fk319

While not specificly familiar with the N90, I have an N80 and I interchange lenses with my D70. There are some issues with older lenses, pre 80's. but I dont recall. Non-cpu lenses are handled in manual mode, aka niether will meter the lens. There is a sction in you manual that talks about lens compatibality.

Sorry to tag a question here, but in general, when a photographer is on staff, what does the photographer own? I would guess his own camera, but I would not expect the negitives?

I have a D70, which is USB 1.1. I also have a CP 950, so I HAD to get a card reader. I happen to have a 6-in-1 reader, which is nice as I have download friends cards when they visit.

 

I supose the interesting part of this thread is that there are so many options. Each of which is valid, and one or two will work for each of our style.

I have success in using a USB card reader, a mult-card reader, and Epson P-2000. I use FC3.

 

The only issue I have is if I do not allow about 5-10 seconds between connecing the cardreader and inserting the card; or removing the card and removing the card reader. (there is a cpu spike or two.) After this happens I have to reboot my box, to get it to work again.

 

I have a D70 and do not hook it to my work station.

The D50 is better for my wife, who really would prefer a P&S, and the D70(s) is better for me, who would really like to screw up a good picture.

 

Remember that if you always shoot in good light and there is not much action, a phone with a camera is good enough. The more action and less light, will drive up your costs. You need to figure out where your limits would be for your new camera, and then you can decide what to spend.

 

For me, I do not need weather proofing or 5 fps, but I do need to take pictures of the stars. So I need high ISO and long exposure.

 

 

Truth be told, the total cost is not that much. By the time you get lenses and and other stuff, the difference between the prices of the digital backs is to small to worry about. Also how long do you plan on keeping you back? if you go pro, this unit will become you backup unit because you will replace it with another back.

A fair question. I am well beyond casual, and have no desire to go pro.

 

I am documenting my life, not so much for anyone else, but for my wife and I. We were looking for a hobby that we could do together, but not together. We stumbuled on photography and scrapbooking. We both take pictures, although I shoot about 10 times what she does, and afterwords she will cut them up, aka make them look good, and put them in a book to tell a story.

 

I get to take the pictures and post them on the web, to keep family up to date. But the one that really enjoys them is my daughter. When we travel, we grab a couple of albums and we can say, this is what we have been up to.

 

As with any hobby, the better you get, the better the equipment you get. Do I need ultra sharp lenses, no, but I can tell the difference between consumer grade and pro grade lenses. Do I need a telephoto, duh yes. Do I need a wide angle lens? Try shooting the side of cave or inside a building with a normal lens. Do I need a fast lens? Try shooting at a zoo with there low light exibits.

 

Do I take great pictures, no not really. Do I enjoy looking though my web site or my wifes scrapbook album at things we have done as a family? ABSOLUTLY !

 

-- Frank

Epson P-2000

Since you have an N80, I would suggest using a the D70, I have both. The feel is about the same, buttons and all. The D50 is smaller, the storage card is different, althougn may not be an issue for you. Spot metering is finer and so are the EV steps on the D70.

 

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond50/

My first answer to this type of question, is practice. (and then I dont post.) I think the answer still aplies. I would grab a couple of trays of ice, clear if you are lucky, let them melt together and then take pictures if the mess of ice in low light. $1 at the corner store can get you a bag, half melted together.

 

The usual low light rules apply, tripod, etc. A sync flash may help also. (ok, perhaps I should not have posted, but no one else had either.)

My wife and I use the same camera to take pictures. She shoots in auto mode, I shoot in [Nikon] P mode. When she needs a flash, it pops up, when I need a flash, it flash a lightning bolt, but will take the picture at the correct exposure. Initialy she took better pictures that I, but my good pictures where far better than hers. I have shot 100x more pictures than her, so I have gotten the hang of the camera.

 

So what is control? to be able to blur the forgrand, to blur the entire picture, to shoot when the light is low, basicly really screw up what would have been a good picture, in order to get a great picture.

ISO, you have a low ISO camera. The cheaper cameras have low ISO, but still many Mega-Pixels. My first caemra had an ISO of 80, my current is 200-1600.

 

I am not sure what you have, so suggestions are hard to come by. I went through 3 cheap cameras for my daugher. I finaly have a good camera, but no extra features.

Location, location, location.

 

There are two issues, make sure you see the horizon and be aware of the high contrast. Summer, the air is warmer and hold more mositure, and you may get more refractions. Winter with the dryer air will give you less colors. But, winter has ice in the air, which makes for interesting sun rises. Morning the air is cleaner, than at night, so the polution can add to the effect, or take away.

 

Any Sunrise/Sunset picture will not include the landscape, unless you bracket and stich in post processing.

 

So whats the best time? Whenever it is not raining.

What Peter said, but this only applies to a Full Moon. A 1/4 Moon is two stops off. Also bracket a little each way.

 

A few days after full, and it was spot metered. The small pic after a large pic is the same pic, but cropped.

http://frank.kujawski.org/blog/2005/Sep/20/FullMoon/

I thought one of the upgrades fixed the large files on the Nikon and Canon?

I have a sigma 12-24 that is rectilinear. Some care needs to be taken when composing at the wideend, ie vertical lines point in.

I bought a 500 f/8 Mirror lens. I got better resolution out of my Nikon 70-300 lens after blowing up twice.

 

http://frank.kujawski.org/blog/2005/Sep/20/LensTest/ Show veriations of 70-300 mm and 500mm with and without a 2x converter. The best image is the 300 and cropped. (If I only had brain, I would have marked which was which. But then Iwas doing this for myself.)

<br>First Lens: normal zoom, 20's to 50's for digital, 30's to 80's for film

<br>Second: Telephoto zoom, from near the end of your first lens to 200 or 300.

<br>Third: Normal Prime, 30's to 50's, it should be a fast lens, less than F/2

<br>Each of the first three lenses are about $150

<br>From this point you should have developed a style and understand the differences between Fast and Slow, good and extra good, and telephoto, and what your money is paying for.

While I love having my P-2000, I would make one suggeston about CD/DVD. I read a person who uses 512MB CF cards, he fills them and burns them to CD. If you use CD or DVD, get a CF (or whatever) that is just under the size of your storage media.

I will vote for Epson P-2000, I shoot about a 1000 pictures on a 2 week vacation, and used about 10% of the available disk space.

Sounds like a great trip, one that my family would enjoy. I do have a question, what were the costs involved. I am not asking you what you spent, but what it would cost my family of four to go.

Well yes and no, you delivered what was paid. Yes, if she cant find her favoriate uncle, because you threw it out due to a flair or dumb look, I would pass it on. No, if she wants them all becasue you took them, then no she got what she paid for.

 

I would schedule a face to face and see what the issue is, also I would bring some drops and show her why you dropped them. If she wants them you know it is because she want them all, if she is looking for a few shots that did not make the cut, then I am sure that could be worked out.

 

Talk to her. (PS, I can not seem to make money from my shots, so my 2c may not even be worth that.)

I just read about a person who traveled 3 hours in the desert to get a 30 second shot, it was a combinitation sand dune, sunrise and frost. I imagine he had an idea for it and did not practice to many times. BTW it was in a magazine I subsribe to, aka he got paid and I paid him.

 

I have areas around my house I like to shoot, often from the same spot, due to trees and the like. Some times they are seasonal shots, and some times they are test shots for a specific event, aka Fall Foliage.

 

When on vacation I ususaly dont anticipate a shot, just shoot what I want, but around the house, I do plan shoots.

A CF card has some wear protection built in. Also they are rated at 100K+ read/write cycles. If this is a problem, what camera are you shooting with? I dont expect my camera to get much past 20k.

 

The real problem is that deletes do not actually free up all the space. If you are deleting some pictures and keep shooting, you will notice that after a while your card cannot take as many pictures. Reformating will fix this and you are back to brand new.

I am not sure of what you are asking, intisity of colors or timing of colors.

 

I am more interested in timing, we have drastic color changes a day or two after a frost. We had 2 over night frost a while back, they were light, and it will be at least a week before the third. Much/Some of the leaves will fall off before the next frost. We are between 20%-80% depending on which why the hill faces. We are going to lose intensity more due to the long break between frosts then due to any weather in the summer.

 

I am keeping notes in my blog to help me remember from year to year. And each year I notice something new. (Unfortiantly this is my second year.)

Perhaps the question, is there any picture that can be taken in public with out the consent of the photoee, that would be out of taste?