The Photography Thread

[PeteJ]

Did pete get his new toy yet? Curious to see what he has been up to

I did not Rubbish timing as I wanted to play over weekend, but at least I have something to look forward to next week now

[Zatoichi_Samurai]

Does anyone own, or have any experience of the Olympus E410SE. It's pretty cheap in currys this weekend. £279.99.

Have had a look at the dpreview and it seems to not have an MF/AF switch on the lens, which could be quite annoying. Also am I right in thinking that DSLR lenses don't seem to have an aperture ring on them? I don't have much experience with still cameras, but am a video camera operator by trade, and like the ring on the lens. Or do most of you use auto-exposure?

Thanks

[Magnakai]

The Olympus is meant to be a really decent camera, and I've heard that their lenses are very good too. Thing is, Canon and Nikon really are the gorillas in field of cameras, so I'd usually recommend going for one of them.

Personally I'd go for this deal: http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/15970...-55-lens-kit-/

A Canon 400D and kit lens for just over £300. I have one, and I think it's brilliant. Though I'm not a fan of the kit lens, I have seen some very good results from it.

As far as aperture rings go, modern lenses don't have them. You'll change the aperture in camera, probably using a jog wheel of some sort. I wouldn't worry about accessibility, as you've got the control right at your fingertips.

For everyday photography, I'd normally leave my camera on aperture priority. That means that I manually set the aperture and the camera picks an appropriate length of time for the shutter to expose. You can easily adjust the target exposure to compensate for under or over exposure.

[winky]

A Canon 400D and kit lens for just over ?300. I have one, and I think it's brilliant. Though I'm not a fan of the kit lens, I have seen some very good results from it.

love the 400d and as a starting lens the kit lens is pretty damn good. It feels horrible but dont let that put you off as it can take some good pictures. I have posted this before but I will again, it can be pin sharp. Look at the nose and hair detail:



I have no idea about the Olympus stuff, and only recently started this and I use the canon. Im not sure if there are a wider selection of lenses or a better 2nd market for the big 2. might be something to consider, might not.

[Alastair]

Winky, like the colour in the web shot a lot.

Been out and about again.
Another night shot for the project:

Didn't like the colours off the orange street lamp at all in this one but like it a lot in B&W.

This morning I went exploring:







By this point I could hear dogs barking so though it best to leave, I hate guard dogs, scary things!

[winky]

Love those shots Al, great use of the light and shadow. My faves are 3 and 5. The exposure for the beam of light in 5 is sweet.

I wish I had that kind of eye to find those kind of things. great job

So where were you exploring, some sort of abandoned office?

[Ish]

The 1st and 3rd ones are great Alastair.

Winky - like the web. It's well composed and the smooth green background is great.

[Alastair]

So where were you exploring, some sort of abandoned office?

Thanks guys. Think it was an abandoned shipping yard building, it had offices, storage and workshops.

[winky]

Heh thanks guys. I liked the colour too, and the web pattern is nice.

Finally went ahead and bought a macro lens. Hopefully it will be here by next weekend. Love the thought of getting twice as close to those little bugglies now

[Ish]

Oh you're going to love that winky!

Worth picking up a flash too to go with that (and if you can afford it a macro flash). A good flash will let you get really narrow apertures which is important with a macro lens as they have a very shallow depth of field. Mine is frequently pumped up on the high 20s.

[JohnMcL7]

Does anyone own, or have any experience of the Olympus E410SE. It's pretty cheap in currys this weekend. ?279.99.

Have had a look at the dpreview and it seems to not have an MF/AF switch on the lens, which could be quite annoying. Also am I right in thinking that DSLR lenses don't seem to have an aperture ring on them? I don't have much experience with still cameras, but am a video camera operator by trade, and like the ring on the lens. Or do most of you use auto-exposure?

Thanks

If that's the kit with the 17.5-45mm lens then I'd leave it, this is not a great quality lens and the 35mm equivalent starting point is not ideal. You want to be aiming for the 14-42mm lens, this one is very small, light, starts off at 28mm and is of much better quality putting most other companies' kit lenses to shame.

As the replacement for this camera was recently announced I wouldn't rush into it, I'd also seriously look at the E-510 - this camera is physically much the same aside from the addition of a hand grip. However it adds in body IS which I think is very useful, you also get shortcuts on the back to exp mode/AF/WB/ISO which the E-4xx cameras lack. The grip I find makes the camera a bit more comfortable to use and it means the camera can use the standard BLM-1 batteries, the E-4xx use a lower capacity battery.

However the E-410 definitely has a size and weight advantage over any other digital SLR out there and Olympus have just announced a 25mm F2.8 pancake lens which will make for the smallest DSLR setup by quite a margin.

John

[Zatoichi_Samurai]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

It is the 17.5 to 45mm lens. So I shall leave it as size wasn't really an issue for me. I hadn't seen the canon deal posted, so may well go for that instead.

[Ish]

I'd had a plan to head to the local rugby club today but two spanners got stuck in the words. Lousy weather. Playing away. Instead I took a picture of my fridge:

[MartyG]

Interesting shot Ish

Liking those shots of yours Alastair - I've never seen any such buildings I could sneek into here.

I got a couple of shots of the weather over the w/e, but nothing particularly ground breaking ... taken with the Canon 10D





Oh, and a Swan shot on the Welland from my office window

[demon9k]

Well after reading this thread for a while and seeing all the great shots you guys have done I went out and got myself a Canon 400D. Hope you guys like my first few shots. I took quite a lot more but I didn't really like them.









Quick question for you guys, how many shots do you take of the same thing to make sure you get the best possible shot? I found myself not wanting to take to many as it seemed like cheating some how. Tried a couple with the more advance settings on the camera but they all came out over exposed.