Kodak DCS 560

Greetings fellow photographers.

Im new to photography, and recently completed a college class with enthusiasm to shoot some decent images.

Ive been shooting a Canon F1 original and slide film. My subjects are mostly birds and other wildlife here in Oklahoma.

Recently a friend ran across a Kodak DCS 560 with a Canon 70-200mm L lens at an estate sale in AZ, and offered this setup to me.

At first I was very disappointed with the results of my photos. Im sure part was due to my technique, however indoors in program mode, I notice quite a bit of noise in my pics.

I understand the DCS 560 is older technology and there has been improvements since this camera was introduced in 99, however the price of this combo gave me a chance to jump into the digital technology. Obviously I would like to continue with this setup until technique(s) improve and warrant an upgrade.

Besides I like the way this large bulky cam sits in my hand.

With this all said. Im looking for anyone who uses this camera to assist me in the proper workflow and or comments.

Best Regards

This is a great camera with a few limitations. Your best shooting at ISO 100 or less. Process the raws with PhotoDesk, although you can use the twain program with good results. The latest PhotoDesk can be downloaded from the Kodak website for free.

happy newyear

Rich Foley said:

This is a great camera with a few limitations. Your best shooting
at ISO 100 or less. Process the raws with PhotoDesk, although you
can use the twain program with good results. The latest PhotoDesk
can be downloaded from the Kodak website for free.

Click to expand...

Hello Jude,

Believe me, a DCS 560 is a very capable camera. The one I have produces wonderful colours and very natural skintones. I only use the ISO 80 setting, and long shutter times produces noise.

If you need to know more, mail me and I will send you a few samples as well.

Henk

Jude Bryant said:

Greetings fellow photographers.

Im new to photography, and recently completed a college class with
enthusiasm to shoot some decent images.

Ive been shooting a Canon F1 original and slide film. My subjects
are mostly birds and other wildlife here in Oklahoma.

Recently a friend ran across a Kodak DCS 560 with a Canon 70-200mm
L lens at an estate sale in AZ, and offered this setup to me.

At first I was very disappointed with the results of my photos. Im
sure part was due to my technique, however indoors in program mode,
I notice quite a bit of noise in my pics.

I understand the DCS 560 is older technology and there has been
improvements since this camera was introduced in 99, however the
price of this combo gave me a chance to jump into the digital
technology. Obviously I would like to continue with this setup
until technique(s) improve and warrant an upgrade.

Besides I like the way this large bulky cam sits in my hand.

With this all said. Im looking for anyone who uses this camera to
assist me in the proper workflow and or comments.

Best Regards

Click to expand...

Yes,

I will email you for some samples.

Regards
Jude

HenkJanPomstra said:

Believe me, a DCS 560 is a very capable camera. The one I have
produces wonderful colours and very natural skintones. I only use
the ISO 80 setting, and long shutter times produces noise.

If you need to know more, mail me and I will send you a few samples
as well.

Henk

Jude Bryant said:

Greetings fellow photographers.

Im new to photography, and recently completed a college class with
enthusiasm to shoot some decent images.

Ive been shooting a Canon F1 original and slide film. My subjects
are mostly birds and other wildlife here in Oklahoma.

Recently a friend ran across a Kodak DCS 560 with a Canon 70-200mm
L lens at an estate sale in AZ, and offered this setup to me.

At first I was very disappointed with the results of my photos. Im
sure part was due to my technique, however indoors in program mode,
I notice quite a bit of noise in my pics.

I understand the DCS 560 is older technology and there has been
improvements since this camera was introduced in 99, however the
price of this combo gave me a chance to jump into the digital
technology. Obviously I would like to continue with this setup
until technique(s) improve and warrant an upgrade.

Besides I like the way this large bulky cam sits in my hand.

With this all said. Im looking for anyone who uses this camera to
assist me in the proper workflow and or comments.

Best Regards

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hi,

The CCD used in this generation of Kodak DSLRs have a lower signal-to-noise ratio than newer units. Of course, that makes some sense given the way electronics in general are constantly improved.

Here are a couple of tips to help you work with what you have.

First off, the older CCDs are quite sensitve to infrared light. These cameras were designed to accept an IR light blocking filter just inside the lens mounting ring. You need to ensure that you have one installed for daylight shooting, or else the high levels of IR light from the sun will show up as extra noise in the images.

There were two filters. Both blocked IR. The basic one just blocked IR, while the advanced one also incorportaed an anti aliasing function. The IR only one was marked 'IR' when it was produced, so it's fairly easy to tell the two apart.

The second thing is that the CCD is more apt to show noise in the blue channel. This follows logically from the device having so much IR sensitivity. The thing you need to do here is to ensure that the lighting contains a reasonable amount of blue wavelength light. For example, the camera will work better if you use a strobe light even if there is enough existing light to give you good exposure (as determined by a meter).

In conjunction with this, be careful about the filters you use on your lenses. I discovered with my older Kodak DSLRs that using a top name brand UV filter, for example, gave cleaner images than using one of the lesser brand ones. I found that Nikon filters worked about the best for cutting UV yet not letting the light levels in the blue wavelengths fall too far.

You can make these cameras work for you, but you do have to work wiithin a greater number of limitations that you would with one of the current models.

Stan
--
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Once you start down the DSLR path, forever will it dominate your destiny! Consume your bank account, it will! Like it did mine!

More info and list of gear is in my Posters' Profile.

Jude,

I currently own numerous SLR digital cameras, somewhere in the area of 12-13. I own or have used most. Each has their own good and bad points. I have a Fuji s2, Canon d30, d60(4), 10D, Kodak 760, 560(4), 14n, and 645M proback. If I had to do a job that was within the limits of 6mp camera and could only take one camera, it would be the 560. I prefer the focusing system of the 560 over over the 760 even though it can not go as high an ASA. The 560 still shoots pretty good at 200 ASA, it's top setting, but the 760 is too noisy at its 400 ASA top setting. The 10D files are by far the smoothest but nothing, I mean nothing surpasses the ability of the Kodak software to regain detail in an over exposed area. I like security. Myself I would never shoot a wedding with anything other than a Kodak camera because the probability that at some time throughout the day you will blow that dress out. (Thank god I quit doing weddings after 20 some years of them). The 560 is a great camera, don't underestimate it. The second camera I always have in my bag when I go out on a shoot is the Canon 10D. If I need to go to higher ASA it has a great file. Just make sure you never over expose it. I have used the 1Ds and wish I could warrant the expense, but since I already have the proback I don't need the resolution. I have a 14n coming in tomorrow. At the $2800 price you could buy them for last week at the SPI convention, I couldn't resist finding out if the new firmware has improved the camera.

When you visit the Kodak web site to download the Photodesk software, try to get the older version 2.0 software. It works better for the 560 files. The new 3.2 takes drastically longer to aquire them.

Wes Siebe
Siebe Studio
Dubuque, IA

Jude Bryant said:

Greetings fellow photographers.

Im new to photography, and recently completed a college class with
enthusiasm to shoot some decent images.

Ive been shooting a Canon F1 original and slide film. My subjects
are mostly birds and other wildlife here in Oklahoma.

Recently a friend ran across a Kodak DCS 560 with a Canon 70-200mm
L lens at an estate sale in AZ, and offered this setup to me.

At first I was very disappointed with the results of my photos. Im
sure part was due to my technique, however indoors in program mode,
I notice quite a bit of noise in my pics.

I understand the DCS 560 is older technology and there has been
improvements since this camera was introduced in 99, however the
price of this combo gave me a chance to jump into the digital
technology. Obviously I would like to continue with this setup
until technique(s) improve and warrant an upgrade.

Besides I like the way this large bulky cam sits in my hand.

With this all said. Im looking for anyone who uses this camera to
assist me in the proper workflow and or comments.

Best Regards

Click to expand...

wes- I'll be curious to hear where you end up placing the 14N in that stable! ,,,,Peter

Wes Siebe said:

When you visit the Kodak web site to download the Photodesk
software, try to get the older version 2.0 software. It works
better for the 560 files. The new 3.2 takes drastically longer to
aquire them.

Wes Siebe
Siebe Studio
Dubuque, IA

Jude Bryant said:

Greetings fellow photographers.

Im new to photography, and recently completed a college class with
enthusiasm to shoot some decent images.

Ive been shooting a Canon F1 original and slide film. My subjects
are mostly birds and other wildlife here in Oklahoma.

Recently a friend ran across a Kodak DCS 560 with a Canon 70-200mm
L lens at an estate sale in AZ, and offered this setup to me.

At first I was very disappointed with the results of my photos. Im
sure part was due to my technique, however indoors in program mode,
I notice quite a bit of noise in my pics.

I understand the DCS 560 is older technology and there has been
improvements since this camera was introduced in 99, however the
price of this combo gave me a chance to jump into the digital
technology. Obviously I would like to continue with this setup
until technique(s) improve and warrant an upgrade.

Besides I like the way this large bulky cam sits in my hand.

With this all said. Im looking for anyone who uses this camera to
assist me in the proper workflow and or comments.

Best Regards

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.innerimager.com

Thanks for you comments Wes.

Specifically how does your workflow work with the 560. How do you have the camera set? What is resolution(dpi), noise reduction. When in Photodesk do you save to jpeg or tif. Do you sharpen (low, med, high). What is the Kodak Portrait/Kodak Product view. Is the raw image brought into Photoshop before or after you convert to jpeg/tif. Or do you convert at all?

Sorry for all the question.

Regards
Jude

Wes Siebe said:

When you visit the Kodak web site to download the Photodesk
software, try to get the older version 2.0 software. It works
better for the 560 files. The new 3.2 takes drastically longer to
aquire them.

Wes Siebe
Siebe Studio
Dubuque, IA

Jude Bryant said:

Greetings fellow photographers.

Im new to photography, and recently completed a college class with
enthusiasm to shoot some decent images.

Ive been shooting a Canon F1 original and slide film. My subjects
are mostly birds and other wildlife here in Oklahoma.

Recently a friend ran across a Kodak DCS 560 with a Canon 70-200mm
L lens at an estate sale in AZ, and offered this setup to me.

At first I was very disappointed with the results of my photos. Im
sure part was due to my technique, however indoors in program mode,
I notice quite a bit of noise in my pics.

I understand the DCS 560 is older technology and there has been
improvements since this camera was introduced in 99, however the
price of this combo gave me a chance to jump into the digital
technology. Obviously I would like to continue with this setup
until technique(s) improve and warrant an upgrade.

Besides I like the way this large bulky cam sits in my hand.

With this all said. Im looking for anyone who uses this camera to
assist me in the proper workflow and or comments.

Best Regards

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hello Jude.

I own the two last Canon based Kodak DCS bodies : DCS520 and DCS560

I work on Macintosh.

I love the fact that Kodak always update for free their software : that's PRO !!!

I use photodesk 3.0 not the latest version . Why because the last tools added are not available for the dcs files from this old DSLR !! The new features work only with the last body 14 N .

So don't think getting the last version will be better . I tested the last version and I found that the noise reduction doesn't work as well as the 3.0 or older version.

I've also tried a usefull plugin for photoshop available at Kodak's site : not the acquire module but the other one : you can open and save in the DCS TIF format, with the changes previously made in Photodesk on the image. And I find it works better than saving in jpeg on tiff from Photodesk.

So my workflow : first rotate, adjust exposition, noise reduction, sharpen (always on med) and white balance in photodesk ,

second, open your files in photoshop using that plugin and use the levels tool to get the best result. (sometimes auto-levels doesn't work well I then do it manually). Don't sharpen to much in Photoshop !!

Voilà !!!

Could you send me some jpeg files made with your DCS560 and Canon 70-200 2.8 ??? just to see the difference with my cheap zoom !!!
[email protected]

Thanks

Jude Bryant said:

Specifically how does your workflow work with the 560. How do you
have the camera set? What is resolution(dpi), noise reduction.
When in Photodesk do you save to jpeg or tif. Do you sharpen
(low, med, high). What is the Kodak Portrait/Kodak Product view.
Is the raw image brought into Photoshop before or after you convert
to jpeg/tif. Or do you convert at all?

Sorry for all the question.

Regards
Jude

Wes Siebe said:

When you visit the Kodak web site to download the Photodesk
software, try to get the older version 2.0 software. It works
better for the 560 files. The new 3.2 takes drastically longer to
aquire them.

Wes Siebe
Siebe Studio
Dubuque, IA

Jude Bryant said:

Greetings fellow photographers.

Im new to photography, and recently completed a college class with
enthusiasm to shoot some decent images.

Ive been shooting a Canon F1 original and slide film. My subjects
are mostly birds and other wildlife here in Oklahoma.

Recently a friend ran across a Kodak DCS 560 with a Canon 70-200mm
L lens at an estate sale in AZ, and offered this setup to me.

At first I was very disappointed with the results of my photos. Im
sure part was due to my technique, however indoors in program mode,
I notice quite a bit of noise in my pics.

I understand the DCS 560 is older technology and there has been
improvements since this camera was introduced in 99, however the
price of this combo gave me a chance to jump into the digital
technology. Obviously I would like to continue with this setup
until technique(s) improve and warrant an upgrade.

Besides I like the way this large bulky cam sits in my hand.

With this all said. Im looking for anyone who uses this camera to
assist me in the proper workflow and or comments.

Best Regards

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