Barbra, I think a camera with auto photo stacking would be great. I do not know specifically about this camera but that feature does get my attention. Thanks for the link.
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
I've been thinking about buying one for several months now. If Santa remembers you Barbra, let us know what you think about it. I'm sorta' waiting to see if competitors jump into that niche and what they offer before I plunk down my cash.
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
I bought one after seeing this post. My old P&S camera, which was also an Olympus, broke after I ended dropping it. It lasted 5+ years and helped sell lots of material for me. Anyways, I liked the focus stacking and bracketing feature that Barbra mentioned in the original post. As someone who has taken tens of thousands of pictures over the years, of small rough and cut material, I was always bothered by the pitures being out of focus in the surrounding rough pieces or on specimens outside of my central focal point. I tried software a few years back, but it wasn't worthy of my time and didn't work to well either. Granted, it was free software, but still..... I have had it for a few weeks now and haven't had the chance to test it out on any rough or specimens yet. I just took the first focus stacking pic of my girl's newspaper ad she had placed for her business, and it worked perfectly. I even used it handheld and not on a tripod(recommend), and it worked fine. I like the fact it's shock proof(dropping), water proof, and dust proof. As someone who used to do lots of video's digging crystals, I was hampered by my old camera's and having to make sure dirt and mud never got into it's components. I also ran into mositure fog building on my lens, when shooting earlier in the morning, especially in the humid South. This TG-5 has dual lenses to prevent moisture fogging up the lens. Seeing as how I haven't gotten "into" the camera that much yet, I will try to fill folks in on things I like and dislike as I learn it's features. One issue I take note with, is the lack of lens cover this camera has. What?? How can you not have a way to protect the lens?? For some reason Olympus decided not to add a lens cover to this model. For a point and shoot camera, you can't beat the microscope mode(old flower mode) this thing has. Some of my best and most well known photographs were taken with Olympus P&S camera's. Ones much chaper and basic than this one...so...stands reason to believe then, that this model will easily fill the niche and have for a good P&S camera.
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
Barbra Voltaire wrote:
I have found that the lighting options make a huge difference in the final results when using microscopic setting.
When you say lighting options, Barbra, do you mean the external light ring/flash suppressor, or are you referring to lighting options(settings) in the camera itself? I like the idea of the light ring attachment to prevent shadows from being to close to the subject. I ran tinto this problem using my old P&S with gemstone photos....
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
ahhh..I have just dabbled in the cameras options so far.... Hopefully, I can figure out the bells and whistles easily. At least I know I can bug you with questions on what this does, or how that works...LOL
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
I just had a birthday and guess what my present was? I went for the black body instead of the red and I've just begun exploring it. The thing that drives me batty most is the lack of a manual. I printed the on-line manual but dealing with loose sheets of paper, no binder, is enormously frustrating.
Pros so far: excellent picture quality and even without the manual, it has reasonable intuitive features with on-screen info that helps a lot. I'm looking forward to discovering many more positive features. Love the image-stacking option -- it's almost worth the price by itself!
Cons so far: Lack of a manual, as mentioned; when using it with a tabletop tripod, the camera has to be detached from the pod to access the flash card -- a pain; controls and buttons are a bit small for clumsy male hands.
Without image-stacking:
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Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
I concur. The camera is awesome. I didn' get a tripod yet because my son said he has several he doesn't need....so soon. Did you do the stacking on the tripod?
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
Barbra Voltaire wrote:
I concur. The camera is awesome. I didn' gt a tripod yet because my son said he has several he doesn't need....so soon. Did you do the stacking on the tripod?
Yes, I use a tabletop tripod for most of my shots. I used a 2-second delay to avoid camera shake. ETA: Again, I'm annoyed at the lack of a manual for the viewer software. I shot a video but it won't play in Windows so had to download the proprietary Olympus program. It's complicated (at least for me) but no instructions!
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
ROM wrote:
Barbra Voltaire wrote:
I concur. The camera is awesome. I didn' gt a tripod yet because my son said he has several he doesn't need....so soon. Did you do the stacking on the tripod?
Yes, I use a tabletop tripod for most of my shots. I used a 2-second delay to avoid camera shake. ETA: Again, I'm annoyed at the lack of a manual for the viewer software. I shot a video but it won't play in Windows so had to download the proprietary Olympus program. It's complicated (at least for me) but no instructions!
Having used the Olympus 2 program extensively in my early days on here, and becoming quite proficient with it, I had stopped using Olympus cameras, and thus it's software, around 6 years ago. I actually just opened it today, for the second time since buying the camera, and found myself quite lost with everything, yet strangely it does seem familiar at the same time. I messed with the bluetooth function today and shot some pics of a couple gemstones I have had laying around Two pink tourmalines from Brazil. Al Falster gave me both these as a gift many years ago. One concave cut brandberg amethyst, and a colorless beryl. I just held the camera in my hand and took a couple shots using the stacked function feature.
The top one is using the auto SF feature, whereas the bottom is like the good ole days, with a single small focal point and blurry edges all around. I didn't mess with any of the settings really, and just snapped some quick pics.
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_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
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