Re: paleonet Digital Cameras

["Jack Penkethman" <pnkthmn@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Autofocus can be a problem in any camera. The scene must have enough
structure in it for the autofocus routine to work on. Broad low contrast
objects will typically not autofocus. Also, you must pay specific attention
to where in the scene the autofocus in finding something to focus on. I once
took what should have been a great picture of a waterfall but the camera
actually focused on a few blades of grass in the foreground and
unfortunately I wasn't wearing my glasses. The waterfall came out out of
focus. You can always (I should think) turn autofocus off and focus by eye.

I used an Olympus C3030-Z a bit for taking mostly close ups. I had to study
the manual fairly thoroughly and do some experimenting to determine the best
settings for my application. For example, I found that the flash really
overexposed most closeup scenes. This is probably camera specific and may
work differently on different cameras. I found autofocus to work pretty good
exept for extreme closeups where manual focus was better.

Things are actually not that much different for film cameras. In my opinion,
digital cameras are getting just as good as 35mm cameras, more or less, but
I'm no expert.

Jack


----- Original Message -----
From: "Howe, Mike" <mhowe@bgs.ac.uk>
To: <paleonet@nhm.ac.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 12:20 AM
Subject: paleonet Digital Cameras


>
> I am looking to buy a reasonably priced digital camera for condition
surveys
> of (mainly) palaeontological specimens when they are being loaned from our
> collections. Following trials with a few cameras, I believe that 2.1
> Megapixels should provide adequate resolution, but I have found the
> automatic focussing (even on the macro photography setting)to be very hit
> and miss. Can anyone suggest tricks to improve the focussing, or camera
> models where this is not normally a problem?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Mike Howe
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________
> Dr Mike Howe
> Chief Curator
> British Geological Survey
>
> Email: mhowe@bgs.ac.uk
> Tel: 0115 9363105
> Fax: 0115 9363200
>
> www.bgs.ac.uk
> _____________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>