What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[healey36]

okay boomer...lol...

[rogruth]

George,
Where and what are you teaching?

[G3750]

George,
Where and what are you teaching?

I'm teaching at La Roche University north of Pittsburgh. I teach the Intro to Computer Science and the senior's Capstone Experience course (software engineering / team / project deliverable) course.

George

[rogruth]

Very good. Thank you in several ways.

[G3750]

Updated 12/17/2019:

Just to add insult to injury, Samantha managed to knock my camera off the table. It's toast. No pictures for awhile as I search for a decent replacement.

George

[healey36]

Oy, that's a bummer. I have a 15 years-old (at least) Nikon P5100 which I use to take most photos. It's sort of a hybrid between a POS and a DSLR, more features than I'll ever figure out/use, but it's incredibly slow...virtually useless for action shots, but great for portraits or staged shots. I dread having to find a replacement, which I'm sure is coming.

Don't carve any foam 'til you have a replacement...I don't want to miss anything

[robert.]

My wife is a camera geek. She loves taking photos of horses. I can really p**S her off by taking better photos with my cell phone. Look into buying a cell phone (for the camera only). Buy a used one from one of your students. If you have 20 students. You may have a sample of half a dozen phones. Ask them all to take a photo and email it to you. You'll see some quality photos.

[G3750]

My wife is a camera geek. She loves taking photos of horses. I can really p**S her off by taking better photos with my cell phone. Look into buying a cell phone (for the camera only). Buy a used one from one of your students. If you have 20 students. You may have a sample of half a dozen phones. Ask them all to take a photo and email it to you. You'll see some quality photos.

Well, I have an iPhone 6S. It takes decent photos, but I:

• Don't want to use up my Apple storage.
• Want a camera with both point-and-shoot capability as well as the ability to change the shutter speed and focus.

I'm looking at some used cameras. And Healey - don't worry. I still need to establish a storage site for photos.

George

[chuck]

You might want to look at a "mirrorless" interchangeable lens system. They are closer in function to a DSLR but look more like a compact digital camera.

I never understood why you would want/need a mirror on a digital camera as you need the LCD display to see whatever it is you are taking a picture of.

[robert.]

Try one of your student's iphone 10. You can focus them on many objects in one photo. Apps such as imovie work for editing. You can now buy several lenses. I understand it's hard to change our thinking as to what a camera is. Cellphones are becoming hands down a good choice for a camera.

Ps. i dropped my cellphone several. It still works. I had it in a $10.00 case.

[chuck]

My kids are both extremely adept at taking photo's with their digital phones. My daughter used the iPhone extensively.

I don't do so well. I'm used to the look/feel of an SLR camera body and it has taken me some time to get used to using my digital camera(s) in non traditional ways. I have finally gotten over the need to hold the camera up to my face to shoot. I can now hold it above my head or down by my feet or off to the side to get shots I couldn't with my old SLR because:

a) I can still see the LCD display for framing (in most cases)
b) When I can't do a), I just fire off a burst of shots and then look at the results. You can easily delete the bad shots and sometimes try again. No need to wait to get the film developed.

I have a terrible time using the phone as a camera. It's a nice tool for documenting stuff but I have a hard time using it in any artistic fashion. My daughter doesn't have any issues using the more advanced features of her iPhone's camera's to take some amazing photo's.

One thing that a classic "camera" has over a phone is the ability to use a tripod for fixed shooting. While there are gizmo's to try to hold a phone steady, I don't feel they are as elegant or easy to use as a tripod or monopod.

[G3750]

Try one of your student's iphone 10. You can focus them on many objects in one photo. Apps such as imovie work for editing. You can now buy several lenses. I understand it's hard to change our thinking as to what a camera is. Cellphones are becoming hands down a good choice for a camera.

Ps. i dropped my cellphone several. It still works. I had it in a $10.00 case.

I'm not doing the iPhone 10. That's way too much money for me. I have an iPhone 6. It takes decent enough photos, I suppose. And I have an Otterbox case for it. That keeps it safe.

George

[G3750]

My kids are both extremely adept at taking photo's with their digital phones. My daughter used the iPhone extensively.

I don't do so well. I'm used to the look/feel of an SLR camera body and it has taken me some time to get used to using my digital camera(s) in non traditional ways. I have finally gotten over the need to hold the camera up to my face to shoot. I can now hold it above my head or down by my feet or off to the side to get shots I couldn't with my old SLR because:

a) I can still see the LCD display for framing (in most cases)
b) When I can't do a), I just fire off a burst of shots and then look at the results. You can easily delete the bad shots and sometimes try again. No need to wait to get the film developed.

I have a terrible time using the phone as a camera. It's a nice tool for documenting stuff but I have a hard time using it in any artistic fashion. My daughter doesn't have any issues using the more advanced features of her iPhone's camera's to take some amazing photo's.

One thing that a classic "camera" has over a phone is the ability to use a tripod for fixed shooting. While there are gizmo's to try to hold a phone steady, I don't feel they are as elegant or easy to use as a tripod or monopod.

Chuck, I agree with you. I, too, prefer a classic camera over a camera phone. I wrote down my requirements (gee, what a surprise. ):

1. Simplicity of a point-and-shoot digital camera
2. Ability to take large RAW format photos
3. At least 5X optical zoom
4. Ability to manually change focal length and shutter speed settings to take very close-in photos

My Coolpix was just a point and shoot, but I want to use this camera to take very close shots as well as shoot outdoor features from long range. That means multiple lenses.

George

[G3750]

Updated 12/20/2019:

The styrofoam for the tunnel portal and hillside above it was installed today. I used the method (styrofoam, Great Stuff, low loft quilt batting) described in this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzhcvqzk6N4

Also, the January issue of O Scale Trains arrived today. Surprise, surprise, my article on workshop organization was in it.

George

[rogruth]

George,
Got my OST yesterday. Well written article. Hope to see more in the future.