Dude, buy a camera!

[Thunderpants]

Occasionally ebay sellers use photographs of such execrable quality you wonder why they bothered.
I am aware that most people do not have top of the line Nikons and iPhones, and nobody cares about aesthetics, but nowadays there really is no excuse for pictures that are so unclear, dim, and badly focused that they could be of anything. Moon landing? Crime scene photo from the 1930s? Or an abstract print by Man Ray?
This is, in fact, a Swiss Army Knife -  according to the seller.


A picture says a thousand words... or none at all.

[Mechanickal]

Sometimes pictures are badly focused to hide negativities or to display something fake as being genuine.
On the other hand, a lot of people think that if they hold the object close to the lens, it will show in close up in HD-quality.
So if you haven't got a DSLR or other HQ equipment, take the pic from a longer distance so it's in focus, and zoom digitaly by editing.


Edit: this picture was taken with a Leica lens, so it isn't the camera's fault...

[m47mu74nt]

Here is how I take close up picture (my F660-EXR can't take very close macro-photos, and the thing in my drawer is closer to me):


I salvaged a Lens from a (very) old analog camcorder years ago and mounted it onto a small piece of foam-board (temporary solution for ages)


I use this on my MotoG (5MPx) with which i took the pictures here (yep, even the one with the motoG on the pic was taken with a MotoG)


Of course it is not the best way, but it works

[jalind]

Sometimes pictures are badly focused to hide negativities or to display something fake as being genuine.
On the other hand, a lot of people think that if they hold the object close to the lens, it will show in close up in HD-quality.
So if you haven't got a DSLR or other HQ equipment, take the pic from a longer distance so it's in focus, and zoom digitaly by editing.


Edit: this picture was taken with a Leica lens, so it isn't the camera's fault...

+1 regarding sellers masking flaws and fakes with out of focus and badly lit photographs. I've done afocal photography through microscopes, telescopes and loupes. The camera must be rock steady with the lens train added in front of it. Holding a jewelers loupe over a cell phone camera lens shouldn't be too difficult.

This picture was taken with Carl Zeiss glass, so it's still not the camera's fault. 


Edit:
My usual solution is using a very high-res camera (RX-100 or NEX-7) with excellent glass on the front that can deliver high-res to the CCD and cropping the photo afterward.

[styx]

dude you could put any camera you want in my hands and the pics would still turn out horrid

[Mechanickal]

dude you could put any camera you want in my hands and the pics would still turn out horrid

Like Jalind mentioned: try holding a jewelers loupe in front of your cellphone camera.
the result is mindblowing.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G388F met Tapatalk

[pfrsantos]

Occasionally ebay sellers use photographs of such execrable quality you wonder why they bothered.
I am aware that most people do not have top of the line Nikons and iPhones, and nobody cares about aesthetics, but nowadays there really is no excuse for pictures that are so unclear, dim, and badly focused that they could be of anything. Moon landing? Crime scene photo from the 1930s? Or an abstract print by Man Ray?
This is, in fact, a Swiss Army Knife -  according to the seller.
(Image removed from quote.)

A picture says a thousand words... or none at all.

[styx]

dude you could put any camera you want in my hands and the pics would still turn out horrid

Like Jalind mentioned: try holding a jewelers loupe in front of your cellphone camera.
the result is mindblowing.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G388F met Tapatalk

now i just need to get a jewelers loupe

[m47mu74nt]

dude you could put any camera you want in my hands and the pics would still turn out horrid

Like Jalind mentioned: try holding a jewelers loupe in front of your cellphone camera.
the result is mindblowing.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G388F met Tapatalk

now i just need to get a jewelers loupe

Or salvage any high vergence lens from a random optical product (camera, camcorder, ...)

[Mechanickal]

dude you could put any camera you want in my hands and the pics would still turn out horrid

Like Jalind mentioned: try holding a jewelers loupe in front of your cellphone camera.
the result is mindblowing.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G388F met Tapatalk

now i just need to get a jewelers loupe

Or salvage any high vergence lens from a random optical product (camera, camcorder, ...)

Nope, jewelers lens ftw.
Check epray!
got mine as a gift one day.
cheapo one but does the job magnifica-ly

[Mechanickal]

Example:

[Mechanickal]

No2:

[styx]

Well I need to find a business card case too so might as well

[jalind]

dude you could put any camera you want in my hands and the pics would still turn out horrid

Like Jalind mentioned: try holding a jewelers loupe in front of your cellphone camera.
the result is mindblowing.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G388F met Tapatalk

I should add --- the depth of field (DoF) gets narrower with higher magnification. What that means is that everything you're trying to photograph with decent sharpness needs to be in a plane that's nearly the same distance away from the lens. If you try to do a perspective shot, you'll find that some portion of it in a narrow range at a specific distance will be sharp. Everything closer and farther away will get fuzzier and more out of focus.

I've done a fair amount of macro-photography and DoF control is an important technical consideration in setting up the shot. There are some means to mitigate it with using bright light and a small lens aperture (f-stop), but the average Joe's cell phone and consumer digital camera (especially the pocket ones) operate in a "Program" mode that won't allow you to control those things. The other part of control is the composition. An example of a cabochon crown on a wrissmurfch. DoF in this is about 1cm (10mm) max and you can see how quickly it goes out of focus past the crown. The watch case and bezel immediately behind the crown is already slightly out of focus.



In this photo I wanted attention drawn to the crown and having the rest out of focus does that. A quick example of how narrow DoF gets.

John

[Sneider]

I've already wondered how one with such bad pictures can offer something  on Ebuy&Co.
It is really not so difficult to make good photos.
You only need a good camera like this:

[Mechanickal]

dude you could put any camera you want in my hands and the pics would still turn out horrid

Like Jalind mentioned: try holding a jewelers loupe in front of your cellphone camera.
the result is mindblowing.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G388F met Tapatalk

I should add --- the depth of field (DoF) gets narrower with higher magnification. What that means is that everything you're trying to photograph with decent sharpness needs to be in a plane that's nearly the same distance away from the lens. If you try to do a perspective shot, you'll find that some portion of it in a narrow range at a specific distance will be sharp. Everything closer and farther away will get fuzzier and more out of focus.

I've done a fair amount of macro-photography and DoF control is an important technical consideration in setting up the shot. There are some means to mitigate it with using bright light and a small lens aperture (f-stop), but the average Joe's cell phone and consumer digital camera (especially the pocket ones) operate in a "Program" mode that won't allow you to control those things. The other part of control is the composition. An example of a cabochon crown on a wrissmurfch. DoF in this is about 1cm (10mm) max and you can see how quickly it goes out of focus past the crown. The watch case and bezel immediately behind the crown is already slightly out of focus.

(Image removed from quote.)

In this photo I wanted attention drawn to the crown and having the rest out of focus does that. A quick example of how narrow DoF gets.

John

A fellow watch lover...

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G388F met Tapatalk

[Ron Who]

I'm using what's commonly called a superzoom-camera, in this case a Sony HX200V. It doesn't have any problems making close-ups like the one below (it's a crop). But the camera is only one piece of the equation. A good photo also requires a good photographer willing to spend some time learning how to do his work.

I've seen very good photographs made by professionals with cellphones, and I've also seen very bad pics made by amateurs with expensive equipment.

[JamesJ]

Here is how I take close up picture (my F660-EXR can't take very close macro-photos, and the thing in my drawer is closer to me):
(Image removed from quote.)

I salvaged a Lens from a (very) old analog camcorder years ago and mounted it onto a small piece of foam-board

You just changed my approach with that. Thanks for that tip! 

[m47mu74nt]

Here is how I take close up picture (my F660-EXR can't take very close macro-photos, and the thing in my drawer is closer to me):
(Image removed from quote.)

I salvaged a Lens from a (very) old analog camcorder years ago and mounted it onto a small piece of foam-board

You just changed my approach with that. Thanks for that tip! 

You're welvome
There are some drawback with my method (using high vergence lens): it creates some artefacts (curved lines+++), and as you need to be extremely close to the object, light/shadow is an issue, and the focus depth is very tight 

Once cropped you can get really zoomed pic with an average camera!
original pic taken trough the lens:


cropped:

[jalind]

You're welvome
There are some drawback with my method (using high vergence lens): it creates some artefacts (curved lines+++), and as you need to be extremely close to the object, light/shadow is an issue, and the focus depth is very tight 

Once cropped you can get really zoomed pic with an average camera!
original pic taken trough the lens:
(Image removed from quote.)

cropped:
(Image removed from quote.)

The first photo's parallel lines that diverge as they approach the edge of the frame is called "pincushion distortion". The opposite, in which parallel lines converge toward the edge of the frame is called "barrel distortion". It's a function of the optical train - all the lens elements and groups together. Keep on the lookout for a different lens to use as I'm presuming this is from the camcorder lens you're using, in conjunction with your camera lens. Many inexpensive lenses suffer from one or the other, zoom lenses in particular. Many of those will be pincushion at one end of the zoom range and barrel at the other end.


Reminds me that I've got a couple old 8mm movie camera lenses floating around and I'll have to see what I kind of afocal photos I can do with them.

John

[m47mu74nt]

Thank you for that explanation!
Gonna sleep a lot less dumb tonight 
I remember my family old 15" cathodic screen had pincushion setting to square the image and get parallel lines.. Parallel !

[AndyTiedye]

I've done a fair amount of macro-photography and DoF control is an important technical consideration in setting up the shot. There are some means to mitigate it with using bright light and a small lens aperture (f-stop), but the average Joe's cell phone and consumer digital camera (especially the pocket ones) operate in a "Program" mode that won't allow you to control those things.

There is an app called "Open Camera" that allows that.

[shibafu]

I've already wondered how one with such bad pictures can offer something  on Ebuy&Co.
It is really not so difficult to make good photos.
You only need a good camera like this:

(Image removed from quote.)