PHOTOGRAPHIC THREADS: camera queries, any photo tech stuff!

[TC]

Paddy
Remember that you have a Nikon D200 and that your sensor gives you a 1.5 increase on any focal length you put on this camera.
Your 18-200 is effectively a 27-300 used with a digital camera.  If you had an Olympus then a 105mm macro would be a 210mm lens as their sensors have a 2.0 increase in focal length.  Pauls 50mm on his camera gives the equivalent of 100mm, whereas a 50mm on the Nikon gives 75mm.
Confused??  I find that for general garden work, my standard 28-70 is fine.  If I need to get closer then I stick an extension tube on the lens to enable me to focus a little bit closer.  When you get into really close up work outdoors then your problems start.  To get depth of field close up, then you are talking about f22 to f64 which then means a shutter speed of about a second with 100 ISO equivalent.  You have the option of increasing the ISO to enable a faster shutter speed, but this can decrease the quality by introducing " noise" - the equivalent of grain in film sense.  I imagine that where you live, as here in Ayrshire, a flat calm day is a rarity, so the plant starts shaking and you have to wait for suitable moment which can sometimes be a while !   Another problem I found that with a 50mm macro, the lens was so close to the subject that the tripod legs appeared in the shot.  With the larger focal lengths, this was less of a problem.
I have mainly Sigma lenses and the quality is good enough for my purpose.  Unless you have bottomless pockets you buy the best that suits you within your price range.

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Ian,
Yes I have an Olympus adapter that lets you fit any of the old olympus mount lenses onto the fourthirds system cameras. The adapter was expensive but it means for example you can buy any of the old olympus lenses - often quite cheap on ebay and the like - and use them on the digital, so overall you can save money over buying new dedicated lenses. The older lenses don't have autofocus, but otherwise it's great to be able to use them.

Paul

[Michael J Campbell]

Question?
 I have a an old Cannon A-1 which has a 50mm lens, the original that came with the camera. I also have a Soligor zoom macro 28-80mm and a 80-200 Super Paragon auto tele- zoom, that fitted the Cannon. will these Lenses fit a new Cannon digital SLR ?
Which one would you  recommend as an upgrade from my Fuji Finepix S602z for plant photography.  I intend to upgrade in the summer.

[TC]

As far as I know, Canon changed their lens mount when they went onto autofocus lenses,  I'm afraid that you are stuck with your old system as nothing would be compatible with any of their digital or autofocus film models

[mark smyth]

On the raido today there was a gadget expert talking about cameras. He said stick with Nikon and Canon for best overall cameras. He mentioned the following as great cameras
Fuji Z100
Sony T200
Canon 450D
Nikon D40


...... as I was out delivering I missed the whole interview. He did say these days there is no need to go above 8 megapixels unless you are into advertising or photography as a job

[Heather Smith]

...... as I was out delivering I missed the whole interview. He did say these days there is no need to go above 8 megapixels unless you are into advertising or photography as a job

I disagree. I say get the best quality you can afford, the highest number of megapixels you possibly can.  You cannot always get as close to your subject as you would like and the better the resolution the more you can enlarge the special area without losing too much quality and the image pixilating.

[Slug Killer]

Mega pixels does not necessarily mean better quality but I agree to get the best you can afford. An 8 mega pixel camera with a decent lens on the front will out perform a 10 mega pixel camera with standard lens. There are mobile phones with 5 mega pixel cameras which would not come close to the quality of my old powershot 2.1 mega pixel canon, this is mainly down to the thing they call a lens on the mobile phone. My cousin is a photographer for the tabloids and he uses the same camera as me and will not consider upgrading his canon 20d as there is no need but bear in mind the price of some of his lenses (£2000+). Its the same with television cameras (film and digital) the lenses used on the front can be twice the price of the actual camera.

I've got a small compact 10 mega pixel canon 900ti which is a fantastic camera that I bought for holidays when out at night as it fits in my pocket. It does not come close in quality to my canon 20d.

Most people out there are taking photo's and letting the camera do the conversion to jpeg for them. For better quality on an SLR you should use RAW and use a decent program like photoshop to do the final conversion for you. You are loosing more detail by using the camera computer's software than the difference between using a 10meg or 8meg camera. Canon and Nikon etc make fantastic camera's but the software they use can be a big let down at times. Someone who knows what they are doing with a 6 mega pixel Nikon, a good lens, shooting in RAW format will out perform someone taking pictures in jpeg on a 10 mega pixel camera everytime.

I only recently bought my canon 20d secondhand (8 meg). I had the choice with my budget of this camera with a few extras or a new canon 400D (10 meg). The main reason I went for the 20d was build quality as it was made for pro/semi pro market and is far more robust than the camera's aimed at the home consumer market. I think the 400D is a great camera and I'm not knocking it but the materials that it's made of don't match the semi pro camera's.

[mark smyth]

7 day shop have a great offer on memory sticks. 4GB for only £7.89. Just right for backing up photos. My photo folders over four years are 27GB
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=101824

[Paddy Tobin]

Tom, Carlo, David, Paul,

Many thanks for your advice re macro lens selection. I have pondered and compared prices and have ordered the Nikon 105mm VR from a company in London, Purely Gadgets which was the one with the best price. As I ordered on Friday last delivery should be during this week and I shall be shooting merrily away with it very soon. Looking forward to it.

Paddy

[David Lyttle]

Paddy,

A good choice. I am looking forward to seeing the results.

[Paddy Tobin]

David,

Hopefully I will get into the hang of the new lens quickly and produce acceptable results - we'll see! It's an area of photography which appeals to me and I also have a project in the planning stages and photographs will be needed and, as the saying goes, if you want a job done well, do it yourself!


Dave,

Your comments on lens quality being more important than the extra megapixel of quality are very true. Likewise your comments on shooting in RAW. However, most people here, I imagine, are simply taking 'snaps' of their plants and the results produced by allowing the camera to do the conversion to JPEG are sufficient for that purpose. I suppose if one wished to do a 'plant study' it would be worth while taking the extra time doing the conversion in Photoshop or some such programme. For everyday snaps it hardly merits the time needed.

Paddy

[Slug Killer]

Hi Paddy

I use Jpeg myself most of the time when I'm using point and shoot and use RAW on a few occasions when in different camera modes like aperture priority etc. The main point I was trying to make was that the more mega pixels does not defiantly make a better camera and buying a camera just because it has more pixels is wrong. Yes buy the best you can afford but that does not mean it has to be the one with the most Mega Pixels. Look at some of the crap that's sold on EBay under names I've never heard of with super mega pixels of 12mp + etc. They would probably not be any better than a 5 meg Nokia phone.

I bought my Canon 20d on EBay which looks like its never been used. Came with 3 batteries, boxed and still had two months International warranty. I paid £265 for it and I'm chuffed to bits with the camera and the price I paid. My mates a little p****d off as he paid over a grand not that long ago for the same kit I've used television camera's in the past but still photography is new to me. I acquired photoshop CS2 which easily deals with RAW when you open the file. The main feature I like (one of many) is the ability to change the white balance. Cropping, sizing, cloning etc is easy but the rest of the program is way above me at the moment and I think a course would be needed to understand it fully. I'll keep on using different things and hopefully take a decent picture in the end

[Anthony Darby]

Was that body only Dave?

[Paddy Tobin]

Yes, Dave,

I got your point exactly and agree totally. I simply added that most people don't go to the bother of shooting in RAW and converting in Photoshop for most of their ordinary photographs just for the more important ones.

Great bargain on your camera by the way. By any chance did you find a good price for Photoshop CS2 as well. It's good but very expensive.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

Unfortunatle I have Nikon lenses and flash so if I upgrade my D70 it would have to be another Nikon.