frederick_stevens1

<p>You may like to see my poor efforts at photography here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/arapesh/<br>

I call the pic of my wife and the younger cat "twins" because it is difficult to tell them apart.</p>

<p>Thanks again. I do suspect that Samsung are getting their act together! I think their cameras are made in China - almost everything I have is made in China (including my wife!). The UK had the largest Empire the world has ever seen and the US is certainly the greatest nation the world has ever seen but for how long? China could be about to awake and then we should all watch out.<br>

Isn't the Web incredible? I live just north of Manchester Airport in the UK and I can communicate with people on the other side of the world.</p>

<p>Thanks, Bill. The Ricoh R8 is about £126 in the UK. The Samsung SL102 would seem to be ideal and could be the one to buy at about £89.</p>

<p>My neighbour has asked for my help in obtaining a decent compact digital camera for her 11 year old son. She thinks he should have a zoom lens and she doesn't want to pay more than £100. Is this a tall order?<br /> I was looking at the Ricoh R8 and the Canon Power Shot A1100 IS. I suspect the zoom on the Ricoh has been extended too far and the Canon could be preferable. Anyone have any better ideas? There seem to be a great many compact cameras but I suspect some of them are not very good.</p>

<p>Ah! You need to discuss this with a psychologist. It should be 'anally retentive' and the idea was from Freud. It was a work of genius for him to see that the obsessional was 'anal' and it all dated back to early toilet training. You can have two kinds of obsessional - the anal retentive (neat, orderly) and the anal expulsive (untidy and chaotic). There is a genetic component and, sadly, the obsessional is quite untreatable. I have seen many of them over the years and I have never managed to 'cure' one of them. It is a waste of clinic time even to see them. I used to advise staff to see them twice, argue with them twice and then stick 'em on a 6 month review. They really suffer from a severe anxiety neurosis and they are very risk averse. I knew one man who would stay in bed all day! There are different levels of severity - labelling slides may not be obsessional! It may just be sensible. I should do it myself.</p>

<p>Rose-Marie - it is very important to have a family history. It's how we know who we are. Well done.</p>

<p>Marc - sadly at my advanced age of decrepitude (76!) I don't seem to have any living relatives but I do think I should try to make some kind of record regardless. Your photo was super - lovely painted studio background and stilted poses. Probably quite a long exposure.<br>

I suspect DSLR or scanner is a matter of horses for courses. I can see both being useful.</p>

 

<p>Having regard to all your advice I am thinking of buying a Canon CanoScan 8800F. I can get one from Amazon UK for about £145 and it has some bells and whistles that could be useful. I am hoping to scan unmounted and mounted 35mm colour slides plus old photos and more recent colour photos. Anyone know of this scanner?</p>

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<p>Marc - that is a truly excellent photo and forms a real link with the past. Sadly even though I have quite a few photos like that I don't know who the people pictured are! My paternal side of the family was a travelling circus family and it would be very difficult to trace them. The need to have family roots seems to be coming back into fashion and when I see adopted children clinically they are desperate to discover their origins.</p>

<p>Again my thanks. Excellent advice.</p>

<p>JDM and Alan - my thanks. Very helpful.</p>

<p>I have just looked at Canon scanners and there seem to be a zillion! Am I right that if I scan a photo it is saved in a digital format and then I can work on it with CS2? </p>

<p>Hal - my thanks to you. I must definitely do something. My father was born in the reign of Queen Victoria and enlisted in the army in 1914 when he was only 15. He served 4 years and managed to survive and I have photos of him in uniform and they must be preserved.</p>

<p>Michael - my thanks. You have a point. I have been meaning to salvage our family photos for many years but never quite got round to it. I would like to make some decent copies and then compile a scrap book with explanations of the photos and, hopefully, this can be handed down to future generations. It is criminal to see wads of old family photos being consigned to the bin. My children know very little of their ancestors and they should have access to the information plus some images. All the old photos I have are black and white and I even have some daguerotypes.<br>

I will look into scanning! Knowing who you are is largely about having an extended family and in our modern society this is rapidly disappearing. I have been a practising psychologist for 50 years and I have seen the collapse of the extended family and it is a disaster and responsible for many of the problems we face with young people.</p>

<p>I have a collection of old photos and some of them date back to the 19th century. I have been thinking of getting a scanner and trying to restore them. The scanning world however seems to be quite complicated and not cheap. Would it be possible for me to photograph them with my very good f2.8 100mm macro Canon lens? Would not this be a quicker and even better way forward?</p>

<p>I finally forced myself to buy a Spyder3Elite when I got my new NEC 26 inch monitor and it does seem to work. I was worried about printer profiles but I got myself some Canon Pro paper (expensive!) and when I print from CS2 or Canon DPP I can select Canon Pro paper so I am presuming the printer will have the profile. I haven't tried it yet but I will let you know what happens. <br /> <br /> I have finally gone totally Canon. 40D camera, i9950 printer, OEM inks (very expensive), paper and DPP RAW convertor. If I lived in America I could maybe afford all this but I live in the struggling UK with bent MP's not to mention bankers. Ah well! We don't get as many earthquakes and typhoons as America does so that is some compensation. Mind you we do get rain. I live just north of Manchester airport and I think I am beginning to rust.</p>

<p>Ken - that looks good. I will try it if I can because I have been suffering slow pages with Firefox. I am glad Patrick has joined the PC mob and that he is getting lots of help. I think we owe him for the stuff he wrote on sharpening. It was excellent. I am only sorry that I cannot offer any help myself. What I know about computers could be written on a postage stamp. I can offer him this however which he may enjoy -<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arapesh/<br>

Please notice that in my dear lady plus one of the cats photo it is difficult to tell them apart. I call it 'Twins'.</p>

<p>Not easy! Getting my crazy wife to smile is well nigh impossible. You will see my strategy here -</p>

<p>http://www.flickr.com/photos/arapesh/</p>

<p>I give her one of the cats and then she can't stop smiling! You will notice that they look exactly like each other!!</p>

<p>I seem to be seeing some confusion about Canon photo paper. My understanding is that their new Platinum paper is specifically for pigment ink printers but at least one site thinks it is for dye based printers! I was hoping to standardise my printing on the i9950 by using the Canon Pro paper which might give me more protection against fading. <br>

I suspect using a Canon 40D camera with a Canon i9950 printer would suggest also sticking with OEM Canon inks and Canon photo paper. The horror stories I am reading about 3rd party inks would lead me to think that the pricey OEM Canon inks are the way forward. Curses!<br>

Anyone confirm this view? I should say that I also use the Canon DPP RAW convertor which seems to be excellent and means that I have gone totally Canon!</p>

<p>I have just looked at Wilhelm and there isn't much on Canon printers - more on Epson and HP. I suspect that using Canon inks and Canon Pro paper in my i9950 will give me the best results and that is what I want. <br>

There would seem to be advantages in using dye based inks but pigment inks would seem to offer better fade resistance. Ah well! I suppose one can't have everything.<br>

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<p>My thanks for the advice!<br>

Matt - good point. I will plough my way through the Wilhelm stuff.</p>

<p>Yep! Perishers.</p>

<p>My thanks for the replies. I am reluctant to move away from my dye based i9950 and get involved in pigment ink printers whoever makes them. Canon should be more 'up front' about their printers and their printer inks. It would be nice if they warned people that dye based inks will fade and they will charge you an arm and a leg for the pleasure of seeing the fading. I cannot see how Canon can justify their dye based ink prices. <br>

Andrew - you make some good points. I didn't know about the archival paper being acid free or the fact that A3 prices are logarithmic and not linear in terms of other sizes! </p>

<p>Aaaagh! The mud gets thicker and I think I am going down! It is difficult to keep up with all the developments in the digital photo world.</p>

<p>I have been looking at this topic and getting confused. I gather that my Canon i9950 is a dye ink printer whereas the top end Epson's, which folk on Photo Net seem to prefer, are pigment ink. Canon did produce a pigment ink printer - the 9500 - but it was immediately modified and became the Mark II 9500! The plot thickens.<br /> I understand that dye inks are very good and produce excellent colours whereas pigment inks are much less vibrant. The problem would seem to be that dye inks fade and pigment inks don't fade but pigment inks clog nozzles. Where does one go?<br /> I am reluctant to spend maybe £1000 on a top end Epson printer and the inks (10 of them!) will be very pricey. Perma Jet do a CIS for the Epson but the inks are not Epson even though they are much cheaper. <br /> I do like the stuff I get from my Canon i9950 using OEM inks but I don't want prints that fade under normal viewing conditions i.e. stuck on the dining room wall! Is there any way by using different papers etc that dye inks can be made less likely to fade? Any advice will be most gratefully received!<br /> I am not surprised that some folk have quit on printers and just use commercial outlets. I have never printed an A3 on my Canon because of the cost and that just doesn't seem right.</p>

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