The Photography Thread

[Ginger Tosser]

You got messy then.

Indeed, strange dust everywhere. Good job I didn't change lenses.

Anyway, nice hair shots. Black and White suits the black subjects (is that not PC? oh well). Nice old images as well Marty. Reminds me I need to rescan my NY stuff.

[funkydan]

Hi guys, as I have some new photographic challenges ahead of me, I wanted to get a fisheye lens thing, and was wondering if anyone here had any experience with Opteka products, or more importantly this product of their's? And also, does anyone know of a UK Opteka stockist?

As for the photographic challenge, I've now been asked (by the people who asked me to do the club shots before) to take photos at the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend Aftershow party! The event during the day will be in Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent (sadly, I don't have a pass for that) but the aftershow party for 2000 people (which sold out in 7 hours apparently) will be in a warehouse in an as yet undisclosed warehouse in Maidstone. It's on May 10th so I best save up my pennies fast if I want that lens!

My new 8GB CF card arrived today, which should come in handy for the above! Twas only just under £22 inc. p&p I'll let you know what it's like...

[icarus0]

Hi guys

After 4 years of use, I'm looking to upgrade my Canon A80 to a digital SLR but could do with a little bit of advice.

After doing a bit of reading up on the subject I'm currently leaning towards a Nikon D80 which, according to What Digital Camera at least, seems to be one of the best choices for my budget of up to ?500 for a body only. Can anyone recommend this camera or, alternatively, suggest a decent alternative for around the same price?

My second question is to do with lenses which, I'll happily admit, I'm completely clueless about! Jessops are doing a couple of bundles for the D80 with either a 18-70mm or 18-135mm lens, the second one being only ?10 more than the first. This will probably sound stupid but what is the practical difference between them? Does the 135mm one mean that its possible to zoom in further than the 70mm one?

As I'm mainly into travel and landscape photography, are either of these a good bet or could I get something better for a similar price?

Cheers for any advice you can offer and apologies again for the possibly stupid questions - this SLR malarky is a bit more confusing than just pointing and shooting with my old A80!

Andy

EDIT: meant to add the link to my flickr page - I'm my own worst critic when it comes to photography and of the thousands I've taken over the years, these are the only ones I'm even slightly happy with.

[Ginger Tosser]

Morning,

This one is doing the rounds a bit, but it's a bit of advice where not to stand when taking pictures of a B1 Bomber - Linky

[wicky]

i really should get out and photograph something that isn't my cat

[Ginger Tosser]

Difficult in this weather, everything is wet or blown away.

[Ginger Tosser]

Spotted a bit of Duck Love going down today





Enjoy, not entirely sure if she did though.

[Magnakai]

That's pretty disturbing GT! You should make those demolition ones into an animated GIF. It could look pretty cool.

Icarus, the Nikon D80 is meant to be very good. Personally, I'm very happy with my Canon D400, which is also very affordable now that its replacement is nearly here. Either Canon or Nikon will be a good choice. Apart from the brand new series, Nikons don't quite match the Canons for low-light photography, so if that's a priority for you, you might want to look at a Canon one. Check out some of the reviews on www.dpreview.com

funkydan, the web makes Opteka sound like a very bad idea. A quick google turns up plenty of bad feedback. Apparently the image quality is terrible. Good news for the party though! Well done!

Alastair, those are really nice, especially the second one.

Marty, those photos came out well! Especially for such old film. I think I have some 10 year old film lying around that I should probably get developed.


I've been quite busy photographically. On Tuesday I got employed (sorta) by my flatmate to photograph an A-level workshop that she's running. The pictures came out quite well. I'll show them to you guys once I get permission from her.

Also, last night was a fundraiser club night for my girlfriend's class. They're trying to raise money for a catalog for their degree show. One of them has a brother who's involved in a London club called Swaparama, where you come along wearing a bunch of clothes you don't want. Every so often a buzzer sounds and you have to swap with the person next to you. They brought the night up to Glasgow and, needless to say, this made for some great photo opportunities.






Tons and tons more in the set here. Please take a look. I'm generally really pleased with them.

[MartyG]

Some good pics there Magnakai

Icarus, I have a Nikon D80, it is a great camera, you won't go far wrong with one of them. Some pics from mine here

[icarus0]

Thanks for that Marty - some nice pictures there.

Which lens(es) have you got (or would recommend) for it? Had a brief look at one in Jessops today and the bloke in there was recommending the Nikon 18-135mm kit lens which is supposed to be pretty good although, with my knowledge of lenses, he could have been selling me a turnip for all I know...

[MartyG]

The 18-135mm is a nice enough lens - it gives a fair range and sharp enough pictures. The 18-200mm DX VR would give you more reach and is definitely a better lens, but it's around double the price.

I have:
Nikkor 18-70 mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED AF-S DX
Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4.5- 5.6G AF-S
Nikon 50mm F1.8D AF
Sigma 17-70 mm f/2.8-4.5 Macro DC
Sigma 105 mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro
Tamron 200-400mm f/5.6
Tamron AF 70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD

I've ended up with 2 lenses covering 18-70 and 70-300 because I got them with an eBay purchase of a D70, but the Nikkor 18-70 is nice and quiet as its HSM

The 105mm macro and 50mm f1.8D are both great lenses, and the latter of these is dirt cheap too.

[funkydan]

I have the Nikkor 18-135mm and it's great

[icarus0]

Cheers for the advice lads - looks like I'll be going for the D80 with the 18-135mm lens.

Its just a bit of a pain that I'll have to spend more cash to replace all my current filters due to the increase in thread size...

[Ginger Tosser]

That's pretty disturbing GT! You should make those demolition ones into an animated GIF. It could look pretty cool.

Someone did one for me!

[Ish]

Been a while since I've been able to get out with my camera. Busy with various bits and pieces. Got out today though - weather was miserable so headed over to the butterfly farm and took a few. This was my favourite: