Congratulations to the winners of the 2008 photo contest!

Canon DSLR Rebel xt for me.

Canon powershot S5IS and I want the Canon Rebel xti. I would sure like a DSLR. That said, I have to say that I Love the camera I have! I sometimes crop photos, brightening or darkening sometimes, maybe sharpening. I have Preview. I prefer not to do anything but I recently got Photoshop Elements, which is fun to play with.

Oh, I forgot to say my picture was the Aspen trees and it had no editing. I did use a monopod when I took the picture. Do the rest of you use tripods much? I find the monopod handy to use as a walking stick when I'm hiking as well as to steady the camera if taking a picture.

gardenwife, Yes that was a while ago!! Boy, Does time fly!!!! I use to use my webtv and get photos with a camcorder I had, I've definately advanced a bit since then. I remember you were very much into photography even back then no? I need to do some major catching up on here, I am so far behind on whats going on and whos doing what now! I won't forget meeting you and Howie and the cute little family members at the RU way back when!! Great to see you again!

Roybird, I have a monopod and a tripod, I find that I use the monopod very little if at all, But, I do use the tripod quite a bit!

Good times, Iris. :)

You bet!! :)

LaKelly, it depends on what you want to do with your camera. From the responses, it looks like there's a nice range of cameras that people are getting great shots with. (I

edit: . . . wow. part of my post disappeared. nevermind.

This message was edited Nov 25, 2008 10:16 PM

My pic of the Osteospermum was taken with my trusty Kodak DX6490.
Deb

Note to all: I see Victor just walked right on by the fact that he's on Santa's naughty list now. A little nervous are we, mon ami?

sony, cyber-shot DSC-H9

I LOVE it!

Wow! Great responses! Thanks everyone!!!!! Yeah, I did notice Victor's absence :giggles: (poor Victor, he doesn't even know me and I'm yanking his chain!).

Ok, so what is the DSLR that everyone is coveting?

I've heard from the big guy and I'm still on the good list! No problem LAK - feel free. I got the dslr I was lusting after. The D300 is incredible. $$$, but great. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Happy Thanksgiving to you, V.G. ! And to everyone, of course! When are those calendars going to be done, do you think? I gotta do my Holiday shopping. Santa Claus at my house is grumpy because he has a cold. I think he knows that I want the Canon Rebel xti DSLR. ( Everyone else knows! )

LOL! Happy Thanksgiving to you too! ( And to all others here!)
Canon Rebel xti DSLR ...Now, Thats quite a gift!!! :)

I hope everyone had a Great Holiday.
The majority of the photos I submitted were taken with a
Canon Power Shot S3 IS 6.0 Mega Pixels

This photo was taken with Canon XSi
I did Crop and lighten the photo to enter into the contest.

Great photo Kin!!!

Yes, I love having the camera information. I wonder if that could be included with the captions submitted next year?

:-)

Kin are you happy with your XSi? What features are better than your Power Shot?

Just an FYI, for many photos you can tell what camera was used and what settings were used when the shot was taken. If an image was edited and saved out of a photo editor, it will often also include the software's information.

You need to have photo software installed that can view this EXIF information.

Irfanview, available at http://irfanview.com , is a great basic image editor that lets you easily view this information. This is how you'd view it using Irfanview, assuming you have it set up as the default program to open JPG's for viewing.

1. Right-click on the photo and choose your browser's option for saving the image
2. Note where the image is saved
3. Double-click the photo to open it in Irfanview
4. Click the icon depicting a circle with a letter i in it
5. In the resulting window, click the button which says "EXIF info*"
6. This brings up the EXIF info for the photo. In that window, you may copy the data to the Windows clipboard and paste it into another document for reference.

Note that some people prefer to strip the EXIF info from photos they edit and save because it makes the file sizes much smaller if that data is omitted. In those cases, there won't be any camera data to view. Likewise, some websites strip EXIF info from photos uploaded.

Hope that helps!

This message was edited Nov 28, 2008 9:22 AM

Kin, I am also very interested in Boojum's question. Can you answer to this thread so we can both see it?

Thanks Melissa!
I love my Power shot! It takes excellent photos and you can't beat that rotating screen!

I bought the XSi for several reasons.
I wanted to be able to make Large prints.
Xsi is 12.2 megapixel

I have problems with small cameras (hitting buttons because everything is so compact).
It's bad enough trying to use a cell phone everyday!!! LOL
I wanted a camera that felt like a camera. One that I could firmly hold onto without my big fingers covering up something or accidentally pushing buttons etc...
Also the 3 inch LCD display & Live preview function was a big seller for me.
The functions are so easy to view and read on the LCD screen.
http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/01/Canon_hiRes_xsi_back.jpg

P.S...
I might have big hands But my knuckles don't drag on the ground when I walk! LOL





This message was edited Nov 28, 2008 8:30 AM

Sounds like a Gorillapod is also in order then, Kin!

I just knew you would come up with a GOOD one liner...Victor!
LOL

Actually, it is pretty cool. I have one.

I was actually viewing some the other day. They are pretty cool!

I can weigh in about the question of the Powershot versus the dSLR. I have an S5 IS (my third Powershot and I love it!) but I also have dSLR aspirations. (I plan to stick with the Canon line but will decide on a model when I get the money.)

The S5 can do amazing things, but it just can't handle low light situations like a big-girl camera can. I'd like to get a dSLR and the appropriate lenses to shoot in low light situations.

Also, the S5 does have a manual focus, but I haven't had much luck with using it. (Any tips are welcome!) A dSLR would come in handy in those situations where manual focus is required - such as shooting through a fence at the zoo to get a shot of the animal behind it.

Hmm . . . I was just thinking that dSLRs have more adjustment to flash than the Powershot, and I just picked mine up to look and it looks like I can adjust the brightness, just like with exposure compensation. I should mess around with that more often!

I know I'll have to use the viewfinder on the dSLR, but if Canon could put the flip screen on their next dSLR - for those particularly tricky shooting angles - I'd be at the camera store with a credit card within seconds!

Indy, you sound just like me. The manual focus on the Canon S5IS is kind of a joke. I have not been able to get it to work right either and I have a book that told me about it. I ought to look at it more often! Low light situations are not great but a tripod helps. I want a DSLR because the aperture on our camera only goes so far, like 8. There is some sort of compensating factor but it doesn't seem right. I do like the flip screen but look through the view finder much more often. Our camera has great zoom power and the image stabilizer works quite well, too.

The Sony Alpha DSLR's have liveview through the LCD by using two sensors -- one to show what the lens is seeing and one upon which the image is captured. The LCD on the A300 and A350 flips up. The image stabilization is built into the camera body, so you aren't limited to buying IS lenses; they take the automatic Minolta lenses, such as the Maxxum series, as well as Sony glass. I love my Sony!