A few Tricks on using your coolpix 3100 for Auction pictures.

Many people have wonderful digital cameras but don't Really know how to get the best pictures in particular for Auction Sites (eBay), I am no genius at photography and use the auto mode for most pics- and have learned a few tricks beyond the auto mode that might help.

1.         Macro Mode
2.         White Balance
3.         Who Needs a Complex Photo Program
4.         Just general common sense.
5.         Speeding up your Picture taking

1.  You need to use the Macro mode on your camera to get in real close to what your taking, the macro
     mode on the coolpix 3100 is the little flower like symbol at the bottom of your round selection button
     situated a little to the right of the LCD screen, you will know you are in Macro mode when you see a
     little green flower on the left hand side of the LCD when taking pictures, hit the display button if you
     miss anything!

2.  This option is a godsend for lighting, if your picture looks to blue or yellow (typical situations) then go
     to "MANUAL" mode by turning the TOP control to the picture with the BLACK camera and big
     letter M, hit menu, go to PRE White balance, press the right arrow twice and then down to the option
     measure, aim at the item you are taking a picture off and press the right arrow again, you will notice
     that the camera seems to take a picture but in reality it is measuring the histogram (white/black balance
    of a picture) and setting the manual mode to balance the picture.  Now when you exit the menu and
    take your picture it will be as clear as day!, very cool. 

3.  When you touch-up your photo just plug the usb cable or card into your computer and use microsoft
     office picture manager, now I am certainly no fan of Microsoft but credit should be given when its due,
     most people do not realize that this program exists on XP, if you are running an older version of
     windows your probably out of luck. This program can resize the pic for web posting, export it to jpg,
     do decent touch-ups like brightness, crop, and color and it can run in batch windows mode, just click
     view and select thumbnails, the rest is up to you! 

4.  And use common sense, take pictures in sunlight and they come out better then with a flash. Use your
     scanner for mostly flat 8 1/2 x 11 objects.   Sometimes flash in a well lit environment makes for better
     results, hit delete if you don't like it. The coolpix 3100 is good enough and even better then
     some of  the later models, and don't worry about looking professional some people don't like it.

5.   I use a 1 gig Compac flash in my 3100,  I am a cedrtified computer geek and overkill is common in
      my field, however I was always curious as to how a digital camera can address a 1 gig linear
      workspace without some semi-sophisticated TOC or FAT (don't mind computer terms) well it
      CAN'T.  I've discovered two key items that can slow you down with this camera and maybe others.

          A) When a Re-chargable battery is low-calling the energy curve like a 1.2 volt rated rechargable 
                in a 1.45 volt camera.
           B) A memory card with fragmentation.

       Like a computer you need to defragment your card at some point after capturing and deleting over
       and over, also addressing pictures that end up at the far end of the card can slow the card down
       significantly.

You will notice after the picture is taken the red light flashes for 2 or 3 seconds, time to format your card!

ps: I just saw a Nikon l3, Nikon has fixed the lcd issue in that model.

* If I run accross any other neat stuff with the coolpix I will add it to this guide.