Digital images and slides

I’ve been working to improve my photography of my iron and mixed
media bowls. These are bigger than jewelry, of course, but sometimes
I need closeup shots of details, so my concerns do overlap with
jewelry photography. I’ve been using an old SLR camera with tungsten
lighting. Yesterday a camera expert asked why I wasn’t buying digital
equipment instead of more lenses for my old SLR. I thought slides
made from digital shots wouldn’t be good enough, but some online
research makes me think I’ve been wrong about this.

Anyone have experiences to share? Right now the new canon eos 300D
looks like the best digital choice for photographing artwork, even
with the inexpensive lens that comes with it. I found out that this
lens can focus as close as 4" - not very close by jewelry standards,
but probably ok for details of 18" bowls.

I just have a week or so to decide, as if I go digital I’ll need to
return some lenses and other equipment usable only with the old SLR.
All and advice will be appreciated.

Catherine Jo Morgan

I too have been considering getting a digital camera, but
understand that it is very very expensive to have slides made from
Digital cameras. Ist his true?? One person told me iit would
cost $10 per slide, another person told me that there are some
places that charge $1.75 per slide, but they were not sure where
that was. Any will be appreciated. If t hey are very
expensive it might be better for me to stay with my oldSLR
camera with its macro lens. Alma

Alma, I’m not sure about the cost but I tried having a slide made
from a digital image and was just not happy with the results. Deb

My 2 cents’ worth of thought: "If it’s not broke, why fix it?"
Digital Cameras, while they are getting better in terms of
flexibility and resolution, cannot yet replace a regular
camera…there’s several years’ worth of continuing consumer
confidence in the technology, coupled with continued leaps in
miniaturization and stability of operating platforms.

If there’s no good camera within reach, sure go for a digital
(cheaper in long run, regardless of any local processing
costs)…but if there’s a regular camera with macro lens handy, I’d
suggest saving the money for a replacement digital for several years
down the road (then spend a good thousand on a leading edge one).

several more addages: “Caveat Emptor”…and “You get what you pay
for”

hope these general comments help

Erhard.

I have bought a digital camera about a year ago with a 6x zoom. I
wouldn’t go back to and SLR camera now, not only for the convenience
but also for the quality of the images. The problem with slides is
that a print has to be made then an internegative and then the slide,
an expensive business. Ever thought of using PowerPoint?

definitely go digital. it’s good enough quality for slides and you
have the advantage of

  1. seeing what you have taken (make sure you get one with a screen
    that shows what you have taken)

  2. taking loads of pics and choosing best at no extra cost

  3. touching up/cropping etc yourself (there are loads of easy
    programmes, you don’t need to learn photoshop.)

make sure you buy the biggest megapixel you can afford (at least 3
megapixels) and extra memory (at least 125mb)

all the pics on my site were using digital

once you go digital you will never go back…

good luck
Laura Cowan
Judaica designer and silversmith
Website: www.lauracowan.com

Yesterday a camera expert asked why I wasn't buying digital
equipment instead of more lenses for my old SLR. 

Catherine, in my opinion, you should shoot slide film if you need
slides. First generation is nearly always best. You will be better
off digitizing your slides than making slides from digital files.
The digital files have to be huge to make a good slide, and it is
quite expensive, too.

Cindy

I’ll side with Cindy here. Two cameras tend to be the best solution
for slides and digital photos. Can’t beat a tried and trusty 35mm.

Digital cameras may not be the quality of 35mm. Possibly they never
will be. Consider slide resolution is what, 25 mega pixel or so.
High end digitals are 6 megapixel. Makes you think.

I got on the digital band wagon last winter and purchased a Nikon
D-100. This camera is awesome if used properly. Jewelry photos are
captured using a standard lighted photo tent. All settings are
"MANUAL" including focus, exposure, and aperture. White balance is
indoor lighting such as fluorescent. The camera cannot focus on
these bright objects nearly as good as a human can.

You do get what you pay for. The D-100 setup including a 60mm lens
was about 3k.

jerry

It is the show producers who need to think of Power Point! I’m not
sure I understand why they keep requiring slides, when so much has
gone digital. It would seem to me just as easy to request CD’s of
images as to request slides. Has anyone successfully and happily
acheived slides from digital, and if so who did you have do it for
you?

Beth in SC where we had a swimming Halloween party for teenagers
last night!

Hi Jerry and all, The sheer convenience of the digital camera has a
great deal going for it, especially when you want to do websites,
make up brochures on a computer etc. My camera is 3.1 mega pixels.
The camera interpolates the image to 6 mega pixels. The image quality
leaves many SLR cameras photographs looking very poor! Richard

I love my digital camera - Nikon coolpix 885 thanks to orchid
suggestions.

I love that I can take as many photos as it takes to get a picture
I’m happy with, without having to pay and wait for developing (and
then maybe finding that I’m not happy with any of them).

I love that there isn’t the waste, of photos and time.

I love that I can take a photo and instantly email it, so when
William is asking about typewriter jewellery I can set up, shoot and
send him a photo the same day.

My plan for slides is to email my photos to the camera store who
print them out, then take the picture to the shop that makes slides
from photos; I haven’t tried it yet but I will post when I do

Alison
www.alialexander.com.au

What are you all using to transfer your designs to the web? I have
been checking out heaps of affordable digi cams (secondhand). The
best so far is a Olympus 4040 (as far as I know) that I have been
able to find locally (Australia) on ebay. I know that it has a tiff
and macro function that serves my requirements but if anyone has more
knowledge in this area I would appreciate their input. Best
Regards Terence M Dillon

The problem with slides is that a print has to be made then an
internegative and then the slide, an expensive business 

I wanted to archive my slide portfolio [historical] plus have
electronic capability to print, alter, or email. After asking
around I was getting price quotes of $8-$16 per slide depending on
resolution.

I was at Walgreens waiting to get some vacation pics back when I
overheard a conversation with another customer asking that same
archive question regarding family photos. When it came my turn I
asked the clerk if they had capabilities for slides. Yes. Now of
course we know that we can currently get a disk burned whenever our
pics are developed but in this case I would be suppling a pile of
mounted slides.

I brought back 4 slides for a test and was told the price would be
around $5. I figured $1.25 per slide was a great test. Next day I
picked them up, went home and brought them up on the screen and each
one projected so large only a quarter of the image would show.
Incredible resolution!!!

Back to Walgreens with the pile. I mentioned the resolution and
asked if the clerk had options. Nope, that is the standard setting
for the machine. We discussed price a little more and I was told
that these slides wern’t a standard option so I would have to be
charged as though it was a roll of slides. Basically I could get
only 24 exposures on a CD then would have to be charged accordingly.

Back two days later. Picked up my 2 CD’s and was charged $10. I
couldn’t believe it!!! What luck!!! I had misunderstood the
pricing. Basically I thought I was paying a per slide price but I
was being quoted a per CD price. I expected to pay around $65 and
still consider it a deal.

So, I LOVE Walgreens! I still use the professional photo lab when
developing slides but head off to Walgreens when I want to have them
transferred to electronic format.

One other thing. When printing from digital, use the machines that
will photographically print on photo paper rather than inkjet print
on “photo quality” printing paper.

I also had the experience of going from slide to digital to slide.
In this case the price was more and I used the professional lab but
I couldn’t tell the original slide from the dup. A vast improvement
from trying to achieve slide to slide years ago and being
disappointed.

Orchid Rules! Karla from So Cal where the fires are finally under
control. What a week!!!

You all may want to check out www.slides.com There’s a lot of good
advice and a forum to ask questions on. I haven’t used them and have
no affiliation, though I think I might use them to scan my slides in
the future to get really high resolution scans. A photo-geek friend
of mine recommended them as a source that he uses and likes. You may
be interested to know that they advice using a 400 dpi image, 10 - 30
megabytes or 4096x2730 pixels! Can any of your digital cameras even
do that?

Larry

Re: the statement that

The problem with slides is that a print has to be made then an
internegative and then the slide, an expensive business

is incorrect. Well, it would be correct if you were using print film
as opposed to slide film. Slide film is the slide…there are no
intermediary steps and thus you have a first generation product of
the highest quality and quite inexpensively. The convenience of
digital images is not to be denied, however film is still the best
way to produce a top quality slide, to my knowledge. Marianne

i did, but as it was a few years ago i would have to do some
searching to find the company again. The thing to remember is
resolution, i think my images were at least 350 dpi and the image
size was like 11x16 or maybe bigger, but the slides i was happy
with, you can always have one done and then do dupes later. However
i think its still the tradional method the image is projected and
then shot with film so… if you just call around and ask they will
tell you whats best

I have not been watching this thread but thought I would drop in
with one comment. When selecting a digital camera look to what
accessories are available. I have a Nikon CoolPix and for about $75
there is a nice slide copier that screws on to the lens. Set the
camera to macro, slip in the slid, hold it up to light and shoot.
You can even zoom in a little and re-frame the slide. Set the camera
to whatever resolution you want. Note that digital cameras will focus
in places that regular cameras will not. I have recently found that
I can shoot through the eye piece of our microscope! Micrographs
instantly and no special equipment. Bill

Reactive Metals Studio, Inc.
PO Box 890 * 600 First North St. * Clarkdale, AZ 86324
Ph-928/634-3434 * Ph-800/876-3434 * Fax-928/634-6734
E-mail- info@reactivemetals.com
Catalog- www.reactivemetals.com

It seems to be true that getting slides made from digital files is
very expensive. I couple of months ago we had about 35 slides done
of my husband’s artwork for a presentation. After looking all over
this area, The best I was able to do was $10 each, down from an
initial quote of $25. I did not, however, look on the web. I’d be
interested to hear if anybody has gotten a better deal that way.

Janet Kofoed

look for one that is at lest 3 mega pixels, has a macro setting and
is compatible with your computer, depends on how much you want to
spend, they have come down quite a lot, so you may just want to look
at a new one?? I have a sony that im happy with, a friend thats a
professional photographer recomends the nikon coolpix, just ask
everyone what they like and why. You most likely dont need the top
of the line.

good luck

I have a Nikon Coolpix 950 and after transferring the pictures to my
computer I resize, brighten or darken, etc., using Paintshop Pro 7.
My camera already has the images in jpg format but if your camera
uses a different format you will also have to change your images to
jpg or gif - then put them on the page and beam them up and you are
set. (I love my Nikon!)

Jan
www.designjewel.com