Challenge 09 - Tom's first sequence

About 10 minutes work with the mini-studio, tripod and off-camera flash. Plus I got a cup or tea at the end of it as a bonus!

Kettle: ISO 200, M, 1/13s, f8, 16-85@52mm
Milk: ISO 800, A, 1/125s, f4.8, 16-85@45mm
Sugar: ISO200, M, 1/15s, f8, 16-85@40mm

Inspiration...

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!

Challenge 09 - Sequence

Firstly, time lapse banned, this isn't just because of my new found dullness regarding interval shooting, but is slightly inspired by it.

Challenge is to submit at a group of photos which as a sequence, or just as a collection, represent a theme or tell a story.

Sequences should be of at least three photos, no more than five.

No more than three collections submitted.

End of October seems a good deadline.

None of us seemed to get much on the standing challenges, but think Autumnal thoughts as a side challenge!

Time lapse nerdery

As usual, trying to constrain the detailed nerdery to here, rather than Facebook.

Was hoping to do a sequence like this under the dark and clear skies of Scotland, but ironically, got the best results out the back of my folks house in the suburban sprawl of the North East.

After a few false starts on previous nights, best results seemed to come from M, 30s, f8, ISO 800. Camera was on tripod, with focus preset to infinite and as wide as possible (I shot from inside, through french window, so was a little limited on framing).

I switched NR on this time, but would probably do without next time I try.

D300 interval shooting menu is an absolute masterpiece of confusing UI - however I eventually worked out how to set it to take one exposure every minute, leaving a 30s gap between.

Camera set to shoot jpg, at medium settings to allow around 700 images onto a 4GB card.

However all three times I tried this over the week, battery never lasted longer than 200-300 exposures. Everything done to optimise it, switched off image review, freshly charged battery etc. I'd probably try again without NR, which I suspect eats up some power, but figure people who achieve eight hour exposures use the AC adapters or some sort of jury rigged power unit based on car battery for remote use.

Earlier experiment with camera on tripod in car, shooting through windscreen, saw even fewer exposures - due to cold draining battery quickly.

Images were then dragged into iMovie untouched (I probably could have set up a PS action to process them all identically but for this initial test, didn't see the need), set to display for .1 sec, then exported as a medium sized MV4 file.

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!

If anyone wants to buy my negatives, I'm sure we can come to a deal....;)

Ansel negs bought for $45 could be worth $200m

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.