Thought I should start a new thread, as I am always spamming someone elses!

Well there's always a big interest on the site in pictures and there're always nice ones being posted.

The ones I have seen this week though are something else, really amazing quality pics. I wanted to get more into photography but have never really got round to it. I have a 35mm Canon SLR, quite an old model, pretty much automatic settings, takes nice pics but I doubt it has the capabilities to do some of the pics I have seen taken and posted by Chris, Scott and Kev.

I am assuming the cameras you're using are digital? I have a few questions! What sort of price could I expect to pay for a camera capable of these shots?
What are the key features in achieving these photos?
& Do you have any example models, in order that I can do a bit of research and see what I can get?

Any advice would be greatly received!


The mission for obtaining photos, of a quality the deserves

Hi JJ,
First of all, yes they are digital, and so are 99% of the members' cameras who post pics on here.

If you have a 35mm SLR you should be able to achieve the same kind of pics.
The only problem you have is that if you wanted to post a pic you would have to scan it first and you would lose a lot of the sharpness out of your pic.

With a digital camera you are posting straight out of the camera.

Chris and Scotts are'nt SLR's, but they are quite expensive cameras, and they know how to use them very well.

The thing with an SLR is that you can set everything to totally manual but more importantly you can change the lenses.

The lens, shutter speed and aperture is the most important thing i think.

If you have a normal digital cam and wanted a close up shot of something out of the cameras range you would have to edit (zoom) it on the PC, thus reducing quality.

With the SLR you simply change lenses to a zoom one, that way no editing is necessary and so no quality is lost.

I think thats right anyway.

As for which one to go for, well, it's like openning a can of worms there.

There are so many quality cams out there for around the £150 mark.

I opted for the digital SLR for the above reasons, but i'm afraid they are a little expensive.

They start from around the £450 mark, but they only come with one lens usually up to 55mm which would mean you having to spend more money on a zoom lens after.

For around £500-£600 you can get a decent make with a zoom lens included.

At the end of the day it's all down to personal preference, like you have already said, Chris and Scotts pics are spot on, and if you have a look at Tony's pics of his sailing holiday they really look the biz, and he has a normal digital camera, don't know what model or cost though.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

I reckon that good lighting and an eye for a good shot are more important than any fancy equipment. I have a Nikon Coolpix 4300, which is a few years old and has 4 Meg reolution, 3x optical zoom and auto or manual settings. It also has a close-up setting for getting close-in shots. If I just whip it out and fire off a snap the results are OK, but if I make sure the lighting is good and the the grading is nice (not too many dark or light bits) and there's no camera wobble, the results can be outstanding.
Give the camera lots of light and it will close its iris and give you a really sharp picture.

Yeah cheers, guys, I mean I do have a Canon powershot digi camera and its fine for taking shots. However, I don't think it will allow you to take the sorts of pictures I was talking about previously. I will have to check the manual!

I am surprised they arent SLR's which are being used but this does make them little more affordable so that' worth looking into.
What do the technical specs need to say to achieve the night time shots discussed?

Any ideas?

The more 'manual' settings, the better, especially focusing.

I have a digi camera that is 'auto focus' that can't be turned to manual, and when a car is going 100mph + around Brans Hatch that i wanted to picture, i had no chance, it would focus in, out, too slow, the pic was gone.

And for night time shoots you need manual shutter speed, or manual AV (aperture) that will compensate the shutter speed.

I'm only learning this stuff myself at the mo, so maybe wrong on a couple of things.

P.S. I think Nick02 could clarify on this.