jim kerr

Lilly, Since you are into auto focus and most likely auto exposure, the ZX-5n is most likely your best choice. The 5n is somewhat more complicated than the 50 but if you are serious about your cameras you will get the hang of it. Personally, I would keep your ZX-50,especially since a dealer probably won't give you but about $50 trade-in and it is usually handy to have a second body anyway......In 35mm I have a ZX-30, ZX-5n, MX, LX. Have recently sold my K-1000 and Ricoh XR-X 3pf on ebay.......Only the LX ever needed worked on and that was after 14 years(all it needed was a lube job) and many thousands of pictures........Jim

Thanks Roger, will check them out.......Jim

Hey fellas, thanks for the quick and thoughtful responses, you have given me a couple ideas......Jim

Any suggestions as to what would be a good but fairly cheap camera to do hand

held infrared pictures with? The point and shoot variety would be ok......Jim

Greed is the God of many. Some can't help ruining a good thing......Jim

Hey Jay, I have a pretty good idea what that President's name is.....Jim

Speaking of gullible, there isn't a thing coming out of China that shouldn't cost the consumer 1/5 to 1/2 what it does......Jim

Hello Judy, I was just telling you how we used to do it with manual 35mm cameras about 20 years ago......I can't tell you how to set your Nikon equipment for auto focus. Reason #1.... I use Pentax. #2... I really have the feeling that that little time lag it takes for the lens to focus usually will cause you to miss the exact peak of the action in such a fast moving sport. Even a quarter of a second is a long time in basketball......What I've related about how we shot basketball is not only from my own experience what I learned from a couple professional sports photographer buddies, one worked for a newspaper and the other was the Indianapolis Pacer's photographer.....I'm not suggesting that you manually follow focus, a few are able to do it with varying degrees of success, but I always focused on the rim or net, that's where you'll get the best action shots......Are you shooting high school basketball? Or is it a case where you have a younger son or daughter coming up. I will be very interested in seeing some of your basketball shots here on PN.....Good Luck.....Jim

Judy, that 28-105 was a 35mm camera lens, for your digital, you would probably want a 17-35 or a 28-70.....Jim

Judy, a little more while I'm at it........unless there is something wrong with the lights, the exposure should be the same all over the floor......1/125 is just fast enough alot of the time, and 1/250 is plenty fast most of the time.....if your camera will go to iso 3200 without being too grainy, I would use it.....Don't use a flash.....My personal choice of lenses at present for a zoom lens for basketball would be a 28-105 f2.8.......there are probably several people on here that can give you good advice on this and we probably wouldn't agree on all points I know what I'm telling you works......If you want to get some points clarified, email me.....Jim

Hi Judy, I'm going to assume you are shooting in a high school gym......Here's what I used to do and it work very well......Of course it was Tri-X rated at 1600 back in the 80s and early 90s when I was doing it.....set your iso at 1600, shutter at 1/125, set the lens at 2.8 and use that 80-200 at or around 80mm. That is a heck of a lens for basketball. Shoot from the corner or near it, concern yourself with getting shots on your end of the court, at halftime switch to the other end......auto focus may work fast enough, but I have my doubts, we always focused on the rim, that's where most good action is near....We almost always used a 35 or 50mm lenses, occasionally an 85..... At iso 1600 with an exposure of 1/125@f2.8 or 1/250@f2 is right for most high school gyms, experiment before the game during warmup time to see what is the best f-stop /shutter speed, heck you may be in a gym that is bright enough to shoot at 1/250@f2.8 or 1/500@2.8......My opinion is that auto focus might work ok, but I really have my doubts about auto exposure......Good Luck.....Jim

Dan, As long as it is within about 2 1/2 hrs. of celestial noon and there is no haze blocking part of the sun's light, it is exactly right. A hand held reflected meter (as well as all TTL camera meters before Matrix/multi-segment meters) are right only 30-40% of the time. An incident reading (as well as today's Matrx/Multi-segment TTL camera meters)when taken properly is almost always correct and will give you a pretty good exposure every time. Also Kodak's suggested exposures for different outdoor lighting situations should be taken seriously as well.....Jim

I've had the M version since early 1978 and it has served me flawlessly all that time, I see no reason to think the A lens would be any different......Jim

Patrick is right about the *ist, and any 35mm film camera, of course all the Pentax's ever made will take 35mm infrared film. Just be sure to put a red #25 or #29 filter on the lens........Jim

Hey thanks everyone, Just recieved my new DL yesterday, I will check out P.180.....Jim

Holly Smokes, What a responce. I'd better print this out and do some studing.....Thanks to each of you......Jim

Perhaps a stupid question: Is there a relationship between dots per

inch and pixels per inch, or is it basically one and the same?

Heck, I don't have anything useless, but have a lot of stuff that I haven't figured what it's good for yet....Jim

Melvin, That B&W deep purple filter sounds like something to experiment with. Care to sell it and what size is it. And of course what do you need for it.....Jim

Thanks Ken, I should have known.....Jim

Ken, is the VisibleDust brush, an actual brash(possibly Anti-Static)or something else......Hey, Thanks to everyone.....Jim

It seems that the ideal tool to clean a DSLR sensor would be a very

small vacuum probably with a brush on the end. Any suggestions and

where I could order one....Jim

Patrick & Gary, Thank you for your responses. Well, I've gotten a lot of food for thought, not that my opinion should have anything to do with how this part of PN is run. I really wasn't trying to open a can of worms, mostly the photos and people are so very good,and I certainly appreciate being a part of Photo Net....Jim

Has it been discussed or considered to not show the name of the

maker of the photo entry for say maybe the first week. Seems to me,

it would lead to alot more acurrate and fair results, or has it

already been decided that to leave well enough alone....Jim

Brian, Wish I knew how. If your's isn't showing it ,then it must be my callwave or spam blocker doing it. Anyway it's so bad no one can miss it,in a portrait you cann't tell what the subject looks like.... thanks.....Jim