Ducati Monster Forum

My kids want to buy me something nice for christmas, I suggested a camera. So I'm thinking a point and shoot style camera, one with some control by the me, like aperture, f stops, and time, nothing too flash but something that I can use and have full control when I spoil the shot.

And can you tell the difference between 5, 8, and 10 megapixels ?
Oh! and something with more than 3x zoom.





                             Mmick (awaiting the masters reply)

go for the cannon g 10 mick great camera and will grow with you and yes there is a big different s when it comes too mega pixels more the better if you want too do some enlargements matty will chime in soon and give you the real low down cheers bazz hope your not too sore  [thumbsup] 

Canon G10 or G11. G11 has just replaced G10.
Lots of user control or if you're bored it can be in auto.
Megapixels don't mean a lot. All to do with the quality of the sensor thingy.
G10 was 14 megap's, G11 is 10 megap's different sensor in G11.

Yep noticed the other day that the G11 is now out ... not cheap though. Perhaps there may be G10s around a bit cheaper now.

The G10 served us well on our trip to Italy (bear in mind I am not a good photographer) ... but it is a pretty big camera. The gurus will say it is close to a proper camera but it is quite heavy (solid I s'pose) and not the sort of thing you can slip in your pocket ... I don't know if the G11 is any different in that regard.

What budget do you have Mmick?
Take a poke around at www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au (http://)

Everyone knows I am a Canon fan and would only ever buy the brand.

My opinion, you'd never be able to tell the difference between 6-8-10MP
Unless you were making pictures the size of your walls at home your eyes nor many peoples could pick it.

Happy shopping.
Matty...

The G11 is probably a great bet, but if you're considering the older G10, I'd strongly suggest a Panasonic LX3 instead.  That little beauty is every DSLR user's favourite backup.  It's tiny, has full manual and full auto, a wider-than-usual lens and some really stunning quality (image and build).

It's a nice looking camera, however every person I know who's had a Lumix has swapped it pretty quickly
for another brand due to excess image noise. Unless they have fixed this problem in there more recent Lumix
cameras I wouldn't go there.

But that's just me, you'll find many Oz Monster folk here with a Canon G camera in there pocket.
"Nothing to do with me"  ;D

get a high optical zoom rating over a high digital zoom rating.
that's all i got

paul.

Very true.

Helped a mate buy a G11 about 3 hours ago. $600. but I'm in Beijing right now. He said that he could get the same sort of deal from flea bay. Not sure what retail is in Oz otherwise.

I've also got a G7(grandpa to the G11. I'm a Nikon fan myself - for DSLR), but the Gx series from canon are just fantastic quality cameras.

Canon EOS 400D.  It's a SLR but is point and shoot as much as you want it to be...  I actually use a 350D at work but I don't think they are available anymore.   A simply brilliant camera!!

Ita

I have the 350D too but it don't fit in any of my pockets and it got damn heavy after hiking the first few kms above 3000m. It gets left behind a lot when I'm on the bike too.  So next camera will be smaller. (Have been looking at the G10 for a while)

We've got a canon thing going on as well, both still and video.

All I can do is repeat what others said on the G10. Yes it's on the big side of point and shoots, but its an awesome camera for the enthusiast. I have not seen or used the G11 yet. It's newer so it much be better, right? :P

I'd be leaning towards a G10, hopefully there are some around for bargains, now the new one is out.

My husband is the photographer, he recommended this site as a good resource for all digital cameras.

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

He also said:

No matter what Camera you buy, the most important thing to remember when buying any Camera is that the LENS matters most. The industry markets Cameras by MegaPixels and Features, but the Lens is what brings the image into focus to be captured by the Camera. A lot of MegaPixels with a poor lens can only capture poor images.

More expensive cameras often have better lenses (but not always). Often the less expensive model, by the same manufacturer, has the same lens but omit features or offer fewer megapixels to keep the price down. Buy the best Lens you can afford. If your budget is limited, consider giving up MegaPixels or Features to get the better lens.

MegaPixels are equal to how big the image you are capturing can ultimately be. The maximum resolution (quality) of the image and the maximum size of the printed image are controlled by how many MegaPixels you have. Remember, most of us print our photos using 4x6 Photo paper and occasionally on 8.5x11 plain paper.

A 4 MegaPixel Camera limits the maximum print sizes to about 8X12 (4x the size of the typical print size). An 8 MegaPixel Camera offers 100% increase in the number of Pixels (over 4MP), but only provides a 50% increase in image size. Therefore the maximum effective print size is for an 8 MegaPixels is 12x18.

Much larger printed image sizes are possible than those listed above, however the resolution or quality of the image will begin to suffer the larger the printed image is made.

Remember also that we often crop images before printing. Cutting away portions of the image reduces the size of the original image. If you crop away half of the image you just reduced the resolution and the quality of the final print has effectively been reduced.

Oh and he also believes that Canon is the way to go.

Hmmmmm, Mega Pixie?? Is that a fat fairy??  [cheeky] [clap] [laugh]

Good stuff there from Ducachic.
Don't get blown away by mega pixels it's the lens [thumbsup]

I WILL CONFUSE YOU MORE :o

I'm no expert but i have a Sony Dscw70 about 3 years old now
7.2 mega pixel 3* optical zoom , carl,zeiss lens.
And a pentax DSL K10D.Did a search on google for that one, voted the best at the time against canon,Nikon equivalents.
The Sony has been a very good little camera pocket size will fit into your top pocket. great for out on the bike.
I prefer to use it more than the pentax .
for photos i am going to put up on the web i use 2 mega pixels to keep the file size down,and this is more than enough.
It has all the manual functions just to much stuff to remember, (for us older folk) [laugh]
Just put it on auto an shoot.
The pentax has all the bells a whistles.
but i need to read the manual now and then just to much stuff.
The negative points with the Sony
*Zoom (newer model may be better)
*Memory cards are  costly
*Battery's ,the small cameras use battery's like mobile phones and it is a good idea to have a spare with you, can be costly i have 3 [roll]

Oh and then you will need some where to save all the photos
as like most don't print them out.
An external hard drive is good to keep them seperate, segate or westen digital 250 to 500 gig is enough to get started.

Rob

Good advice here, what was that camera that Rob (Melvin) bought and has that been superceded?






                                        Mmick

That would be the G series camera from Canon.

There are a few of us with them

Me G7
Ivan G7
Nick G10
Trevor G9
Rob G9 (I think)

Speaks for itself doesn't it.

yep:

weirdo: check
from sydney: check
uses a canon g series: double check!!!!

 ;D

UPDATE  The good wife has just informed me that the boys have already delivered my chrissy present to Santa.

Probably not the one I was looking at, G11, but the Canon Powershot SX200 IS. So.... cant wait to go play with camera's again.






                                       Mmick

You guys.... [laugh]




                     Mmick

Cool Mmick, you're sure to have lots of fun with it.

None of us are weird, we all just like Canon G cameras and Monsters of whatever type DSS or SSS
Same same

Hi Mick, I have am on my second powershot camera and find them to be very versatile - small enough to take lots of places with you and they allow you to take great shots, bought a water proof case for my latest one!  I also have an EOS 400D which is a great camera, bought a nice zoom for that one but find that I often leave it at home and take the powershot instead.  Only 13 more sleeps until you can start to play.

Happy snapping

PS it appears that there are a few of us out there with just a bit in common -ducati, cannon cameras, and playing in the great outdoors.  Hey heather we are really all from on big happy family [laugh]

And proud of it Spider.........  ;D  [cheeky]

Just call us the G men and gal... (Jukie has a G10...)....  [thumbsup]

I have a little Canon Powershot, got it 18months ago. Took it down Supers (http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigeaux/sets/72157614712075661/) in Feb and it takes awesome shots (http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigeaux/sets/72157614712075661/) (and vid (http://www.youtube.com/user/craigotube#p/u/6/LDDrBy-fF0c)) for a point'n'shoot. And it err, fits into my leathers pockets (and there aint much room too speak of).

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/3327074493_f9f336e10f.jpg)

The Canon Powershot SX200 IS will stomp all over my Canon so you should be sweet.


As for SLRs, I shoot Nikon personally, but there is now way I gonna wanna start a war with the Canon fanboys (http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigeaux/4177892847/#sizes/o/) ;)

More than likely. But if you don't know what you should get ... ask an expert ... expert says G10 ... problem solved.

My other camera is a Sea & Sea 5000G, any more of those around  [cheeky]

No argument, it's just that you're wrong  [cheeky] [cheeky] [cheeky]
But it's okay cause you ride a Monster.

All this talk about cameras has got me thinking about them again.  [bang] Have only bought the bike a Xmas pressie so far and haven't bought anything for me.  May just have to visit the camera shop down the road from Duc city whilst they are doing my Turismo check in 3 weeks time. Cos I don't think I'll have room in the bags for my SLR at Turismo.

ahem, I believe Craig may be right actually !  ;)  [laugh]

Its good to see that I can get unprovoked, un-biased and professional advice from you lot, I've looked on a couple of 'other' sites to try and get a handle on what does what, but they seem to backflip after a couple of comments just too confusing.

Come to think of it this will be my 2nd Canon, as I had one eight years ago, used to take it just about everywhere with me but if finally gave up.




                                            Mmick

don't worry about Mick, as they say....the best camera is the one you have with you. oh, that and a bit of technique goes a long way...just like riding a bike! Enjoy and never mind the critics if you post any pics up...which we'll expect soon...

Shortly after posting up my last reply I found a really good site that got my attention and really gave the camera a work out and compared it to a Panasonic Lumix model which were pretty much on par with each other, the only thing that the Lumix had that the Canon didnt was the ability to zoom whilst in movie mode, oh, and a slightly better screen on the back which was more visible in bright light, but the Canon has more of a manual control if you like that (which I do) so it looks like I'm on a winner, oh yeah, it does'nt come with a memory card so I'm looking where to buy one from plus a spare battery looks like BestBatt.com (http://BestBatt.com)might be the place to shop, anyone used this mob or have a better place to shop??



                                           Mmick

Yeah he is right he rides a Monster.

Seriously though Nikon have finally made a good DSLR but it has taken them 10yrs to do so.
Meanwhile the market has all taken Canon as preferred option.
More stable sensor, better exposures and easier to use.
Canon glass does need to catch up but then it is cause there cameras are so far ahead.
my recent two cameras have shown the lenses to be not quite up to the job but we are also talking about
the extreme ends of aperture and ISO range.

I hate to be a Canon FANBOY   :-[  But we dropped Nikon about 10 years ago...  We had DX1 's and then DX2's.   Great cameras but heavy and very exy$$$  Replaced them with Canon 300d then 350d now 400d...  We have 120 cameras at our office...  They are treated like shit, but work well and not one warrarty claim...   Canon ROCK...

Ita

 [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap]

www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au (http://)

it,s not just a web site, they have real stores (their head office is about 5 mins from  me).
bought out last 4 cameras there, and all the accessories. check it out, I highly recommend them..

ps don't forget a good case as well...

I've been buying canon cameras for decades!. My first one was a T70 (still have it along with lenses an all)

More recently always had the pocket shooters Ixus models....... had a bunch of them.

My daughter is about to embark on photography for the HSC so I've been thinking about getting a G10 now probably a G11 given its the latest model and since meeting you lot the what I've always personally thought about canon is reinforced in spades.

Now question, what the deal with shooting in RAW format? Is it really necessary? Sorry about the thread-jack

No, its a good question dan, but firstly, what is RAW format??




                                                      Mmick

Oh! here it is

What is Raw Mode?
When a digital camera makes an exposure the imaging chip (whether it's CCD or CMOS) records the amount of light that has hit each pixel, or photo site. This is recorded as a voltage level. The camera's analog to digital circuitry now changes this analog voltage signal into a digital representation. Depending on the camera's circuitry either 12 or 14 bits of data are recorded. Incidentally, if the camera records 12 bits of data then each pixel can handle 4,096 brightness levels (2^12), and if 14 bit then it can record 16,384 different brightness levels (2^14). (To my knowledge no current imaging chip records a true 16 bits worth of data).

Of course what happens after you've taken the photograph depends on whether you have the camera set to save images to the memory card as raw files or JPGs.

If you've saved the file in raw mode when it is subsequently loaded into a raw conversion program and then saved to a TIFF or .PSD format file it can be exported in 16 bit mode. The 12 or 14 bits recorded by the camera are then spread over the full 16 bit workspace. If you've saved the file in-camera as a JPG than it is converted by the camera's software to 8 bit mode and you will only ever have 256 brightness levels to work with.


Simple innit



                                      Mmick

Very simple Mmick.
I think about that all the time when I am shooting RAW's.

This dude sums it up pretty well  (if not a little harshly): "WHICH SHOULD YOU SHOOT (RAW or JPG)? If you have to ask then just shoot JPG." http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm) He then goes into mind numbing detail and explains it all. For about 50 Million Pages*.

JPGs are just way more usable on the internetz for 99% of purposes. Unless you are a Pro or a photoshop tweaking freak, .jpg is probably the easiest bet.


* may not be 50 million pages, but it's frikin long.

I was chatting with a camera nut in a specialty store the other day and he said that teh G10 was replaced so quickly because of the 'low level noise' resulting from the excessive MegaPixel size. He said that it was just to great for the image sensor. The G11 has used a smaller Megapixel so that it is perfectly matched with teh sensor hence the photos are way better.

I had asked if he had G10's in hope that there may be a bargain about and he came up with the above. It certainly sounds like a good reason.

bye the way the price was $749.00 which I thought was pretty good for a store price!

Right, I've defected.

Yep, I went back to DSE and asked them if I could exchange it for a ..........


















PANASONIC - LUMIX  TZ7........ cos it had zoom on movie mode, no not really, it was simply because the Canon, every time you powered up, it stuck its little flash up, right on the left hand side where you hold it. thats it. Gee I hope I did the right thing  :-\ :-\







                                                      Mmick

You have to get what you will use Mick. On all the othere canons with a pop up flash, the flash is more central.  It's only the model you had that has the flash there.  Be interesting to hear your thoughts on the Lumix.

Little bit of a threadjack:  Has anyone dealt with digital camera warehouse by mail order?  I'm having heaps of trouble with them because I use mobile numbers and PO box instead of landline and street address.  They are real Nazis.  I have just sent them a rather stinging email so I'll probably never get my parcel now.  :-\

the person that wrote thats is a complete dick head first of all ever since i can remember if the camera has raw mode they come supplied with the software also if the camera is any good it will have shoot in raw and jpeg at the same time and finnally with raw when you save that file and pass it too another file there no loss not like jpeg every time you resave a jpeg file or back up the file data will be lost and the biggest thing about raw is you can do anything too the file not what the camera does especially if you shoot in black and white cheers bazz

No sorry, but I have done a lot of face-to-face transactions with them and I've only had a good experience..
Have you got it all sorted now?

Yep got it sorted.  Cancelled my order with Digital Camera warehouse - will NEVER EVER deal with them again.  Ordered from another Sydney based camera dealer - no grief and turned out cheaper.   [thumbsup]

A mate of mine bought a SLR from here... http://www.d-d-electronics.com.sg/ (http://www.d-d-electronics.com.sg/)
got in good time and is very happy...

Thats a really good price for the G11 - $544 AUD and there warranty is available locally