New camera

[lando]

I just up-graded my camera to the new Sony F828. I am just getting into photography so I wanted a camera I could grow into as I learned more. I went with the Sony becuase I already have the memory sticks from my old 3.2 cybershot and it uses the same battery as my digital camcorder. That saved my a lot of money. When you shoot pics do you do it in the dark with a lighted tank? Anytime of day? To flash or not to flash...that is the question. My pics under flash are too washed out looking. The colar is not realistic. With no flash the colors look better but the pics seem a little dark to me. Any tricks or advice? Thanks for your help...Lando

 

[stresco]

Hey Lando, great choice in camara. I have the same one. I find that the best pics i take are with the came flash on, and the tank lights off. I also get some nice pics with the tank lights on when i pre-set the White Balance. Im assuming you have a tripod, so set up your shot, focus, Fstop, etc. Then hold a coffee filter in front of the lens and set your white balance, and click away! HTH.

 

[stresco]

Oh yeah...you might want to go here and get an extra battery:

http://store.yahoo.com/cameragears/np-fm50.html

I just ordered 2 for myself.

And you can go to here: http://www.htcnetstore.com/ma2mitiicofl.html for a 2.2gig Microdrive for lots of pic space.

 

[lando]

thanks for the advice. Believe it or not, i have shot over 300 pics the last couple of days. A lot of trial and error. I only have around 10 that I would consider decent. I will just keep shooting away and learn as I go. Anyone know of any good books on digital photography? Thanks

 

[reefrunner69]

http://www.shortcourses.com/

Start reading the sony forum on www.dpreview.com

And there are several other links, as for hard back books, anything by John Shaw or Ansel Adams is awesome, they weren't digital photographers, but with the prosumer digicams, you need the basics of photography, just like film and the info provided will dramatically increase the quality of your images.

The biggest thing is to practice, shoot shoot shoot, it's pretty much free now that you have the cam Don't get discouraged, no one starts taking awesome photos immediately, I've been shooting for a couple of years with "good" prosumer cams and am just in the last 6 months getting a high percentage of keepers, but I still have shoots where I will only get a 10-20% "good" shot rate. Take photos of the same subject from as many different angles as possible with different settings, photography is about capturing the moment, the more moments you capture, the more likely you are to capture the right moment

 

[stresco]

Kool links Kevin, I hope you dont mind that i used them too

 

[reefrunner69]

Actually they were meant for lando only, I think I'll ban you now

Cool I'm glad you found some use for them. I find alot of sites by looking at the links sections of other sites I've had the shortcourses url for awhile, but found some others the other night by looking at someones links page after viewing one of their pics on their site

 

[Verse914]

I have an 828 I LOVE this camera. I used to have the Sony 717 and sold it for the 828. I have hundreds of pics that Ive taken with my Sony cams on my website, but here is a recent one with my 828...

Its best to take pics at night with all the lights off besides the tank lights. The flash or not to flash will depend on how much light you have on the tank. I have four 48" bulbs on my tank and I still want more. But with the 4 bulbs I can get some decent shots without the flash. With a flash, you can pretty much shoot at any time of the day. And are you using the "real color" setting? It keeps the color looking real. Also, dont forget to make sure that your macro setting is on.

Aaron

 

[lando]

WOW, thanks everyone for all of the great info. I have some reading to do. I may pick up a general photography book as most of the digital photo books out there do not pay much attention to the basics of photography. When i shoot pics for posting on this site do you recommend using the "e-mail" mode and standard resolution or shooting in High-Res and then editing it for posting?
Thanks.

 

[Verse914]

Definitely shoot at 8MP and "fine", and then resize it. Youll get much more detail this way. Good luck to you!

 

[reefrunner69]

Definitely shoot at 8MP and "fine", and then resize it. Youll get much more detail this way. Good luck to you!

I agree, always shoot at the highest resolution possible with the camera and reduce the size via a photo editor, then upload it, the more information the photo contains the better the final image.