Digital Photography

Digital Camera

Many of the photos shown on this site were taken with an Olympus® D-600L and C-2500L digital cameras. Although D-600L was a state-of-the-art digital camera when I purchased it in 1997, it soon became obsolete. I switched over to C-2500L in May 2000 and then to an Olympus E-300, a DSLR, in December 2004. I recently (November 2007) traded in E-300 for an Olympus E-510. Here is a review on the E-510.

I purchased the camera body only because I already own an Olympus/Zuiko Digital ED 50mm Macro Lens for photographing orchid blooms, an Olympus/Zuiko Digital ED 14-54mm F2.8-3.5 Zoom Lens, and a Zuiko Digital ED 18-180mm F3.5-6.3 Telephoto Lens. I have been using the 18-180mm lens as a general-purpose lens for traveling, because it's not convenient carrying multiple lenses and swapping them.

When I went on a safari in Tanzania in May 2007, I really wished I had had a much longer telephoto lens. So, a long telephoto lens is now on my wish list.

The "live view" feature which allows me to compose a shot by looking at the 2.5" LCD is more useful than I had imagined - especially when taking a very close-up shot. There is no need to crouch to peer into the viewfinder, and also I can check the focus more accurately by zooming (10x) into about-to-be-shot image on the LCD. I, also, am very happy with the image stabilization feature even though I use a tripod for macro photography.

I have a number of 2GB and 4GB compact flash memory cards which can hold a large number of images even when I shoot them as RAW files. On a recent (June 2007) trip to England, I had one of the compact flash memory cards fail, causing me to lose a number of photos. So, I'm somewhat leery of purchasing larger memory cards, reasoning that by using smaller capacity cards I can minimize the number of lost photos in case of a card failure.

Since E-510 has a slot for a second memory card, I purchased a 2GB xD card, which I expect to use as a spare or emergency card in case I run out of compact flash cards on a long trip.

Here are photos of L. anceps taken with the E-510 with the 50mm macro lens:

Since it's obvious that good lighting is very important in achieving good depth of field, I splurged in late January 2005, and purchased an Olympus SRF-11 Ring Flash Set, which is a ring-shaped flash that mounts around the camera lens. It seems to provide soft diffused light even when I move the camera very close to the subject. The above photo was taken without the ring flash because I didn't have it when I took that photo. The following close-up photo of Odontoglossum pulchellum was taken with the ring flash and E-300, not E-510. You can see that there are no sharp shadows. The individual flowers are about 1" (2.5 cm) long.

These days I rarely use the ring flash set despite having paid good money for it. The only time I use it is on a dreary winter day. Living in sunny California, I have bright sunny days most of the time!

I briefly considered buying an Olympus E-3 which was recently introduced, but I quickly convinced myself that at $1,700 (body only) it is an overkill for my purposes.

Since I like to have a dark background, I often use black velvet as a backdrop. In order to facilitate this, I've built a simple contraption that allows me to drape the velvet cloth very easily. I've created a "T" with two strips of wood; attached a heavy base to the "T"; and then staled a large piece of black velvet to the top of the "T". Here is a photo, showing the back side of the contraption. I place this background at least 2 feet (60 cm) beyond the subject. It is possible to staple additional velvet pieces (of different colors) to the "T" and select a desired background color much as one would use a flipchart.

For excellent tips on photographing orchids visit the Photo Tips page by Greg Allikas. You will see not only great tips but also fabulous photos of beautiful orchids.

If you are looking for a digital camera to purchase, here is an excerpt from an article (San Jose Mercury News, Monday, October 25, 2004) by Mike Langberg that might be of interest to you:

Snap Shooter, Enthusiast or Prosumer

For snap shooters (people who want simple and inexpensive cameras that nonetheless deliver quality pictures), entry-level point-and-shoot cameras at $150 to $300 with 3 to 4 megapixels are suitable. For enthusiasts (a tech-centric crowd willing to spend more for special features), cameraswith 5 to 7 megapixels in the price range of $300 to $600 are suitable. For prosumers (Serious photo hobbyists who want the best of everything), the hottest prosumer category is digital single-lens reflex, or SLR, cameras that support interchangeable lenses. Prices range from $600 to $1500 with 6 to 8 megapixels.

Brands of the hand

If you don't want to do extensive research, you'll be safe sticking to the major brands you can count on one hand: Canon, Kodak, Nikon, Olympus and Sony.

Don't play with toys

There are some very low-cost digital cameras on the market, often from companies whose names are unfamiliar, for less than $150. In many cases you won't get what you don't pay for.

Thanks for more memory

Digital cameras always come with tiny memory cards that hold only one or two dozen pictures, but you can buy 512MB cards in any of the popular formats, such as Compact Flash, Secure Digital and Memory Stick, for about $50 to $75. (Note by Yoshi: these days one can buy a 2GB or 4GB card for $30 to $80.)

Shoot for the moon, save regrets for later

Digital cameras offer multiple settings for image resolution; lower resolution makes room for more pictures on the memory card. I strongly urge setting your camera to its highest resolution at all times because you never know when you'll capture that once-in-a-lifetime shot worthy of printing as an 8x10. You can always erase the images you don't want. (Note by Yoshi: also for the purpose of digital zoom and image cropping when editing the photos, it is desirable to have as much data as possible.)

Don't just listen to me

There's a wealth of information online for digital camera shoppers. My favorite sites include Cnet, Consumer Reports and Digital Photography Review.