phil_cuddy

<p>Hi Dejan,<br>

it was certainly tempting to see a d700 for not much more than a straight swop for my d300s, but i stayed away in the end. Going to wait for a better one. Only worried that my d300 may devalue quicker than the d700 on the launch of the d800 / d400, meaning waiting will not save me anything...</p>

<p>i think they are ex press as there have been a number similar turning up on ebay. the sudden opportunity of being able to get a d700 has gone to my head, it is very used, and for an extra 200 or so a good copy could be found. nas is bad!</p>

<p>i do use high iso's a lot. also the lenses i plan on purchasing for my d300 are fx lenses, so i will not be getting any size benefits by keeping the d300.<br>

lenses i plan on getting in the future<br>

24-85 3.5-4.5 (gets some good reviews, and is wider than my 17-50 which i would like).<br>

50 1.4<br>

85 1.8<br>

a wide zoom, not sure which one yet.</p>

<p>Found a (very) well used d700 (300k actuations). The local shop will part exchange for my d300s (mint) + 35mm 1.8 +£40.<br /> BTW shop's got good rep, and offers 6 months guarantee with the d700.<br /> Seriously thinking about it.</p>

<p>ps my only lenses are:</p>

<ul>

<li>tamron 17-50vc (dx)</li>

<li>sigma 105 macro</li>

<li>nikon 35mm 1.8 (dx)</li>

</ul>

<p>My problem will be that the sigma will be my only lens until i part ex the tamron (prob for a 50mm 1.4)</p>

<p>Is this difference to be expected, or is there something amiss?</p>

<p>Hmm. <br>

Here's the gamut from the colormunki icc profile created for the printer / paper combo (ip4600, kodak premium photo)<br>

<img src="http://cl.ly/38373G2x021o1X1k1P37/Profiles.jpg" alt="" /><br>

And here's the "Canon iP4600/MP630 series GL2/SG2" icc profile supplied with printer software<br>

<img src="http://cl.ly/0r1K1q1y1N1Q3v110Z0K/Profiles-1.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>There does indeed appear to be quite some difference..</p>

<p>Hi all,<br>

Howard - after reading the links it is indeed CANON color Matching i need to select. FOr the paper i selected "glossy photo paper"<br>

Many thanks for the responses, the links cleared things up quite a lot. I have profiled my monitor and printer, and have an icc profile for each. The monitor profile was applied automatically by the colormunki software. The printer profile created by colormunki is available in the print module in lightroom under the color management pane, so am i done for the time being?<br>

(I only have the Colormunki till tomorrow, so need to do everything i can before then)</p>

<p>Hi all,<br>

<br />I have a loan of a colormunki photo for a couple of days, and inevitably, have some questions.<br>

The first thing i did was to calibrate my monitor (macbook 17 matt). For this, i set my monitor to mid brightness and ran the profiling software in 'simple' mode. This warmed the screen colours, which is as expected from reading other users experience with laptop monitors.<br>

My next step is to calibrate my printer (only a lowly ip4600..) The problem i have is which settings to use in "colour matching" and "paper handling" when printing the colour swatches colormunki uses to calibrate the printer.<br>

<br /><strong>Color Matching Options</strong><br>

<img src="http://cl.ly/0v3M113x1J1J2s443H3h/Print.jpg" alt="" width="579" height="393" /></p>

<p><img src="http://cl.ly/0s1N1u1E3m2Z2S2Z2Z10/Fullscreen.jpg.jpg" alt="" width="543" height="444" /></p>

<p>Here i believe i need to select "color sync", but not sure which profile to select for the test prints? The papers i am trying to profile are Kodak Premium Photo and Ilford Galerie Classic Gloss.</p>

<p><strong>Paper handling options:-</strong><br>

<strong><img src="http://cl.ly/3l3O3B0k0n0m1H3x3a3o/Fullscreen-1.jpg.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="467" /><br /></strong><br>

Which paper should i choose here?<br>

I am guessing "glossy photo paper", but i am guessing here..</p>

 

<p>Hi Michael and Bob,</p>

<p>Unfortunately things started to cloud over as i left the house, but i thought as i was out i would at least try some test shots. I didn't travel far due to the cloud, so definitely had quite a bit of noise pollution.<br>

The biggest problem i had was focus, the stars were not bright enough to allow live view focussing, so had to use trial and error. One thing i learned was the 35mm 1.8 is not designed for manual focus. Perhaps next time i will try using sofortbild to focus with live view, but not sure whether that will be much better. </p>

<p>Due to the focussing problems, it was difficult to find the max shutter speed that avoids star trails, but it appears to be approx 15s max.</p>

<p>Deep sky stacker is quite simple to use, i loaded 32 images, along with 8 dark frame and 8 bias frames, and about 5 minutes later it spat out a tiff file. </p>

<p>Is there anything i can do in daytime to mark infinity focus on the lens? just a thought..</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Cheers Bob, <br>

charging batteries /cleaning lenses right know. just wish it was a warmer night, my car's already iced over..</p>

<p>I'm going to bring my laptop with me to check the pictures while i'm there. Hopefully get something reasonable, if not at least i hope i learn something!</p>

<p>look around with only one eye open, this is how your camera see's the world...</p>

<p>this often sublty changes what things look like, often something can appear great in 3d, but close one eye and the interest is gone. of course the opposite is also true, somethings just look great in 2d</p>

<p>Hi all,<br>

<br />Clear, moonless skies here in the uk, so I thought i'd try my hand at some astrophotography. I've come across a free program that stacks shorter exposures:<br>

http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html<br>

<br />The question I have for those with some experience in astrophotography is which lens to use. The 2 candidates are:-</p>

<p> - Nikon 35mm 1.8 dx<br>

- Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 dx @17mm </p>

<p>I need to take a number of pictures with an exposure short enough to avoid star trails. The 35mm has a wider aperture, but due to it's longer focal length I will have to reduce the exposure time to avoid start trails. Which do you recommend? </p>

<p>ps I intend to take pictures in the direct of Orion's belt, is there a more interesting part of the sky in the northern hemisphere (uk) tonight?</p>

<p>Now off to charge my batteries!</p>

<p>Hi Geoff,<br>

regarding the point re vertical spacing, it's not something that i realised, but not having any real content "above the fold" is a real no-no. i shall have to look at redesigning the front page to have more content at the top. i think i shall reduce the logo size, and also move the slideshow further down the page.</p>

<p>thanks for spotting those dust spots, they were invisible in lightroom, but exporting to jpeg seems to have made them more prominent. i shall have to clean up and re-upload, and also do a test shot in the morning to see if they are still there.</p>

<p>hi geoff,<br>

not sure what happened there. the series of images stacked vertically should have appeared as a slideshow. it's fixed now so could you take another look?</p>

<p>Hi all,<br>

<br />i have spent the past few weeks rebuilding my website, and would appreciate any comments. <br>

http://rapscallion.eu/<br>

As an amateur photographer I initially built the website purely as an exercise to better my web knowledge. I am now quite happy with the overall format, but not 100% sure that the navigation within the site is optimal. i have 2 categories - photo's and blog - that separate, well, words from pictures. The 'words' part of the site is quite sparse at the moment, but as i have ideas I intend to build this section into my own "body of knowledge" on photography, as much for my own reference as for the viewers interest, but hopefully the 2 align.<br />Looking forward to your feedback.<br>

Regards,</p>

<div></div>

<div></div>

<p>many thanks all. i have spoken with hahnel and they are kindly sending me a replacement lead foc.</p>

<p>hi all,<br />i dug out my hahnel giga t remote that i used on my d80. i have 2 leads with it, but neither it seems conncts to the d300s. what lead connects the d300s to the hahnel. i have 2 leads with it, but don't think they can connect to te d300s. what lead do i need to attach to the d300s? and was it included? if it was i have to dig through my drawers / cupboards...<br /> here's a pic of the leads i have</p><div></div>

<p>hey francisco - 33 seconds works perfectly. i think nikon need to work on their UI for this feature..<br>

nice feature to have on camera though,<br>

thanks for your help</p>

<p>yep, long exposure nr is off. francisco, if you have a d33, could you see if you get continuous shooting (or minimal gap between exposures) at 30s exposure interval shooting?</p>

<p>duplicate post, please ignore</p>

 

<p>i tried that - if i set an interval time of 31s, it pauses between shots. though if i set exposure time for 5s and the interval for 6, it seems fine. it seems to me that if the time for the second exposure has passed before the first has completed, it waits until the next time interval before taking pictures again. has anybody found a workaround or am i doing it wrong... </p>

 

 

<p>well, have found the problem, but not the solution.<br /> when i start the interval shooting the top display shows 999, then on the second shot it shows 966, then 933 etc. what have i done to cause this. i am guessing its something to do with the interval setting. so if i want to continuously take 30s exposures- how should i set this up? <br /> driving me insane...</p>

<p>hi sam,<br>

i was about to suggest focus priority. single shot mode + single point focus mode is the simplest setting, but not brilliant for sports, but if you get out of focus shots here, with focus-priority set, then something is awry - maybe a settings re-set to ensure no goofy settings?</p>