F707 FNG

I have a couple of questions..

I am a pretty competant photographer, but all I have done in the past has been film based.
I just bought an F707 yesterday, and first impressions are pretty good.

However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy that..but it's little things like that.

Is there any outside source for additional manuals, or on line help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague, especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been taken.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated..

--For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the Protected will Never Know.
Vietnam

8th APS 71 RVN said:

I have a couple of questions..
I am a pretty competant photographer, but all I have done in the
past has been film based.
I just bought an F707 yesterday, and first impressions are pretty
good.
However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for
example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my
pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy
that..but it's little things like that.
Is there any outside source for additional manuals, or on line
help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague,
especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been
taken.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated..

Click to expand...

Download the free program Irfanview from the internet. It's a very fast jpg viewer that does on-the-fly resampling to fit the image to the size of your screen.

As far as doing other stuff. Photshop is used by the experts, but it's also expensive and hard to learn. Your best bet is to get the program Paint Shop Pro which you can download from the internet or buy in stores for around $100, and buy a book on how to use it.

8th APS 71 RVN said:

I have a couple of questions..
I am a pretty competant photographer, but all I have done in the
past has been film based.
I just bought an F707 yesterday, and first impressions are pretty
good.
However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for
example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my
pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy
that..but it's little things like that.
Is there any outside source for additional manuals, or on line
help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague,
especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been
taken.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated..

--
For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the
Protected will Never Know.
Vietnam

Click to expand...

Hi FNG,
I havnt seen that term used in a while. LOL
A good start would be Ron Pars FAQ on Digital Photogrphy
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html
You might want the Hyperfocal tables for the 707
http://community.webshots.com/photo/30385915/30388047FcwFMBZNmJ

I use Photo Shop Elements for editing. you can get a 30 day free trial from Adobe.com.

Then get out and start shooting. I really like the part where nothing dies when I shoot it now.
This was the first shot with my DA
http://www.pbase.com/image/1164249/medium.jpg--RegardsBob

8th APS 71 RVN said:

I have a couple of questions..

Click to expand...

heh, FNG. Not heard that for a while...

8th APS 71 RVN said:

However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for
example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my
pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy
that..but it's little things like that.

Click to expand...

That is caused by the display resolution of your monitor, i.e. 640x480, 800x600 etc. The images produced by the 707 are much larger than can be displayed full size on the average person's monitor.

I use ACDsee, Irfanview (free and very good, especially with the free plugins) and Media Center Pro to view, add notes, and track the images. These viewers will allow you to zoom in/out and also have settings to fit the image to full screen or window. I have them set to view full screen, which means the image is interpolated down to whatever the screen size settings are. In other words, the full image will be displayed, using the entire screen.

Image editors will do the same thing, in general. There are at least 3 editors under $100 that are claimed by their users to be very good, Paint Shop Pro 7, Adobe Elements and Picture Window Pro. I use Paint Shop Pro. Check the new thread here about editors that folks use.

Additionally, my monitor and video card support changing resolutions on the fly, up to 1800x1440, which is still much smaller than the images produced by the 707. I usually change monitor resolution to 1600x1220 to view 707 images.

8th APS 71 RVN said:

help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague,
especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been
taken.

Click to expand...

I'd suggest that you get a memory stick reader, USB type. Copy your images to your hard drive to review them. Burn the keepers to CD in their original form. Edit only copies. Lots of stuff to learn. Ask questions and read this forum and others that are related. Most film techniques transfer to digital, so it's not a huge leap, except for editing.

With the MGI Software Sony provided, you should be able to go to "View" and go to "Full Screen" and get the whole picture on your computer. You can also do the zoom in and zoom out.

Here are a couple of websites I just found which may help you also:

http://www.pipeline.com/~tomf2468/temp1.html

http://www.f707.net/

Have fun!

DeeDee

8th APS 71 RVN said:

I have a couple of questions..
I am a pretty competant photographer, but all I have done in the
past has been film based.
I just bought an F707 yesterday, and first impressions are pretty
good.
However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for
example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my
pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy
that..but it's little things like that.
Is there any outside source for additional manuals, or on line
help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague,
especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been
taken.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated..

--
For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the
Protected will Never Know.
Vietnam

Click to expand...

I didn't know anyone was still looking at this hyperfocal table. FYI ... I used .3mm (for 8x10) for circle of confusion for this table ... this is slightly higher than what others have used in this forum ( .2mm).

The simplest, most usefull software I've found for organizing and veiwing pictures is Olympus Camedia master. It uses a normal computer directory structure and has a slideshow mode for full screen viewing of multiple pictures. It also has some basic editing abilities (rotate, brightness/color correction, crop). Another software will be needed for more detailed editing of individual photos.

Unfortunately you can't buy the software ... it comes with olympus cameras. I have the software from another camera.

BTW ... when editing make sure to keep JPG quality settings as high as possible. The olympus software defaults to medium when installed ... you lose picture detail when saving.

Software is key ... keep trying until you say "wow ... why did I ever use film".

Good luck,

Geoff

Robert Wright said:

8th APS 71 RVN said:

I have a couple of questions..
I am a pretty competant photographer, but all I have done in the
past has been film based.
I just bought an F707 yesterday, and first impressions are pretty
good.
However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for
example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my
pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy
that..but it's little things like that.
Is there any outside source for additional manuals, or on line
help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague,
especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been
taken.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated..

--
For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the
Protected will Never Know.
Vietnam

Click to expand...

Hi FNG,
I havnt seen that term used in a while. LOL
A good start would be Ron Pars FAQ on Digital Photogrphy
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html
You might want the Hyperfocal tables for the 707
http://community.webshots.com/photo/30385915/30388047FcwFMBZNmJ
I use Photo Shop Elements for editing. you can get a 30 day free
trial from Adobe.com.
Then get out and start shooting. I really like the part where
nothing dies when I shoot it now.
This was the first shot with my DA



--
Regards
Bob

Click to expand...

Kerry Pierce said:

There are at
least 3 editors under $100 that are claimed by their users to be
very good, Paint Shop Pro 7, Adobe Elements and Picture Window Pro.
I use Paint Shop Pro. Check the new thread here about editors that
folks use.

Click to expand...

Again I have to stand up for gimp ( http://www.gimp.org ) which is free, and IMO much better than PSP (it's been quite some versions since I tried it though...). I know the gimp is mainly a linux program, but since it's a) free b) pretty good c) well documented online and d) available for at least windows also, I'm amazed that noone here uses it. Anyways, the others mentioned should also do the job...--l8erAtte http://home.wanadoo.nl/atte/photo

Atte André Jensen said:

Again I have to stand up for gimp (www.gimp.org) which is free, and
IMO much better than PSP (it's been quite some versions since I
tried it though...).

Click to expand...

I tried GIMP. Even though it is free and touted as a Photoshop clone, I chose to delete it. PSP 7 is much better than previous versions, especially for photo editing. It has some excellent auto photo tools. GIMP might be a good editor, but I didn't see anything that made it better, for my use, than PSP, especially for a novice user.

Kerry Pierce said:

Atte André Jensen said:

Again I have to stand up for gimp (www.gimp.org) which is free, and
IMO much better than PSP (it's been quite some versions since I
tried it though...).

Click to expand...

I tried GIMP. Even though it is free and touted as a Photoshop
clone, I chose to delete it. PSP 7 is much better than previous
versions, especially for photo editing. It has some excellent auto
photo tools. GIMP might be a good editor, but I didn't see anything
that made it better, for my use, than PSP, especially for a novice
user.

Click to expand...

I must add that I run Linux, so PSP is not an option for me anymore. Please let's not get into a os-flame, but I must say that gimp is great for me. I don't even know what auto-stuff it has, and I never looked. As I pointed out in the "editor survey" I normally only do levels, curves, USM, cloning and maybe saturation, not because that's the only available tools in gimp (cause they're not...) but because these tools are the most powerful by far IMHO.--l8erAtte http://home.wanadoo.nl/atte/photo

Atte André Jensen said:

I must add that I run Linux, so PSP is not an option for me
anymore. Please let's not get into a os-flame, but I must say that
gimp is great for me.

Click to expand...

No flames from this side. I have no financial interest in any software, so what you use is no skin off my nose... I simply wanted to point out that PSP 7 is a very capable editor, fully the equal, IMO, to any editor mentioned. I have Photoshop 5.5 as well and is only better than PSP in a couple areas, such as actions, white/black point dropper, etc. I'm eagerly awaiting the next version of PSP, which is anticipated to have much more photo editing tools, and probably something like actions or scripts.

Atte André Jensen said:

I don't even know what auto-stuff it has, and
I never looked. As I pointed out in the "editor survey" I normally
only do levels, curves, USM, cloning and maybe saturation, not
because that's the only available tools in gimp (cause they're
not...) but because these tools are the most powerful by far IMHO.

Click to expand...

AFAIK, all of those powerful tools are in the 3 editors that I mentioned, plus others I didn't mention. PSP7 has a histogram adjustment tool that is quite powerful as well. As a Linux user, you're comfortable with using manual adjustment tools. The auto tools in PSP, Elements, etc, are better suited to users less inclined to manual stuff.

ulead's photoimpact won PC Mags award for best program in it's class (2 years ago when i bought v5.) i'm up to v7 now. there is a trial version available on uleads website.

no one uses it here, but it's really nice and has quite a following.

do a search on "pi tutorial" and see some of the creative things people are doing with it.

ken

8th APS 71 RVN said:

I have a couple of questions..
I am a pretty competant photographer, but all I have done in the
past has been film based.
I just bought an F707 yesterday, and first impressions are pretty
good.
However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for
example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my
pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy
that..but it's little things like that.
Is there any outside source for additional manuals, or on line
help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague,
especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been
taken.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated..

--
For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the
Protected will Never Know.
Vietnam

Click to expand...

I'm going to look around at various software programs..right now I'm just muddling through.

By the way, can you copy the jpg files direct to CD? I have a burner at home..that might be a good way to store it. ?!?

scorch said:

no one uses it here, but it's really nice and has quite a following.

do a search on "pi tutorial" and see some of the creative things
people are doing with it.

ken

8th APS 71 RVN said:

I have a couple of questions..
I am a pretty competant photographer, but all I have done in the
past has been film based.
I just bought an F707 yesterday, and first impressions are pretty
good.
However... I am a complete rookie with regard to Digital Photo..for
example..I was looking at some of my shots last night on my
pc...and the picture was HUGE...I'm sure there is a way to remedy
that..but it's little things like that.
Is there any outside source for additional manuals, or on line
help? The instruction manual that comes with it is pretty vague,
especially on what to do with your pictures after the shot has been
taken.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated..

--
For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the
Protected will Never Know.
Vietnam

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the Protected will Never Know. Vietnam

8th APS 71 RVN said:

...
By the way, can you copy the jpg files direct to CD? I have a
burner at home..that might be a good way to store it. ?!?

Click to expand...

I don't think so.

this is what I do:
1. I move (not copy) the files from my card to a new originals folder.
2. I copy the folder to a new folder on my webserver on a different drive.
3. I delete and edit the web images.
4. I use Thumber to create the webpage.

5. I occasionally copy the web folder(s) to CD to give to friends/relatives. This is a good way to share them.

6. I occassionaly ghost my whole system to a spare 40gig I bought just for backups.

7. I occassionally copy the newer originals to CD when I don't feel like backing up.

No matter what routine you come up with, you have to be consistent and make it as easy as possible. I don't trust having the images only on 1 drive, or on CD. But I'm paranoid anyways.

I've had 2 WD drives go bad in the last 2 years.

Now I'm really confused! LOL..like I said..I'm a digital idiot.. I suppose what I'll need is someway of storing all the images for the long run.

scorch said:

8th APS 71 RVN said:

...
By the way, can you copy the jpg files direct to CD? I have a
burner at home..that might be a good way to store it. ?!?

Click to expand...

I don't think so.

this is what I do:
1. I move (not copy) the files from my card to a new originals
folder.
2. I copy the folder to a new folder on my webserver on a different
drive.
3. I delete and edit the web images.
4. I use Thumber to create the webpage.
5. I occasionally copy the web folder(s) to CD to give to
friends/relatives. This is a good way to share them.
6. I occassionaly ghost my whole system to a spare 40gig I bought
just for backups.
7. I occassionally copy the newer originals to CD when I don't feel
like backing up.

No matter what routine you come up with, you have to be consistent
and make it as easy as possible. I don't trust having the images
only on 1 drive, or on CD. But I'm paranoid anyways.

I've had 2 WD drives go bad in the last 2 years.

Click to expand...

--For Those who Fight for it. FREEDOM has a Price the Protected will Never Know. Vietnam

Just use your CD burner, and a blank CD to store your photo's.

On fine JPEG, you can store 300+ pics....
On TIFF , maybe 40 pics on a blank CD........

and they are soooo cheap.

For what its worth, I have no knowledge of Photography , Digital or otherwise, and I find that Photoshop Elements is a nice gateway into the "Digital" art.

All I do is ... Take my pics, and burn em to CD.
Then use the CD pics to adjust/process.
and IF they end up any good, then I print em, or burn em to a "Completed Disc."

Enjoy the Digital age, whichever route you take.

Neil
--The beginning of life is the Moment of Terror.......

8th APS 71 RVN said:

Now I'm really confused! LOL..like I said..I'm a digital idiot.. I
suppose what I'll need is someway of storing all the images for the
long run.

Click to expand...

I guess the only important thing is to put the originals in 2 places - in case the CD gets creamed, or the harddrive goes bad.