Nice little camera...
 

I recently picked up a Nikon Coolpix L810 for normal use. I looked at the new DSLR as well as the newer mirrorless cameras, and decided I needed something more along the lines of something my daughter can use as well...so the high end ones were out of the race.

I've taken some pretty decent pictures with it so far, and with Picasa as the photo editor, I've been able to enhance the colors a bit, too.

This is from this morning, looking out from my back porch...It's actually about 1/4 mile from the back porch, so I did zoom in a bit for it.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...0Nikon/001.jpg

These are from last night's scrimmage my son played in...

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ame2012025.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ame2012024.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ame2012015.jpg

This is to show how much I zoomed in for the other pictures...and how far off the field we were sitting.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...12001-Copy.jpg

I'm looking for a better editor. I had one back in the 90's, but can't remember what it was called. I used it on some scanned photos I had to fill scratches and remove rusty tack holes that grandpa had put in when he was in WWII. I now have a boat load of black and whites from him and grandma of their parents and other family members. I'd like to be able to do what I did before, and clean them up a bit, but Picasa isn't quite what I'm looking for.

Without spending a ton of money on a program, what are some decent priced editors that work well?

You might consider GIMP.

X2 For a free version it seems to do shed loads of stuff. It is way more than what I need but it comes in useful once in a while.

GIMP is free and nearly as powerful as Photoshop. A little wonky though. Hey it's free.

Well bring out the gimp...

The downsides to the Coolpix and other inexpensive P&S cameras are that they usually produce only a .jpg file and the lenses are somewhat subject to flair and chromatic abortion. Look at the at the line the helmets make in the 3rd image, for example. The blue color at the edge is chromatic aberration. Also a lot of P&S cameras have a considerable lag between the time the shutter is pressed and the image is captured.

For an editor, check out Photoshop Elements. It’s inexpensive, sometimes given away with other programs, and does most things hobbyist do. It can sometimes be found on Ebay for next to nothing, or if you go to your local computer recycler, they will probably have several copies.

Also, Nikon cameras often come with ViewNX which isn’t a bad editor, if a bit clunky.

I didn't expect DSLR quality out of it, and bought it to be used as a replacement to the 8 year old Vivitar P&S my wife carries around. The quality of the pictures is MUCH better than the old camera. You're right about the lag, but it's not near as slow as the old camera.

This is one that I can hand to my kids to use and know that they aren't tearing up an expensive unit, and that they will have satisfactory results.

I've got 3 Sony EOS Rebel 35mm frames, and two lenses that I use to take better pictures for film. There's no way I'll let the kids use them without supervision...which is why I didn't get the DSLR.

I tried the editor that came with the Nikon, and wasn't impressed with it's usability. I'll try Gimp, and see how it goes.

I figured that the $179 I paid for it, it should fit my needs quite well.

Sony? or Canon?

Canon...I was looking at Sony DSLRs. My bad...thanks for pointing out the error.

We've used several Canon P&S cameras with very good success. The distortion is minimal under most conditions and the camera can take photos that will be accepted by some of the major food photography sites. It's limited in the capability to gather sufficient light indoors and it's limited in the depth of field where the background needs to be blurred.

For $150. it's an unbelievable value and good for 98% of the folks who need digital photography.

I loathe spending $1K on the DSLR to get some slightly improved capabilities...........but that's the nature of photography. You pay significantly more to get incremental improvements.

I need to make a correction here...I thought the old camera was a Vivatar, but it's a Minolta. The Vivatar is the older first digital I bought, which I gave to the kids to use for taking pictures for school projects and for when they are out and about.


The distortion that was pointed out on the helmets was zoomed in from about 110' away. Being that far away, and that being the worse distortion in an action shot...Let's just say that I'm more than happy with the results for the cost.

Old camera Introduction price of $399 nine years ago

New camera Introduction price of $279 last year

The old one served us well, and will continue to serve us as my wife's purse camera. The Nikon is the size of a medium SLR, and doesn't carry well as a pocket camera...unless you have VERY large pockets.

One of the major selling points to me was the ability to grab batteries anywhere...it uses normal AA batteries. I picked up some rechargeable batteries for it. But, just in case, I can go to the local corner store and pick up replacements if I forgot to charge them before leaving the house. That's happened before to me, but that's another story for another day.

I was enjoying the morning on my back porch, and decided to take a few pictures...

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ackdoor004.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ackdoor001.jpg

5 points if you know what this is...an additional 50 it you still use it.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ackdoor003.jpg

Paint.net is as near to photoshop as you can get without spending money and there are useful forums to help you learn to use the rich feature set. It is not at all wonky and they continually improve and upgrade it.

Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing