First, thanks Dave for an excellent site. The well organized, informative, plain talk which draws pros and novices like me, is terrific.

Now to my question. I'm looking for a digital camera primarily to photograph wood products which I laser engrave for the tabletop industry (pepper mills, bowls etc). The photos would be for publication on a web site I'll soon be building, and more immediately to email pictures of samples (often with custom laser engraving) to customers who don't want to wait for the samples to be mailed - and quite a few of these customers are outside of the US - so this would save quite a bit of time. The camera will need sufficient resolution to pick up the grain of the woods and the details of the lasered images, and hopefully the correct color/warmth of the woods (we work with Maple which is quite light and natural cherry which has reddish tones). Most of the pictures will be from relatively close distance 1-3 ft, and normally with artificial light. I'm not an experienced photographer but am hoping to find a suitable digital camera that I can get comfortable with fairly quickly. I'd like to keep the cost in the $500 - $1000 range and have been zeroing in on the popular Olympus D450Z, C-2000Z and Nikon Coolpix 950. I'm also looking at the Olympus C-2500 but I'm not sure if its worth the extra money given my lack of experience and how it would be used. Will the three that I'm looking at do the job? Should I consider other cameras? Any guidance will be very much appreciated.

-- Bob Buddenbohn (buddwest@earthlink.net), February 18, 2000

Answers

I do hope you are more of a photographer than you let on. Your note suggest than if you buy a pencil you will magically become an author. Or if you buy a compiler you will become a programmer.

Of course if you have the desire and the nack and the time and the money, you probably will be able to get adequate photos. I would recommend that you take some photo courses. Subjects such as lighting, composition and camera technique, etc would be very useful.

You do plan to buy Photoshop, right! Then spend the hours learning how to use it.

I have a Nikon Coolpix 950 and I'm sure that it can do the job. You can get a decent set of lights from Potter's for around $300. You can also spend a lot more. Photoshop runs arond $600. If you expect professional results... add a year or so of study. If you only expect adequate, you probably do that the first evening.

I have stuck my neck out and proven my point. Even tho I have had many years of study and many years of practice, I still am not a very polished author.

-- Dave Clark (daveclark@mail.com), February 18, 2000.

trying to get the results you want is almost impossible to achieve. why? it's not that you dont know how to take pictures, even if you knew how to take pictures with the correct studio lighting and know how to color correct them afterwards. the problem comes when you post them up on the web. everyone's monitor has a different setting, and unless it's the same as yours, their rendition will be slightly different... lighther, darker, green color shift, etc.

but if you only look for a proximity of the real thing, then a c- 2000z or coolpix will do the job. learn how to color correct with some imaging tool, i use photoshop but there may be other programs that are much cheaper like paint shop pro or similar.

-- Keat Lim (keatlim@my-deja.com), February 19, 2000.

Bob,

As I understand it, you are concerned as to whether or not the cameras you are considering will handle accurately representing your laser engraved wood products (resolution, color saturation, etc). You might check out the Comparometer(TM) at http://www.imaging- resource.com/IMCOMP/COMPS01.HTM (this site) to compare side-by-side how well each of your chosen cameras handles the tests found in the later two images, especially the "Dave Box". I think that all three of your choices are represented and reviewed there. I would guess that you will narrow your choices down to the Nikon and the Olympus 2000/20.

Good luck and happy shooting!

Sincerely, Angel Foxworthy

-- Angel Foxworthy (digitalfx@mindspring.com), February 21, 2000.

Bob,

Unlike some others I think you're probably on the right track. Don't pay too much attention to the "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" types who seem dead set on making sure that you understand that they've invested a lot of time in learning their "craft" and know that everyone else must learn at the same pace... UH, HUH... -and I didn't skim a Physics text 15 minutes prior to quizzes and consistently score in the high 90's... (No finger pointing about short term memory, I tied with the instructor's child for top score on the final) Granted that didn't make me an instant astro-physicist, but it did suffice to meet the current requirements for the task at hand. Sometimes it's not a matter of attaining a complete mastery of a subject, it's just a matter of studying an instructor or a problem and deciding what you need to pick up to satisfy the questioner or the question... The rest can be learned when you have time or desire, not everyone wants to become a photographer, physicist, or even a laser engraver... ;-)

The trick, as you probably know, is to figure out what you need to know and then pick up the rest as required. I'm sure anyone that can handle a CAD/CAM or CNC laser engraving setup has some experience at becoming multi-disciplined without spending several lifetimes of study to do so. By all means, get Photoshop or some other editor, but consider the software that comes with the camera and then look around for Photoshop LE bundled with a pen input graphics tablet like a "Pablo Internet Edition"($80 after rebate, maybe less) or if you want really nice touchup editing spend the bucks for a calcomp or a wacom, but grab a package w/ photoshop LE to get a feel for what you can do. That airbrush coupled with a pressure sensitive stylus and tablet makes for a really cool editing tool. I may never rest my eyes on a mouse again without a sneer of contempt... :-) (you've just gotta try that sneering contemptuously stuff - it's a real kick...)

The next thing to concentrate on is the photography. You need to learn something about lighting, but you won't need a lifetime to learn to get decent results with a digicam. The "shoot->examine the results" cycle is so short that you can see changes almost immediately in a product setup. It's not unlike a conventional photographer who has a polaroid back for product photos so he can see lighting changes almost immediately, except it doesn't cost you $1 a pop for "film". :-)

As far as lighting goes, think diffuse if your subjects have a gloss, satin-gloss, or even moderately reflective finish. Don't spend a fortune on lighting, unless you feel the cheaper setup won't do. Buy a few $10 clamp lights with metal reflectors at the local hardware store and try them before you invest hundreds in "commercial" equipment. You might also want a couple of relatively inexpensive dimmers. If the subjects are very reflective, build a light tent.

You can use a variety of construction methods, but if you're going to use it a lot, why not make it out of 4 pieces of white frosted plexiglas? Two sides, a back and a top should be sufficient, but you can also build a front sheet with a hole just large enough for your camera's lens. Set the "tent", box, etc. over the object to be photographed and light the whole deal from outside the box with the reflector lights. You might want to make life simpler and choose a nice neutral or at least uniformly colored base or scrap of material to set the box and object upon. (Proper English Police: Yes, I know that sentence ended with a preposition. I won't do it again... :-) )

Oh, yeah, buy and then read those photography books just for the stuff you won't need and the pleasure of the task of reading them. They're also fantastic when you need to find out what else you do need to know at the moment. I eat books for lunch. There's no such thing as having too many books, that'd be like having too much oxygen or there being too many beautiful women in the world... Hey, I'm not saying I get to experience them, but as with books, even browsing is a lot of fun) ;-)

Spend a bit of time searching this forum's archive and you'll find several responses concerning light tents and lighting for tough reflective subjects like jewelry.

As far as color rendition goes, that's a crap-shoot. Between everyone's monitors being set for different gammas and digicam's seeming inability to get it right, settle for as close as you can get it on your system after setting your monitor up according to the editing program you end up buying. Photoshop will give you a lot of control over tint, levels, etc. after you learn it. In the mean time try a simple WYSISWYG(What You See...) editor like Photo-Genetics.

Good luck,

Gerald

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francomm.com), February 22, 2000.

Bob--- I agree with the one response-- You buy what you need, learn what you have to, and take it from there. Don't be fooled by the people who have been "studying" the subject for years and expect everyone else to try to catch up with them. I was never a photographer until the digital camera scene happened. I overkilled the research and waiting for the "prices to come down", then finally took the plunge. I bought a JVC 10x optical zoom that gives me 640 x 480 resolution. I have been having a blast ever since. And guess what--- my pictures that I take look just as good if not better than when my buddy(who knows his photography) takes my camera and starts shooting!! Good luck and just go for it.

-- Mike Mushock (mmushock@natalia.k12.tx.us), February 23, 2000.

Bob...... Just bought a C-2500-L Olympus form B&H Photo and Video in New York. Go to to their address www.bhphotovideo.com and bring up digital camers and you can compare all the spec.of whatever kind of camera you may want.Very helpful and are best prices.I have bought all my video editing system from them as well as my video camers. I am very pleased with my 2500. It is an amazing camera.You ask for close ups how's .8 sound.Ijust shoot a wedding with the 2500 along with my camcorder, and was able to carry both around with no problem.The 2500 certainly was a surprise to me on the quilty of pictures it does take.Since you can view your pictures as soon as you take them if you don't like the picture just delete it and try again.With the 2500 I download directly from the camera with the supplied cables directly into a VCR onto tape and use as a slide show.Also downloading to a PC very easy also.

-- Don Thompson (dthom49484@aol.com), March 03, 2000.