Digital imaging

[bigoltool]

Ok so I am no Camera nut or anything but My Nikon 800 just doesn't seem to be taking good crisp pictures anymore. I thought it was just the inside pics that were getting "washed out" but I took some pics of my bike yesterday and it is doing the same thing in direct sunlight also. The pictures just don't have that glossy natural look I am after. So my question is do digital cameras lose there ability to take decent photos over time. I took this one in Direct sunlight with the light meter set for same. It started out as a TIF so compression shouldn't affect it. I tried massaging it in Paintshop pro but I am equally as inept at that as I am at taking pics. Any thoughts?

 

[jwcfbd]

moved to random

 

[Don Hardcastle]

I don't have an answer for you but you might try calling a camera shop. Someone will have an answer for you I'm sure.

Don

 

[BigGeorge]

It sounds like it's a compression issue within the camera. Just for the sake assuming it's a TIF compression problem, set the camera's white balance to AUTO, and set the camera to the highest .jpg setting (Fine: 1/4). Try that and see what happens.

 

[BusaCruise]

does the camera have settings for the compression? Several models have the ability to range from 1MP in increments up to 5 or 6MP...depending on their rating.

That pic looks as if it has been enlarged with software.....the jaged edges along straight lines are a tell tale sign.

 

[bigoltool]

does the camera have settings for the compression? Several models have the ability to range from 1MP in increments up to 5 or 6MP...depending on their rating.

That pic looks as if it has been enlarged with software.....the jaged edges along straight lines are a tell tale sign.

The pic was originally a TIf but I had to turn it into a Sub 200k JPEG to post it here. My camera is an older Nikon Coolpix 800. It has three different JPEG modes and one TIF mode(no compression) It is a 2 mp camera so maybe its just time to step up and invest in a better rig.

 

[BulletTrain]

does the camera have settings for the compression? Several models have the ability to range from 1MP in increments up to 5 or 6MP...depending on their rating.

That pic looks as if it has been enlarged with software.....the jaged edges along straight lines are a tell tale sign.

The pic was originally a TIf but I had to turn it into a Sub 200k JPEG to post it here. My camera is an older Nikon Coolpix 800. It has three different JPEG modes and one TIF mode(no compression) It is a 2 mp camera so maybe its just time to step up and invest in a better rig.

Yeah, things have come a LONG way since the Nikon 800 came out. You can get an incredible digicam for a few hundred bucks. I'm partial to Canon's digital stuff, but Nikon has some good units as well.

 

[TruWrecks]

If the CCD has failing cells it will start to look very noisy (static dots). The color saturation and clarity will both be degraded. It should happen suddenly. It would degrade slowly over time, as the CCD looses more pixels due to burnout. Try this. With the lens cap on, and in a dark room, take a picture for 10 seconds. Download it to a PC, and look to see how black it is. If you're getting pixel burnout you'll see a lot of static in the picture. If you have a lot of static, it's probably time to replace the Nikon.

Happy camera hunting.

 

[bigoltool]

If the CCD has failing cells it will start to look very noisy (static dots).  The color saturation and clarity will both be degraded.  It should happen suddenly.  It would degrade slowly over time, as the CCD looses more pixels due to burnout.  Try this.  With the lens cap on, and in a dark room, take a picture for 10 seconds.  Download it to a PC, and look to see how black it is.  If you're getting pixel burnout you'll see a lot of static in the picture.  If you have a lot of static, it's probably time to replace the Nikon.

Happy camera hunting.

Wow. Never heard that one before. I will give it a try! Thanks

 

[nitrousjunkie]

Sweet bike never the less! Let BT take some of it! Dude rocks with a cam and his photochop skills aint bad either! Check it.....

 

[rpm9001]

I does look a little washed out. wish I could help ya..

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[TruWrecks]

If the CCD has failing cells it will start to look very noisy (static dots).  The color saturation and clarity will both be degraded.  It should happen suddenly.  It would degrade slowly over time, as the CCD looses more pixels due to burnout.  Try this.  With the lens cap on, and in a dark room, take a picture for 10 seconds.  Download it to a PC, and look to see how black it is.  If you're getting pixel burnout you'll see a lot of static in the picture.  If you have a lot of static, it's probably time to replace the Nikon.

Happy camera hunting.

Wow. Never heard that one before. I will give it a try! Thanks

Learned it from Astrophotography a few years ago. You can also take a picture of something that's really black. Save it as a Tiff. When you zoom in really close, if some pixels look more grey than black or you see white spots in it, you may have a CCD problem.

 

[TruWrecks]

BTW... The first picture does look like it has too much noise, but that could be from the jpeg compression.

 

[BulletTrain]

Sweet bike never the less! Let BT take some of it! Dude rocks with a cam and his photochop skills aint bad either! Check it.....

Man, I forgot about that one.... Looks like it got an extra does of compression somewhere along the line though. Here was my favorite from that series.

 

[BulletTrain]

And another... Sorry for the thread jack though...

 

[DAB]

That does look a little faded. You could experiment with contrast, brightness and gamma in an editor but it might end up looking too artificial.

Can you fit filters on your camera? In the "old days" of film cameras you could get daylight/UV and polarizing filters that would prevent bright sunlight from blitzing your film too much.

I'd also try lower light levels, try taking some pictures at sunrise or sunset, with or without flash, you might get better color saturation that way.

When indoors, try flash and/or different types of external lighting (flourescent, tungsten, spot, diffuse) to see what makes the color on your bike "pop" the most.

And try some plain or simpler backgrounds, experiment with different colors that are lighter or darker than the bike's paint etc.

Finally, take lots of different shots with different settings and angles. I worked for a fashion studio in New York once as a programmer and got to observe their "Professional Photographers" at work. They got it right by taking literally hundreds of shots, of which a few turned out acceptable.

 

[bigoltool]

That does look a little faded. You could experiment with contrast, brightness and gamma in an editor but it might end up looking too artificial.

Can you fit filters on your camera? In the "old days" of film cameras you could get daylight/UV and polarizing filters that would prevent bright sunlight from blitzing your film too much.

I'd also try lower light levels, try taking some pictures at sunrise or sunset, with or without flash, you might get better color saturation that way.

When indoors, try flash and/or different types of external lighting (flourescent, tungsten, spot, diffuse) to see what makes the color on your bike "pop" the most.

And try some plain or simpler backgrounds, experiment with different colors that are lighter or darker than the bike's paint etc.

Finally, take lots of different shots with different settings and angles. I worked for a fashion studio in New York once as a programmer and got to observe their "Professional Photographers" at work. They got it right by taking literally hundreds of shots, of which a few turned out acceptable.

Yes you can fit Nikkon(Nikor?) filters to this body, but I do not have any. The filters may cost me as much as a new camera though. I think I will try to take a few more tonight and try what a couple of the others have suggested with respect to a black image to check my CCD. I first started noticing this stuff when taking pics in the shop this winter with the flash. It was like the flash was just washing out everything. So I tried putting the camera on a tripod and turning off the flash entirely and just relying on Ambient lighting. Same story only darker. I may be beating a dead horse here. Shame too, this Camera has payed for itself many times over.

 

[DAB]

Yes you can fit Nikkon(Nikor?) filters to this body, but I do not have any. The filters may cost me as much as a new camera though. I think I will try to take a few more tonight and try what a couple of the others have suggested with respect to a black image to check my CCD. I first started noticing this stuff when taking pics in the shop this winter with the flash. It was like the flash was just washing out everything. So I tried putting the camera on a tripod and turning off the flash entirely and just relying on Ambient lighting. Same story only darker. I may be beating a dead horse here. Shame too, this Camera has payed for itself many times over.

If it turns out that the CCD is shot, I (like BT) can recommend the Canon digitals, you get a lot of camera for the money.

 

[CorrodedAlien]

Do yourself a favor and toss the old camera and get a new 5 MP or better camera. You will be happy much faster.

then get a didital camcorder, tank mopunt, and take some movies...

 

[05 Busa LE]

I've got a Canon SD200 (3.2 MP), and it's pretty awesome. Amazon has the SD450 (5 MP) for about $250 (see pic below).