Forums > Help! > short question about digital cameras

Posted: 28th Nov 2004
Not all do. It's a programmable shutter you're after.

I use an olympus camedia C-350. If you take a photo at night with the flash off, it compensates for the low light by giving you a couple of seconds long shutter, which created all the trails in my gallery.

Hope that helps! Most of them tell you if they have a programmable shutter, but I couldn't tell you how common they are in general.

I wish mine did, rather than me having to trick the light sensor to get it to work! Happy hunting

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau

Posted: 28th Nov 2004
Cool pics.

And the photo shopped one is great.
Didn't know what it was at first.

It seems like I am going to have to go round shops asking questions, and then demand the make and model of my choice from santa.

Eat when you're hungry
Sleep where it's dry
No one is ever what they seem
Gabriel King - The Wild Road

Posted: 28th Nov 2004
Indeedy, I have another digital which does the same thing as the one I mentioned above, except it only gives you tiny trails. So annoying.

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau

Posted: 28th Nov 2004
if you go to a proper shop and ask the man for a camera that can do "Long Exposures" then he should help you out.

also i recommend you ask him which cameras have the smallest delay inbetween pressing the button and actually taking the pic

cos most digi cameras take the pic about 5-10seconds after pressing the button, which is VERY annoying

oh and manual focus too (which most should have, but some don't), because automatic focus is rubbish in low light.

"Switching between different kinds of chuu chuu sometimes gives this "urgh wtf?" effect because it's giving people the phi phenomenon."

Posted: 29th Nov 2004
also please make sure you acctually do a search

we have had this topic going on for a long time with bristol poi, and this thread is in the technical discussion thread

i agree totaly with simian, go to a shop ask them, and get your hands on a few cameras, buy a mid range cam, and love it for what it is, a bit of fun, and a way of taking pics

Step (el-nombrie)

Posted: 29th Nov 2004
and then when you've decided what you want in the shop, say "thanks a lot", then order it off t'internet

Posted: 29th Nov 2004
I did seach, but loads of stuff came up and I couldn't look through it all. And what I did look at was very technical.

But I am properly castigated for not searching well enough.

Thanks for all the advice.
I'll go to the shops and find someone to ask.

At least I know now that just buying the cheap one from Argos won't do.

Eat when you're hungry
Sleep where it's dry
No one is ever what they seem
Gabriel King - The Wild Road

Posted: 1st Dec 2004
I have a degree in photography and what they mentioned is very important. Get a camera with as little delay time as possible. This is crucial especially with action shots, which all fire spinning would be. But the joy of digital photography is that you can shoot a butload with little to no cost

Posted: 1st Dec 2004
ever thought of using a real camera ? you have so much instant/real time control. Pentax k1000 is perfect and indestructable

Posted: 1st Dec 2004
how i miss my k1000

Posted: 1st Dec 2004
I've got a little point and click 'real camera' (ie. film)

But I can't put pics in the gallery or email them to my Mum unless I get a scanner, or get them developed onto discs or other really complicated and expensive things.

I was just hoping I could get a cheap digi camera and solve all my problems.

Mech, I did have a good read of the other thread. Thank you for pointing it out. When I got past the mention of f-stops and other occult arcana I found it really interesting and informative.

However the ones that do the good stuff are way out of my price range as far as I can see.

What I think I am going to do is get one of the really really cheap ones, one of the toy ones. Then I can at least send crappy pics of the dog etc. to my parents without having to get film developed, and I can also get the hang of getting pics onto the puter, and I can mess with them in PSP.

I know all you camera people are going to say 'Nooooo. They are terrible, a waste of money, don't do it!'
But really, I am buying a toy for a tenner, and I know it won't do any good stuff, but at least I can play with it while I learn a bit more about the whole f-stop thing and save up for a good one.

It's better (to my mind, at least) than buying the most expensive one I can afford (still not enough for a really good one) and then finding out that it won't do what I want because I didn't know enough in the first place.

So, thank you for all the advice, and the help, and the stuff in the other thread.
At the very least it has told me that there is much, much more that I need to understand before I go and buy a proper one.

Eat when you're hungry
Sleep where it's dry
No one is ever what they seem
Gabriel King - The Wild Road