Amassing my forces - Tau

I've just started 40K last year with a Tau army that I acquired from Bojesphob. I haven't painted much yet, but I am proud of what I do have done. I also have pics of WIPs here.

My pride and joy: Squad 1 Leader


Squad 2 Leader


Squad 3 Leader


Squad 4 Leader


A highly modified Broadside


A kneeling Crisis Suit - Primed only


A remodeled Crisis Suit - not yet primed

Looks good so far. Pics are a bit blurry. I'm having pic trouble as well though.

Brand new camera, 10 megapixel, still trying to figure out how to best take macro shots with it. These pics were taken with a tripod, about 3 feet away, using the zoom about 2/3 the way in. Any closer, and the camera would not focus. I did turn town the resolution to 1600x1200 and still had to crop them. Perhaps I should have left it on full resolution and cropped and resized them as well, like I did at the tournament.

WOW! What a difference! I was using a white shirt and an overhead light in the room before. This time, I used the light box with 2 very bright desk lamps on either side shining in through translucent plastic "windows" (that diffuses the light so it's not so harsh). My dad also recommended disabling image stabilization while doing macro shots with a tripod - I did that too. Between that and the light box, this pic turned out AWESOME! All I did after it came off the camera's memory card was crop and resize it.

What camera (brand name and model please)?

Canon Powershot SX120 IS

roughly $200 at Best Buy (I think it might have been on sale when I bought it)

10 Megapixel, 10x OPTICAL Zoom, runs on AA batteries (yes I know, LiIon is better, but imagine it running out in the middle of Disney World..., at least I can buy alkalines and keep on shooting with AAs). I normally use NiMH AA batteries.

I bought a 16GB SD card at Microcenter for it for about $30, it comes with 128 MB = tiny, maybe 10 shots worth?

It has Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Fast Sports mode, Program mode, and full manual mode, among other modes to choose from. Most are selected using the wheel, others are buried in a menu accessible under one of the modes. (You can tell, I'm still learning how to use it!)

My favorite feature is you turn the flash on and off just by flipping it up or down.

This is probably one step down from a DSLR. I wanted to get my money's worth and I wanted a camera that I would be happy with now and later if I decide to get serious about photography.

Amazon link with customer reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-SX120IS-Digital-Stabilized/dp/B002LITT3S

I've got a Coolpix S550- I dont know if its me or not but I cant find the aperature setting- I beleive its 10 megs but the only special shooting I can figure out is the macro. So maybe I just need a lesson or a new camera. Others have tried to tell me but if I dont have the camera in the same spot as the lecture I never remember.

LOXMYTH wrote:

I've got a Coolpix S550- I dont know if its me or not but I cant find the aperature setting- I beleive its 10 megs but the only special shooting I can figure out is the macro. So maybe I just need a lesson or a new camera. Others have tried to tell me but if I dont have the camera in the same spot as the lecture I never remember.

Your camera has an automatic Aperture. It will set based on the environment. You can manually control your shutter. Ap looks like max is 5.6 on your camera. Not great but really not bad. Should still be able to get good pics.

To me the requirements:
1) Tripod
2) Matched bulbs for lighting
3) ability to control shutter speed
Essentially your camera is set to Shutter priority 100% of the time letting you adjust the shutter speed then the Aperture will set to match. However, I think your Aperture range is limited too.

Again, you can still take very good pictures if your weapon arm or something sticks out of or into the plane of your object, it may be blurry the further away from the focal point it is.

Thanks John- now that I have the camera and the words in the same place I will give it a try. Sorry bout hijackin your post Shaso.

That's why they call it a "discussion forum"! A discussion changes subject from time to time.

BTW: Loxmyth, your camera is a good one, but perhaps not ideally suited to taking awesome macro shots. I read up on it on Amazon and it looks like an average point-and-click style that most people would use for vacation. Yes, it is 10MP, I confirmed it. I also downloaded and read the manual from here: http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/coolpix/S550_en.pdf. There is almost nothing that is manually adjustable as far as shutter, aperture, and ISO setting. But, the good news is this, I think you might get the best shots using a tripod and the "Party/Indoor" mode, with no or very little zoom, then cropping and resizing the picture once you get it from your camera to your computer. Also, take multiple shots of the same thing with the different modes it has and see what turns out to be the best.

Best of luck.

Thank you will give it a try.