The Photography Thread

[Ish]

I think I'll give that a go. Not having to touch the thing seems like a plan to me.

I've been swapping lenses an awful lot lately so its no surprise I've got dust in I 'spose.

[Rossco]

Took a few shots of bee's today and last night with my k800i, macro really is fab on this.

2nd and third shots are a bit blurry though as the bee was on the prowl and I was rather scared!

[Gareth C]

wow, the first shot is great and the last would be too but for the focus being too deep...brilliant. I can see an upgrade coming!

[Richard.John]

On the subject of memory card failure, that is the reason why I bought a Sandisk Extreme III CF for my 30D as it has recovery software in the box if things go tits up.

[Alastair]

I think I'll give that a go. Not having to touch the thing seems like a plan to me.

I've been swapping lenses an awful lot lately so its no surprise I've got dust in I 'spose.

As I was chatting about a few weeks ago, Jessops (or any local camera shops) refused to clean mine for me. Only option was sending it back to canon or a day trip to London where somewhere 'apparently' did it while you wait.

I got a rocket blower in the end and it has shifted most of the specs, not noticed one since anyway. Just lock the mirror up and blow away. Be careful not to get too close to any parts though. I now do it as a matter of course after I've been somewhere dusty.

[charlesr]

Bored:

[Richard.John]

A new Nikon DSLR in 19 days. Best bet is that it's an upgraded D70s or downgraded D200 whichever way you want to look at it.

http://nikonimaging.com/global/

The DSLR war is hotting up!

[Ginger Tosser]

Aye, kinda ****s on Sony's Alpha launch as well. People have been banging on about the sensor in the alpha been the same as the D200. Looks like Nikon are about to shut people up. My guess is a D70 replacement or a model between the Alpha and the 30D. As a Canon user i'm hoping its a cracking camera as competition is good.

[andrewfee]

I forgot we had this topic here, got a new tripod last week - a "Slik Pro 700DX" and took a few shots I was quite happy with. Not too happy with the tripod though - weighs a ton, and despite the weight, isn't actually all that stable. I didn't expect it to be this big, and it's serious overkill for my current Casio Exilim EX-Z750! Was just collected this morning to go back for a refund. I also bought an Expodisc, which was damaged in the mail, so it's gone back too. Anyway, here are the shots:



Was just about to pack away the tripod after taking some photos, and thought the clouds were interesting.


I love taking long exposure shots at night, and having been without a tripod for ages, missed it, so this is one of the school near here.


A crop of the school one - my Powerbook is away for repair right now, so I'm stuck with Picasa on an old Windows machine. When I cropped it, the "I'm feeling lucky" button gave the image a nice bit of contrast.


Another long exposure here, this time out of the front of my house. Took far too many photos trying to get some decent trails of a car going past. (wasn't much traffic that time of night)

None of the shots will be that sharp at "original size" on Flickr, as I've got the in-camera sharpness set as low as it can go, and Picasa only has an "add sharpness" button, which looks horrible. Other than some minor levels adjustments, they're pretty much straight out of the camera. (which is unusual for me) I'll probably end up going back to them with Photoshop once my Powerbook is sorted out.




I'll be interested to see what the new DSLR from Nikon is, and what it's like - I was just thinking about picking up a D200 along with the 18-200mm VR and an SB-600/800. (many people seem to recommend the 600 over the 800, but I can't help thinking I'll probably end up regretting it down the line) I can't believe how cheap the D50 is right now though - at £330 from Amazon, it's very tempting to pick that up, do without some functionality (but gain better performance at high ISOs) and pick up some top-tier glass instead.

Btw - I picked up the 77mm expodisc based on the recommendation that it'll work with pretty much any lens (you can just hold it over a smaller lens - it's only to set the white-balance) but I can't see myself getting anything bigger than the 18-200mm VR any time soon - should I just get it replaced with a 72mm, or do you think it would be best just to keep the 77mm size incase I get a bigger lens further down the line? (thinking years here)

Also - does anyone here have experience with good tripods? After the Slik, I've decided I'm not going to skimp on one, and have been looking at Gitzo's range. They were surprisingly quick at getting a catalogue sent out to me (can't stand their website layout) but there are so many options it's getting quite confusing now. Most people on DP Review seem to recommend the 1325 with the 1321 leveling base and the RRS 55 ball head - while I'm sure this is a fantastic combination, it looks to be really quite heavy, and according to the chart in the brochure, I should really only need a series 1 tripod to hold it with the 18-200mm VR, and the lighter the better in my opinion. (as long as it can hold the gear) Not much use having a great tripod if it's too heavy to bother actually taking with you. These are seriously expensive though, so it's a case of having to get it right first time really. I suppose I should probably wait until I've got the D200 and lens(es) but I'm really missing having something for my Exilim even. (hell, it probably needs it more than the D200 would) I can't see myself wanting longer than 200mm for the time being, but it would be very expensive to upgrade if I did.

[MartyG]

That 4th shot is great, the colours are fantastic in it.

As for tripods, well I'm making do with a 4 axis thing which is pretty ****e tbh, but it does hold the camera still and it's light enough to carry with me, so I don't see a need for splashing out loads on anything else. Most of my photography doesn't really require it anyway - and with that VR lens ( which I'm also seriously considering getting ) you're gaining 2 stops anyway.

It very much depends into what type of photography you're trying to do, bean bags can make effective tripods even with really long lenses, as can being able to shoot 5 fps.

[PeteJ]

I use a manfrotto tripod, which imo is the dogs bollocks. It is big (half a meter closed) and heavy (2kg), but so stable and gives me plenty of options. I have this one.

[Richard.John]

In regards to Nikon, it seems that they have fallen into the Megapixel trap once again though as they obviously feel more threatened than Canon in relation to Sony's new A100. Nikon really need to develop their own in house CMOS, otherwise they will always be reliant upon Sony.

What will Canon do now? Upgrade the sensors or stick to their policy of it's not how many pixels, but the quality of the pixels that counts, in regards to noise.

[andrewfee]

That 4th shot is great, the colours are fantastic in it.

Thanks, that's one I'm really happy with.

As for tripods, well I'm making do with a 4 axis thing which is pretty ****e tbh, but it does hold the camera still and it's light enough to carry with me, so I don't see a need for splashing out loads on anything else. Most of my photography doesn't really require it anyway - and with that VR lens ( which I'm also seriously considering getting ) you're gaining 2 stops anyway.

It very much depends into what type of photography you're trying to do, bean bags can make effective tripods even with really long lenses, as can being able to shoot 5 fps.

What kind of camera is it you've got though? I've found that just about any old tripod is fine with P&S really, but you really have to buy something good with a DSLR due to the mirror slap. (and generally longer lenses etc)

I like to do a fair bit of night photography though, so a tripod that can keep things steady is essential. I generally use a tripod for anything where I can though, to get the best sharpness possible. (while I'm sure VR does a great job, you can't beat not having the vibration in the first place)

I use a manfrotto tripod, which imo is the dogs bollocks. It is big (half a meter closed) and heavy (2kg), but so stable and gives me plenty of options. I have this one.

Thanks - I was actually looking at the carbon fibre version of that (to save weight) but it's a bit short at only 142cm with the centre column up (a no-no for stability) and it seems that Manfrotto's CF isn't very good, and doesn't hold much weight at all. It's about 1.6 kg and will hold four, whereas a comparable weight Gitzo (G1257LVL, for example) will hold double that. The camera, lens, head, and levelling base is going to add at least 3kgs, meaning that you're probably not going to be able to hang your backpack on to keep it as steady as you can (recommended for something that kind of weight) whereas it'd be no problem with the Gitzo.

In regards to Nikon, it seems that they have fallen into the Megapixel trap once again though as they obviously feel more threatened than Canon in relation to Sony's new A100. Nikon really need to develop their own in house CMOS, otherwise they will always be reliant upon Sony.

What will Canon do now? Upgrade the sensors or stick to their policy of it's not how many pixels, but the quality of the pixels that counts, in regards to noise.

Maybe I need to pay more attention to Canon (I've always favoured Nikon for the ergonomics) but I thought they were the ones going for the high pixel counts rather than Nikon? (6mpx with the D70(s) / D50 vs 8mpx + processing on the 350D etc)

It just seems that the consumer knows nothing about what makes a good image, and they see bigger numbers and automatically assume it's going to be better, so camera companies are going with that. I'd say about 6mpx is the most you need for really high quality images from a DSLR.


I'm tempted to go for another D70 to be honest, because they're great cameras, and don't suffer from much noise at all, but the D200 seems to offer a lot more than just a higher pixel count. (after looking into it, the D50 isn't an option - it's had too much stuff removed)

It's possible that this new camera will be even better than the D200 though, for the most part, as the D70 was far better than the D100, despite being the "budget" version of it.

[PeteJ]

Maybe I need to pay more attention to Canon (I've always favoured Nikon for the ergonomics) but I thought they were the ones going for the high pixel counts rather than Nikon? (6mpx with the D70(s) / D50 vs 8mpx + processing on the 350D etc)

It just seems that the consumer knows nothing about what makes a good image, and they see bigger numbers and automatically assume it's going to be better, so camera companies are going with that. I'd say about 6mpx is the most you need for really high quality images from a DSLR.

Until you come to print - If I keep my prints at 300dpi I can only just stretch to A4. That's 8mp.

[Mr Ono]

I picked up my Canon 350D on Wednesday.

Haven't got a clue what I'm doing - just point and clicking at the moment.