My second digital in 96 was the Oly. The first one was the Casio CV10 that took horrible digital pictures. Returned it a few days later and got the C 800 L. Bought them both at CompUSA. Think I paid over $900 with sales tax for the Oly. It took really great pictures as below. Not useable now on modern PCs as it used the 15 pin Comport cable to transfer pictures to the Camedia Software to get them downloaded and useable. Times sure have changed in 18 years..wow. Great thread.


CAMEDIA C-800L (1996)

Launched in 1996, the CAMEDIA C-800L was the first of the CAMEDIA line. At a time when digital cameras tended to be priced at around ¥10,000 yen per 10,000 pixels, Olympus set a new standard by offering a camera with 810,000 pixel resolution for just ¥128,000 yen. The C-800L provided superb image quality and yet was as easy to use as a compact camera. It earned excellent reviews in camera magazines and became a major hit product. Olympus launched other in the series, up to the C-860L, with enhancements that included the use of Smart Media cards instead of built-in flash memory, and the improvement of resolution from 810,000 pixels to 1.31 megapixels.

Las Vegas Summer of 97

(Download)

As others have mentioned, LR-5 is a great solution. I use it with PS CS-4 as LR will develop the later cameras in raw really well and then use the edit in menu command to roll it over to CS-4. LR is a pain to get used to in its file handling methods for me, but when I finally got it down, it works really well with raw files, and then turning the file over to CS-4. This process really can make your prints pop too as I found out.

Takes a lot of hours to look at the LR Videos to understand how it works. Since I started using the LR-CS4 combination my digital developing took on a whole new level of quality for me.

I beta tested CS-6 extended till it expired and it is an awesome release, but alas with the upgrade cost well over 400 bucks with tax, so I chose to pass. The 3D element of CS 6 was intrigueing and I almost bit for the CC subscription, but found the LR-5/CS-4 combo does about all I wish to do with files.

You can get a 30 day trial of LR to check it out if you want to do so. Then spend hours learning how to incorporate it into your work flow is the next step. Not too sure which PC you use but I use WIN 8.1 and the file structure works better for me. I prefer total control of my files and where they end up and LR was a little clunky to learn to get around its interface. Once learned though, it is a really powerful digital package for photographers and a better solution since you already have PS CS-5 I think.

MikeT.

Thanks, may try the Wallgreen's across the street from our CVS next time...

Thanks folks...that particular snap was taken using an Olympus C2020Z digital cam which I think was a 2.1 megapixel sensor. The tonal range in that camera was superb I think. The print of it from CVS was amazing to me...And just think...today we can get 40 megapixel sensors for photography in a cell phone...sigh..

This is a short story about my experiences with a process of digital preparations and uploading to CVS for printing. To start with, my better half wanted to make a pair of photo albums for each of our two granddaughters. The prints for the albums we had from film were mainly 4 X 6 or so. That timeline was the time before I transitioned to total digital photography in 1998. I have an extensive set of film years so that was a chore in itself to sort and assemble the prints in chronological order.

The remainder of the snapshots were in folders labeled by year and date and topic so that made for easier selection of kids related photographs. This digital period is from 1998 through 2013. There were 28 thousand of so pictures to search through. But after a few hours, we had enough to finish off the album for the better half. There was a total of 77 digital keepers for me to process and resize.

I placed the 77 pictures selected in a new desktop folder as jpeg digitals for the most part since the photos were from about 7 or so Digital cameras that I used over the past 16 years.

The process to get them ready for printing was to open them in Lightroom 5.X and then final edit and resize them to 4 X 6 in PS CS-4. Settings to resize them was set to that size with the crop tool and then resized to 600 DPI. These made file sizes from early digitals of 3 megapixel to upwards of 10 megapixels each. As I finished each file, I saved it as a finished ready to send to CVS file in a separate folder. In the process of working on them, I discovered a neat trick in LR. I could save the finished photo in the final folder by renaming the file and using save as: in CS-4. When finished with each file, I would close the working file in CS-4 and then I would switch back to LR and was able to remove the two processed LR prints from the working folder. LR saves a psd file as well too. But to send for printing I used Jpegs. Eventually I ended up with an empty working folder. Saved a lot of time and confusion.

Once all 77 were completed, I uploaded the 475 megs of the 77-4X6 digitals to CVS Photo. This took maybe 15 minutes of upload time as I have a Fast FIOS connection. Since they have a local store in my town close by, these were ready in one hour or so. Total cost with tax was 10 dollars on the nose, using their special offer this week. Wow!

Well upon examination, I was totally overwhelmed at the quality of the prints and the satin/glossy paper used. Detail in them was more than what I ever obtained with film prints unless I enlarged the negatives myself. Color of each print mirrored my somewhat calibrated LED monitor. Only problem was some skin tones in a few were a little off but I attribute that to my monitor and the process that I did to them. My better half was totally satisfied with the prints.

I have used CVS in the past to make some photos of old photo scans etc. They were OK but I have since learned to use LR and Photoshop techniques better and wanted to share this story with those that might be interested in prints from a commercial source. No way could I have done this with a personal printer to this quality level, and especially as cheap. I am including one here as an example of size and color. Thanks for looking.

Hope it was not a boring story for the readership here. I was just so impressed with what came from CVS that I had to share it with you.

Mike T.

Test Photo

(Download)

Having fun with pretty flower arrangement from this weekend. Different color Lilly's and a Carnation. Taken with Nikon D5300 and 35 mm lens for the table arrangement and with the Olympus E-510 using macro and manual focus with the 70-300 lens. Pictures shot in Raw and developed in LR-5 and Reduction in size via Photoshop CS-4. Thanks for Looking. :roll:

MikeT

Table arrangement for Mothers Day flowers

(Download)

Stamen and Pistal shot

(Download)

Closer view

(Download)

Yes
LR 5.X, PS CS4, Topaz

Yes

LR 5 followed by CS 4 or Topaz FXLabs

LR 5.3 is a mess to learn and I sympathize with your difficulties. It scared the mess out of me when I first installed it and started it up. I thought it was changing all my pictures in my main My Pictures Folder. Anyway, to make a long story short, I did some of the Adobe TV tutorials and got more familiar with it. It is so powerful in the Library Module it is hard to believe it is controllable. It is however very usable in time. You did not indicate what PC type your using and that might help get more responses.

I use Win 8.1 for and OS and have several compatible editors to use for edit once LR work is completed in the Development Module. I also use an iPad for the tutorials while working in LR or CS4 etc. Helps as those tutorials are eye openers. Those tutorials work well for either Mac or Windows too.

If you use a Win PC and wish for some phone help, leave me a private message with your phone number and I will call you. I live in Collin County so it should be a local call.

Don't give up on LR as it is really a powerful tool. I wanted it since the Photoshop Version I use is CS 4 and the ACR raw developer stopped at a level that did not support newer cameras raw files. Good luck in your learning excursion.

Mike T. :-P

I use an Epson All in one Workforce 630 to scan old photos with. It will do legal size I think. I usually do one large print by itself. If I have a group of smaller prints, I put several around the glass and do one scan. The scanner will create a BMP file with the scans. I custom set the DPI to color and 300 DPI when scanning. Even the Black and white one using color scan...allows for them to be used as sRGB settings to work on them later. I use Photoshop CS4 to crop and turn the selected pic from a group to the upright position for work in CS 4. Then save the crop as a jpg file. Then re-open the bmp file in CS 4 and crop the next one etc. Once you have a group saved, then delete the bmp file.I have done thousands of prints this way...long task ahead for you though. Especially if doing the PP on them as needed. Hope this makes sense as I am not a good technical writer. Good luck.

MikeT.