Monday 30 April 2007

..can I recomend a good camera ??

..probably yes but just to play the politician I will answer a question with a question... how much do you want to spend and what sort of use will it be for ?..(ok, thats 2 questions, politicians never do give you all the facts). There ar 3 types of camera (assuming digital), Compact, slr type and full slr's.
For taking good photos or being creative I would personally recommend a Digi SLR, will be a tad more cash and heavier than a compact but maybe worth the extra.
In the middle are semi slr's (bridge cameras) like the Fuji Finepix6000 / Nikon Coolpix 8700 / Sony DCS-H9, a bit smaller and lighter than an slr, pic quality still excellent but uses a small lcd screen to view rather than real optics. These have fixed lenses whereas slrs' have more choices of lenses than money allows so extends the life for change of photo style - these cost about £300 upwards (sorry, prices uk biased) but are excellent
Slr's - entry level you can get a Nikon D40 / Canon 400D for about £500 inc lens, moving up you can get a Nikon D80 or D200, Canon 20D / 5D or a Fuji S5Pro - all really pro quality but maybe without the tank style build quality of the top end toys (popular with pros as a backup/second camera).
So what make is best - really nothing in it today, Nikon and Canon seem to rule the roost but Fuji, Olympus and Sony etc all more than worthy as are Samsung, panasonic etc etc etc, its really down to personal taste.
Confused ?? well to make things worse take a look at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs.asp
for a side-by-side of almost every camera on sale today (and many that are now discontinued).
What features are wrth considering ?
A good solid easy to handle camera is best, stuff like movie recording is bit of a toy but if its got it great. Hot shoe for a camera top flash is a good idea and screw hole for tripod mount essential!. In Compacts and semi slr forget 'Digital zoom' figures, this is a marketing conn, only look at optical zoom. In short cameras with less domestic features the more likely to be aimed at enthusiasts and semi pro use.

Finally that horrible ..how many megapixels do I need question...yuk!! well in truth not as many as you would think. A 6Mp camera can produce fantastic quality prints up to and beyond A3 - trust me ! (4 mp is about the lowest I would suggest), what really counts is the lens quality as a 6mp slr with an average lens is likely to produce better pics than a 12mp compact ! Also range of capture options like RAW and TIFF, RAW is king, worth having in favour of a bucket full of user settings and sad blingy type features that you never use.

Hope this helps..

Where in the world ..??




Our view a couple of weeks ago... in the UK....Scotland....Highlands...Ben Nevis.... at the summit on one fantastic spring day.
I had this crazy notion to walk.climb/drag myself up the 3 peaks, thats Snowdon (highest peak in Wales), then Scaffel (biggest lump of rock in England), then finished off with Ben Nevis ('The Ben' as its affectionately know up 'ere).
Problem was I told my son so he held me to it but am real glad he did - most nutters do all 3 within 24 hours but we had more sense and did it within 3 days - awsome !!

Wednesday 25 April 2007

hmm.. almost forgot I had my own blog page...

... set this up to play and test stuff before breaking something that gets hit by the masses. As for the lovable Arnie (aka, that bloody pest, the runt, GILL's DOG....) we have had a hate hate relationship for years so taking the stupid little things picture is no more than therapy - honest...!!

Sunday 22 April 2007

New post by email .... ??

Let see if this works, test to create a posting by email...

Its Sunday...again


.. it seems to happen every week, but have checked my diary today and yup, its the first day of the rest of my life so time to do stuff. Sunday is a day of rest, whenever I ask wify to rest she bloggs away so that's it - resting IS blogging so Sunday is the day of blog....
First pic of many more - this one is a favourite, just like all the rest.