luis_de_la_orden_morais

I think it would be very good to hear more about this subject, I believe that all the

arguments given are good but if they are the only ones, SLR photography be it digital or

film-based risks to be debunked very soon.

I have been reading lots of books and magazines on photography from Bryan Peterson to

Popular Photography, and it seems to be a recurrent remark that SLR cameras are not

more "automated" and better because of feelings of inadequacy from experienced

phtographers who prefer to chip out as many helping tools as possible from machines

than coming to a point that they could be confused with an amateur by using or simply

having a camera with those features enabled. It is a miracle auto focus made it to the

present day. It is a macho thing this camera feature evolution, one has to confess, but with

Flickr, Picasa and even more compact cameras offering images bigger than 8MP, one has

to seriously think if this kind of attitude is in sync with the digital age.

As far as I have read, SLRs still give the phtographer more control on exposure and space

for creative manipulation through the lens than compact cameras. What is becoming more

and more apparent is that people want this control to create pictures with the same quality

and impact compact cameras can already produce.

Bjørn, it's an honour to have one of my questions answered by you.

Many thanks for your reply, short and thorough, exactly what I needed to know. Well done with Nærfoto (http://www.naturfotograf.com) as well, I never buy anything that you haven't reviewed there.

Regards,

Luis

Hi folks,

I have just got a AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED with nano crystal

coating, this lens has a filter thread of 62mm.

In the English part of the manual, section "14. Incompatible Accessories", it says:

- Auto ring BR-4 and ***ALL MODELS OF AUTO EXTENSION RING PK, K RING*** and

bellows focusing attachment.

I know this lens comes in several flavours and everyone seems to have a specific

type of it. I would pretty much appreciate to hear from people who has the same

lens as mine as described above.

1. Have you tested it using the extension tubes, be it the PK or the Kenko ones

and what the results were, did it damage the lens? did it work at all?

2. The manual says that it is compatible with Nikon's teleconverters (with the

loss of AF but not VR and AE), and now I am curious. If you stick a

televconverter, already knowing we are losing one or two f-stops, what effect

will it have on a Micro lens? Will it make it go above 1:1, 2x, 3x perhaps? Will

it just increase the working distance whilst keeping an unmodified magnification

of 1:1? What will a teleconverter do to a micro lens?

3. Stooooopid question, I warn. Does the principle of lens inversion applies to

micro lens the same way it applies to other prime and zoom lenses?

4. Perhaps, you have answered this in question 3 but here we go: what is the

difference between a 105mm micro lens and a common 105mm prime lens?

Many thanks before hand for those who have knowledge of this specific lens and

can help!

Cheers,

Luis

Hi Bob,

I think now we are getting the kind of information that is useful:

"Been thru gate security in South Africa? Argentina? Georgia (former USSR)? The expectation is that you will have removed anything that can cause an alarm - so an alarm is a big deal. People do miss flights getting it sorted out."

The above info is good to know and as useful as it can be. If I may add to the list: India charges 35% import tax if you bring two laptops, no matter the condition and age of the machines, anyone with an extra laptop will be charged 35% the price of a new one (!), something between 17,000 to 20,000 rupees. People say Pakistan has the same policy. Beware because they just tell you when you are already close to India, and just in the small print of the boarding pass.

For one to escape the Indian customs, get a letter from work declaring that one of the laptops belongs to your company and it is for business use, this may vary according to the visa, I had this problem while entering the country with a Business Visa, not sure whether it would be any easier for Tourist Visa holders.

Anyone else could add another country with peculiar import or check in policies?

Cheers,

Luis

... if you happen to have metallic pins in your spine as I have. Worry not, they will not set off any alarms either.

-Luis

Concerning Bob Flood's answer, take it with a pinch of salt, it is as outdated as the term "Third World" he uses to generalise the technology used in certain blocs of the world. In any case, the most educated way to refer to what used to be called "Third World" is "Developing World", for developing it is.

Well, my advice is not to generalise, each airport is a different case even in the **developed world** BUT from my experience traveling around South East Asia and South America, nothing of the likes of getting memory cards wiped out ever happened to me. I travel with a 200GB Lacie hard drive, a 2nd Generation iPod, 2 laptops, several FlashCards (with pictures taken from the plane, of course) and everything gets back alright.

Concerning hassles caused by metal detectors delaying flights, Bob where have you been flying to, mate? Are we talking about flights before or after the fall of the Berlin wall?

Well, if it ever occurs that a CF card prompts an alarm (outside and, I imagine, inside the US as well) take the card out of the pocket put it in the tray and pass trough the gate again, tell the man with the handheld metal detector you are having a nice day when he asks you and get ready for the trip. Also, please remember that since there is a war going on, it is advisable to arrive 4hours before the gate closes, just in case. I always check in online to save even more time, I advise you do the same.

My advice is if you ever ever ever get through a scanning machine that wipes out your flash card, run to the closest radiation decontamination centre you find and avoid having babies for a while. That also applies to BA flights from and to Russia ;).

Regards,

--Luis

JC UKNZ

This is exactly what I have been looking for. Your site has been added to my favourites!

Cheers,

Luis

Thanks a lot everyone, I have taken note of your picks and will soon make myself the owner of a few of those books.

Paulo, I have seen quite a few references to John shaw. It seems to me he is kind of a traditional figure in photography, a guru and as such someone who attracts both admiration and opposition. I will give him a try, since I am starting and then when I am confident enough to break the mould I will look for other more daring photographers.

Dave thanks for the suggestion, Tom Ang's book seems the kind of book I would take for a good read in the bath! Thanks Steve and Mars, I had forgotten about the Canon Website. I used it a lot when I bought my first digital camera the Fuji S7000.

At the time I even tried to mimic the DSLR feeling with the Fuji by buying Opteka lenses "made" for the S7000. So thanks to the Opteka lenses I know from a very early beginning the meaning and the look of CA, vignetting and any optical anomaly under the sun.

I bought a Canon 350D in April this year. Just a couple of weeks ago whilst in India and testifying the sharpness of the pitures taken by a friend with a Nikon D200, I decided to Nikonise my life.

But the main reason behind the move was that Nikons offer RAW files in all modes, whereas none of the Canons will let you take pictures in RAW format in canned settings such as auto, portrait, macro, landscape, etc, etc Well, sometimes one just wants to let the camera go in auto and still have a nice and chunky digital negative to tinker with later, something that Canon has not thought of.

Cheers,

Luis

Hi everyone,

Can anyone suggest a good visual book I could read in order to understand

photography concepts used in the metier?

I find hard to grasp concepts I can not visualise (thanks to a mild dislexia)

and am looking for some kind of book that shows through pictures and

illustrations what, for example, f-stops are (perhaps by showing through an

image how dark and blurred it can get). In the magnification concept, for

example, I understand what 1:1 is, I just can't visualise it, if I took a

picture of a coin in a Nikon D2Xs how much of the frame the coin should take in

order to be considered 1:1? The whole rectangle? How does the frame size change

in 35mm, LF, MF, etc...?

Presently I am researching a lot about macro/micro lenses. As I live in the UK

where light is not good for most part of the year, I want to dedicate myself to

micro photography (portraits of houseflies, ants and extreme close ups of hairy

toes (mine) or I will hang myself with the camera strap in winter), but I am not

sure until I see through the actual product of these lenses what I can do with a

macro lens atached to such and such ring mount or extension tube.

For you to have an idea, I have learnt about iso through a set of illustrations

of a light source in different levels of incandescense, a little boy as the

subject, and what the result picture could possibly look like with details of

noise according to each setting.

Any suggestions of books for me? The Idiots Guide to photography to start with

perhaps?

Cheers,

Luis