• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

Taking pictures

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

jsantunes78

Green Pea
Dec 8, 2011
7
0
First Name
Jeremy
#1
This is my first post here so I hope that I'm in the right place.

I am in the online sales department at an auction on the east coast. I am starting to research into getting a new camera. We are curently using a cheapie Nikon Coolpix camera. Although it is 14mp I'm looking for something better. I don't have an indoor booth so I am stuck taking pictures outside.

I am looking for something that can cut down on my arch enemy sun glare so something that I can put a polarizing filter on would be ideal.

Thanks for any help.
 
#2
jsantunes78 said:
This is my first post here so I hope that I'm in the right place.

I am in the online sales department at an auction on the east coast. I am starting to research into getting a new camera. We are curently using a cheapie Nikon Coolpix camera. Although it is 14mp I'm looking for something better. I don't have an indoor booth so I am stuck taking pictures outside.

I am looking for something that can cut down on my arch enemy sun glare so something that I can put a polarizing filter on would be ideal.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

We invested in a Nikon D90 for our camera guy. It takes great pictures and we don't have any filters on it. We also bought a nice wide angle lens to get the interior shots. I highly recommend getting a wide angle lens -- I think our interior shots look much nicer than most of our competitors. Here's an example:

Buick Regal Interior
 
#3
sweece said:
We invested in a Nikon D90 for our camera guy. It takes great pictures and we don't have any filters on it. We also bought a nice wide angle lens to get the interior shots. I highly recommend getting a wide angle lens -- I think our interior shots look much nicer than most of our competitors. Here's an example:

Buick Regal Interior
Click to expand...
This.

In our case, it's a Nikon D60 kit (since superseded by the D5100 in their lineup, though you would likely be fine with the D3100). We bought it back in 2008 when I was taking pictures myself, and has since survived three other photographers. Three years of 300+ photos a day Monday-Friday and it's held up surprisingly well for a consumer-level DSLR:

-Mirror got stuck one day (fixed under warranty, used my personal camera to fill in)
-Flash straight wore out (added a Nikon speedlight on top and rolled on--more power when we want it anyway)
-One little speck of dust on the sensor (we're grinning and bearing it)
-Kit lens feels a bit loose (but it's usable)

Our current photographer shoots Canon, so we have camera-nerd-fights about that...but it's been a great workhorse for us.
 
#4
My mother in law actually has a D3100. I'll try to steal it from her and see how it works out. Right now I shoot interior shots from outside looking in an open door. Sweece, does your guy have a hard time with the wide angle lense taking inside shots. what does he do with the back seat? Are his photos on your website? I can just take a look myself.
 
#5
jsantunes78 said:
My mother in law actually has a D3100. I'll try to steal it from her and see how it works out. Right now I shoot interior shots from outside looking in an open door. Sweece, does your guy have a hard time with the wide angle lense taking inside shots. what does he do with the back seat? Are his photos on your website? I can just take a look myself.
Click to expand...

The shots take a little bit longer then they used to but the quality is much higher. The hardest part for him was figuring out an efficient workflow so that he wasn't changing lenses in and out all the time. But now that's out of the way, things are flowing pretty well.

We also had to pick a designated spot to take the photos. We used to have a really crummy background with buildings/cars/dumpster in it and now we drive our cars to the Costco parking lot in the back haha. They have an area with some nice trees that make the photos look a lot nicer. Here's the full scope of those regal photos:

2012 Regal
 
#6
Those are good pictures. What did he end up doing as far as the lenses go. I'd hate to drop a $200 or more lense.

I unfortunately am not at liberty to take all of the cars off of the lot. Some of our consigners don't like us taking them off the lot. Space is not abundant here as I always have other cars in the background, but I try to pick a fairly clear location. I end up moving my spots depending on where cars are parked and how larg the winter snow pile becomes, haha.

Again thanks for all of your help.
 
#7
Well a good quality lens will most likely be more than $200 unless you find a good deal on a used one.

I shoot with a t3i canon and tokina 16.5-135 which is a good mix, however, it is not great for macro shots. So close ups of the switches, etc have to be shot from ~ 2 ft away and zoomed in on.. I'll likely get a better macro lens (heck, even the kit lens is better, but I didn't buy it as a kit).

I like those buick interior shots, with the exception that there is quite a bit of distortion in those photos from shooting wide open.
 
#8
I'd personally go with a Nikon D80-90, but those are pretty expensive plus lens cost. (Worth it though). If you just need something in the mean time, I picked up a Sony 16.1 MP Camera for $200~ a few moths ago. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done and it's very good with the sunny and dark shots. We do all of our shots outdoors too, so the photos aren't going to be the best anyways. I could spend hours editing them, but I don't have enough time to do that. If I had the choice to upgrade, I'd go with the new slim Sony camera with the removable lenses, or the Nikon D-80-90. Used to hate Sony but they are improved quite a bit.

This thread reminded me that I miss shooting in raw.
 
#10
Need some help from one of you photo experts....I approached our Owner about bumping up from our point and shoot Panasonic to a DSLR, he is convinced that it won't make a difference since internet photos aren't usually a high resolution. Any points I can use to convince him?
 
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply
Jump to latest Follow Reply
Menu