camera for shooting furniture

Kirk Rush

Well-known member
I would like to get a digital camera to photograph my furnitue, but there are so many out there that is hard to choose.  I talked to someone who is very knowledgeable about cameras(not a furniture maker, though) and he suggested a Canon G6.  He said I should get one with the RAW Mode so the color can be corrected if needed.  The G6 has beed superceeded by the G7, but it does not have the RAW Mode.  Any sugestions ?

                                                                          Kirk Rush
 
Kirk

It realy depends on what you want to do with the photographs.  If you want an archival record, you probably need a large format camera with lights and so forth.  On the other hand, a simple picture to say I made this piece of furniture can be had with a very inexpensive camera.  If detail is important , a mid price camera would be fine.  Make sure it has a good optical lens and it has the focal length for your work.  As I understand it, most digital cameras have softwear that is compatable with Photo Shop -- that way colors can be corrected or changed on your computer. As you know, wood color can change with the time of day just by the amount and type of light.  Hope this helps.

                                                                    Jim Vojcek
 
You left out a key data point...what you wanted to spend.  I think that an SLR is well worth the money, and really like the Cannon Rebel, but you can spend $1500 pretty easily by the time you get memory, this and that.  But to start you pretty much just need the camera and a tripod, backdrop, and grey card. 

One of our SAPFM members is a professional in this area, he gave a GREAT talk on this subject two years ago...I am terrable with names...maybe someone can remember and you can ping him.

martin
 
Thanks for the tip fellows.  I talked with Mr.  Arnold yesterday, and he was very helpful.

                                                                    Kirk
 
I'm not sure you even need a gray card when using digital cameras, or any others for that matter. Most of the better ones have the ability to gauge the white point directly from a white sheet of paper, so it's no great shakes to use any kind of lighting available.

As to using the gray card for metering, assuming you've got a totally manually capable camera (there may be 3 of these in digital land), you can substitute the use of your palm (this will be slightly different if you're not caucasian), which is normally a zone VI (vs zone V for gray cards), so take a reading and close down one stop for middle gray.

Pam
 
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