Which camera?

[Michele Rushworth]

Thanks to Sharon for explaining this method of hers a year or two ago (blowing up the reference so you are painting "sight size") I have been doing this too.

Until a month ago I was doing it with photos shot with my puny old 3.4 megapixel Minolta. The results were quite acceptable, though, especially since (as Marvin mentioned) I also zoom in for face and hand shots and incorporate those more finely detailed closeup photos within my "sight size" reference in Photoshop before printing.

The largest image blowup I have made this way was 36 x 48" but with my new Nikon D70 I'm sure I'll have no problem getting the level of detail I need for much larger size paintings if I want to do them.

And no, I don't have a printer that will produce output that large. I "tile" the output, printing one 8x10 section of the painting at a time and taping them together on a piece of large foam core. Works great, especially since for most of the painting I'm standing across the room and don't want to get caught up in every buttonhole or shoelace bit of detail.

[Sharon Knettell]

Another concern, besides graininess, is color saturation. Would everything look washed out, would the form be well, formless?

I can get good color reference for the clothes, my famous dummy has been worth every cent. I have used Portra NC 160, a very fine grained film only in daylight for my skin-tones. Would you say the digital color is better than print for that purpose, ie. better skin-tones. I have two very sharp fast Nikon lenses so my prints blow-up quite well. What would be the advantage to a digital in my case.

[Mike McCarty]

I throw this out just for the heck of it. I'm not sure I would go this route except in very particular circumstances. A couple of years ago we had conversations about what might happen to the very good larger format film cameras.

Some would still argue that these larger negatives will produce as good an image as the best digitals (I suppose the very new 10 meg + digitals might be the exception).

Theres not much doubt that these large negatives can produce a superior image to 35 mm film. The deal is that they are now considered unworthy and therefore not worth much. Below is a link to an item on EBAY. Anything can look good if the price is right and it matches your needs.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...855294400&rd=1

[Marvin Mattelson]

Sharon I find the color fidelity and saturation to be far superior to film. You have to tweak the white balance and get a good quality printer but the potential to make infinitesimal adjustments is great. You can adjust saturation, contrast, color cast, sharpening and so much more. I never used color reference because I always found it to be inaccurate. Now I'm very happy with my color reference. It still isn't working from life, but it's pretty darn close.

[Michele Rushworth]

I did a photo shoot of two kids last week with my new D70 and I was blown away by the accuracy of the color, especially in the skintones. It really surprised me.

[Michele Rushworth]

I did a photo shoot last week with my new D70 and was blown away by the accuracy of the color, especially in the skintones. It really surprised me.

[Mary Sparrow]

Im having some issues with my camera, long story short, I'm buying a new one.

After reading these threads it seems the Canon eos and the Nikon d70 are the two highly recommended ones at the moment in the $1k price range. If anyone wants to throw another in the mix please do. What about the coolpix camera's, I know that some people like these too.

Do either have a steep learning curve? Our local camera dealer sells only Canons, so you know what he is recommending. But his prices are much higher than what I am finding on the interenet. Do any of you recommend online dealers?

[Mike McCarty]

Mary,

I am very partial to the SLR type digitals. Without going into all the particulars that have been discussed before, these camera will produce a much superior image mostly because the actual pixel is much larger that the pixel on the non SLR types. Also, your ability to shoot in low light conditions (an ability that I prize) is vastly improved with these cameras.

As far as learning curve -- I wouldn't worry much about that. Which ever camera you buy there will be some amount of this. I found that my Nikon D70 operated in a very intuitive way. I have glanced at the manual a few times, but haven't really needed it much.

As far as on-line stores -- the link below, B&H, is considered to be a reliable source. When deciding between a local retailer and an on-line store you should consider how much hand holding you require. The one thing the locals will do is give you some hands on help if you need it. I found that when I was buying my camera the prices for what I wanted were not that different at my local retailer so I bought from them. I say buy it locally if there is not much difference. They will be more likely to help you out of a jam if you purchased the camera from them.

I have heard some random minor squealing from a couple of Canon digital rebel owners. I've heard nothing but praise from D70 owners.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Mary Smith

Do any of you recommend online dealers?

http://www.calumetphoto.com/pr.jsp?p=hm&t=e295&US=1

Mary,

Calumet has always been good to deal with for me. I bought my Nikon D100 from them.

Garth
Nikon D100: 77,000 photos on the odometer, and counting.