looking for a god camera

[imashination]

How much are you looking to spend?

[3Dfx_Sage]

up to about $800 but I'd really rather not go quite that high.

[imashination]

Check the general talk forum, I just posted one for sale.

[3Dfx_Sage]

wow, that's really nice but I don't know a thing about HDRI. I'm more looking for something to use for textures- I'm always seeing something that I'd like to have a picture of but never a camera.

[3Dfx_Sage]

I already have a rather nice traditional camera if I wanted to use it to produce slides / negatives. How about one of these (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=search&Q=&ci=1151) film scanners? It looks quite a bit cheaper considering I already have a high quality camera, but what dpi would I need? And what about those other specs? I know nothing about this stuff.

[dvornik]

You may consider the Digital Rebel - it's almost within yor budget if you shop around. Since it's an SLR you have an upgrade path. Otherwise a lot of 5 megapixel cameras like Nikon Coolpix, Sony cybershot etc are totally within your budget. It's like 2560 x 1920 which is plenty for most purposes. Digital camera really streamlines your workflow compared to a scanner and saves you a bunch of money, too. Make sure you get one that can do TIFF or RAW, some cameras just do jpgs.

[3Dfx_Sage]

mmmm I'm not sure sure that resolution is going to be enough for me. I'm wanting to make some texture CD's to sell (yes, people do buy them...)

[raz-0]

well you are what we technically refer to as either

a) shit out of luck

or

b) in over your head.

or

c) have unrealistic expectations.


Even professional digital cameras barely go up to 4k by 4k resolution.

Things that get close

canon EOS digital rebel - 3kx2k roughly, $900 with lense.

kodak DCS proback 645 - 4k by 4k... it's a back for a large format camera, which I don't even want to speculate about the end cost of such with lense(s). But the digital back will set you back something like $12,000 and is specific to which type of large format camera you are going to use.

kodak dcs pro 14n - 4.5k by 3k about $4,000 for the body.


Most everything else out there in a digital SLR is about the same res or lower than the canon digital rebel. Having seen the output from it, it is very nice for the price point and a great bargain.


Short of large format printing projects, and perhaps using it as film replacement in fine art prints, the most common high res images produced are for movie screens. Thats 4096 pixels by 3072 if you render out to the full resolution of a cineon scanner (well technically per color channel, so it is a lot of data). However, I don't think your average texture off of a CD is going to ever bee 100% of a full frame seriously, To match something like a cineon scan you are talking like 9MB per color channel. SO like 27MB per frame. And frankly if you have a project that needs that kind of detail, then oddss are the project will cover the cost of specifically going out and photographing what you need at the resolution you need and stitching it together to get your perfect source image.


THe only way to come even close to your $800 mark is to use GOOD film under good conditions developed well and scanned with a GOOD scanner. If not have the things drum scanned.

I doubt someone who is going to hit a stock texture CD for their textures would be anywhere near disappointed with a 3k by 2k raw image equivalent.

[Novakog]

Yeah, seriously, who uses non-handpainted textures larger than 2.5k x 2k?

[3Dfx_Sage]

well, it's obvious to me that a digital camera is not going to provide what I'm looking for at a price I can afford. What about those slide scanners I linked to? That looks like a good deal. I already have a very high-dollar traditional camera and good film and developing costs would not be an issue.

Or maybe I just tend to go overboard on resolution...

[3Dfx_Sage]

Okay, what about good 2.5k x 2k cameras? I hate all of this megapixel crap because sometimes the math doesnt seem to work right between the various numbers.

[parallax]

To capture God on camera, i think you need a pretty expensive piece of hardware.

Sorry, couldn't resist:scream:

[3Dfx_Sage]

LOL yeah I've been hitting myself in the head every time I think of this thread because of that...

[Ice Czar]

Foveon X3 Tech (http://www.foveon.com/X3_tech.html)
dpreview.com (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0202/02021101foveonx3.asp)
digital-photography.org review (http://www.digital-photography.org/35mmSLRdigitalzoomlenscamerareviews/FoveonsensorCMOSSigmaSD9digitalcamerareviews.htm)
Foveon to challenge with 16 megapixels (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0009/00091102foveon16mp.asp)

Only two weeks ago, Eastman Kodak announced a chip able to capture digital images with a resolution of 4,096 by 4,096 picture elements — or pixels — per square inch. That, by some measures, is about twice the resolution of 35-millimeter film.

Today, a company founded by one of Silicon Valley's pioneer chip designers, will announce an image-sensing chip capable of the same resolution as the Kodak chip, but made using a technique that could be much less expensive.





ect ect

all this tech came on the market right after I bought my camera of course :p]

[imashination]

Originally posted by 3Dfx_Sage
LOL yeah I've been hitting myself in the head every time I think of this thread because of that...

Holy photos Batman!

[CgFX]

A lot of digital cameras come with software to allow you to create panorama's, etc. One of the modes is a poster mode to allow you to stitch together 2D array patterns into a giant flat image. This might help.

[3Dfx_Sage]

hey now that's not a bad idea, I can't believe I didn't think of that! Thanks a lot CgFX.

[Joel.Hooks]

The Canon Digital Rebel is totally killer. I bought one for my xmas present to myself ;) - and I have really enjoyed it a lot. At $999 retail with a lens it is certainly the best digital you are going to find with the features you are looking for. Not to mention you have Canon's massive lens selection to choose from for upgrades.

To get the resolution you are talking about the Fuji Finepix s2 has a 14mp interpolated mode that is rather nice, but then you are looking at $2k+ with lens. It's a very nice piece of equipment, but given the choice I would stick with my canon (or the canon 10d for the metal body)

http://www.dpreview.com is a good place to get the skinny on almost every digital there is.

[3Dfx_Sage]

well, the problem with that $999 Cannon is that I don't have $999. I'm looking at the Fujifilm FinePix S7000 right now, reading the review on dpreview atm.

edit:

hmmm the Minolta DiMAGE A1 is looking a lot better. Apparently the S7000 is somewhat off on colour. The DiMAGE A1 will do 2.5k x 2k and I think that's what I'm going to have to settle on. Overall it's looking like a pretty spiffy camera.

edit2:

after looking further, I find that the Canon PoerShot G5 has much better resolution than the DiMAGE A1 and is able to achieve very close to the same results in regards to noise and colour balance. It's also cheaper... I wonder why?

[CgFX]

I can't say enough good things about the Canons. The G5 and S50 are clear segment leaders, IMHO.

They also work well with microdrives and big CF cards. Stay away from xD.

Canon's digital SLRs are also an easy call and some people swear by the CMOS sensor instead of a CCD. But, as you note, entry price into that area is 2x a G5.

[Ice Czar]

hmmm... very strange,
no one even commented on the Foveon X3 tech
guess no one followed the links

I'll try one more time
Sigma SD9 (http://www.sigmaphoto.com/Html/news/news_sd9_fs.htm) > Click here to see sample pictures
Image Comparision (http://www.foveon.net/X3_comparison.html)

this is revolutionary CCD tech
Direct Image Sensors (http://www.foveon.net/x3_tech.html)
Comaprision of Mosaic without filter\ with filter and X3 (http://www.foveon.net/X3_sharper.html)
Cameras using mosaic image sensors are forced to compromise between image quality and sharpness. Images directly sampled with mosaic sensors have better resolution than those taken using blur filters, but suffer from interpolation artifacts. Blur filters will alleviate the artifacts, but cause a reduction in overall resolution and image detail.

FAQ (http://www.foveon.com/faq_technology.html#FAQ_tech_9) including Sony Super CCD

images from the Foveon X3 Pro 10M image sensor approach medium format (roughly 56 mm film) in the quality of their results, even when enlarged to 40 inches.


and while the camera is not in that price range,
(well the camera is but the lenes arent)
its worth a look ;)

[3Dfx_Sage]

yeah, I looked at those and would really like to have one but the problem is that even the SD9 goes for $999. If I could find one in my price range I would definitely get it.

[Ice Czar]

and of course once you get it, youll want accessories and additional lenses....

I was an early adopter of the Olympus E20N (http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_product_lobbypage.asp?l=1&p=16&bc=3&product=714)
the X3 tech came out right after I sold my soul for it
and then I watched as the E20N price dropped and dropped again
now its nothing special but still a nice camera
cant quite justify spending the $$$ for a Sigma yet

there is also a SD10 (http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/Cameras_sd10.htm) 10.2 Million Pixels

[3Dfx_Sage]

Originally posted by Ice Czar
and of course once you get it, youll want accessories and additional lenses....
what, other than a memory card, batteries, and a carrying bag would I need? I don't plan on doing some kind of special photography that requires wierd lenses, although a wide angle one would be cool. I already have plenty of batteries and could make do with a 32MB memory card for a while, so that leaves me with just a nice bag for it and I can get those dirt cheap.

[raz-0]

Originally posted by Ice Czar
there is also a SD10 (http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/Cameras_sd10.htm) 10.2 Million Pixels

To add to the list, I'll plug http://www.steves-digicams.com/ his sample photos are of the same basic test subjects, so you get a bit more of an apples to apples comparison. He also does cool things sometimes like put up gifanims of the menus, which can be very useful for shoppers.

yeah the SD10 is just a redesigned sd-9. same exact resolution with 3 times the marketing. They fixed some battery issues with the SD-9. They now have digital specific lenses in the SA mount, which is cool, but their lenses are kind of questionable on the value for quality end of the spectrum. They improved the software, but it's still got some issues. They fixed the overexposure clipping which was a killer.

I LOVED the idea of the foveon x3 array, but the proprietary mount and the lense selection kills it a bit. Also, the noise at low light levels is still pretty bad. It's also kind of pricey for what you get. The sd-10 is a little crisper than the rebel, but with the rebel images look better in low light/high ISO settings. Plus, you walk out with a body, a lense, and $300 in your pocket over the cost of the sd-10 body alone. For the cost of the sd-10 with a lense, you can probably score the rebel, both of the digicam specific lenses for it, and a large Cf card.. possibly some additional accessories.

The sd-10 is cool though, and more vibrant and crisper for the equivalent number of pixels on the screen. However, it'd have been nice to see the price shift downwards a little with the second gen, everyone else's are.

[Joel.Hooks]

32mb card will only hold 8-12 images. Very annoying.

I bought a 340(ish)mb microdrive on ebay for $40. I guess they rip them out of some console or another, but it was a good price I thought.

A nice camera/accesory bag will run about $30.

[Ice Czar]

Micro Drives (http://www.redhill.net.au/d-o.html#microdrive) are amazing tech, but Ive yet to get one for my E20N

[Morbid_re1gn]

The s7000 from fuji isnt too bad for a 6 megapixle camera, the color is great on them, the only thing i dont like is they use AA batteries. They clam it can go up to 12 megapixles but Im not sure how effective this is or what the quality is.

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