I recently upgraded the Canon Power Shot camera from the AS620 to the SX40HS, which is now classified as a bridge camera - somewhere between a normal digital camera and an SLR. I'm still getting used to the focusing but here are the first few test photos









Lots more practice required before I get the quality I'm looking for

Jon

I use the manual focus for the first time last night and edited a few photos in Helicon Focus to improve the depth of field







Plenty more practice to come

Jon

Jon, with scenery like that you could get great pictures with a brownie, but the camera does a great job.
Your trees and wooded areas make the scenes so real the Kaydee couplers are the only give away. I noticed what looks to me like vulture sitting on a limb in one photo.
You might try playing with the contrast on the photos. I think most digital pictures lack contrast coming right off the camera and I think most digital pictures have the blue level a little too high (including scans). I use photoshop elements 5.0 and cut the blue level back about 10% but on some It might be as much as 25%.

Charlie

So far so good Jon!

BTW, I really love your Chessie engine, it doesn't looks toylike at all with that paint scheme.

Matt

The camera does your layout justice. Great looking shots.

The camera is definitely good...and the scenery you're shooting is fantastic. If I could build a camera like MacGyver from sticks, gum, and a coke bottle...your layout would still give great looking shots.

Great looking shots with a very good sharpness in distance also.
Enjoy your new camera!

I took a few more test photos tonight. One of the useful features of Helicon Focus is the ability to resize the photo to under 2megapixels - about 40% full picture quality. This means they can be easily uploaded to Railimages










Jon

Jon,
That is fine modeling and fine photography, and that says so little.......
Charlie

Looks like you've already got the hang of that new camera, Jon. I especially like the very first photo: it's one of those "I've been at that place..." kind of shots.

I noticed the vignetting on the next three shots: is that a function of the camera or something which you've manipulated later? It reminds me a little of the unwanted effect which I used to get when I used a pinhole attachment with my old 35mm film camera.




As usual, great modelling and well-photographed, too.

Wayne

Wayne

The vignette feature is one of the new photo effect tools in the Picasa 3 photo-editing suite that comes free with Google. I was playing with the new tools when I got my camera

Jon

Pushkin the cat helped me take a few more photos tonight using the old camera, as a reference point. Oddly enough I'm finding the 7.2mp Power Shot is easier to use with Helicon Focus than the new camera. The in-focus area of each individual shot in the stack is easier to spot










Yet another photo session cut short

Jon

great pic !!!!!

Great photos Jon, the depth of field is seriously impressive!

Cheers,

Kev

I took some more photos last night using the new Power Shot, but without editing the photos in Helicon Focus, as I wanted to see what the depth of field was like. I'm quite happy with the results so far, although the best photo of the session ended up being one using the old camera and Helicon Focus - typical.










...and the photos with the old camera








Now to take some video with the new camera

Jon