Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Gadgets, Computers & Software (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/)

-   -   The Digital Camera Thread: Questions, discussions, etc. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/31260-digital-camera-thread-questions-discussions-etc-364.html)

And some companies take a harder line than others. Sony is infamous for its differential pricing enforced by warranty restrictions

Interesting.

Twelve yeas ago I bought a grey-market (just a consumer zoom P&S) camera in India, clearly sold as shop guarantee only. In the end, I likened it to buying second hand: would I have bought that camera second-hand, at that price, with no mnaufacturer warranty. I decided yes and went ahead with the deal without worrying.

Well, Singapore is one of the worlds temples to consumerism. Whatever you want is going to be there, and more. Again, I have bought a consumer PS and a super-zoom there without worrying. I have also bought electronics, headphones.... Gadget heaven!

But what are you doing in Croma? Don't you have real camera shops in Mumbai? I just got my new camera from Amazon, but the seller was J J Mehta.

I'm not too comfortable buying online. Croma has a few brands under 1 roof. By 'real camera shops' , i assume you're referring to the authorised outlet of the brand? Well , i don't think i've visited any. I have been wanting to buy a compact camera since a few years now, just went through some of my old posts where i've shortlisted a few camera's after doing a bit of reasearch. But at present as i said, i'm out of touch with the latest launches.

How much are you going to spend on it? I don't know what spec of camera you want, but many are so cheap now that it isn't a major buying decision any more. I am pretty sure that Amazon/Flipkart have enough of choice at the lower but capable range, and both extend warranty that is valid as far as I know.

In Mumbai, if you have the energy, go to the JJ Mehta store and use their computers to buy on line from them!

My budget is less than 20k. Looking for a compact camera with good picture quality,decent zoom & easy to use. I had shortlisted the below camera's a year back. Do not know if they are relevant today or whether they have become outdated.

Although I had forgotten them until recently, JJ Mehta has been famous for a long time. Never been there, (Nor even to Mumbai even) but have seen pics of shelves and cupboards packed high, and I hope one would be able to actually see stuff there.

Is that what they like their customers to do? To me, one of the advantages of bricks'n'mortar is I get to take my new baby home right there and then.

Little except the model name changes in one year with these, and you ought to get a camera that does what you want for a lot less than 20K. I would pick Canon and see what suits - their cheaper range is just as good as the more expensive ones, except for being a little bulkier at times. But even bulkier cameras of today are quite compact and many are easier to handle without dropping them compared to the smaller more expensive ones that I can drop quite easily.

I have no idea what the store looks like! It just seems to me that their site may have more of the range than the physical store given display inventory carrying constraints. All packed for sale boxes may be available in the store though.

For jj mehta online buyers...

They have an Amazon I'd which is different, something like techi-home. But it says "jj mehta" on the invoice. My reason for going amazon rather than their own site, was: quicker delivery and easier payment.

One GST comes in and states like UP are forced to toe the line in not being able to implement artificial limits on inter state purchases then the fun starts. We barely have about five weeks to this.

I bought Sony WX500 from FlipKart for around 20K. My first camera, I was dwelling for a while on HX400V/WX350/HX90V/B700. "Head" and a friend said portability and heart was bent on HX400V/B700.

For a start I think, the portability was something that I would personally love to have. Was not looking for anything overwhelming.

Hoping the WX500 serves me well.

Now that I have the closest thing to a "real" camera (Sony a-6000) that I have had for decades, and am applying some actual thought, trying to turn snapshots into something closer to photography, I have some "beginner's" questions. Here's the first, which has nothing to do with the camera itself...

But about PC Software.

Do people find there is much difference in what they see on their computer monitors when viewing photos with different software? I've never given it any thought before, just using the OS-supplied picture viewer unless actually editing.

Now I find that there is. My system is Linux Mint; the standard viewer is Eye of Mint (ie of Gnome, I suppose). Does it display JPEGs just fine? Well, I always thought so, but now, if I zoom in and out, I notice that noise is added.

I know that there are entire photo management/viewing packages available, with quite a wide choice, even in Linux. I never use one before because, just as with music, I am perfectly happy with the OS's folder-and-file hierarchy and never felt the need to use any database-d software to manage my pics or music.

As an alternative, for more critical pic viewing, I've recently been using XNview. For editing, I use The Gimp, although I have not got much deeper than levels, curves and cropping.

So far, the camera can make a better looking JPG than I can in, eg Darktable, although the possibilities of processing RAW images are intriguing

Hi guys,

I have a dslr from canon, 5d mk 3. Shutter count of 10,xxx. 2015 model. Got it for an inhouse model shoot project, and we are done. How much can i expect when selling this camera? I dont want to get ripped off, as my knowledge of cameras are pretty poor.

Never been used outside our studio at the office.

As you have experienced, yes the software can make a difference, or probably the type of file you use as well.

A big difference can also be due to the calibration (or lack thereof) of your monitor. Calibartion of your monitor is relatively easy these days. there are various simple devices that do it automatically. But if you are serious about controlling and improving the quality and appearances of your images, it's worth considering.

Obviously, processing your RAW files will give the option to create, in general, 'better' images then just the JPG that come out of your camera. But yes, it does take some time behind the computer for each picture. Some of the software editing programs have very eloborate photo library capabilities as well.

Jeroen

I'm very much a Lightroom addict. I also use it to keep track of all my photographs in its library mode. And I do a fair amount of printing of my photography for exibitions and my photoclub and again I use the Lightroom printing module to control my printer.

You speak from years of experience! As a complete beginner with RAW files, so far I can say that that the camera knows how to do a far better job than I can! But I'll revisit this from time to time, try to get some practice and improve.

At this stage, the thing I have a little practice with is using Gimp to adjust levels and curves. A small tweak can go a long way.

Thanks!

You can try dedicated RAW processing Applications from Sony. Usually that will give you the best results.

I have a Nikon camera and Nikon's software is pretty good at reading correct colors from RAW.

Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop would be the second best for processing raw.

My workflow for tricky shots is :

Camera RAW -> Nikon Capture NX-D --> TIFF --> Abode Lightroom (Edits) --> jpg

This would mean you will have to spin up a Windows VM lol:

I'd much rather remain Windows-free, quite apart from the cost of that software.

Gimp is obviously not photography centric. Perhaps the same thing can be achieved, but, as far as I know, there is no 1-stop-less slider anywhere. But it still does most of the things I need.

Darktable (I guess it tries to cover Lightroom) is daunting. I do feel that I should get to know at least some of it, though. It seems to be easy to make stuff worse, which could be a sign of its power ;)

Corel Aftershot (Yes! I actually paid for a piece of Linux software! It can be done, and I salute any software house that makes a Linux version) seems to me quite good for a beginner: I can get a decent result from a RAW or improve a JPEG.

Mostly, I am not going to take RAW anyway. I'll set the camera to RAW+fine unless I expect to want to tinker. My unashamedly modest aspiration is simply to take the best snaps I can. But if a half-decent portrait comes out of some concert snaps (I've achieved a couple) or I get some nice cat pics... all the better.

I hear tell there's a place called the internet which has an infinite appetite for cat pics rl: