1.3 MP Digital Cam

Twowood

Is a 1.3 MP digital camera enough for posting pix? Twowood

airplanenut

A 1.3 MP camera should take a picture that is over 1024x768 pixels, I think... make sure it has macro... and a way to size it down

Jeremy

MastaHanky

If you're photographing coins, I'd be more concerned about whether it has optical zoom or not. I'd try to find one with at least 4x optical zoom.

Blade

Twowood,
Definitely enough to post, but it will get grainy quickly if you try to zoom into the details. Jeremy is right - You will want to use some software to decrease the full image size, or it will be huge (larger than full screen for most). But it will work fine for posting pics after you make the adjustments.

Macro feature is critical for close-up shots. If you don't have one, you will need attachable close-up lenses.

GP

Here is a pic I took with my Kodak 1.3mp camera. It is just a test image, and I know with better lighting and a better background I could do much better. I was going to mess with it this weekend, but the flu stopped that plan I just used a gold wrapped gift from under the tree as a background, and the lamp on my table. No special care taken to make it a good pic, just wanted to see what I could do with my new tripod

keets

.......it should work fine. a common make/model is the ricoh-4300 which is ONLY a 1.2 with a good macro and the pictures are more than adequate for anything online. good bang for the buck. tell us what the make/model is of the camera your considering and you'll get better input than a vague 1.3 reference.

al h.

Twowood

Iwas looking at a Hewlett-Packard 1.3 mp that CompUSA had on sale for $99. Don't know the model no. but the high school kid that waited on me panned it badly. He was interested in selling me a SONY 5.0mp for $700.
Why should I go for a Mercedes when a KIA will do the job? Twowood

GP

get the 1.3! I have a Kodak 3215 (or something like that) 1.3mp and a Olympus 3.0mp camera. Sure the 3mp will take a "deeper" picture, but it cost me enough money that I dont want to take it out of the house! On the other hand, I got the 1.3 with 3 extra rechargable batteries, a travel bag and some other goodies for just under $200 (cheaper had I waited for a sale). I take it with me all the time, even went on a few hikes and got some great outdoors pics The biggest difference I see is that the 1.3 needs more light to get a good pic, my outdoors daytime pics are great! but indoors and low light pics dont come out as clear, and tend to be very dark, even with the flash.

But if you want to feel comfortable taking your camera all over, shooting lots of pics and having fun without worrying about breaking it, then go for the 1.3, it will bring much more enjoyment over time

[edit] if you want to take coin pics, get a tripod!

airplanenut

<< <i>Why should I go for a Mercedes when a KIA will do the job? Twowood >>

Personally, I'd go for the Ferrari!

Twowood

Okay, you've convinced me...the 1.3 it is. Now, I know I'll need a tripod too, what else? Will I need any equipt. to transfer the images to the computer. I'm working with an old computer that doesn't have a USB port, is that a problem? Twowood

Bulldog

Twowood,

Radio Shack has a nice cheap little table top tripod for $20 bucks. It works fine for our purposes!

Bulldog

Russ

<< <i>I'm working with an old computer that doesn't have a USB port, is that a problem? >>



You will need to make sure that whatever camera you purchase either has a serial interface or can store pictures on floppy disks. You'll also need to be a patient person.

Russ, NCNE

MrKelso

<< <i>Okay, you've convinced me...the 1.3 it is. Now, I know I'll need a tripod too, what else? Will I need any equipt. to transfer the images to the computer. I'm working with an old computer that doesn't have a USB port, is that a problem? Twowood >>



Yes as the camera may need usb to transfer the images. You will need to add a USB card to your computer and the drivers. How old is your computer?
WHat make?

supercoin

Make sure you can zoom in (and still focus) on the coin. You want it to essentially fill the viewfinder. Many lower-end cameras can't do that, and many aren't able to accept a close-up lens that allows it.

But if you can fill the viewfinder, 1.3 MP should be more than adequate.

Another nice feature for close-up shots is a manual white balance. Automatic white balance usually does a poor job because it assumes a "typical" scene and lighting, so you'll have to tweak the colors after the fact to get them right.

PhillyJoe

I have a hp 215 1.3 digital. I think the camera can do more than my skills allow. It has a 4mb card which gives you about 10 or 12 regular shots and less in macro. Eats batteries like crazy; consider rechargables. Not a bad beginner model.

Joe

Twowood

MrKelso;
I'm working with an HP Pavilion 4535.It's about 3 years old...ancient by today's standards.
I think I'm gonna try to have it upgraded with a USB port added. Twowood

MrKelso

<< <i>MrKelso;
I'm working with an HP Pavilion 4535.It's about 3 years old...ancient by today's standards.
I think I'm gonna try to have it upgraded with a USB port added. Twowood >>



PM sent

coppercoins

Twowood - A 1.3MP (megapixel) camera should be quite sufficient if it has a macro feature which allows you to take photos from close-up. My camera allows for positioning up to two inches from the coin's surface and still focuses fine. The resulting photographs, using proper lighting, turn out very nice in quality. 1.3 megapixel is the same thing as saying 1.3 thousand pixels, or 1,300 pixels across. The standard size for this is actually 1,280 X 960 pixels. At that rate with good focus any photo should turn out nicely.

Coin photo using a 1.3 Mpx camera

Added:

As for equipment, your lighting is the most important part aside from the camera itself. I use GE "reveal" bulbs for many of my photographs. If you have a relatively steady hand, the tripod isn't necessary at first if your budget is constrained. I held the camera steady for many of my photographs and it was never a problem - it's just simpler and easier to use a tripod.

As for transferring the image to your computer, I would highly recommend the Sony Mavica line of cameras that allow you to take images directly to a standard floppy diskette which fits inside the camera. No need for interface hardware for your computer that might need a USB port to operate. Be very careful of the prices of the cameras. When I shopped for a camera many were less expensive than the Mavica, but in most cases they failed to mention to me that I would need to buy this $150 piece of hardware to transfer photos to a computer. Just make sure that all the pieces come together for one price or get ready to add the prices together. With the Sony Mavica, everything you need comes with the camera.

Software? Well, there's just about as many kinds of software out there as there are people here to describe them. I have always found Adobe Photoshop to be over and above all the rest in performance, but its learning curve is a bit high as is its price. To resolve the price issue a bit, Adobe has released limited versions of its software for photo editing that cost less than $100. This software should work pretty well for what you are doing. Paint Shop Pro has improved in recent versions to include many of the same features as Photoshop, is quite a bit less expensive, and quite sufficient for what you want to do. Its drawback is that it doesn't support many of the filters that Photoshop has, which isn't an issue in this conversation. I have never at all been impressed with any version of MGI Photo Suite or Corel Draw for their photo editing capabilities. The former is more of a scan-editing simple program and has very primitive sharpen and color editing tools. The latter is used much more for layout and isn't really a photo editor. Macromedia Fireworks is a nice program, but typically comes with the "Studio" suite of software which, on many people's computers, ends up wasting space unless you happen to be insterested in developing fully interactive multimedia web sites. So that's it in a nutshell. If you ask me, I pick Adobe.