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A Pleasant Surprise from a very small package - New Camera

Santa brought me a new digital camera (Pentax Optio s5i) for Christmas. I told Santa I needed it for hiking / backpacking because the one I have is way too heavy. To hiking enthusiasts, weight and size means everything. The camera is really cool, weighs 4 oz (including battery) and is 3.4x2x.8" and is loaded with too many features to mention. Well I'll mention the cool panorama mode that will line up a 360 degree image display.

Anyway, I was setting up my pack tonight and opened the camera box for the first time. I thought I would give the camera a shot at a coin after I discovered it has a macro and super macro mode.

All I can say is this is gonna be fun.image

Here's my image after a couple of minutes of playing with the features.

image


Comments

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    IrishMikeIrishMike Posts: 7,738 ✭✭✭
    Heh, they can be a lot of fun not only for panoramas but the macro world too. Good start.
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    Another up close and personal

    image

    image
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    mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭
    Nice Oregon trail.
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
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    LanLordLanLord Posts: 11,681 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That's a pretty half, what grade is that? (66, 67?) It looks way clean.
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    MarkMark Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭✭✭
    FtaMan:

    Those are really nice pictures and I don't care if you took only a couple of minutes or a couple of days: They are super!

    Mark
    Mark


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    shylockshylock Posts: 4,288 ✭✭✭
    Those are really nice pictures and I don't care if you took only a couple of minutes or a couple of days: They are super!

    Agreed, great Oregon pic! image
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    FatManFatMan Posts: 8,977


    << <i>That's a pretty half, what grade is that? (66, 67?) It looks way clean. >>

    Thanks Tom.

    It is a solid 66. Very clean but the strike is a bit mushy. The slab adds just a touch to coolness factor. You don't see many of these anymore.

    image
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    FatManFatMan Posts: 8,977
    More fun. A little dark though. Will have to figure out the exposure thing.

    image
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    K6AZK6AZ Posts: 9,295
    That seems to do very well on coins for a super compact camera. Very nice coins. Here is the review if anyone wants to see how small this camera is and all the specs:

    Steve's Digicams
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    lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
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    FatManFatMan Posts: 8,977
    image

    image
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    GeminiGemini Posts: 3,085
    I agree with the rest very nice pics and great looking coins too.
    A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
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    BaleyBaley Posts: 22,658 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Wow, great pictures, teriffic coins! image

    Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

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    USMC_6115USMC_6115 Posts: 2,968 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Fatman,

    I've had the same camera for months and I CAN'T get pics like what you did in a couple of minutesimage

    How are you doing it? Freehand, tripod, special lighting??? WOW!
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    Great Pictures John! image
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    FatManFatMan Posts: 8,977
    massscrew,

    I'm using my setup that I already had for my old camera. It is a make shift setup using an old tri-pod and three desk lamps with GE Reveal bulbs 40-60 watts. For these shots I used one lamp with direct light from the left (9:00) and one lamp with indirect light from the right (2:00). The camera is setup about 4" from the slab.

    The camera is set in user mode with adjustments to the following settings:

    Focus Mode - Super Macro (s w/flower)

    Recorded pixels - 1600 x 1200
    Quality level - 3 stars
    Manual White Balance - need high quality white paper for camera to set. This is key to set the white balance manually under the exact lighting.
    Focusing Area - Spot
    AE Metering - Central area setting
    Sensitivity - Auto
    Sharpness - +1
    All others - Auto or Default setting

    All I did with the Computer was re-size as at 1600 x1200 the image is really big.

    I am really surprised with the results. I didn't think a compact camera would be able to shoot this well in macro mode. As I said above I really purchased it for backpacking use.

    Good luck with yours.
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    tmot99tmot99 Posts: 5,238 ✭✭✭
    Fatman:

    I love the Bay Bridge half. I would love to find a nice toned one like that.

    Cool pics.
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    JdurgJdurg Posts: 997
    My Sony DSC-P73 isn't bad, but it's nowhere near as good as some of these $1000+ cameras. Thankfully, while my photography skills aren't the best, my photoshop skills are great so any problems I have in my photography with light levels and color balance are pretty easily corrected post photography.

    I also have to say that those pictures shown here in this thread are great! Nice job with getting the coins and the pictures. image
    I collect the elements on the periodic table, and some coins. I have a complete Roosevelt set, and am putting together a set of coins from 1880.

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