New camera!

[The Mutant]

Or, hi, long time no see!

Lot of things have happened IRL (except no interesting Paphs flowering...), which is why I haven't been here. Still a lot going on so I'll probably still be rather inactive.

I just wanted to stop by and share a bit of happiness with you. I got a new compact camera this week, and even though I've only scratched on the surface of what it's capable of, I'm already in love with it. I didn't get a budget DSLR-camera for the simple reason that I'm not that into photography. I love and admire the photos here taken by those that are into it, but it's more of a side-effect of the orchid hobby than a real interest to me.

I have made the horrible discovery, however, that with a better camera, it's all of a sudden much more fun to take pictures...

Here are some photos I took as comparison between my old, Samsung Digimax S600, and my new, Sony RX100 (old model but still better than my Samsung) camera. Same objects and same conditions (I chose to take the pictures even though the conditions were less than optimal), no tripod as that one hasn't arrived yet. I wanted to see how my new camera dealt with the bad lighting, which my old one has always struggled with. I did no editing besides cropping, image resizing, and picture arrangement afterwards.

Guess which picture I've taken with which camera!

Picture #1: My Phal. Tiny Doll that's making a return from the brink of death and flowering with 8 flowers (it had close to 60 when it was a happy Phal I think). Oh, this one I actually had to brighten up the picture taken with my old camera because it was too dark, so I lied a little bit earlier:

Phal. Little Sister:

Phal. Little Sister, here I played more with the ISO-settings on both cameras:

Phal. Little Sister, I finally figured out of to change the depth of field on my new camera:

Then one more on Phal. Little Sister only because it was fun:

And two pictures of my cats, and for once I could take pictures of them without the pictures getting all blurry and my camera crying for light. I just snapped these photos while I was sitting in front of the computer and reading the camera manual:

I love my new camera, but I don't have that many Paphs flowering at the moment... :sob:

 

[SlipperFan]

That's OK -- we like kitty pictures, also. Congrats on your new camera.

 

[abax]

The difference is rather amazing. Who needs flowers when
you have two natural models like the pussycats. The camera picked up so much texture and detail in the fur,
especially in the first kitty picture. Oh man, your 'Little
Sister' is doing so well! Mine is languishing and I have no
idea why. Excellent purchase.

 

[Ozpaph]

playing around with cameras is fun - well done. Enjoy.

 

[Justin]

you can really see the difference with the little.sister pics. i need to learn from you. while.i'm pretty sure nyeric has the title, after him i am probably the second worst photographer on this forum!

 

[Secundino]

Fine!

 

[The Mutant]

The difference is rather amazing. Who needs flowers when
you have two natural models like the pussycats. The camera picked up so much texture and detail in the fur,
especially in the first kitty picture. Oh man, your 'Little
Sister' is doing so well! Mine is languishing and I have no
idea why. Excellent purchase.

Except my 'models' are bad ones, especially the second one since she can never keep her head still! With my new camera though, I could still take her picture despite her doing that and it came out pretty well. The first picture is what sold me on the camera completely. I was very impressed with the crisp details and the focus, especially considering the low light levels (my old camera would've insisted on using the flash).

If I'm lucky and manage to care properly for the Little Sister, it might flower twice this year. On the other hand, you seem to be doing very well with your Paphs and Phrags so you've got nothing to be jealous about. oke:

playing around with cameras is fun - well done. Enjoy.

At least when they're somewhat decent... I've never enjoyed playing around with my old camera, not even when it was new.

you can really see the difference with the little.sister pics. i need to learn from you. while.i'm pretty sure nyeric has the title, after him i am probably the second worst photographer on this forum!

I agree; it's much more accurate when it comes to colours, I love that I have some more control over the depth of field, the pictures look sharp, there's little to no graininess in the images... And this is just the beginning. I should've bought a new one much sooner!

Eh... I don't know if I'm the best one to learn from seeing as I'm not a good photographer myself. Blind leading another blind? :rollhappy:

 

[abax]

Don't flatter yourself Justin. I'm only the slightly worst
photographer here...like somewhere between you and
Eric. You're three down on the awful list! ;>)

 

[NYEric]

Ha! I was going to say that her worst photo is better than my best!