New vs. Old

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Dr.Bob51
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New vs. Old

#1

Post by Dr.Bob51 »

I have recently gone to a Nikon Coolpix L120 with 14.1 megapixels and 21x zoom. I did this because of the fading 35 mm supply and lack of developers. It's nice not to worry about missed shots. Just hit delete. However, I have been looking at my old photos & I'm suprised to see the difference. Maybe I'm not steady enough with the new camera but the same hands held the Minolta I had before. The pictures themselves look much clearer & the color more intense. I'm trying to copy them with the Nikon & some are not bad. Yes there are devices to do this but...... Any one have an opinion? Is it just me or were the people developing my film editing the pictures? This is one that I have copied. Dr.Bob51 Image

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OnTheBrink
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Re: New vs. Old

#2

Post by OnTheBrink »

I'm no expert. Just a hobbyist. I'm just touching on basics not knowing your level of understanding. Even with experience, sometimes it's the most basics that are preventing good shots.

Like with film, there are many factors for color with digital. White balance, ISO, the sensor, the setting you are using - portrait, macro, landscape, auto.

If your camera has preset settings, check to see what shutter speed it defaults to. The default might be 1/60 and previously you were shooting at 1/250 with the 'old.' I had a friend who was getting out of focus shots and he discovered in the half pressed position his new camera was focusing slower than the previous one did.

Many digital sensors do not exploit the color. Film did (it's why you might use Fuji in one situation) and film processing would sometimes increase saturation or make it cooler or warmer. Below is a sample of increasing the saturation of a digital shot.

It's worth finding a spot and shooting it in every setting and experimenting with white balance (if the camera has it).

Or, the camera needs to be returned because the sensor is bad.

Before and After Saturation was Increased
Image

Dr.Bob51
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Re: New vs. Old

#3

Post by Dr.Bob51 »

Thanks for the information. I may go into the mountains for some experimenting. The leaves will be willing models. Dr.Bob

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jhuskey
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Re: New vs. Old

#4

Post by jhuskey »

OTB, that is a striking difference!

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fishnbanjo
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Re: New vs. Old

#5

Post by fishnbanjo »

Photo editing on my iPad generally gets mixed results so this would not be the best I could eek from your photo if I were using NX3, a Nikon product.

I shoot 2 different Nikon dSLR bodies, a D3 and D3x, 12 and 24 Mp respectively, I also shoot an older Optio W20,a Panasonic LUMIX and a Leica M8.

A friend borrowed a couple of my Nikon f/2.8 lenses and was asking a lot of questions as she was getting better photos from her P&S camera than from her dSLR D7000 body. I told her she was allowing the camera and non removable lens make the choices for her but the dSLR can outperform once you've become familiar with using program mode, having great glass, using filters when needed, adjusting iso and trigger speed and learning what the histogram is telling you.

My Nikon bodies have banks I can customize for various shooting situations, I use the as I have them set up to a certain degree but can make adjustments on the fly before hitting the trigger. I like my out of the camera .jpg's to require no post processing or at the very least minimal.

I sat down with her and had her use my 24-70 f/2.8 on her D7000 while I dialed in the settings on my Leica M8 shooting a 50mm f/2.0 lens. All my shooting is manual mode and he chose automatic, I then shot the same photo using her D7000 and program mode using the setting I used with the M8. She liked the photo from my M8 and the one I took in program mode with her D7000 better than the one she took using automatic mode.

There's nothing wrong using automatic mode but you can generally do better and a little post processing can do lots as long as you don't go heavy handed, this is the best my iPad could do with your photo, I will revisit it tomorrow on the PC and post those results. Regards.
banjo

Image

Dr.Bob51 wrote:I have recently gone to a Nikon Coolpix L120 with 14.1 megapixels and 21x zoom. I did this because of the fading 35 mm supply and lack of developers. It's nice not to worry about missed shots. Just hit delete. However, I have been looking at my old photos & I'm suprised to see the difference. Maybe I'm not steady enough with the new camera but the same hands held the Minolta I had before. The pictures themselves look much clearer & the color more intense. I'm trying to copy them with the Nikon & some are not bad. Yes there are devices to do this but...... Any one have an opinion? Is it just me or were the people developing my film editing the pictures? This is one that I have copied. Dr.Bob51 Image

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fishnbanjo
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Re: New vs. Old

#6

Post by fishnbanjo »

Just tweaked a few things, Saturation, Sharpness and Lighting in my post processing software.

Image

Dr.Bob51
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Re: New vs. Old

#7

Post by Dr.Bob51 »

This has all become moot as the Nikon has bitten the big one. I had to purchase a new phone & laptop several days ago. Next day I was going to take a shot of the sunset & the thing went nuts.
Maximum zoom & nothing I could do about it. My new phone has a camera but I haven't learned how to get them to my laptop. Dr.Bob 51

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fishnbanjo
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Re: New vs. Old

#8

Post by fishnbanjo »

Don't despair, do a search for Nikon Coolpix L120 locked I full zoom turns up, often this has happened to someone and there may be an easy fix like removing the media and battery and letting it sit for a day or so. Good luck.
banjo
Dr.Bob51 wrote:This has all become moot as the Nikon has bitten the big one. I had to purchase a new phone & laptop several days ago. Next day I was going to take a shot of the sunset & the thing went nuts.
Maximum zoom & nothing I could do about it. My new phone has a camera but I haven't learned how to get them to my laptop. Dr.Bob 51

Dr.Bob51
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Re: New vs. Old

#9

Post by Dr.Bob51 »

Banjo, you are a genius. I took the batteries and card out of the camera & waited a few days. When I put them back, I also reset all settings. So far it has been working. Now to take more pictures. Thanks again, Dr.Bob51Image

hbmcc
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Re: New vs. Old

#10

Post by hbmcc »

Years ago, I started getting fuzzy photos, all the time. Film and earlier digital cameras never had "good" lenses. Then, I tried a camera with vibration reduction. And the problem went away.

Even though I have a dslr and outstanding lenses, it is packed away because I go to my Canon G-series (with image stabilization). It has all of the bells and whistles I need, incredible battery life, decent images. Most important, it will fit in a pocket--just--and doesn't feel like a ball-and-chain around my neck.

One final thing I learned on the road to this camera is, wear the neck strap, even when the thing is tucked into a shirt or coat pocket. Besides having shaky hands, fingers spastically release only valuable items.
~ Bruce
"Never caught a fish on a lawn." - AJ (Bamboo) Thramer

Dr.Bob51
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Re: New vs. Old

#11

Post by Dr.Bob51 »

I always used a neck strap until I tried the binocular holder they came out with years ago. I can't remember the name it was given, but it goes over the neck and around the arms. It is adjustable and quite comfortable.
Here are some new shots since my Nikon repaired its self. Dr.Bob51ImageImage

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pittendrigh
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Re: New vs. Old

#12

Post by pittendrigh »

I didn't see RAW format images mentioned anywhere in the thread. When you shoot in jpeg mode the camera still makes a raw image and then makes a robotic transformation from raw to jpeg, on the fly. Lots of digital information is lost--forever--when raw is transformed into jpeg.

If you set the camera to save in raw mode you have far more power as a photo editor. Over-exposed jpegs can be tweaked a little but seldom saved. Over-exposed raw images can usually be made to look just fine. Professional photographers shoot in raw mode. That says something. Some cameras can be set to save two images, one in raw and one in jpeg. That uses a lot of disc space but it is useful to have the jpeg comparison to look at, while doing your own custom photo editing.

Photoshop is expensive. Gimp is free. Gimp may not be able to do some of the high end stuff, like making fashion models skinnier and longer. But it still takes beginners a decade to master. And most don't. It's plenty good enough for me. And it's free.

Geeqie is free too. Geeqie is a high speed photo folder browser that shows one image at a time--next to a stack of thumbnails. From geeqie you can spawn Gimp with a mouse click. Very handy.

Digital images on the memory chip tend to have names like DSCN1234.NEF (nef is Nikon raw). After editing it's a good idea to save your final jpeg with a name that preserves the original name, so you can match the raw image to the edited one ten years down the road. My saved images all have names like DSCN1234_Osprey.jpg or _PIC5789-mona-lisa.jpg. In other words, if you save a file named Mona-lisa.jpg you'll have a hard time finding the original raw at a later date. Manual photo editing is required for digital cameras, at least if you want good results. That's the price paid for all the related conveniences.

And as your photo editing skills improve, you'll want to re-edit your best images. I have a lot of fun re-editing five year old images, now making them far better than they were the first time around. Photo editing is like fly fishing. You get better at it continuously. Until you die. :=))

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