Photographing Atari Cartridges With A Digital Camera

[froggger2]

What kind of digital camera should I buy to photogragh Atari cartridges? I would like to show both labels. Do I need a zoom lens? If so, what power?

Thanks.

[CPUWIZ]

Nah, you don't need a zoom lense, any old digital camera over $50.00,- dollars will do the trick.

[gulag picture radio]

If your ultimate goal is to display on a web page or remain in the computer domain, a cheap camera that does at least 640x400 resolution will do the trick. There's even a kid's "toy" camera called the "JamCam" that takes okay pictures that costs next to nothing and handles this kind of resolution. I also have the Polaroid I-zone digitial cam, and the two share many of the same problems - the most glaring of which (pun) is the overpowering flash. It took a lot of experimenting to figure out how much to cover the flash to get it to not ruin pictures.

 

Also, cheaper camera's don't have that snazzy LCD viewfinder that shows you exactly what you're shooting. They usually have a parallax viewfinder (read: hole) that you look through, and alignment isn't very accurate through that.

 

If your ultimate goal is to be able to print pictures, you'll want to grab a megapixel camera.

 

What I do now is I use my very nice miniDV camcorder on a tripod to video stuff that I want. Then I just capture it into the computer - that gives me the 640x480 resolution that I like, and uses the great optics of my camera for high quality pictures. Having said that, I hope to pick up a mega-pixel camera in the near future just so I can go out to print with my pictures. "Til then, it's still me and my beat up 35mm Minolta.

[+Nathan Strum]

Whatever camera you get, the trick is to get the lighting right. Some digital cameras are terrible without enough light. I recently shot pics of all of my game boxes (those Imagic and Spectravision ones are toughies). The same principles should work for shooting cartridges (if you're shooting from an angle, to show both labels at the same time).

 

What I did, was to use a large sheet of white paper as a back drop for it. Lay it flat, and then curve the paper up on the far side of the cartridge (up a wall, for instance). That gives you a nice, neutral background to shoot against, and no seam to edit out later.

 

I lit the boxes with a pair of ordinary desk lamps, one from each side, for reducing shadows and evening up the overall lighting, and used the camera's built-in flash ("fill flash" setting, I think). I shot from a distance of maybe three or four feet away. As long as you aren't perpendicular to a flat surface, glare should be minimal with a flash. The nice thing about digital cameras, is you can play around with the settings until something works. No film to waste.

 

For reflective surfaces (like those shiney boxes) I positioned another large sheet of white paper parallel to the face of the box so the paper would be reflected in the silver, giving a nice, even reflection. Since I shot off-axis, the paper wasn't in the way of the camera.

 

Finally, I used a tripod and the timed shutter on the camera, so I wouldn't jar it. By leaving the camera there, and putting the boxes in the same place each time (with guidelines drawn on the white paper) I ended up with images that were all similar in size, lighting and position. A little Photoshop work to adjust the brightness, and presto!

 

Like so:

 

These are reduced to 50%. Shot with a Nikon CoolPix 995.

Edited February 14, 2007 by Nathan Strum

[dwh]

I've got an old Agfa digital camera,but it does have the option to turn off the flash.So I turn off the flash and get the object under the overhead light in the room without my shadow getting everything dark again;then I lighten it up on the computer if needed.This seems to cut down on that horrible glare.

[gulag picture radio]

Nathan, those pics are awesome! Since I work in film & TV, I have some movie lights around but I usually find myself using halogen desk lamps etc. The're easy to mess around with, and a darn sight more convenient. You also found out one of the things that I discovered too, that when you photo something reflective you can control what it is that it's reflecting.

 

The other slight modification that I have is that I found an old underlit drawing table at a garage sale for $5. It's big and I take all my Ebay pictures this way. It looks very pro, and makes taking those pics just a little easier. It never would have ocurred to me if I hadn't found the drawing table tho...

 

Very nice work... I just had to tell you.

[+Nathan Strum]

Nathan, those pics are awesome!  Since I work in film & TV, I have some movie lights around but I usually find myself using halogen desk lamps etc.

 

Thanks! At some point, I'll have them all up on a website someplace. I work with a guy who's done professional photography. His tips have been invaluable. Especially when it came to shooting this stuff.

[ATARIPITBULL]

I think taking pictures of my atari 2600 collection would be a great idea!!! I have one of those old Logitech cameras on a tripod that I could use.

 

[froggger2]

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. I saw in USA Today this week that digital cameras are now outselling conventional cameras. I appreciate having AtariAge digital camera users share their experience and recommendations with me and others that are looking at buying a digital camera.

[froggger2]

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. I saw in USA Today this week that digital cameras are now outselling conventional cameras. I appreciate having AtariAge digital camera users share their experience and recommendations with me and others that are looking at buying a digital camera.