tom_keenan

<p>Stefano:<br />Personally, I think there are better choices than the Volute shutter if you intend to do some serious work. I also have a Nagaoka 4x5 and have several lens suggestions that I have used. My objective is to keep the system light ( for hiking) and the Nagaoka is great for that. For example, the Dagor 150mm is a great lens for that camera.<br>

Tom Keenan</p>

<p>Contact Chris Dodds. He is the expert,<br>

<a href="http://www.naturephotographyblog.com/">http://www.naturephotographyblog.com/</a><br>

Tom Keenan</p>

I struggled with the same issues before my last trip to Katmai. I ended up with the 200-400 VR as my choice. This image was made with the 200-400VR with a 1.4x attached. (550mm) It is a slight crop from horizontal to vertical. It represents a pretty routine shot from the deck closest to the falls. This lens is relatively light and fit nicely in a pack. We camped so everything was on my back and weight was s serious consideration for us. Best,

Tom Keenan<div></div>

Dagora and Artara are actually sisters that lived worlds apart. It's a long story that perhaps Dagor77 will share with us one day.

If the beautiful Dagora doesn't model it, I don't buy it!!

Tom Keenan

Mike:

I have an HN-1 attached to my 24/2.8 and have good results. I have two versions of Moose Peterson's Nikon Handbook (4th edition and 5th edition). The lens hood compatibility chart in each version correctly lists the HN-1. The Hove Nikon Compendium correctly lists the HN-1 also. What reference (animal name etc.) are you referring to?

Tom Keenan

Wow!-You can afford both gas AND film. Both things in short supply these days. Have a great trip and bring you laptop to stay in touch.

Tom

I'd make a retaining flange for your SA 210/8.

Roger:

If you were planning a trip to Skagit Valley this year, when would you go?? Now?

Best,

Tom Keenan

I spent a week at Brooks Camp with my daughter in July of 2004. We camped at the campground and it was a trip to remember. My first trip to the falls was with a D1X and the 70-200/2.8 which was good only for a warm-up. In general, It was not long enough to isolate individual bears fishing or with salmon in their mouth except bears that were close to the deck. Using the D1X with the Nikon 200-400/4 VR lens was just about perfect for my taste. I had a 1.4x teleconverter in my pocket and I used it frequently. That was about all the reach I needed. Most of my keepers, the classic shots, were with the lens at 400mm with the teleconverter. The following is just my personal opinion. Regarding your 400/2.8, I would leave it home. I love shooting with the 400 2/8 wide open especially when I need the additional light. However, these guys are big animals and as I review my images, I'm much happier with the extra depth of field (ones at 5.6 and smaller). I don't think you'll shoot with it at 2.8 or 3.5. So, I would opt to save some weight and not carry the 400/2.8. If you're looking for variety as you say, I'm not sure I'd lug the 600 either. We flew in on a floatplane and camped at the campground so lugging a 600 is not something I would do if I do it again. The payback won't be there. Not like shooting birds where you can justify the pain of carrying the 600 around for a week. In summary, the Nikon 200-400 was about as ideal a lens as I would every want for the trip with a 1.4x teleconverter. Now, as I have read from a previous post, if the bears are not at the falls in September, hmmm. Remember, your pack can hold photo equipment, clothes and food. I would forget the food next time and eat in the dining room at the lodge. I thought the food was great (a bit pricey).

Tom<div></div>

Why isn't this as simple as a single 40.5-52 step-up ring and a Cokin P 52mm ring to mount the P holder on. Sounds very simple to me. Why the 58mm?

Before deciding to upgrade the camera, do yourself a favor. Download a free trial version of Noise Ninja. Download the specific noise profile for the 10D at 400 ISO (or any ISO for that matter). Spend a couple of minutes and ACTUALLY read the instructions in the user guide. Take a look at the noise removal and see if it meets your requirements. I did the above and found that I really liked what the software is able to do. I now use Noise Ninja as the first step in my workflow even before cropping for all images over ISO 200.

At least you will have another data point to make your decision.

Old farmhouse and moon. Very nice!

The good Doctor is right. I googled "ebay" and came up with 29,700,000 hits. If we used only code words for the auction site, it would have been a more efficient 28,699,000 hits. Don't argue with Doctors.

Or you can do like I did today. Buy two camera backs from Midwest via Ebay. I did it to make everybody happy.

Ebay reported revenue in the first quarter of this year of over $1 billion with incredible growth rates both US and international. They now have over 148 million members using the system to buy and sell items. The Company is a worldwide phenomenon. I chuckle when I read posts that refuse to use the name "Ebay" and instead refer to some "auction site". Is it some sort of personal protest? Are they still waiting for the Sears catalog to arrive?...I mean some large Chicago based retailer catalog of course.

Are you referring to Ebay? Why do you refer to "auction sites?" Is there more than one site where folks go to buy and sell? Have you had this problem on more than one "auction site?"

Many thanks to Gary for starting this thread. I have learned a lot by reading "most" of the comments. There are three points that I will take away from this.

 

1) In the examples that Gary (or I) presented, simple lens tilt may accomplish sharp focus. Focus on the near object (flowers or logs) and A POINT ABOUT HALFWAY UP THE VERTICAL DISTANT DIMENSION. Not the top of the mountain. This I confirmed by re-reading Stroebel's section on Swings and Tilts, and depth of field. To quote Stroebel..."By tilting the lens or back so that the plane of sharp focus includes point A (the foreground flowers or log) and point B, a point about halfway up the vertical dimension that is to be included.<p>

2)Great post by Eric and reference to "splitting the distance" and setting the f stop according to the table. This technique is also confirmed by Stroebel in my review this afternoon..." A technique used by some photographers when it is difficult to know where to focus...is to move the focusing standard forward and backwards to determine the minimun and maximum extensions that will produce sharp focus on any part of the subject, place a pencil mark on the standard for each position and set the focusing adjustment halfway between." Now I know I can set the ideal f stop according to a table based on the mm. between the focus points.<p>

3) Great post by James. Typically I only use front tilt when confronted with the situations described in this thread. I am going to practice FIRST tilting the BACK FORWARD. Then tilt the lens forward and then stop down the lens. I will need to learn this.<p>

 

Thanks to all. Do I have this right?

These lenses must stop down to f260 for a reason. What would be a practical application for f260?

I am just so glad that you asked this question. I have been struggling with the same issue. Picture Monument Valley. I have a beautiful weathered log in perfect focus in the foreground. I have one of the mittens in the background in perfect focus. The only problem is that some bushes in the middle ground are clearly out of focus. It makes sense to me since I achieved my plane of focus by front tilt using the foregroud log and the top of the mitten as my two points. Therefore if you think of a triangle, the bushes are at the third point of the triangle...way out of the focus plane. In this situation, I stop down to f22. My own unscientific thought was that I needed to establish my focus plane by using the foreground log and the middle of the mitten...not all the way to the top as I have a tendency to do. Therefore the top of the mitten and the bushes in the middle ground would be sort of equally out of the plane of focus. So, I guess what I'm saying is to use an object in the foreground and the midpoint of the distant mountain rather than the top of the distant mountain to establish tilt and plane of focus. Thoughts?

Thanks

With the sun at 30-45 degrees, I assume you used a proper lens hood? I have this lens and can't remember a situation like you describe.

You need to calibrate your monitor using any one of several available LCD monitor kits. This process will adjust RGB colors as well as contrast and brightness settings. You cannot expect the monitor and print to match unless you are operating in a calibrated environment (or are very lucky). My guess is that you have the screen resolution set incorrectly. It is important that LCD monitors be set to their native resolution. This is even more important than with a CRT. The native resolution for this monitor is 1680 x 1050. Right-click your windows desktop and click on properties to see what your video card is set to. Many video cards don't support 1680 x 1050. Even the newest video cards require you to download the latest drivers from the card's manufacturers web site to get the setting right. Once you get it set, it is a beautiful and reliable monitor.

Like many Photoshop related questions, there are no simple answers. I recommend you read the excellent reference material published by Adobe on the subject.<br>

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/320005.html <br>

In the reference, Adobe suggests you review your history states in the history palette to determine your own requirements.

Plan ahead! CS2 will access a maximum of 64 exabytes of scratch disk space. That is 64 billion gigabytes. Or 32 million 200 gigabyte hard disks! Don't worry about the drives. Build yourself an addition on your house.

I recently built a new system to improve Photoshop CS performance so I will share the configuration that in my hands works very well. I work on a few desktops so I have a long history for comparison. The system is Pentium based built around an ASUS motherboard (P4C800-E). I have two WD 36.7 Gigabyte serial ATA 10,000RPM drives configured in a RAID 0(striping) configuration (for performance). The operating system, Photoshop CS and various other programs are all loaded on this set of striped drives. For file storage, I have configured two 200 Gigabyte IDE drives in a RAID 1 (mirroring) configuration. If(when) one of the 200 G drives goes down, the system can rebuild a new drive. 2 Gigabytes of RAM. The system addresses performance and provides some piece of mind that one drive failure does not wipe out my important files. This is no substitute for a good back-up protocol. I have scratch disk space on the mirrored drives (just because I wanted to be on a different drive than the operating system).