What a difference a camera makes...
 

I know my car isn't pro-touring, but I thought you might like to see the difference in a new camera. My brother just got a digital SLR. I will get the details, but here are a few shots, at the same location but with my regular 6 pixel digital and his SLR. It might make you think about a new camera.

Old:
http://college-investor.com/camera4.JPG

http://college-investor.com/camera5.JPG

New:

http://college-investor.com/slr1.JPG

http://college-investor.com/slr2.JPG


Tim

Nice! I'd love to get a digital SLR...

Yep, I borrowed my neighbors SLR to take some pics for Rupp last spring...next thing I know my wife bought me one! I guess I got my point across of how much nicer it was than our digi camera!

Also, she wanted one since we had been missing a lot of action shots of our son with the 'delay' of our old camera...the SLR kicks ass!

Nice pics and car BTW!!! :thumbsup:

Digital SLR is the only way to go, I use to shoot with film back in the day for all the magazines and when digital SLR came out I was all over it and saved over $500 a month on film. Now I use Canon Mark III very high end but you get very cool stuff from it. Everything we shoot now is digital and all the covers for the mags we shoot are digital so the quality is there if you have a nice camera.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...lt/Img0036.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...lt/Img0075.jpg

And for the dummys..what is the digital SLR ?:_paranoid

Single Lens Reflex.

You have seen all those big cameras at car shows with big inter-changeable lenses? That is a SLR camera.

Darren

I upgraded to a Canon 10.6MP digital SLR when our daughter was about a year old, and one of the main reasons was because with my older point-and-shoot digital camera, the time between shots was almost a whole second, and it seemed like every time she'd do something really neat, I'd miss it.

The new SLR can blitz through a whole bunch of shots, and I almost always get a good one. One thing to make sure is that you buy the fastest memory card that you can afford, because this will (on some cameras) affect your ability to take a lot of shots very quickly before the card has to "catch up". I also bought a 75-300 lens with Image Stabilization and wow, what a help that has been for outdoor pics. I still have a lot to learn...

I got a Nikon D200 last year. I get tired of carrying it at car shows so I bought a little Nikon S600 to carry in my pocket. Though the MP rating is about the same the 200 takes MUCH better pictures. It's all in the lens.

The frimware and processor also make a huge difference. I have a Nikon D70 and the pictures it takes will blow away our 10mp point and shoot.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

My wife has both, and the SLR is much better.

lmao, my Blackberry Pearl phone takes better pics than your "before" shot ;)

SLR's are the best, but for the internet you really only need a good brand name 4+ megapixel camera to take some decent shots.

Of course, if you are a pro the SLR is the only way to go. I use a Canon 30D for my magazine shoots.

I agree to an extent, my phone takes some good pictures. But my camera is 6 years old now!! My brother is big into photography, but now I know what I was missing! It has served me well, and some things come out alright?!

http://college-investor.com/old5.JPG

Try playing with the ISO adjustment on that point-n-shoot camera you have, and using a tripod to shoot with. It makes a huge difference.

Digital SLR's rock. I just recently bought a Pentax K100D, love it. You definately gotta practice though, you can still take ugly pictures no matter what the camera!

for some reason I don't have the images coming up in the original post, but that said, I agree the SLRs are amazing. My friend bought a Canon recently as it will use all of their brand's old-school lenses and he had a few. Amazing photos.

Here is a couple shots of my car on the track, I am probably rolling around 85mph here into a turn (the closer shot of the car in the straight) and the other is coming up outta turn 5 at about that same speed. Car looks like it is standing still for the shots.

Oh, okay.Thanks for clearing it. And i thought i had "good" camera pocket sony dsc-t200 :_paranoid

I had them hosted on my website, and then I cancelled my web hosting so they are gone! My fault!


Those are some cool shots of your car at the track though!

Tim

digital SLR + pro photographer = great pics
 

I could not agree more. A pro photographer took some pics of my Chevelle using his digital SLR and the difference between his pics and the pics I take with my “standard issue” mega-pixel digital camera was night and day. Here is a link to one of the digital shots:

http://www.fototime.com/inv/882388110B4CD8C

Click on this shot to make it a 5X8 then click it again to see it full size. Wow, what a difference a pro photographer and a killer camera make! It takes a few sconds to load full size.

Take care,
Chris

Chris, a good camera helps, but the person using it makes a bigger difference. Novice shooters don't set up the shot properly, don't pay attention to shadows and reflected light, don't consider the background etc.. An experienced shooter can still take some damn nice photos with a point-n-shoot.

Maybe some of us shooters that hang out on the site could do some example shoots with budget (under $300) cameras and show you.

Tony

It's not just the camera that makes a difference. It's the user and what they can do with it. I had a Nikon D1x when I first started to shoot for various magazines. It's the time and attention to detail within the shoot that makes all the difference. I have since upgraded to a Canon 5D but I don't feel it makes me a better shooter, it's the knowledge I gain and lessons learned from each shoot is what makes the shots better. Just my $.02. :)

Thats a good idea. I think I get some good shots with my camera, but I take thousands, so I am bound to get some good ones, but tips might help!

Ill volunteer my cheap camera and my car!!! Haha

While it's definitely not under $300, my D70 was only $500. This gets you a nice camera with a good lens by a respected name, Nikon. One of its biggest advantages is the ability to shoot in RAW, then compress the images into JPEG on your computer. This ability is very important as the compression software in the camera usually gives up a fair amount of detail.

Here are two shots I got recently.

Ok, ProTouring442 opened up a can of worms. I was a pretty decent shutterbug back in the day when I was buying SLR's overseas (waaay back before computer controls). Anyway, last year I picked up an Olympus E500 and although I can take a picture I have not even begun to tap into the cameras potential.
PT442 mentioned RAW images. I know my camera has this function but can someone explain what it is and the benefits of using it?

Also, any other tips sure would be appreciated.

Oh, and another thing.... if we started a thread where we could post pictures would some of the "Pro's" be willing to critique them and offer advice?

Yes. And if you are in the Wisconsin or Illinois area, I would be willing to let someone come on a shoot or two to get a feeling for what really goes into doing a real feature shoot. :thumbsup:

Raw is a completely uncompressed image file, the benefit of which is that the file carries all data including the image, color, shading, etc. The software in the camera can compress the file, but as your camera's processor is a bit less capable as compared to the one in your PC, it will loose detail, color saturation, etc when compressing the image. Your PC's software can compress it much more efficiently and thus loose fewer of the details. Also, as all of the image is uncompressed, I understand it makes for better photo editing when using Photoshop or one of the other photo software products. I say "I understand," as I am new to the world of digital photography, and have not yet purchased Photoshop Elements 6, though I plan to in the near future.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill