Looking for a new camera

How much $$$ are you prepared to invest in this new camera? I have become a fan of DSLRs. I bought an "entry level" one back in 2006 and am still using it. Nikon and Canon both make terrific DSLRs.

 

Russell I guess you're going to get a load of different responses, possibly with bias toward certain brands.

Well I'll get in early and suggest the Olympus E-M5 which has a three inch tilting touch screen that you can use as the shutter release if you choose to do so. You simply touch the screen where you want to prioritise the focus. The auto focus is the fastest available. Interchangeable lenses and all the manual functions you need. F stop to f/22. It's a 'micro four-thirds' camera which makes it less bulky than a digital SLR, so I can fit it into most tight spots on my layout, but there's no compromise in quality. 16 mp images and a nice range of lenses.
It has now been sort of superceded by their E-M1 which would be great too.

It would also be great for railfanning because it has super fast multi burst too. The camera also has the option of viewing your subject with the screen or through the built-in viewfinder which has a sensor to switch off the screen when you put your face to the camera, thereby saving battery power. Take your face away and the screen comes back on.

I've had mine for 5 months, I think, and I can't fault it. With the supplied 12-50mm lens I use it for all my layout photos now. Being such a wide angle, the lens can make some features lean out at the edge of the photo. This is solved by cropping with an image program, ot simply by 'zooming' slightly with the lens itself. It's not a big deal.

Much less expensive is the E-PM1 of which I have two. They do a good job as well, but not as convenient as the E-M5. They take the same lenses though.

Mike

 

If you're really serious about doing macro and model railroad photography, then either Canon or Nikon is the way to go. Specifically this is because Helicon Focus's Remote program won't work with other brands, and it's an extremely versatile program which allows your camera to do all sorts of things controlled by your computer, smart phone or tablet.

There are other good camera brands out there, but the pros use Nikon and Canon.

I'm a Nikonian and I've used Nikons since the 1970's, changing over to digital Nikon DSLR's about six years ago. Be aware that some of the lower-end Nikons will not use older Nikon autofocus lenses, and Helicon Remote doesn't work on the 3000 series Nikons.

Model railroad photography is only "macro" or "micro" in rare instances, and some of Nikon's general purpose zooms work very well because of their close focusing capabilities.

Here's my setup for model railroad photography: (1) Camera body: Nikon D7000 16.2 megapixel sensor, DX format (2) 2 ea. 32GB Sandisk SDHC cards (3) 2 ea. Nikon EN-EL15 Batteries (4) Primary Lens AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II Zoom (5) Macro Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8 D (6) Nikon MC-DC2 Remote Release (7) Sturdy old Bogen Studio Tripod with Bogen Grip-action Ball Head & Camera Plate.

My software is the full pro version of Helicon Focus and Helicon Remote (free with my unlimited license) and Adobe Photoshop CS5.

My Nikon super zoom isn't the sharpest, most distortion-free lens in the world, but it's great for model railroad photography because it focuses to a close 1.6 feet (measured from the subject to the sensor...NOT the objective lens surface) Which means that for 80% of my model railroad photography, I use this lens. For ultra-close-ups to document my work when I'm working on an N-scale project, I will use my Micro Nikkor 60mm Micro lens for 80% for the shots since sometimes I have to get really close.

At home, I'll plug my camera into my laptop and let Helicon Remote determine the focus points...and it's really great for that. However, on location, I'll just shoot a lot of photos at different focus points, which almost always works out okay.

I almost always lighten up the shadows a bit with Photoshop and sometimes play around with the color balance. Sometimes I'll get rid of railjoiners, nail holes, distracting off-layout junk (always present in layout rooms!) and add missing ties. Sometimes I'll add smoke, steam and light up the headlight, classification lights, number boards and fireboxes. I just shot a Conrail track inspection train at my friend Nate's pulled by an E-unit that prototypically had its porthole side-windows covered. I just used the clone tool and got rid of 'em...easy as pie.

The nice thing about a 5000, or 7000 series Nikon is that you can use them (and the two lenses I've written about) for family and event photography, nature photography and travel. So, you're not limited by this outfit to just taking pics of your trains and model projects. I also have several Nikon flashes, three more lenses, filters and accessories to round out my equipment bag.

Early next year, I'll be buying another body (Nikon D7100) with more pixels, better auto focusing and some added features I want, and keep my D7000 as a spare body. When I go up to the 24+megabyte sensor in the D7100, I'll also be buying a new, faster and more capable laptop to speed up processing for those huge photo files.

There are some features which a lot of people seem to like on their cameras, such as swiveling LCD's on the back, or touch screens. I'm not a big fan of either, and I would never use a touch screen as a shutter release since touching the camera will cause it to shake...which you do not want. In really tight spots, sometimes a swiveling screen might be handy, but I'm a traditionalist and I take photos like I used to with my F4's back in Kodachrome days...with my eye on the viewfinder.

I'm sure that an equivalent Canon outfit would work just as well, but I don't use 'em so I can't comment specifically about them, other than to say you wouldn't go wrong with Canon used with Helicon software.

Here's a photo I took of my superdetailed Key Big Boy on Echo Curve using my Nikon, my 18-200mm zoom, room lighting (6,000 deg K fluorescents) and Helicon Focus:


Cheerio!

 

double post, sorry.

 

Robert I agree there's the possibility of camera shake when using the touch screen, but it's easily overcome by using the self timer.



This was taken at f/18, using the self timer at two seconds, touch screen for the shutter release, shutter open for 60 seconds.
I've never used any image stacking. The only editing was with Unsharp Mask in Paintshop Pro which does a nicer job of sharpening than the Sharpen tool does.

My wife loves her Canons, but they are very bulky for placing on the layout, and I don't think the colour is as accurate.

Mike

 

I bought my Nikon D3100 over a year ago, it was affordable and had an 18-55 lens with it. Close-ups are mediocre, no depth at all. I need a macro lens. A Google search brought up articles about upgrades allowing D3000-series to work with Helicon, but I found nothing more than just articles.

Should have researched more and paid a little more for a D5200 the seller had available.

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I hear you on that. I have a bunch of Pentax Takumar screw-mount lenses I use on my two Pentax Spotmatic bodies. I probably won't get a DSLR until I find a camera body with which I can use all that old glass and not have the camera screw it all up for me by over-riding my choices, which are generally better than the camera's program's choices.

Not to hijack the thread, but if someone has a recommendation for a DSLR body that can accept a screwmount lens adapter that has a really good manual mode that doesn't try to over-ride me I am open to suggestions.

 

The Nikon 5200 is a lot of camera for the price. Yes, it can be intimidating, but...it gives you the opportunity to use it in automatic mode, or to go fully manual. You can also play around with your photo in-camera, custom set your color temperature for color that looks "just right" to your eye...or, you can let the camera do it automatically.

Every time I get a new body, it takes a few hours for me to figure it out because Nikon keeps putting the buttons in different spots!! Although the plethora of buttons and dials feels intimidating at first, it's good to know that each button is there for you to take manual control and have total control of the image you're taking if you want or need to do that.

Point-and-Shoot cameras, on the other hand, have very few buttons, and that's because they decide what's best, and don't allow you to decide for yourself.

I remember when I converted to digital with my little Nikon D40...a really simple, but competent beginner's DSLR. I was also intimidated because it was something "new" for me, although the basics of photography were the same, how I used some of those basics were a lot easier with my new DSLR than with my old film Nikons. What fascinated me was that I could take hundreds and hundreds of photos and never worry about the cost of film, which was always lurking in the back of my mind when Kodachrome was "it" for high resolution, true color photography.

One of the things you should purchase when you decide to take the jump to a more professional camera is an instruction DVD. It will tell you and show you what you need to do to start out with your camera and then lead you into more complex operations...and tell you what the terminology is. Won't be long before you're competent with the mechanics of your new DSLR.

As to things being in focus. This is called "depth of focus" or "depth of field"...shortened to DOF. It is determined by the size of the hole the iris on your camera's lens makes, which is variable. The SMALLER this hole, the more is in focus. Oddly, the larger the "f' number (f/1.4, f/3.5, f/16, f/32) the smaller the hole, and the field that is in focus will be larger. So, if your DSLR isn't allowing you to get much in focus, it's because you're not using it manually and stopping your f-stop down to f/11 or more.

The nice thing about DSLR's is they allow you to change the ISO (ASA for film) on the fly. A low ISO for better quality, a high ISO to allow faster speeds or to take usable photos in virtual darkness. For us model railroaders, changing the ISO to 1200 or above, allows us to stop the f-stop down (a small hole), but yet keep the speed high enough for hand held shots. A very good thing that old film cameras wouldn't allow.

Another thing about DOF. The closer you get, the shallower the DOF will be, so using a Macro lens will get you close, but your DOF is going to be very shallow, even at f/32 or f/64...depending on how close you are, what's in focus in your photo may only be 1/4" or less. That teeny of a hole imparts added distortions to your photos, so I rarely shoot with an f-stop smaller than f/16.

But, Helicon Focus totally eliminates most of the optical problems encountered in macro photography with static subjects.

Here's an example of a shot taken with one of my Nikon DSLR's with approximately 25 exposures to get everything in focus. The length of this train is about ten feet, and the smokebox is less than 8 inches from the objective lens. This shot would simply be impossible without using a pinhole camera with a precision etched pinhole, but even then, there'd be distortions you could see, which are not present in the HF focus stacker.

Photo 1: UP Big Boy posing for a publicity shot at the west end of Echo Yard pulling a reefer block:


Here's another one that would have been impossible without HF. Notice how everything is razor sharp...from the track in front of the engine to the track curving off in the distance on Echo Curve.

Photo 2: The Park City Local coming back to Echo on the Park City Branch pulling an old 50' PFE reefer back to Ogden for retirement:


One thing that is different but maybe not so good nowadays is that the DSLR bodies we buy nowadays are disposable. The lenses aren't disposable and they are the true investment.

Although, the recent cameras are pushing the limits of what's practical for most of us, especially the huge file sizes they produce with their large sensors as is on the Nikon D5200 with a 23+ megapixel sensor. Truthfully, some pros believe the sensor is also pushing the limits of lens construction, and many lens designs that were fine on film cameras are now considered to be substandard. This has spurred camera manufacturers and aftermarket lens makers to put more effort into their lens designs and also keep the price down. This has been very good for photographers as the selection of excellent quality lenses is growing...and the price, in some instances, is very low.

Anyway, it's up to you to determine what you can and can't live with, but don't be intimidated. The new cameras are made to be used, and the Nikon 5200, as nice as it is, is not considered to be a "pro" camera and has many features that make it easy for neophytes to use and learn.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

 

Adam, I have no knowledge of the Pentax digitals. I would hope that you could use your old lenses. I have a soft spot in my heart for Pentax, having worn out a few of their 35mm SLRs. For those of you who have used 35mm SLRs, the DSLRs will allow you to shoot completely manual, just like you did with SLRs. I have found that the use of some of the automatic features on the DSLR produces better results than my manual stuff.

 

I just bought a Nikon D5300, the replacement for the D5200 it only hit the camera store shelves in Australia last week. I haven't taken any model shots with it yet although I took it on fan trip on the weekend to get a bit of practice for when it accompanies me to Japan next week but so far I pleased with it.

 

My first suggestion is to purchase used, locally is better as you can see the product and make sure it works, then plunk down your cash. I own 3 DSLR's from the first Canon Digital Rebel, then Xsi (450D) and lattest the 5D 2 (full frame). I try to buy used now if I can, you can save a bundle and most people under use their equipment, never buy from a pro.

From a DSLR perspective and that is what you should be buying, your needs are relatively simple, so if purchasing new don't be afraid to purchase a camera two models behind, this will save you money. As for learning DSLR's I can recommend two sources, first youtube which has many wonderful tutorials, many for the camera you will ultimately purchase, and many none manufacture specific teaching you about exposure, depth of field, ISO uses, etc.

The second suggestion is to join dpreview, an excellent photography forum. In fact join now and go to the beginner's forum and ask your question as well there. I hang out there also under the rsn48 label. You will get more suggestions to further confuse you. Stick to Canon or Nikon, third party support is best for these two brands, not only in software but lenses and other goodies as well. There I have about 6,500 posts.

You will want one good camera (but you don't need the best, in Canon talk a Rebel series camera will do you just fine), one decent lens, a macro lens if you are into macro photography, and a decent tripod, again not the best is needed but get a good one; Bogen puts out a good solid basic aluminum tripod, again buy used if you can along with a reasonable tripod head.

If I were shooting, I would use two second shutter delay along with mirror lock up.

 

Nixon coolpix L820 is a great starter camera.


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For the past fourty five years I've used a pair of Pentax K-1000 cameras. I have extra lenses for them and on my main camera I use a 75-225 Macro zoom lense.
Well now there is no longer any film to be had and no place to get it processed.
I've modernized and two weeks ago I bought a Canon Powershot 530 HS. I like it but I'm still getting used to it. and what it can do.