xpiotiavos

April 29, 2009

I'm with Duane on the Earl Grey, but the Bravo variety is more up my alley ;).

April 28, 2009

Justin, sorry to be so late answering your question: the stadium holds 87,451, officially. I know for a fact they over-sell student tickets, so i wouldn't be surprised if we've put more than 87,600 in there on big games. And yes, both sides of the stadium have upper decks.

April 26, 2009

GREAT shots this week, as usual. I'll come back later and leave some comments, but for now, here's my contribution, a few shots from a really cool opportunity to watch The Dark Knight on the 74-foot HDTV in Auburn University's football stadium:

April 23, 2009

woa... i didn't realize the K2000 didn't have a cable release jack. that alone would be a deal breaker for me.

also, with regards to ISO, keep in mind that as good as that 10.1 MP sensor is at ISO1600, it's reportedly pretty nasty at 3200. if you're shooting at 3200, you're probably overexposing and pulling back in PP anyway, which makes me wonder if the 3200 setting has any real advantage over shooting at 1600 and pushing a bit (on the K10D at least, ISO1600 and 0 EV adjustment in pp yields great images).

April 23, 2009

I'm not gonna lie... That prism housing is just plain ugly...

Also, judging in relation to size of what I'm assuming is the DA 35, the prism housing actually looks smaller than the one on my K10D.

April 17, 2009

Hey everybody,

I did a quick search and didn't find any previous threads on this, but please let me know if I'm asking something that's already been answered.

Is is possible to use an AF540 flash on the ME body? Or will the ME completely fry my flash unit? I know the old flash systems used a much higher voltage, and that you can't use some old flashes on modern bodies, but is the converse also true?

Thanks for the help!

April 17, 2009

Also, Adam, make sure you gel your flash to match the ambient lighting. I prefer to leave a slightly warm gel on at all times (outdoors) since flashes tend to be a little cool vs. daylight and generally a warm light source is preferred to a cold one outdoors.

</blockquote>

I'm really glad you mentioned that, because I completely forgot to ask. Is there a good place to get gels for cheap? I've never bought or used them, so I have no idea...

Also, is there a specific color that you prefer to use?

April 16, 2009

Hey guys,

So, I've pretty much decided to keep my 540 flash and possibly pick up the FA 50mm for my upcoming trip to Swaziland. So my only concern now (besides figuring out how I'm going to pay for the 50) is that I've got relatively NO experience using a strobe as fill light, and was hoping that you guys might have some advise on exposure modes, etc.

Most of the shooting I'm going to be doing will be in fairly harsh sunlight, but I'm at least HOPING that setting my camera to Av mode and my flash to high speed sync and ~ -1.0 exposure comp will provide me with decent results, as the ambient light will force the shutter speed to be well above the sync speed and therefore metered for the ambient light.

I'm more concerned with using the flash as catch light in slightly more subdued lighting, where in Av mode my camera will treat the flash as the primary light source and meter accordingly.

When I shot my friend's wedding in January, I solved this by using TAv mode and setting my auto ISO range to 100-125, then chimping until I got the right balance of ambient/flash lighting. Is this the best method?

I'm hesitant to rely on the above method since chimping takes time, and kids aren't prone to holding the right pose until I'm ready for them.

Thanks in advance!

(not sure it's important, but I'll be using the flash with a K10D and the 18-55 II, FA 35 f/2, and possibly the FA 50mm f/1.4)

April 14, 2009

I know, I know, it's a dog photo, but I like it! ;)<div>

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April 14, 2009

Moonlight over the Sea of Cortez:

ist* DL + DA 18-55 @ 23mm, ISO 200, f/8, 60 seconds, +1EV in post process.

April 13, 2009

Ok Justin, you've officially got me REALLY excited about doing star trails in Swaziland. Thanks for the tip!

April 13, 2009

Kermit, you do realize that every person on this forum is now jealous of your collection, right?? ;)

You may have more luck asking this in the classic cameras forum, I would think.

April 13, 2009

Well, I'm without a cable release at the moment and I can't try it for myself, so I'll ask: With the K10D, can you set the shutter to 30 sec on Manual and simply lock the release and leave it??? I would have thought that doing so would result in only a single frame, but what you said seems to indicate otherwise...

April 13, 2009

Ryan, that's definitely a promising result for a first shot! The color of the foreground and low sky turned out great. Any ideas as to why only one star is really bright?

Justin, when you take multiple exposures and stack them, to you usually stick to 30 seconds or do you go for a minute or two? Also, do you use (or do you know of) a stacking software that would be more efficient than PS / GIMP? I don't even want to think about how long it would take me to stack 50 or 60 frames in GIMP...

April 12, 2009

Basically, I'm going to be joining up with a couple of missionaries from South Africa who live and work in Swaziland, helping bring teams from the US through and helping take care of the kids at the orphanages, as well as helping tutor some of the school kids.

The reason I'm considering selling the flash is that after having it for 5 months, I've only NEEDED it twice, once for a friend's wedding and once to take some portraits of my dad for his website (the only other times I've used it have been goofing around with my friends). I actually bought it for the wedding, expecting to sell it afterward because it was a free gig, but ended up getting paid $200 and decided to keep it. Taking portraits of my dad is one of the reasons I'm itching for a quality portrait lens, since I wasn't very happy with the perspective of the 35mm. In retrospect, I could have easily gotten away with using my 70-300 to take those portraits since the final product was a 300 pixel wide website photo.

However, I think it would be amazing to come back with some pro quality shots that I can print and sell, and send the proceeds back to Swaziland. That being the case, I'm not sure my zooms at the long or short end and wide open are up to the task, especially since I've only got an f/5.6 max aperture at 55mm, and an f/4 max aperture at 70mm.

I feel like that was a really wordy explanation. Sorry ;).

April 12, 2009

Hey all,

I'm leaving for a two-month trip to Swaziland in a little over a month, and my current lack of a good (or even decent) quality portrait lens is starting to worry me quite a bit. So for the past couple days I've been racking my brain trying to decide what to sell, trade, steal, or buy to get my kit in order for two months in Africa.

My current kit is:

K10D

battery grip

DA 18-55mm II

FA 35mm f/2.0

Sigma DG 70-300mm

AF540 flash

manfrotto tripod and other accessories.

Being a college student, and this being a missions-type trip, I don't have the money to just go out and buy a portrait lens, so I'm considering selling my AF 540 and putting the money towards the DA 70mm or the FA 50mm. The question is, which one? The only AF prime I've ever owned is the FA 35, so I'm not really sure how to decide between the two different perspectives. I've shot some portraits with an old M 50 f/1.7, which I really enjoyed, but often found myself wanting a bit more reach. On the other hand, I'm going to be shooting little kids that I'm sure will be crowding me, so that desire for extra reach might disappear.

What do you guys think?

April 12, 2009

Alrighty then, it's 2:17 am and I should be sleeping, but hey, who needs sleep when there are photos to be posted! ;)

Nothing particularly special this week. Just me goofing off with my friends and trying to document the process.

April 11, 2009

#3 is fantastic!

April 9, 2009

OH! You distracted me with all this talk of 35's... It seems a moot point by now, but even as impressed as I am with the quality of the kit II lens, it's no where close to being a big enough improvement over the kit I to merit replacing it. Stick with what you've got!

April 9, 2009

Kathy, you will not be disappointed with the DA 35 Macro, I assure you. And yes, 35mm offers a more or less equivalent perspective to 50mm on film.

However, the DA 35 Macro does have a tendency to hunt for focus in low light, as it has a HUGE focus path and a (relatively) slow maximum aperture. You said you are mostly looking to shoot outdoor scenery, so fast AF may not be a big issue for you, and if that's the case, you will find NOTHING lacking on the DA 35.

Enjoy it!

April 9, 2009

I'm guessing all lenses perform more or less the same in the dark. Not a lot of detail in the dark for a good lens to distinguish itself from an average lens.

</blockquote>

Sharpness, contrast, flare resistance, and color reproduction (i.e., what makes a good lens a good lens) are just as important in low light scenarios as they are in broad daylight. Actually, I would argue that they are MORE important, since low light usually means higher contrast, more tendency to flare, and more subtle colors.

In fact, you proved yourself wrong when you mentioned that flare ruined a few of your pictures.

(that second shot is pretty cool, btw! the light reflecting off the clouds in the background makes it.)

April 9, 2009

Also, with regards to the color of your second shot, it looks like you've got several different light sources at several different color temperatures. Unfortunately, this creates a nightmare as far as color balance is concerned, and you're much better off sticking with B&W in that kind of situation.

April 9, 2009

You can judge how good a bunch of photographers are by what they are talking about.

Really bad photographers debate the merits of the Nikon F4 and the Canon EOS-1. Somewhat better photographers debate the merits of the Yashica T4 and the Contax T2. The best photographers, though, talk tripods, tripod heads, and quick releases.

- Philip Greenspun (from the photo.net equipment page)

</blockquote>

That quote is perhaps a bit dramatic, but its point is certainly a good one: a good tripod makes all the difference. If you want to take consistently sharp night shots, get yourself a good tripod, not the wobbly walmart crap.

As far as noise is concerned, getting clean images at high ISO is certainly possible, but it requires very good technique. Then general trick is to overexpose a little bit, then pull it back in post-process. I'll leave it to the more experienced photographers here to give better advise on this front, but rest assured that it's possible to get great images at ISO1600.

Regarding optics, there's really no reason to go the Zeiss route. They make fantastic lenses, no doubt, but many Pentax primes (especially the Limited series) are just as good. Pentax SUCKS at marketing, so you never hear about this, but it's true!

Trent Whaley made a really good point about flare control in night scenes. The good news for us is that Pentax's SMC and new SP coatings are the best in the industry, and do a wonderful job. That said, Trent's still right about the fact that primes handle flare much better than zooms, especially simple primes like the 35 and 50mm ones. You might consider the DA 35mm Limited Macro - it's optically flawless (and I don't say that lightly).<div></div>

April 8, 2009

@ Patrick regarding 3rd party batteries: I have one genuine battery and two 3rd parties (not sure which brand, if they even claim one), and I wish I had 3 genuine ones. The 3rd parties give considerably less battery life, especially with regards to long exposures (e.g., star trails.)

just my .02 ;)

April 8, 2009

Also, it would be helpful to know how much money you're wanting to spend. To do similar shots to the one you posted, you might think about maybe the DA 21mm Limited, along with a good tripod, but that can get pretty expensive....

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