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 Replies: 7 / Views: 1,400 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1161 Posts |
I was bored so I made an adapter for my camera from a piece of cardboard, electrical tape and a 30X loupe. The pics are taken by hand with nothing to stabilize the camera. That is my next project. Using a Point and shoot - Cannon Power Shot A3300 IS. Decent little camera with 16 MP, HD quality, 5X optical Zoom & 20X Digital Zoom. Quite a few various functions to the camera. Here is a 1962 Harp I recently found. Through my view finder it was alot clearer but the camera does not have the option to use anything else to take the picture except for the button on the camera. I took it through the 30X loupe adapter with camera max zoom 20X digital. As anyone who uses the digital zoom. Any movement at all is greatly exaggerated with zoom. Ahh well.  Here is another pic of a 1982 cent taken through 30X loupe with the camera set to 5X Optical Zoom. I think it was struck through an early stagge die cap. I thought it might of just been Struck Through Grease at first but with the coin in hand...it just does not look like a Greaser. I took this pic with the first attempt with making the loupe adapter. I had the tube to long at this point as you can see when I did not have the zoom maxed out. You can also notice it starts to blur the farther you get from center. Working with this camera is still a work in progress. OBV:  REV:  *** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. *** |
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Moderator
 United States
14463 Posts |
does that camera have a timer on it? so you can set the timer for 2-5 seconds, and stabilize the camera after pushing the button  |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
1161 Posts |
Yes it does have a timer. It will work great once I get it stabilized. I took the pictures holding the camera in hand. I made a make shift mount for it That I will try tomorrow until I get the screw for my tripod. I took the small tripod that came with my USB microscope and taped it to a stand for a older Dell flat screen monitor. There is no height adjustment but I can play with it and see how it works.
I was just messing around to see what kind of close-ups it would take. The pictures have been re-sized as the originals were way to large to post. I sized them down to 800 x 600. I believe the originals were somewhere around 4600 x 3800 or something like that.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Keep in mind, "digital zoom" is an industry catchphrase for "taking the pixels the lens supplies and adding to them where we think they should be." What you're seeing through the viewfinder is what the camera is actually seeing; that's why it is clearer than the final result which is artificially blown-up. And noting the difference in processing power between the brain of a small camera and that of a desktop computer running good postprocessing software, your best bet is to not use "digital zoom" on the camera at all.
Considering how much you have to downsize the images to post anyway, you don't need that extra digital enhancement. If you do, use your computer rather than the camera to do it.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1161 Posts |
Thank you for the input Dave. Much appreciated. I do not have a over the counter photo editor but I do use Photoscape and Paint.Net
They both work well for a free editor. I went to Canadian Tire today and got the parts I need to attach the camera to a tripod. Now to just work with it and see what I can do. I sure wish the camera had the capabilities to use my PC monitor as a viewfinder instead of using the LCD built in to the camera. I will be getting a lot of use out of the timer on the camera I can see.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
If you have a bit of the hacker in you, the A3300 can be made to shoot remotely using chdk and chdkptp. Not for the faint-of-heart as it rewrites the camera's internal software package. With that said, your example images show the camera autofocuses through the loupe nicely and if you're careful to document what works for exposure and lighting, soon you'll be getting it right on the first shot almost every time.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1161 Posts |
Thank you for the info SD. Unfortunately...my wife would not appreciate me trying to tweek the camera. I would love to give it a try but she loves to take pictures and if I make a mistake she would not be happy with me. I will play with the camera as is. I made my own screw adapter for the tripod I have to attach the camera for stable shooting. Now to just work with it and set up some lighting and so forth. I will use the timer to avoid any shake from using the manual controls. It will be a fun winter project.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Judging from the available evidence, I suspect you will enjoy this project.  |
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Replies: 7 / Views: 1,400 |
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Posted 02/09/2013 02:17 am
