own mini-flex tripod and bracket for mounting it to your camera): http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home;jsessionid=1x2jY9yxLm!-844285013?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=293955&is=REG
Tomac

[ocabj]

Oh, FYI to David:

If you buy online, beware of New York based vendors. No offense to New Yorkers, but almost all New York online vendors (there are others who try this) who advertised insanely low prices compared to anyone else sell "grey market" products. Grey market is typically stuff imported in from another country and sold without manuals, cases, and often even batteries (and sometimes without factory warrenty).

A common scam is when you order the camera, some guy will call you the same day and say they "need to verify your order." Then they'll try to sell you "extra stuff" like a battery, warranty, etc, that should have come with the camera in the first place.

Stick with known online stores like Amazon, Buy.com, Bestbuy.com. Pay the extra $50 for the piece of mind that you're getting the actual retail US product and have solid return policies.

[Tomac]

Ocabj gives good advice. In my particular case I bought from Foto Connection and got the full retail package w/factory US warranty.
Tomac

[45R]

I'm using a Canon S110. Its taken all of my gun pictures. The macro is good and I've taken some of the following pictures with it.




http://www.hunt101.com/img/062299.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/076336-big.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/049597-big.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/068643.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/066771-big.jpg

[ocabj]

45R: What brand benchrest is that in the last photo?

[Skunkabilly]

45R, what happened to the critter's blue helmet? Did it fall off?

[45R]

ocabj
I have no idea. That rest belongs to THR member djl4570. Email him and link it to this tread. He will be able to tell you. It was taken during a Battlerifles.com meeting.

Hope that helps.

45R

[45R]

Skunk-
The Blue Helments were stolen by this man....


39367369_203b_davis_ap_copy


He wont be back :)

[feedthehogs]

I bought a 2.0 Fuji Fine Pix on sale last July and it included a 16, and 64 mb card. I bought a spare 32 mb card. Total cost was 220.00.
I got it at Best Buy on a sale special. I had been looking for months.
It has macro and variable flash settings.

I used it to take 230 pics at the NRA firearms museum in August which was a trick due to lighting, glass reflection and space limitations between displays in some areas.

I went one day and looked at the collection and experimented with angles and flash settings. Went back to the hotel, down loaded on the lap top and looked at what worked and used photo shop to manipulate other pictures.
Went back the next day and snaped away. They turned out great.

The 2.0 is plenty for 21" screen high resolution and depending on the printer, it prints fabulous picture resolutions.

Anything higher and you need lots of storage cards to hold pictures.

It also does high quality video without sound.

Is it like my Nikon SLR? No. But for digital it works perfect and I find I use it more than my Nikon now.

[DigMe]

Anything higher and you need lots of storage cards to hold pictures.

I have one single 256meg compactflash card in my Canon Powershot A70 and have never removed it since I put it in and never needed more than that. A 256meg card can be had for about $55 at Fry's Electronics and I can fit over 200 good-sized pics on it.

brad cook

[Zak Smith]

I recently purchased a Canon S400, and I've used by brother's older S30.

For taking "gun portraits", two features have proved to be very useful to me. The first is the ability to set the ISO speed (which actually "fakes it" in the digital camera) and/or adjust the exposure. The second is a "macro" mode.

Good lighting is key, and a tripod helps.

http://apollo.demigod.org/~zak/DigiCam/2003-11-26-farm/small/101_0193.jpg

-z