The Photography Thread

[MartyG]

That's not a lens, it's a weapon of mass destruction.

Glad to be inside:

[Magnakai]

Good LORD! That's scary, Pete.

There's an interesting Sigma compact that's been announced. It uses an SLR-sized sensor, with the curious Foveon technology that sees it collecting red, green and blue data seperately. It's sort of a 14megapixel equivalent, I believe. Unfortunately, the 16mm lens only stops down to f/4, which makes it pretty unusable to prime-spoiled me. Would be perfectly good for a lot of people though, especially those used to zooms.

Anyway, details here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08013108sigmadp1.asp

[Space Monkey]

Guys, I'm in the processing of getting a Panasonic TZ3 (I'd love an SLR, but I won't use it enough to justify the expenditure!). Can anyone recommend SD cards? Says it supports SD and SDHC - I'm going to get a pretty large one but I want to make sure I get one that's of good quality and provides quick performance.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on with it, I was on the verge of getting a TZ3 for myself and my wife but in the end I went for a Panasonic FZ8 from here

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz8/

We've got 18 month old twins and really need to get some decent photos.
She seems to be a bit overwhelmed by the options it offers so I'm not sure I made the right choice.

[Ginger Tosser]

That sigma has been in development for a while (was announced originally in March 07). £17000 price tag, I'll have 6.

Anyway, knew the weather was a bit cack today. But wanted some snow shots (not that Brum had much anyway).

[MartyG]

Fisheye photos are freaky - nicely done

Edit - and another abstract from me I took earlier with the 10D and have now processed a bit

[Number45]

I'd be interested to hear how you get on with it, I was on the verge of getting a TZ3 for myself and my wife but in the end I went for a Panasonic FZ8 from here

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz8/

We've got 18 month old twins and really need to get some decent photos.
She seems to be a bit overwhelmed by the options it offers so I'm not sure I made the right choice.

Will post something when I've played with it sure. I picked it up today, but at the moment I don't have an SD card (XD/Pro Duos coming out of my ass though! ) - borrowing one from my Dad for my daughters party on Sunday so I'll play with it some more then hopefully. The internal memory stores 3 pictures at the default quality settings!

I'm a complete nublet with these though, so don't expect anything too profound.

[HaHaUK]

Got a new camera last week, and been snapping away, loads more over at Flickr

[Magnakai]

Ooh. Some of those are niiice. The close up of the little mole thing is really good. I also like the curve in the top one. Good stuff!

[VR46]

Took a couple of nice pics (for me) at Zoo this morning, only a phone camera, not zoomed in or anything, was three feet from the Lion.

[Space Monkey]

I was at the Lion enclosure at Glasgow Zoo(a real dump) a few years ago. There was a older guy with a group of kids who suddenly announced "watch oot it's gonnae pish on you!!". Sure enough the lion quickly reversed and pointed its arse at the kids and sprayed all over the place. If it hadn't been for the warning they'd have been soaked.
Something to bare in mind if you're ever that close again

[winky]

wow big cats. Is that a white tiger underneath the bench in the second picture?

I like the second one with the sleepy tiger, doesnt look so tough to me

[VR46]

Don't think it was a White Tiger, just another "normal" one.

[Number45]

Just want to give a quick thumbs up to that Pic Stop site, really impressed. Ordered on the cheapest shipping at about half three on Friday, had a mail before five telling me it had been shipped and it arrived this morning.

The card (Sandisk 4GB Extreme III SDHC) comes with a USB reader as well as a snazzy soft case for carrying stuffs in.

As for the camera (Panasonic TZ3) I'm still feeling my way. I took it to the childrens party yesterday and took about 80 pictures. They're of mixed quality, mostly due to the huge array of different light sources I imagine (And a fair bit of me being not that good). I played around with the different flash settings and took a couple of shots with the preset 'party' scene. Unfortunately it was all so hectic I don't know which shots I took with what settings, which kind of makes messing around a little pointless.

The camera seems very easy to use and I personally really like the feel of it. It's quite weighty (Not so heavy that you couldn't take it with you most places though) and definitely feels like a quality product. The screen is huge (Arguably a little too large in a fairly compact camera as there's not much room to put your fingers at the back) and all of the settings are pretty easy enough to work out for someone who's only skim-read the manual.

I did get a couple of shots that I quite like (Although one isn't the best quality). One of the lens from one of the projected ceiling lights and another of the projection itself. Might see if I can get them online a little later.

So, does anyone have any links to mini-guides on how I'd go about testing the camera. Ideal conditions, types of things to try etc?

[MartyG]

Unfortunately it was all so hectic I don't know which shots I took with what settings, which kind of makes messing around a little pointless.

That's what we have EXIF information for ...

Your pics will have embedded in them pretty much everything your camera was set to at the time, including focal length, aperture settings, shutter speed, camera mode, ISO speed, flash mode etc - if you examine the photo info/properties on a pic view that reads EXIF info, it's all there for you to consume

So, does anyone have any links to mini-guides on how I'd go about testing the camera. Ideal conditions, types of things to try etc?

Just take lots of photos, don't worry about testing and colour charts and the like - just shoot everything that interests you, try out different settings and experiement.

[funkydan]

Few shots from the weekend - not sure if they're good or not. I seem to be going through a creative desert at the moment as early spring with no colour on the trees fails to inspire me. I think I like them though, especially the portrait

My mate Wolff:



Played around with this one a bit:



I love the clarity of the branches of this shot against the blue sky:



Shadow of my former self bit self-indulgent I know but it's just a bit of fun :