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Written by Paul D. Race for Family Garden Trains

. . . the photos [on my first, cheap digital camera] were brighter, and the focus was overall better, than any garden railroad photos I had ever taken with my 35mm camera. And the "hidden" spec of digital cameras, the ability to take hundreds of photos without the sense that you're wasting film and development costs is an important asset. . . . everyone who owns a garden railroad should also own a digital camera and take frequent photos.

More About Digicams- June 27, 06 In late winter, 2005, (a few months before my daughter's wedding) I bought a little 2mp digital camera on closeout from Sears. Although it tended to create "ghosts" and "trails" in dimly lit rooms, it worked great outside, in brightly lit rooms, or with the flash, if you were close enough to the subject. And being able to tell kids and neices at the wedding to "just take as many photos as you possibly can" was a very big help. At the end of the night, we had about 300 photos on the thing, of which 50 or so were as useful as some of the photos the professional photographer had taken. Our final "photo album" contains both, as well as one or two photos that the DJ took on his 2mp digital.. I was so intrigued by the possibilities that I took it to a bunch of Garden Railroading open houses last September and wore out two sets of batteries and several railroad owners' patience snapping photos. The resolution wasn't high - none of the photos I got are worth publishing in magazines, but I've been using them on our web pages ever since - including rotating the "title" photo on our home page with photos of other people's impressive layouts and models. In fact, the photos were brighter, and the focus was overall better, than any garden railroad photos I had ever taken with my 35mm camera. And the "hidden" spec of digital cameras, the ability to take hundreds of photos without the sense that you're wasting film and development costs is an important asset. Yes, many serious photographers would complain that I just don't know how to use my 35mm. But I don't know anything more about my digital cameras than I do about my 35mm, and the difference is remarkable. Serious photographers might also complain that I have a relatively inexpensive "point and shoot" 35mm. But I have relatively inexpensive "point and shoot" digital cameras, and the difference is still remarkable. Please keep in mind that the 35mm has done a very nice job on personal portraits, school and athletic programs, Christmas photos, vacation photos, etc., over the years, and that we have never been dissatisfied with the job it does on our most precious of "possessions" - our family. But the digitals do as well or better on all of those things, and better on some subjects, such as garden railroads. Looking and my successes and failures from the marathon "open house" sessions, I began researching the kinds of features that would be most useful for taking photos of garden railroading. Eventually I decided on: Resolution of 4mp or above (5mp or above preferable) A "name-brand" lens or a zoom lens with 6x or better optical zoom (which pretty much guarantees decent results at lower zoom levels at least.) Image Stabilization (also called by several other names), which reduces the effect of camera movement when you push the shutter button - on some cameras the difference is dramatic, allowing you to get distant or low-light shots you'd never get otherwise. ISO capabilities of 400 or above. In fact, I had done so much research, I felt it was worthwhile to publish an article on the subject of "Idiot-Friendly Digital Cameras for Photographing Trains". I've been updating the article periodically as prices fall and features improve. In the fall of 2005, I got a camera that was in between my "ideal camera" and the one I already had. It's a 6.3mp with a 4x lens and no image stabilization. Still, since it has ISO settings up to 800, though, I've been able to take useful photos in dimly-lit settings that would have stymied either my 35mm or my 2mp digital. Since then, I've taken many photos of plants to illustrate various points about groundcovers and other plants, and hope to take many more photos of my garden railroad after it is really set up this summer (2006). But what inspired this update is the convergence of three events: A few weeks ago, I came across a disk of photos that my friend Wil Davis had taken of my garden railroad back in 2003, when I was still struggling with getting 35mm photos into my web site. Wil had used a 1mp camera that otherwise had similar features to the 2mp camera I bought about nineteen months later. He had not used a tripod or any phenomenal technique beyond "point-and-click." Yet most of his photos had better colors, better apparent lighting and better depth of field than any photos I had taken with my 35mm (a $300 ultrazoom point-and-click autofocus Samsung). Again the .35 meg jpg files they created aren't useful for blow-ups, but they're useful for 4x6s and they're very useful for anybody doing anything for the web. Most of Wil's photos are visible on the June, 2003 page of my New Boston and Donnels Creek site. Other friends had taken impressive photos with much better digital cameras, but I didn't find that surprising at the time. Now, after three years, I still think the photos Wil took on that 2mp click-and-shoot rival anything I've been able to accomplish with my 35mm. I received a review copy of a book that contained mostly reprints from articles already published in Garden Railways magazine. Several of the photos in a fairly short book were repeated exactly or with slightly different crops, and some of the other photos were taken in very dim lighting. Okay, so the photos were several years old, and taken for a magazine, not a book, so I shouldn't complain. But most of the duplicated or poorly-lit photos were from the author's own railroad or from the railroads of people he sees often. Perhaps, when he was publishing the articles in the first place, the author was struggling with getting good backyard photos with his 35mm. But times had changed by the time the book came out. Just about anyone with a decent eye and a $300-500 digital camera could have replaced the dimly-lit and duplicate photographs with new, useful photos in a day or two, counting setup and weeding of the railroads in question. A cooworker who has been a Nikon SLR users for years and recently bought her first digital camera (a 5mp Kodak with a 4x optical zoom and no image stabilization) mentioned to me that she could help noticing that the depth of field on her digital camera and many others she'd noticed was much broader than her Nikon, and the colors were much brighter (in some cases, they looked unreal to her). I had just been noticing how much brighter Wil's 2003 digital photos were than my 35mm photos of the same era or the "legacy" 35mm photos that were published in the new book, so I shared her observation, but not necessarily her conclusion (that the colors were too bright). Just to add some visual interest to this article, here are some examples of various photographs taking at various times with various cameras. Click on any photo to see a blow-up. June, 2002, Samsung zoom 35mm June, 2002, Samsung zoom 35mm June, 2003, Wil's 1mp consumer camera To download the original 350K image, click here. June, 2003, Wil's 1mp consumer camera To download the original 350K image, click here. September, 2005, Paul's 2mp consumer camera To download the original 700K image, click here. September, 2005, Paul's 2mp consumer camera To download the original 600K image, click here. In addition, the digital photos of my railroad reminded me how much it changes from one week to the next over the course of the summer, in addition to how much it still changes from year to year. They also help me see some parts of the railroad more "objectively," so I can tell what is working and not from a visitor's point of view. The conclusion I have reached is that everyone who owns a garden railroad should also own a digital camera and take frequent photos. Today I did a quick survey of camera prices on the internet, and discovered that nearly all of the cameras are 5% cheaper this week than they were just two weeks ago. The 4mp consumer "point-and-shoot" cameras are being replaced by 5mp equivalents. The 5mp "pro-sumer" cameras (cameras with some professional features, but which are easy to use and relatively affordable) are being replace by 6mp equivalents, and so on. An investment of $140-$350 depending on how techno-savvy you are will help you to see your railroad through "different eyes," and also help you start amassing a collection of photos that will be a joy for years to come. Be sure to get rechargeable batteries and a memory card that will let you take hundreds of photos at the camera's "default" setting. Then leave the thing by the back door. You'll be glad you did. Please let me know if you have any feedback, and have a great summer, See you online, Paul

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