Extremely good example of how it's the photographer, not the equipment, which is important. Nat Geo photographer sent off with a new Nikon P7000 compact and shows how he can get great shots regardless.
From the looks of things he's very much a DX shooter, lots of his stuff done on D70, D80, D90 and recently D300 cameras - again proving it doesn't really matter if a camera is considered "professional" or not, it's what you do with it!
Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Monday, 2 August 2010
New camera for Susan...
Camera buying hats on please. Susan's six year old Olly has done her spectacularly well, however she's starting to get frustrated with it and run into the particular problem of xD cards no longer being for sale.
(frankly I don't blame her for wanting to change, the LCD screen on the back in hilariously small!)
However, her requested specs look like she's going to struggle to find something:
Wants viewfinder
Would like articulated LCD screen, like on David's Nikon
Doesn't want anything bigger or heavier than the current camera
Lens to be about the same as the Olly - x10 optical
I imagine budget is not going to be above £200-£300, if that
Any ideas?
I'm hoping she might compromise on the viewfinder/articulated screen - which widens the choice massively.
Cheers - Tom
Edit: This is what she has now, I think.
Edit: Susan has said she'd be prepared to compromise on the size/weight if it meant she gets the eye-level viewfinder and vari-angle screen...although I don't think she's quite realised that could mean a camera the size of David's Nikon!
(frankly I don't blame her for wanting to change, the LCD screen on the back in hilariously small!)
However, her requested specs look like she's going to struggle to find something:
Wants viewfinder
Would like articulated LCD screen, like on David's Nikon
Doesn't want anything bigger or heavier than the current camera
Lens to be about the same as the Olly - x10 optical
I imagine budget is not going to be above £200-£300, if that
Any ideas?
I'm hoping she might compromise on the viewfinder/articulated screen - which widens the choice massively.
Cheers - Tom
Edit: This is what she has now, I think.
Edit: Susan has said she'd be prepared to compromise on the size/weight if it meant she gets the eye-level viewfinder and vari-angle screen...although I don't think she's quite realised that could mean a camera the size of David's Nikon!
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Sometimes I wonder...
..why I bother with the cost and hassle of the DSLR.
(One image taken with the Nikon D300, plus Sigma zoom. The other with my Fuji F70 point-and-shoot. Both at "300mm" (although not strictly comparable due to sensor sizes). I'll leave you to work out which is which.)
Actually, I do know why I bother. The F70 image has had to be cropped heavily and then resampled, while the D300 image hasn't (although there is some cheating...it's actually a stacked composite of two images to get the wings and body in focus, while keeping the shallow depth of field for the background).
No control over depth of field on the compact - colour rendition also pretty hit and miss.
This was in bright, afternoon sun which allowed shooting at 200 ISO - anything above 400 ISO starts to lose masses of detail with the NR smearing on the F70.
Slooooow. Fuji one of fastest compacts I've used, but still enough shutter lag and blackout to mean anything moving is a hit and miss affair.
(One image taken with the Nikon D300, plus Sigma zoom. The other with my Fuji F70 point-and-shoot. Both at "300mm" (although not strictly comparable due to sensor sizes). I'll leave you to work out which is which.)
Actually, I do know why I bother. The F70 image has had to be cropped heavily and then resampled, while the D300 image hasn't (although there is some cheating...it's actually a stacked composite of two images to get the wings and body in focus, while keeping the shallow depth of field for the background).
No control over depth of field on the compact - colour rendition also pretty hit and miss.
This was in bright, afternoon sun which allowed shooting at 200 ISO - anything above 400 ISO starts to lose masses of detail with the NR smearing on the F70.
Slooooow. Fuji one of fastest compacts I've used, but still enough shutter lag and blackout to mean anything moving is a hit and miss affair.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Toby....
You mentioned you'd got a cheapish tablet recently - how are you getting on with it and anything to report on use?
(edit: or did you already tell us and I've completely forgotten?!)
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Friday, 23 October 2009
Fantasy and reality camera buying
Two questions for you chaps:
You win a pretty hefty lottery prize - not the jackpot, but enough to allow you to spend some serious cash on camera equipment without feeling too guilty, let's say no more than £20K...what do you buy?
On a more realistic note, once Alamy clears (and following my "what the camera earns, I get to spend on photography" rule) I'll have about £200 to spend. Beginning to lean towards getting a more compact bit of kit as it's getting less feasible to lug round the D300 at all times, although I do try.
What do you reckon? Try to scrape some extra together and get something a bit more expensive as a Christmas pressie to myself - I'm thinking G11 or GF1?
Or limit myself to the cash and see what something like a Fuji F70 or F200 is like as a true pocket cam?
And other thoughts on proper compacts? A compromise too far and am I going to get wound up by them?
You win a pretty hefty lottery prize - not the jackpot, but enough to allow you to spend some serious cash on camera equipment without feeling too guilty, let's say no more than £20K...what do you buy?
On a more realistic note, once Alamy clears (and following my "what the camera earns, I get to spend on photography" rule) I'll have about £200 to spend. Beginning to lean towards getting a more compact bit of kit as it's getting less feasible to lug round the D300 at all times, although I do try.
What do you reckon? Try to scrape some extra together and get something a bit more expensive as a Christmas pressie to myself - I'm thinking G11 or GF1?
Or limit myself to the cash and see what something like a Fuji F70 or F200 is like as a true pocket cam?
And other thoughts on proper compacts? A compromise too far and am I going to get wound up by them?
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Nice to see...
...the megapixel arms race might finally be over
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0908/09081908canong11.asp
Winding back from 14.5MP to 10Mp certainly seems to be a tacit admission that the last few rounds of development have been steps in the wrong direction - or perhaps consumers have started to show they're actually caring about pic quality and low-light performance.
G11 looks rather nice, now they've put the swivel screen back. If I had a spare £500....
Cheers - Tom
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0908/09081908canong11.asp
Winding back from 14.5MP to 10Mp certainly seems to be a tacit admission that the last few rounds of development have been steps in the wrong direction - or perhaps consumers have started to show they're actually caring about pic quality and low-light performance.
G11 looks rather nice, now they've put the swivel screen back. If I had a spare £500....
Cheers - Tom
Friday, 14 August 2009
Tripod matters
For Toby: not sure if I described how I carry tripod...pic tells a thousand words and all that.
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Tripod stuff
Mentioned this to Kev at the party, the other end of the spectrum from my Manfrotto!
(Did post a link to this in the original tripod posting, but to save Kev searching!)
(Did post a link to this in the original tripod posting, but to save Kev searching!)
Monday, 2 March 2009
New tripod - Manfrotto Modo
Think I've got away with risking ordering a very unsuitable travel tripod.
Constant problem has been my £40 Jessop finest is too long to fit into any of my luggage, isn't conducive to carrying around and even if I do make the effort is pretty rubbish, with a head that drifts, a spirit level which doesn't work and a portrait angle which isn't a true 90 degrees.
So I ordered a Manfrotto Modo 785SHB for £43 delivered - well aware that it's only meant to be rated for a 1kg load and that the D300 with lens is heavier than that.
Having arrived, the risk is probably worth it. In landscape orientation the tripod copes fine with the D300 (even with the real test of a 70-300) - the included "joystick" grip head doesn't seem to have a problem with keeping everything locked in place (basically all the weight is going straight down through the head and tripod). Different story in portrait mode (when due to the way the head works, the camera weight "shears"), where the camera and 70-300 begins to drift downwards. This is due to the quick release plate not holding firmly enough against the camera base however - rather than the head and tripod itself.
I reckon with a slightly smaller and lighter DSLR, especially with a smaller lens, it would be surprisingly firm.
Build wise, it's aluminum and plastic, but despite this feels pretty high quality and is, importantly, light enough to carry around easily (around 1kg). Carrying round is going to be a revalation compared to the Jessop tripod as the Manfrotto is just under 15 inches long collapsed...and if you split the legs and the centre column/head, you've got two pieces less than 12 inches long to fit into your bag.
Legs are five section, which means opening and closing isn't speediest in the world - but not bad. Locking seems firm but the legs are bendy and the tripod a bit skitterish fully extended (as you'd expect from a five-section aluminum tripod. Legs have different settings which means you can use it as normal, or in ultra-low mode (which lets you get the camera to less than 6 inches from ground). With just one, two or three of the sections extended, makes for a very solid "table" tripod. Max height with all sections extended and centre column up is just under four foot - although it's very unstable like this. I'm much more likely to use it without the centre column and put up with stooping or kneeling to use it, or just something at the scene to put it on to bring it to eye height (how often do you use a tripod at eye height anyway?)
Head unit is very clever, easy to use and includes a setting for photo and video (video setting essentially limits head motion while panning, while photo gives you 360 flexibility).
It's never going to compete with a "proper" tripod for stablity and I'm certainly not going to trust leaving my camera mounted on it while I go and wander round - but for portability it's going to mean I can take a tripod with me in circumstances I never would have done before and importantly be able to take it on short work trips with me, without going to a lot of trouble. I think if used with an eye on the limitations and perhaps with some old-school techniques like a rock bag, it might just perform as well as a tripod three times the price, weight and folded size!
And until I can afford this it will have to do!
(Manfrotto also do a 785B model in the mini-Modo line up - which appears to be more or less identical, except with a slightly longer folded length and bigger max extended height. No greater max load though. Size was my prime factor though and the 785SHB is a few inches shorter when folded.)
If anyone particularly interested, I can take some pics of it in action. Will also update this when I've used it properly and realised what its fatal flaw is!
Constant problem has been my £40 Jessop finest is too long to fit into any of my luggage, isn't conducive to carrying around and even if I do make the effort is pretty rubbish, with a head that drifts, a spirit level which doesn't work and a portrait angle which isn't a true 90 degrees.
So I ordered a Manfrotto Modo 785SHB for £43 delivered - well aware that it's only meant to be rated for a 1kg load and that the D300 with lens is heavier than that.
Having arrived, the risk is probably worth it. In landscape orientation the tripod copes fine with the D300 (even with the real test of a 70-300) - the included "joystick" grip head doesn't seem to have a problem with keeping everything locked in place (basically all the weight is going straight down through the head and tripod). Different story in portrait mode (when due to the way the head works, the camera weight "shears"), where the camera and 70-300 begins to drift downwards. This is due to the quick release plate not holding firmly enough against the camera base however - rather than the head and tripod itself.
I reckon with a slightly smaller and lighter DSLR, especially with a smaller lens, it would be surprisingly firm.
Build wise, it's aluminum and plastic, but despite this feels pretty high quality and is, importantly, light enough to carry around easily (around 1kg). Carrying round is going to be a revalation compared to the Jessop tripod as the Manfrotto is just under 15 inches long collapsed...and if you split the legs and the centre column/head, you've got two pieces less than 12 inches long to fit into your bag.
Legs are five section, which means opening and closing isn't speediest in the world - but not bad. Locking seems firm but the legs are bendy and the tripod a bit skitterish fully extended (as you'd expect from a five-section aluminum tripod. Legs have different settings which means you can use it as normal, or in ultra-low mode (which lets you get the camera to less than 6 inches from ground). With just one, two or three of the sections extended, makes for a very solid "table" tripod. Max height with all sections extended and centre column up is just under four foot - although it's very unstable like this. I'm much more likely to use it without the centre column and put up with stooping or kneeling to use it, or just something at the scene to put it on to bring it to eye height (how often do you use a tripod at eye height anyway?)
Head unit is very clever, easy to use and includes a setting for photo and video (video setting essentially limits head motion while panning, while photo gives you 360 flexibility).
It's never going to compete with a "proper" tripod for stablity and I'm certainly not going to trust leaving my camera mounted on it while I go and wander round - but for portability it's going to mean I can take a tripod with me in circumstances I never would have done before and importantly be able to take it on short work trips with me, without going to a lot of trouble. I think if used with an eye on the limitations and perhaps with some old-school techniques like a rock bag, it might just perform as well as a tripod three times the price, weight and folded size!
And until I can afford this it will have to do!
(Manfrotto also do a 785B model in the mini-Modo line up - which appears to be more or less identical, except with a slightly longer folded length and bigger max extended height. No greater max load though. Size was my prime factor though and the 785SHB is a few inches shorter when folded.)
If anyone particularly interested, I can take some pics of it in action. Will also update this when I've used it properly and realised what its fatal flaw is!
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