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The future of digital cameras
- Thread starter jwolf6589
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I read the first couple of pages of the thread and the last two… and feel sorry for the OP and all the mocking he received. He's just starting out and exploring digital photography.
The single biggest advantage to me of a dedicated digital camera such as the SX740 is its zoom ability. Try photographing birds with an iPhone. Even if they are off in your backyard, or in nearby woods, they come out as indistinct, tiny, often fuzzy, blobs. You need at least 20x — and that Canon provides 40x. Such cameras can produce stunning photographs of wildlife. Trying capturing distant elephants or lions on a safari with an iPhone — it simply won't work!
The next huge advantage to the dedicated digicams is the control they provide over shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Being able to shift into sports mode — or Tv mode and choose a fast shutter speed — and capture birds, kids, or athletes as they flit around is marvelous.
On many digital cameras, you can shift into manual mode, set a long exposure, and high ISO (say, 800-1600+), and capture some excellent night sky, constellation photography, even from suburbia. Night Cap helps older iPhones capture some stars, but the photos are often meh, barely passable, and certainly can't compete with those from 1” sensor cameras or even Canon's old CCD 1/1.7” ones. Now, the latest $$ high-end iPhones with Night Mode certainly do better than the old phones, but many feel they can't compare to dedicated cameras with larger sensors…
The iPhone cameras certainly do a brilliant job with general vistas and achieve proper exposure levels almost magically — whether bright sunshine or twilight. But most digicams — especially in P mode with easy to change exposure compensation — can generally do the same. I'm also impressed by the macro abilities on the iPhone. Given that many, if not most, people take mostly snapshots of friends, sights, and vistas, and do not look for the best results, the smartphone has replaced the dedicated camera for them.
However, until smartphones have serious zoom abilities or a camera with DSLR quality can be shrunk to fit in one's pocket or a belt pouch, there will be a place for compact digital cameras with 20-40x zoom.
OP, I recommend you visit www.dpreview.com and browse the Canon Powershot forum. You'll learn all sorts of tips and tricks. That's easier than taking a photography course, although that can help, too. In the meantime, simply dial in the scene mode you want or use P mode and change exposure compensation until what's on the screen looks the way you want it to. To change EC, click the up arrow on the dial (the +- button) and then move the dial clockwise or counterclockwise until you like what you see on the LCD.
You've got a superb camera and should have years of fun exploring its options — and you'll capture many photos that no iPhone currently can.
The single biggest advantage to me of a dedicated digital camera such as the SX740 is its zoom ability. Try photographing birds with an iPhone. Even if they are off in your backyard, or in nearby woods, they come out as indistinct, tiny, often fuzzy, blobs. You need at least 20x — and that Canon provides 40x. Such cameras can produce stunning photographs of wildlife. Trying capturing distant elephants or lions on a safari with an iPhone — it simply won't work!
The next huge advantage to the dedicated digicams is the control they provide over shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Being able to shift into sports mode — or Tv mode and choose a fast shutter speed — and capture birds, kids, or athletes as they flit around is marvelous.
On many digital cameras, you can shift into manual mode, set a long exposure, and high ISO (say, 800-1600+), and capture some excellent night sky, constellation photography, even from suburbia. Night Cap helps older iPhones capture some stars, but the photos are often meh, barely passable, and certainly can't compete with those from 1” sensor cameras or even Canon's old CCD 1/1.7” ones. Now, the latest $$ high-end iPhones with Night Mode certainly do better than the old phones, but many feel they can't compare to dedicated cameras with larger sensors…
The iPhone cameras certainly do a brilliant job with general vistas and achieve proper exposure levels almost magically — whether bright sunshine or twilight. But most digicams — especially in P mode with easy to change exposure compensation — can generally do the same. I'm also impressed by the macro abilities on the iPhone. Given that many, if not most, people take mostly snapshots of friends, sights, and vistas, and do not look for the best results, the smartphone has replaced the dedicated camera for them.
However, until smartphones have serious zoom abilities or a camera with DSLR quality can be shrunk to fit in one's pocket or a belt pouch, there will be a place for compact digital cameras with 20-40x zoom.
OP, I recommend you visit www.dpreview.com and browse the Canon Powershot forum. You'll learn all sorts of tips and tricks. That's easier than taking a photography course, although that can help, too. In the meantime, simply dial in the scene mode you want or use P mode and change exposure compensation until what's on the screen looks the way you want it to. To change EC, click the up arrow on the dial (the +- button) and then move the dial clockwise or counterclockwise until you like what you see on the LCD.
You've got a superb camera and should have years of fun exploring its options — and you'll capture many photos that no iPhone currently can.
I think you need a bit more context than reading a few pages of this thread, as there is a more complex dynamic going on here that has evolved over the course of several threads. Things started out perfectly civil, but I’m afraid you joined the show at around season 6, episode 10.
Not guilty. To iterate what has been said already, you are judging us partial information. Please look at the other threads and see how we got to this point. Rest assured we will go above and beyond for most anyone on here but OP has upset a few of us.
I decided to look at the powershot forum on dpreview, and unsurprisingly most people there recommend to read the manual and learn how to shoot out of automatic mode.
I feel like I've heard that information someplace before. If only I could remember where.....
I feel like I've heard that information someplace before. If only I could remember where.....
I don't think anyone here cares one bit what camera OP uses, though OP is really focused on the more recent purchase of his Powershot. It's a fine camera. It does nice things. I hope, if he's interested in digital photography, that he explores his manual and learns his tool. If he's not interested in digital photography, perhaps there are other forums that make more sense.
He's been doing photography of some sort for over a decade if I've parsed his many, many posts on the same subject in the right way. What we do care about, I think, are images. We do want him to share. If he asks questions, we ask that he at least takes the answers on board and thinks about them rather than dismissing them out of hand. It's not hard to have a friendly conversation.
Yes, many of us are frustrated and it shows. It's not our natural state. I've been saying "we". I can only speak for me. "I"
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I have shared what I plan to share thus far. More images may come in the future, especially as I get time to visit places where I can take good shots.I don't think anyone here cares one bit what camera OP uses, though OP is really focused on the more recent purchase of his Powershot. It's a fine camera. It does nice things. I hope, if he's interested in digital photography, that he explores his manual and learns his tool. If he's not interested in digital photography, perhaps there are other forums that make more sense.
He's been doing photography of some sort for over a decade if I've parsed his many, many posts on the same subject in the right way. What we do care about, I think, are images. We do want him to share. If he asks questions, we ask that he at least takes the answers on board and thinks about them rather than dismissing them out of hand. It's not hard to have a friendly conversation.
Yes, many of us are frustrated and it shows. It's not our natural state. I've been saying "we". I can only speak for me. "I"
The magic is making a good shot out of the mundane. ?
I’d go a little further to say, explore the world around you. Ask questions, get answers, study what you see. We live in the city, and have seen over 40 bird species, numerous squirrels, rabbits, deer, bugs, and butterflies, or flowers and trees. Didn’t have to go anywhere to find subject matter. Not only is it all right there, but it should make you more prepared and more skilled when you do go somewhere, and then you get even better results when you really want/need it to count.
I have gotten some really interesting shots right here in my own home....or in my own neighborhood. No need to "visit places where I can take good shots." The more one shoots, the more one learns about what works and what doesn't, and what the camera will and won't do at specific settings.
Doesn't have to be a fancy camera, either -- one can get interesting shots with an iPhone as well. Look not just at the whole of something, look at its parts, too, and see how just one section of an object can make for an intriguing subject on its own as well. The other day I was sitting here and happened to look over at something -- the way the light was hitting it had caught my attention -- and started really looking at it.....finally I grabbed the iPhone and started exploring it with that, and took a few shots. One of those shots made it to our POTD thread this past Sunday..... An example of fine art to be printed large, framed and hung in a gallery? Well, no, but it still is kind of interesting to look at anyway. The major fun for me was in the noticing of it, the exploration of it and the shooting of it.....
Doesn't have to be a fancy camera, either -- one can get interesting shots with an iPhone as well. Look not just at the whole of something, look at its parts, too, and see how just one section of an object can make for an intriguing subject on its own as well. The other day I was sitting here and happened to look over at something -- the way the light was hitting it had caught my attention -- and started really looking at it.....finally I grabbed the iPhone and started exploring it with that, and took a few shots. One of those shots made it to our POTD thread this past Sunday..... An example of fine art to be printed large, framed and hung in a gallery? Well, no, but it still is kind of interesting to look at anyway. The major fun for me was in the noticing of it, the exploration of it and the shooting of it.....
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And @jwolf6589 - you live here in the Denver area. Fantastic animals, insects and plants around everywhere, and plenty of places to go within 30 minutes. Reminds me that I’ve been way too buried in work and need to get out shooting
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And it is good to want to wait for nice places but let me challenge you on that. If you wait until you are at the beautiful places, then you will be learning at the point you want to take your best images. Actually, when you are somewhere beautiful, you want to be prepared and ready to give it your best - so you need to practice practice practice.
Also, you are saying that you want to go somewhere beautiful, remember none of us (I don’t think) live where you do and we as photographers have a habit of thinking our immediate surroundings are boring but remember, to everyone else it is a distant place holding limitless opportunity to find beauty. Something you walk past every day is something I suspect I have never walked past and would probably be like a giddy child should I come across it. I live in the UK we don’t have the photogenic court houses that small town America has for example. We do however have a lot of really ancient stuff and here in Scotland we have Castles. Everywhere has something different. The joy comes in finding it and capturing it and telling a story
Help yourself to improve photographically not technically. Yes you need to be technically proficient with your camera, you need to know the best aperture setting, how far can you push the ISO before it becomes unbearable, where in the zoom range are the soft spots but I would suggest it is a 70:30 split in favour of the artistic side of things. So may I recommend setting yourself a challenge?
1. Take 50 images you like within 200 yards of your home
2. Do the 365 challenge - take one image you like every day for a year and then when done, look back at how you have improved and how your style or favourite topic has emerged.
3. Find a local beauty spot and go back repeatedly at different times of the day and over a period of a number of weeks/months, look at how your images change, look at how you changed your settings, look at how you changed your approach to the shot. Think about what you like or dislike in each shot compared to the others.
We can all look at scene but actually SEEING a scene is a learned skill and trust me, when you are standing at the viewpoint or on top of the mountain, you want to be ready to roll.
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And @jwolf6589 - you live here in the Denver area. Fantastic animals, insects and plants around everywhere, and plenty of places to go within 30 minutes. Reminds me that I’ve been way too buried in work and need to get out shooting
Yes, you do. We ALL need to get out and get shooting more…. After all, we have one of the only hobbies where a headshot doesn’t land you in jail….
Also the mere process of selecting and posting the image and thinking why? Why this image? Helps refine your vision and zero in on what it is you like.
I take pictures everyday at work with my iPhone 12 for work reasons. In August I will be visiting California and will visit the beach and will get some good shots, but also good video. Plenty of mountains off highway 1 and plenty of good shots to take. I cant wait. And no I wont use my phone, but will use my Canon's for the tasks.
There are lots of mountains minutes up the road from Denver (if mountains are your thing)
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I love taking images from the top of them, not so into the walking up and down bit mind you... ?There are lots of mountains minutes up the road from Denver (if mountains are your thing)
A few comments on this:
1. I grew up in what I consider a very picturesque and scenic part of the country. I honed a LOT of my photographic talents within 15 miles of him. That's a little further than 200 yards, but by no means a long way.
You mention courthouses. My home state has been tearing down and/or renovating a lot beyond recognition, and I wish I'd captured some before that happened on a large scale(every county has a courthouse, and 120 of them don't exactly get rebuilt/renovated overnight).
With that said, years ago, when my Grandfather was in North Carolina, he started on a project of photographing every church in his county. There are a lot of interesting little Mountain churches tucked into the Blue Ridge mountains.
I started a similar project of my own, but a bit narrower in scope. I wanted to photograph all 33 Baptist churches in my county. I ultimately actually had planned on making a couple of years worth of calendars to sell as fundraisers for the Baptist association, but life gets in the way and I didn't finish. I could probably do it now in a nice long weekend, so my tackle it again on a trip back home.
2. I moved last year. Around me are surroundings that are totally different but beautiful in their own way. I no longer have rolling grassy hills, but rather have flat plains covered in corn. Still, though, the opportunities abound. I live very near the historic US Route 66 Corridor, although that one has been photographed to death. There's a LOT of other stuff, too.
In addition, it's amazingly comfortable to look back through my years-really a decade and a half-of photographs taken in my home state. I can see my talents as a photographer grow, and I can also reminisce about how I took those photos.
I said this in another thread, but it's often thought or said that a good photograph should tell a story. There's another big and very important aspect of it to me, and that is the story BEHIND the photograph-where it is, what it shows, and the personal story of how I came to be there at that time and what motivated me to push the shutter at that particular moment.
Sometimes I can't remember what I had for breakfast that morning, but I'm either blessed or cursed with a memory that for many things like that, the image(even fairly mundane ones) provokes a full reaction in me of where I was, what was around me, and how I felt(both emotions and things like whether it was boiling hot or pouring down rain or whatever). It's a strange thing to describe, but it's something that's always been there. I feel remiss showing a photograph without sharing that part of it. I've been criticized for sharing THAT side of the story since some thing a good image should stand on its own and tell its own story, but that's a lot of what makes this an enjoyable hobby and makes me enjoy sharing.
My God if the OP can't find worthy subjects in Denver or within a 2 hour drive, there is no hope. Unlike film, digital images cost nothing once you have a camera. The key to being a good photographer is learning to pay attention to what's under your nose and making the most of it. The one huge advantage of a P&S is that it can reside on your belt or in your jacket pocket. A camera in a bag at home or in the trunk of your car takes no images. Bad images are easy to cull or can provide a post image processing challenge. Either way you've learned something. Even after 50 years behind various cameras I continue to learn.
In 2012 I spent nearly a month in Manitou Springs, and for family reasons could not wander too far at all from home base. Was using an Olympus Tough, which is a generation or two behind the OPs Canon. It was a very rough time and it took a lot to trigger the desire to capture any image. Yes I have cliché images from the Garden of the Gods, but there were many other subjects available as well. Just one sample from that time frame.
In 2012 I spent nearly a month in Manitou Springs, and for family reasons could not wander too far at all from home base. Was using an Olympus Tough, which is a generation or two behind the OPs Canon. It was a very rough time and it took a lot to trigger the desire to capture any image. Yes I have cliché images from the Garden of the Gods, but there were many other subjects available as well. Just one sample from that time frame.
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I think @jwolf6589 just has a different opinion as to what a "good shot" is than the rest of us. I mean that sincerely. I have yet to parse together what he values in a photograph, but I guess for him it is just the memory factor of a vacation. I don't think he shoots for the enjoyment of photography itself and I think that is where the breakdown comes for many of us.
I personally take the vast majority of my images at my house, in my garden. I'd love to take more travel images but it's not a reality at this stage of my life with teenagers involved in school and sports. So I make do with what I can. It helps that I like flowers, but others at my stage would shoot food, cars, birds, pets. It's true you don't have to go far.
Mr. Wolf, what do you find lacking in your hometown/where you live that you don't feel compelled to take photos other than for work?
I personally take the vast majority of my images at my house, in my garden. I'd love to take more travel images but it's not a reality at this stage of my life with teenagers involved in school and sports. So I make do with what I can. It helps that I like flowers, but others at my stage would shoot food, cars, birds, pets. It's true you don't have to go far.
Mr. Wolf, what do you find lacking in your hometown/where you live that you don't feel compelled to take photos other than for work?
That's something I hadn't considered, but I think you may have hit the nail on the head.
I certainly do my fair share of "snapping photos" when on vacation as memories of the people I was with and the place we were. Still, though, vacations can be a time for-to varying extents-using and honing your skills in a different environment.
Still, though, I don't always even take a "real" camera on vacation with me, or if I do I've been known to seriously downsize my kit and in some cases leave it behind in the hotel room a lot. It depends on the vacation and what I'm doing.
I think we have a winner.
Ironic that @jwolf6589 has been unable to articulate this over a rather extended period of time.
I have lots of photos on my Mac of mountains in Colorado. However the beach is special to me.There are lots of mountains minutes up the road from Denver (if mountains are your thing)
I do shoot for the enjoyment and have hundreds of pictures on my Mac of my hometown. However nothing strikes me more than the California beach and mountains. I can’t wait!