I picked up a cheap digital camera a while back. The purpose was to take photos of potential sign locations, insert the sign design and get a sale. And DOES IT EVER WORK! It was the best $200.00 I've spent yet.
I also have used it to take photos of truck doors and then design the copy to fit the door. It's a great layout tool, for my employees to know exactly what it should look like when the jobs finished.
Recently, we painted a mural on the side of an enclosed trailer. Finished one side, snap a photo, printed onto a sheet of paper and painted the other side to match the photo.
I highly reccomend getting a hold of one if you haven't already.
ScottyB.
------------------ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Sign Shop." Scott Baker, Owner Youngs Signs Binghamton, NY 1-877-723-7905
Posts: 102 | From: Binghamton, NY ----- USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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We use one as Scott suggested. I got it at the Egghead auction site for $121. It's amazing to just click away and not need to pay for film and processing. The quality is nowhere near 35mm quality, but good enough for most of my needs. The higher resolution cameras take much better photos, cost more, make bigger file sizes, take longer to open on screen, but have very definate advantages.
I took a shot of a truck door that I lettered several years ago. I imported the photo into my sign program and tried to vectorize for a new pattern. The quality was not acceptable. After trying the same thing with a neighbors high end Sony, I could vectorize and cut with very little clean up.
The low res cameras are great to send kid shots to grandma, and proposals to clients, and for presentations for permits.
I find it much more than a toy!
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"The codfish lays ten thousand eggs, the homely hen lays one the codfish never cackles to tell you what she's done And so we shun the codfish while the lowly hen we prize Which only goes to show you that it pays to advertise!" *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ Ogden Nash
The Sign Shop Mendocino, CA.
Posts: 6713 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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If you have the money to spend the Nikon Coolpix 950 has had great reviews, I have read lots about cameras, but still use a modern Nikon SLR for most things get pictures developed onto CD as well as paper CD as opposed to diskette as the resolutio is better.
Having said that have borrowed the neighbours Sony Mavica digital camera for the four pictures on the front of my website, ie me, the truck, and blasted logo and was well impressed....just been too tight to lay out money on stuff that becomes outdated so quickly....I guess you have to decide what you want to use it for and find the spec that suits your needs, I will be changing to yet another gateway computer next year and will probably take the plunge and buy one around then....hassling the neighbouring company here in the meantime!
------------------ Henry Barker #1924 akaKaftan SignCraft AB Stockholm, Sweden. A little bit of England in a corner of Stockholm www.signcraft.se info@signcraft.se
Posts: 1552 | From: Stockholm, Sweden | Registered: Nov 1998
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In addition to all the above, you can e-mail a completed design to a perspective client, get the OK and his credit card number all in a very short period of time. If you're doing digital printing, you can personalize a yard sign or a set of magnetics, by printing a background taken from a digital camera shot of his business...vehicle...or whatever!
------------------ Bob Burns Bob Burns Signs LETTERCRAFT SIGN SYSTEMS www.lettercraft.com 1619 Oregon Ave. Prescott, Az 86305 1-877-778-5879
Posts: 2121 | From: Prescott, Arizona, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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My brother said a guy at a recent 4WD meet was using one to snap photos of the vehicles. He had a large format printer in his mobile trailer and was printing posters of each vehicle for $40. He was busy all weekend.
wish I'd thot of it!
------------------ Letterhead Website Supplier ID# 338 Michael Gene Adkins The Fontry Rt 2 Box 238 Watts OK 74964 fontry@tcac.net
Posts: 845 | From: Watts, OK USA | Registered: Jun 1999
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I haven't got one yet, but will be soon. One thing I plan on doing with it is taking pics of finished trucks and storing the image with the job file (using CorelDraw). That way, next time I do another truck for that customer I'll won't have to remember where everything goes, or what colors I used, etc. etc. And I won't have to go digging thru piles of photos to find the right one.
Dan Marquis
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Posts: 118 | From: Lewiston, Maine, USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Just bought me a Polariod PDC640, making it a Christmas present for myself. Hope ta' be able to make many uses for it. Been wanting one for quite awhile, but just couldn't fork out tha' buck$. Haven't had time to even take it out of tha' box, but not going to wait fer' Christmas, I'm like a kid with a new toy ready ta' play with it. "Com'on Ma'Let Me Open, It Now"......
Bama Boy
------------------ Robert Fair(Bamaboy) Creative Images Studios Fayette, Al. USA "Stay Fresh, Be Creative."
Posts: 346 | From: Gordo, Alabama USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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We use ours as people described above, and we love ours, too! Like almost everything I buy, I researched the heck outta this purchase. I searched the net for the best price and found it, plus we got free shipping the weekend we ordered it. (We saved 25% off retail by buying online - a nice savings when you consider these things cost upwards of several hundred dollars!)
We also have fun with our digital camera...see the pic in the link below to have a peek at a recent pic of my daughter after she got to lick the bowl when mama made brownies. I've taken TONS of pics of her since we got this, and I save 'em on a CD, like a digital album. http://www.samazon.com/mygirl.html
Sam
------------------ “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.” - Anais Nin www.samazon.com sam@samazon.com
Posts: 387 | From: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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They're both, they're tools and toys! I've used the Olympus 600L for over a year as a production tool for product shots in catalogs, brochures and flyers. We also use it for comps in sales by overlaying a design on a building facade, vehicle or location, customers are amazed (and usually SOLD) when they can see exactly what their proposed job will look like finished. You can also demand a higher price for your work and you need to in order to cover the time involved in making the composites. They're very handy for your in-house design, you can create signage that you know will fit the area, all you need is a good shot and a measurement for scale. They're a fun toy too, mine is in my briefcase everywhere I go for those unexpected times to catch a beautiful sunset or for the past few weeks to catch some of these bright fall colors. I've always been an amateur photographer but having to wait for the film to be proccessed was a turn-off, now I download my shots, choose the ones I want to print and archive on to a CD the others. And once you get the images into an editing program THAT'S WHEN THE FUN BEGINS!!! Go for it, there's all kind of price ranges and it depends on what you want to do with the shots as to how much you'll need to spend
Web page and LOW-RES photos: $200 - $400 HIGH-RES 3x5 to MED-RES 5x7: $500 - $800 HIGH-RES 5x7 to MED-RES 8x10: $900 - $1200 HIGH-RES up to 11x17: $6000 and up
Elliott.....
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Posts: 486 | From: McLemoresville, TN. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Have used my Epson camera for many of the things mentioned in earlier posts. Have a question...one post mentioned about taking picture of a truck door, then laying out the sign on it. How do you get from what looks like a balanced layout on the door...to cutting it out in the right size? Is there a certain distance the camera needs to be from the door, or lay a ruler on the door, an equation or way to figure out the final size? Boy it would speed up the final product by designing on the door then just going to cutting out! Mick Samsel
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Posts: 498 | From: Cherokee, Ia USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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Do you put someting in the shot that you know the measurement of and then scale it up to the correct size in the computer. Or do you just measure one part of the sign or truck door to do the same as above.??
I was thinking of getting the Kodak 215 model looks like a solidly built camera.
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Wiz and Mick...I don't have a digital YET, but I use my 35 mm and one hour developing to do the same thing with trucks, boats etc. I take the pics at 90 degrees to the surface and then take a critical measurement. The bigger the measurement the better.For example on a semi tractor that needs full striping I would take a pic of the entire side and measure the length of the entire rig, from front of the hood to back of the bunk. Once the pic is scanned I blow it up to full scale in my graphics program and lay the stripes right on it. (If you only measure a door and are out by 1/16" in the sizing of that part of the vehicle then the entire vehicle can be out by 2 or 3 inches, whereas, if you are out on the sizing of the entire length by 1/16" it really isn't a big deal.) If I have to send a proof to a customer I duplicate everything and downsize the duplicate to something that can be e-mailed and viewed without scrolling. Once approved the original is already there in full scale.
------------------ Dave Grundy shop#340 AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@odyssey.on.ca www.odyssey.on.ca/~dave.grundy "A PROUD $ supporter of the website"
[This message has been edited by Dave Grundy (edited November 13, 1999).]
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Re. scaling a digital pic (such as a truck door) for layout:
Archaeologists place a meter stick in their pix to show how deep they've dug or how large an artifact is. Likewise, you could probably get a yardstick or ruler into a truck door pic.To remove it for a presentation sketch, use the clone brush or a mask. Or just shoot 2 pix: 1 with and 1 without.
Bruce Williams Lexington KY
------------------ Bruce Williams
Posts: 945 | From: Lexington, KY, USA | Registered: Mar 1999
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The trouble with the the 1 hour photo is that you have to run off a full 24 pics to get the one photo, unlss you are near the end of the roll anyway. Must be more expensive also. I really like the idea of getting the pics straight in.
I've taken TONS of pics of her since we got this, and I save 'em on a CD, like a digital album.
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