nickspics

Couldn't I easily put a 100 in the 400? Or is it not recommended?

Hello!

Sorry for another light questions, but I'm a newbie at mono lights, and am

wondering:

I am about to buy 2 strobes, mostly for single portraits inside, but also for

occasional wedding (No, I am not a wedding photographer, I am just doing it as a

favor, but I want to do it well)... I am contemplating 1 ab800 and 1 400...

Would that be enough light (biggest group ~10-15 people, VERY dark church,

virtually no ambient light...). I would appreciate any feedback.

by the way, this is the most I could spend... If I could go with 2 400, let me

know... I 'm afraid it looks quite smallish power wise.

I did not expect to have that many inflamed responses. I really appreciate the mountain of informations that everyone has brought to my question.,.. I now understand that speed will help me more than VR. Of course I would love to have both, but as Anthony stated: my budget is VERY limited. I am actively looking at the Nikon 80-200 2.8. There are several on ebay... Couldn't find one bargain or so at KEH, others are $500-700. Thanks again! Nick.

Ok, I have a bunch of lenses now, all very good. I am looking at a longer zoom,

or a very long zoom to shoot sports (hockey) and several other

sports/situations.I have a nikon 70-210 now, very sharp but fairly slow. I fell

in love with tokina ATX pro, the 80-200 f2.8 seems awesome ( I have 28-70

2.8).<br> I have a 300 dollars budget. I know, it's low. <br>Couple of

questions: would VR change anything in sports? probably not, but if someone

could explain to me why it would or wouldn't... <br>I love 2.8, but I have seen

some prime long lenses (tamron, sigma) around 4 or 5.6. Would that do? What

would you reccomend?

If you don't know what to price, price low! you THINK your images are good... exemine at 100 to make sure that the 8x10 will look OK. A good way to go is to sell for what they think the picture is worth... You could be very surprised! Other wise, 10-15 bucks max would do. MPIX does wonder, with professional paper. Nick.

The mirror lock up in the d50 is or cleaning only, as far as I know. The funstion will lift the mirror, exposing the sutter, freezing the cmera. If youtry and take a pic, it will reset itself.

hope that helps, and hope that's accurate. Nick.

i think buydig is same as beachcamera, but they are really good, fast, honest. Go to resellerratings.com to check out store experiences and reputations.

the d50 body (usa) is 515 over there. Hope that helps. Wonderful camera by the way, i love mine.

Sarah,

i have used this lens too on a d50. For the flash, it is set to TTL (through the lens). You need to go to menu (inside the camera functions), and set it to manual, with the output power you will guestimate you will need. (from full to 1/16th).

The cool thing is for your focus, the focus light inside the viewfinder wills till work accurately. That hekps a ton.

As for the ark shot... you simply underexposed. remember with that lens, everything is manual, from your fstop (check where it's at) to your ISO (set at 200, ISO auto will not work. You can incrase it with the command shrtcut.)

You will learn a lot if you keep that lens.

Email me with any question, i hope I can answer them. Nick.

this flash is full manual only though... I don't know if you want the ttl, but then that would be the pz40II.

Photoshop raw is only good with raws starting with cs2. Adobe elements is pretty OK too.

I personally shoot with d50, and use bibble lite. Less than 100 bucks, can't go wrong. It does wonders.

any af lens, compatible with nikon, will work with the d50. Any. And for the people who prefer Nikon, it's just a quality/reassurance problem... They will work fine. You just have to check the sharpness, chromatic aberration, speed, etc... proper to each lens.

looks like your camea exposed for the sun. The IR filter steps down your lens a lot. you could compensate by at leat 2 stops. Or go fully manual. Look at your lcd when you are done. bracket.

If youcan, manually white balance on a patch of green (leaves, grass...). that will give you very pleasing results... Black and white might look better for that kind of shot. nick.

i forgot a couple of things. The worst about this lens; chromatic aberration... That is terrible. it is also a slow lens, hence sometimes useless... but unless you have a lot of money, you won't buy faster, unless you go prime.

the pics in my portfolio: single shot/busybee, sexual flower, etc.,assigned eagle, and my hockey shots that weren't with my 100 prime. (goaalll is the main one taken with this lens.)

 

hope that helps.

There is a reason my 70-300 macro quantaray was bought for $50 on ebay... For the price can't be beat.... The macro is ok, not amazing, but again, for 50 bucks... check my butterflies pics...

It is a great starting lens. it is built durably. the photo quality is far from the best...if you are on a budget, just atrting, you'll be fairly happy...

oh, don't expect to be discreet. the af is LOUDDDD.

but all in all, sure I want to upgrade, but I still enjoy it.

If you can live without fine tuning your white balance in camera, sub dial button, the useless DOF preview, and the mtering switch mode, go for d50... I love the camera. Buy a more expensive lens with the money you saved... you''ll love it. the only part that i really miss, is the metering switch, not available on hand in the d50, you have to go to menus to do so...

but oh well, it's just a 2 secs delay.

nick.

ok, I would like to put an sb 600 on a bracket and on a d550. The d50 does not

have a pc sync. i need a cord that will slide onto the hot shoe, communicate the

ttl (i-ttl preferably) to the flash. The nikon sc 28/29 seem to be what I need,

but I can only find stuff about the sb800. Will it work with sb 600? what's the

difference, for the 20$ more of the 29? thanks in advance. nick.

if you're on a budget, I got some series e lenses for nothing. A 28 2.8 for 15 $, a 50mm 1.8 for 10$, and a 100mm 2.8 for the same. They won't meter for my d50, but sunny 16 works a charm. An inexpensive light meter (old sekonic, 2$) will do the trick as well. I bought it all on ebay. For that price, I wouldn't worry about buying it there... All my lenses came fine, and they will be ready when i can afford a d200!

The previous advice was right though, I really want to buy a 50mm af!

Hope that helps.

nick.

well, i might be out of line, and maybe yu won't like this, but if you are looking to buy a full system, why not a d550 with both lenses/ on dslr, the lenses matter more than the body, and the d50 is quite the package! you would lose very little, and if you shoot basicaly indoors, the body construction is quite sufficient. Just my 2 cents to answer your dilemma.

the problem with dynamic focus is the lag of time it can take to actually acquire a subject.... But what a bout keeing the main dot of your d200 as focus, lock it where you want it then do an AF lock? You would have he correct distance, not to worry about it anymore... And for the fence, the camera needs contrasts to work auto focus... If you use AF at the same levels than the fence, and the fence's colors ressemble the player's... The camera will take the biggest, longest contrast... try focusing on the head instead. hope that helps. nick.

a good way to shoot that shot would panning. You can use a flash to ensure some sharpness, but you will have great background blur, sensation of movement, and with a little practice, you will get your child in focus because you follow her as she goes... here is a link to that:

<a=href>http://www.ephotozine.com/techniques/viewtechnique.cfm?recid=221</a>

hope that helps. nick.

as far as I know, no. The spot metering takes only a very small portion of the center of the sensor/viewfinder. Then you can lock your focus, assuming that your subject or the light doesn't move.The 5 areas are for AF, not for metering. Hope that helps...

Thanks guys! all your answers help!

I know you guys must be getting tons of question on the subjest, but I

know absolutly nothing about lighting. Most of my portraits were made

using and external flash (vivitar thrystor 3700) with flash sensor to

trigger it from my built in on my d50. I really like portrait sudio,

and am looking for some unexpensive lightings. I have tried some flood

lights on regular lamps, and work light as suggested earlier, but it

gets so hot it just doesn't work.

I am looking at a very inexpensive seeting, with 2 lights if

possible... Can't really afford alienbees or white lighting at the

moment... i found this:

http://bkaphoto.com/detail.asp?section=Flash%20and%20Lighting&cat=Light%20Kits&product=SPFLK7

Anyone tried them? what is the main difference with a regular strobe?

( besides adjusting the output)

Would it be ok or too weak in a house setting? I plan to shoot in my

living room (small ) or on location in small rooms.

Thanks for your time. Nick.

Thanks to all of you who responded to this question, your input is really helpful! unfortunatly, i couldn't shoot atr another location, there were 100 parents shooting too, and the girls chose that spot... I have some better one where I chose a nice shade and used my fill flash... I was just wondering if there was any powerful flash toeradicate those shadows at any given time, but i guess not! Thanks once again... nick.

Well, I just took some outside shots for prom today, and her's my

problem... Flash output. I really love the fill flash, but at 300mm,

far away, there is no power... Would the sb600 reach then? what are

the limitations? What about the 800? I shoot with a d50 by the way...

Is it possible to illuminate a group(evenly, of course) with any of

these? I know nothing about flash and I read the specifics, but I

don't quite understand... ISO 100, it is 106? Thanks in advance for

your help...<div></div>