Guys-

Check this out...

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21351

This is a post by Rich Yourstone, who in my opinion is one of if not THE best N-scale modeler alive, but he's cracked the limitations of depth-of-field (area of a photo in-focus) with some new software.

Here's how it works-

put a digital camera on a tripod, and take a bunch of identical photos of your trains. Before each exposure, change the focus so that each photo is more in focus as it moves from closer to farther away from the camera. In other words, a small zone of each photo will be in focus, and everything else will be blurred. Here's the voodoo of the software- you select all the photos you took from within the software, and hit "run". The software stitches all the photos into one seamless, perfectly-focused photo that's in focus from a couple of inches in front of the camera all the way out to infinity.

The kicker, it's not available for the Mac, only Windows. (The big waaaaa sound you hear is me crying over my Mac).

Here's a link to the software...

http://heliconfilter.com/pages/focus_overview.html

Yep, this is a breakthrough on the digital front.... I predict you'll see some incredible photos in the magazines pretty soon...

-Phil

__________________
Model Railroading means..."A Money-Pit filled with Trains"

hey Phil

That is fantastic. I have already a million questions, but just a couple I will post here. What are the requirements for a camera? Would mine do for the focusing, or would it take a SLR like yours? I still have not experimented that much with my camera and have a lot to learn. But that would be cool if I could do that. I realize that my camera may not be what is needed to work with that software.

Thanks for the post, see you soon.

Charlie

You are the best N scaler as far as we are concerned. (someday I will want something) Bob St.

This is a most interesting and exciting piece of software! Scrolling the Atlas board on this topic really shows some great possibilities with this software. I'm only speculating but it would seem that if one can take a series of sharp but shorter depth of field shots over a range of focus distances this software will knit the picts together. Beyond that it sounds like about any camera of reasonable quality should work if a stable mounting point can be maintained.

Phil did have an offer from an Atlas board member that has this software that would process his photos. Maybe you could slip a set of jpegs in with his stuff if he takes the guy up on his offer.

WARNING! Inflating ego's can be hazardous to other n-scalers health. Always use caution and ensure all appropriate and not so appropriate strings are attached!

__________________
Bruce (McToots) McElhoe
KAMRI President
and Web Site Moderator

As I have said many times, Bob Strickland is the wind beneath my wings.
(Well, or something like that...)

Charlie-
From what I can gather, your camera is a good candidate. What you have to be able to do is shoot a photo, change the camera focus without the camera moving, shoot another photo, and so on.

Beyond that, any digital camera will do. Of course, the higher the resolution, the more detailed the finished photo.

That's about all I know about it...

Hope this helps,
-Phil

__________________
Model Railroading means..."A Money-Pit filled with Trains"