Camera for landscape and urban use? Novice.
Camera for landscape and urban use? Novice.
Author
Discussion

truck71

Original Poster:

2,328 posts

201 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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Hi Folks, could really use some advice on a camera. I'm looking for something that will be useful for landscape/ countryside photographs as well as urban shots- buildings/ situation scenes etc. Ideally something compact and around 3-400 quid max, if there is an option for less then even better. Total novice regards taking photos and developing/ uploading them. Thanks.

StuH

2,557 posts

302 months

truck71

Original Poster:

2,328 posts

201 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
quotequote all
Perfect, thanks. Is the black in the title anything more than the standard model? Also would you recommend the SDHC card at the same time?

GetCarter

31,228 posts

308 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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truck71 said:
Perfect, thanks. Is the black in the title anything more than the standard model? Also would you recommend the SDHC card at the same time?
It's the standard model (just black in colour), and yes, buy an SD card... WEX are v good.

I have one. Took this the other day.



truck71

Original Poster:

2,328 posts

201 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
quotequote all
GetCarter said:
truck71 said:
Perfect, thanks. Is the black in the title anything more than the standard model? Also would you recommend the SDHC card at the same time?
It's the standard model (just black in colour), and yes, buy an SD card... WEX are v good.

I have one. Took this the other day.

Wow, Western Highlands? Easy decision on the camera then, will order from Wex.

rottie102

4,033 posts

213 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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GetCarter said:
It's the standard model (just black in colour), and yes, buy an SD card... WEX are v good.

I have one. Took this the other day.

Steve, does it never rain in YOUR Scotland? wink

DJWuk

1,672 posts

210 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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Panasonic LX7 ? ...... Example shot I took with previous LX5 model (albeit HDR)



Dave



Edited by DJWuk on Sunday 27th October 22:15

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

283 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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GetCarter said:
It's the standard model (just black in colour), and yes, buy an SD card... WEX are v good.

I have one. Took this the other day.

Note Steve can make the worst camera on the planet sing like that though...

richwig83

15,753 posts

167 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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GetCarter said:
truck71 said:
Perfect, thanks. Is the black in the title anything more than the standard model? Also would you recommend the SDHC card at the same time?
It's the standard model (just black in colour), and yes, buy an SD card... WEX are v good.

I have one. Took this the other day.

Well... if you had asked me I would have said 5Dii/iii or D800!

Simpo Two

92,694 posts

294 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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richwig83 said:
Well... if you had asked me I would have said 5Dii/iii or D800!
Resolution-wise it's only 1150x740px - but what Steve does is get his composition and highlights/shadows right.



(If photography was like touring car racing then he should really have a 20kg weight round his neck to compensate for the fact he lives where he does!)


richwig83

15,753 posts

167 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
richwig83 said:
Well... if you had asked me I would have said 5Dii/iii or D800!
Resolution-wise it's only 1150x740px - but what Steve does is get his composition and highlights/shadows right.



(If photography was like touring car racing then he should really have a 20kg weight round his neck to compensate for the fact he lives where he does!)
I would like to know if that is straight out of the camera.. or how much tweaking was done.

Simpo Two

92,694 posts

294 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
quotequote all
richwig83 said:
I would like to know if that is straight out of the camera.. or how much tweaking was done.
Doubtless it was shot RAW - as it gives the best power to recover highlights and raise shadows. I would call it optimising - in other words, getting the best out of the recorded data.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

283 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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richwig83 said:
I would like to know if that is straight out of the camera.. or how much tweaking was done.
Straight out of the camera is meaningless. Its the end result that matters.

richwig83

15,753 posts

167 months

Sunday 27th October 2013
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RobDickinson said:
Straight out of the camera is meaningless. Its the end result that matters.
It's not meaningless at all. Would be good to hear from the photographer...

dblack1

230 posts

190 months

Monday 28th October 2013
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If your shooting landscape, get a tripod... And if you really wanna do some cool stuff, find a camera with a threaded lens so you can attach filters to the end. There are cool things like graduated filters, polarizers, and star filters that do some pretty cool stuff for your landscape photography. Another thought is to get a camera which allows for manual exposure control (most bridge cameras do this) so you can get pictures that are exposed properly, or you can do HDR (While HDR is not the end all for photography, it has a pretty stunning effect on some landscape photography) using exposure control as well.

Another thought, with many people they see gear they want to achieve a certain type of photo, and they let that gear get in the way of creative ways you don't need that gear, or that you could use your current gear.

truck71

Original Poster:

2,328 posts

201 months

Monday 28th October 2013
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Thanks folks, tri pod sounds a good call. I need to be careful not to head into "all the gear no idea" territory so a compact camera and tri pod seems a good start. As I really have no idea.

CommanderJameson

22,096 posts

255 months

Monday 28th October 2013
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truck71 said:
Thanks folks, tri pod sounds a good call. I need to be careful not to head into "all the gear no idea" territory so a compact camera and tri pod seems a good start. As I really have no idea.
For a compact, you can spend less on a tripod as you don't need to support much weight.

£37 and you're off.

I've got one of these. It's a great little basic tripod.
ETA: Er, what the giddy fk? When did linking to Amazon suddenly start turning into links to Wex Photo and Expansys too?

Edited by CommanderJameson on Monday 28th October 07:02

GetCarter

31,228 posts

308 months

Monday 28th October 2013
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richwig83 said:
Would be good to hear from the photographer...
As with almost every shot I take I altered the curves to add shadow & highlights. IMHO doing that brings back some of the 3D look... as most cameras seem to flatten and fade large vistas. Helps the clouds too.

As it was an evening shot I then tweaked to colour temp a little to bring out the late sun feel (that I saw but the camera didn't quite capture).

Then I resized for web and sharpened to compensate for that.


BTW - to the OP - I have the RX100 set to auto exposure bracket. It takes three frames, not one. Belt and braces. (I often find cameras slightly over expose the sky - better to bring back light to dark areas than try and fix blown highlights). It's in the manual.

ETA Re: 'Straight out of the camera'. When I developed/printed my wet film in a darkroom I spent much more time post processing than I do now - cropping, dodging and burning. Cameras are pretty stupid and in my experience hardly ever capture a large landscape correctly (no matter how much time you take faffing about with exposure settings). Once out of the camera there is still usually stuff to do that will improve / correct what the camera managed to achieve. Not least get rid of marks created by dust on the sensor!

I don't think I am alone in this view.

Edited by GetCarter on Monday 28th October 07:19

richwig83

15,753 posts

167 months

Monday 28th October 2013
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Thanks for talking time to reply.

I suppose what I was getting at the "out of the camera" comment is if the OP is a complete novice, then chances they won't have the skills to edit photos as successfully as you can.

(And just incase anyone thinks I'm just trolling or something.., take a look at 'richwigley' on Flickr, I'm genuinely interested in photography.)

GetCarter

31,228 posts

308 months

Monday 28th October 2013
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richwig83 said:
I suppose what I was getting at the "out of the camera" comment is if the OP is a complete novice, then chances they won't have the skills to edit photos as successfully as you can.
Fair comment.

OP... you might want to d/load this (don't be put off by the title!) : http://www.gimp.org/