Re: Digital Cameras

["David M. Bott" <david.m.bott@dartmouth.nouce.edu>]

[This followup was posted to misc.transport.rail.americas and a copy was 
sent to the cited author.]

In article <glennl-0502001658240001@dial-56-032.easystreet.com>, 
glennl@easystreet.com says...
> You
> can't adjust the "shutter speed" on a digital camera because there isn't a
> shutter to adjust the speed of.

Although I agree with most of your post on the limits of digital cameras 
for railfanning, I will tell you that you exaggerate in a couple of 
places and here you're misleading.

My Nikon Coolpix 950 has a shutter/aperture priority mode.  I can take 
night shots and timed exposures, although maybe I can't leave the shutter 
open for 30 minutes.

I have taken shots with the Nikon Coolpix when I first got it and didn't 
even know about the way to set the aperture and shutter.  I have a few 
shots of a railgrinder in action at night.  Granted, now I would have 
taken a better shot than I did then AND a pro with a 35mm SLR would have 
gotten spectacular shots, the digital camera did OK.  You can see those 
shots near the bottom of the page at:

http://southern-railway.railfan.net/railgrinder/

I've also seen some pretty spectacular shots of the moon and stars using 
this camera.  Not all digital cameras can do this and they still don't do 
it as well as a 35mm SLR in the hands of a knowledgeable photographer, 
but I took these shots not really even understanding what an F stop or 
depth of field really meant!  So imagine what a knowledgeable 
photographer can do.

I still agree that as the ONLY camera you own, a 35mm SLR is still 
preferable to a digital camera.  Just wanted to avoid digital camera 
bashing and misinformation.

Dave

-- 
______________________________________________
Dave Bott
http://southern-railway.railfan.net/
http://smrf.railfan.net/SMRF/