The Photography Thread 2

[MartyG]

Sony seemed to have all but given up on their A Mount line in favour of their E mount system. The A58 is a very good camera though and EVFs have moved on massively since the GH1.

What lenses did you get with the D3300?

[Brad]

Just got the new 18 to 55 vr mk 2. Will pick up a 35mm in a bit. For what I want that'll probably do me

[MartyG]

I have the Nikkor 35mm f1.8 which produces nice results. I'm considering upgrading it to the Sigma 30mm f1.4 ART, it's getting some decent reviews: http://www.photographyblog.com/revie..._hsm_a_review/ - probably worth looking at.

[Brad]

I had the 30mm sigma 1.4 with an old Alpha. Was great for some stuff but the sharpness dropped off toward the edges pretty sharply, even when stopped down. I'll take a look at this new one but I think the 1.8 Nikor is fine for my needs, and quite a bit cheaper.

[Anpanman]

I've got the Nikon 28mm f1.8, very happy with it.

[Brad]

Will nd filters be ok to capture the Eclipse? I have . 9 . 6 and. 3 I could stack? Ta.

[MartyG]

The higher the sun is from the horizon the greater ND you need. A 10 stop filter should be enough at the peak of the eclipse and it's advisable to use live view should the quality of your ND filters be questionable (cheap plastic rather than quality glass).

Stacking ND filters can give bad flaring on your images so you're better off with a single strong ND.

Edit - Of course don't look at the sun directly and really you want a proper solar filter as this will block UV, NDs won't, so yeah, live view.

I'm probably not going to bother trying to photograph it. My NDs aren't great - the solar filters I looked at were well over ?150: http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-m...ilter/p1569587 - it does say on there don't use the viewfinder (ND).

http://www.wexphotographic.com/solar-filters/b3261 - these are the solar filters although not specifically for DSLR lenses, keep the gaffer tape handy - unlikely to get them delivered before 9.30 tomorrow mind

Post on the AP website: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk...-eclipse-46092

[Brad]

My darkest is only 3 stops (0.9). It's pretty good quality (Lee I think). I'll use my GH1 and give it a go, f/22, iso 100. I could stack another 0.9 grad in front of it I guess and keep the lens cap on until the moment before I fire the shutter. Start at 1/4000th and see how I get on. Possibly one broken GH1 by tomorrow lunchtime lol.

[MartyG]

Those filters I linked are around the 16 stop mark, 3 stops won't be anywhere near enough and would surely fry your eyes if used with an optical viewfinder. It could be interesting to find out what the sun's rays will do to your GH1's sensor

[Brad]

Ah crap. Sound slike a bad idea then!

[EvilBoris]

I quite often take photos with the sun in and it hasn't caused any problems yet.

[MartyG]

I've no idea what might happen, but I suspect there's a subtle difference at having the sun burning on the sensor with high magnification on live view for several minutes compared to having the sun exposed for a fraction of a second in a normal exposure.

[Anpanman]

Assuming the weather does us a favour I'm going to use the Lumix snapshot machine to bag a couple.

[MartyG]

With ND12 (8+4 stacked) through a dirty window. Will be going outside. 500mm f11 (max on this camera HS50) 1/4000th - the flaring is due to stacking these crap ND filters, plus the super zoom lens design probably isn't helping much. Don't think there's much chance of getting a lot of detail without better kit.

[MartyG]

Best I managed