Hi, folks! [:)]
I just got a digital camera, and thought I’d share my first tentative steps into the world of macro digital photography with all my buds here at FSM.
The subject is Dragon’s tiny prebuilt, prepainted 1/144 Jagdtiger.
First, two of the most decent pix I managed:
This is from a great series of teensy tanks that includes the Tiger I, Tiger II (H & P), Panther, and Jagdpanther. They sell for about $3.27 US, and come boxed with delightful candy. [:p]
Serious modelers are having a great time with them here, repainting, detailing, and creating huge dioramas of epic scope and scale with the wee beasties. Pretty cool![8D]
Now, for the pix. The main thing I’m concerned about is depth of field. So far, the closer the shot, the shallower the DOF becomes. Do I need a lower F-stop and a longer exposure, or vice versa?
This might not be the right forum for the foto Q’s, but hey, it’s a tank!
That I didn’t build…uh oh, here come the tomatoes!![8)][B)][V][;)][:D]
Yeah, these Dragon tanks are cool little beasties!
The camera is a Canon PowerShot A70. Not too expensive (compared to some of the stuff I looked at!!), but packed with features I thought I could use, like macro focus down to 2 inches, full auto or manual control, all the software and cables needed for Direct Connection (Mopar, anyone?) to my computer, and 3.2 megapixels of whatever a megapixel is a measurement of. Resolution, perhaps? The number of pixels in a given area? It’s all new to me!
Thus, the journey begins!
Now I just have to build more models to take pictures of! [:D]
Have you seen the 1/144 R/C tanks? Very cool! They actually set up contests with obstical courses for them to run on. Dragon again, if I recall correctly. So far, I’ve only seen the Tigers. Great camo on them, though. Very detailed.
I am not to familar with digital cameras, but try increasing your f-stop (smaller aperature). You will need to increase the amount of light on your subject. this work on a “normal” camera.
Good Luck
Konichi-wa, Brian-sama !
would u believe it, i saw one of these little treasures at my local hobby shop the other day and just had to have it ! now i have the winter camo tiger and the same jagdtiger as u… i love the little diorama bases that come with them over here; no candy though !
didn’t Dragon just do a couple of built-up tigers in 1/72 ? i seem to remember something about a Michael Wittman version…
have fun with ur new toy, i’m looking forward to seeing more of ur work !
frosty[:)]
Further detailing in 1/144th scale! Here I was thinking that superdetailing 1/76th-1/72nd armour was for hard core builders [:p].
Guess I’ll need to buy those magnifying glasses after all.[8D]
J-Hulk, try talking to the Camera Shop staff that sold you the camera, or a specialist camera shop if you bought it from a department store. If it is anything like over here, you will be surprised by how much these guys actually do know about using the camera’s they sell. (Especially if they think they have an opportunity to cross-sell you an accessory for it while you talk - Would you like fries…err, a tripod, with that?)
Failing that, experiment. After all it is a digital and you don’t need to pay for film or developing[:)]
Be careful now J-Hulk and don’t sneeze. You might blow that baby to never never land. (he-he-he). But seriously now, it does look cool. So small yet so detailed for its size. For 3 bucks, I’d like to have some, too. Too bad there’s nothing like that here.
Cool tank bro, even if you didn’t build it. [;)] I’m still envious of you being over there in Japan and I’m stuck in the states! (I’m an anime’ fan as well) Look, I do not, in any circumstances mean to sound critical, but if I were you, I’d consider taking that camera back and upgrading to Sony’s latest 5.0 Megapixel camera. My wife got hers from Radioshack for $500. Of course, I don’t know what you paid for your camera, or even what you are willing to spend on a camera. Megapixels, in “redneck speak” basically refer to resolution. The more megapixels, the better quality photo, and the more options you have when dealing with photographing objects at a distance and showing detail in close up items, like scale models. I can’t for the life of me remember the full designation of the new camera, but it’s a Sony and it’s the new one with 5.0 megapixels. This little thing has several options such as a beach mode for bright conditions, and it even tapes up to 90 minutes of video that you can playback with audio. Break out the included cables and it plugs directly into your TV and you can watch and record it onto a VHS tape or burn a DVD. Man, I should be a Sony sales rep. [;)] At least that way I could probably move to Japan! [:p]
Hi, folks![:)]
Thanks for the info, Roy! I looked at those too, but everything with 5 megapixels was just way over my digicam budget. I think I got the best machine for my yen.
I checked out the Sony (I’m a big Sony fan, actually!), Konica, and Olympus offerings, with all kinds of different memory cards, but I just didn’t wanna spend that kinda dough.
My Canon has all the features you just mentioned, just lacking the extra 2.8 mp.
Just gonna have to make do with what I got. I’m sure once I get it figured out I’ll be able to take some decent pix.
Sony is always accepting resumes for sales positions!
Put yours in today!
Panzerman was correct. increasing the f/stop and using a longer exposure time will give you more depth of field. Wish I could remember the formula from my college days, but it’s something like 1 f/stop doubles the exposure time. So if you went from f/11 at 1/1000 exposure to f/22 (f/16 is a half stop, I believe) at 1/250, the pics should have the same amount of exposure, but the depth of field would be longer for the f/22 shot. I’m going back a few years here (a few, did he say???!), but I think that’s how it works. With a digital, you can always play around and immediately see the results. Kinda the best of Polorid with none of the short falls!!
I would love to have a collection of those tanks. I hope they come into ready supply here in the States. I haven’t seen them anywhere, yet. They are cool. btw…I think Dragons RC tanks are 1/72, not 1/144.
But Brian, please don’t try to mod one of these Tiger II’s into a Bovington! Oops, I probably shouldn’t have put THAT idea into your head!! [:D]
Hi, Bill![:)]
Thanks for the good advice.
You’re absolutely right: just gotta experiment with it and see what kind of results I get! Good to have a basic idea, though.
You’re right about the Dragon RC tanks, too. Kaiyodo makes the 1/144 RC tanks, and Dragon does the excellent 1/72 RC beasties. Haven’t seen the soon-to-be-released M1A2, but I bet it’s cool![8D]
What I want to know is, how the heck do you make a 1/144 scale RC?? How do they get a motor and controls in something that small?? I can’t even get a paint brush in one!! They’ll be trying to make a 1/285 scale RC next! The Japanese can miniturize anything!
I’ve seen some miniature R/C tanks at my LHS. They even have the early and mid production versions of the Tiger I!! I believe that they are 1/144 and they run about $50.00
