tim_eastman

I am trying to decide which setup might be better for photographing the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter on Dec. 21st. I have a D750 and choice of either 300 mm F4 Nikon or 80-400 mm and 1.4 and 1.7 teleconverters. I can also use a Celestron Maksutov telescope approx 1000mm with the converter for Nikon mount.

I have a Epson 4990 Photo scanner. Unfortunately

the slide holder is missing. Anyone have a slide

holder they would be willing to part with? I

understand it is possible to fabricate one but I don't

know how such a setup would perform the needed

calibration.

Thanks

<p>I found a source for 52mm 1 1/2" spacer rings. They have male and female threads and I can screw three together to the front of the 105 ( 2.8, 1:1 ) to get me far enough away to focus. They will attach to the bellows on the PS-4. Of course I was totally wrong on the extension tubes!</p>

<p>I am setting up for slide copying with my D7000, 105 micro and a PS4. I need to get about 2 1/2" - 3'' closer than the minimum focusing distance will allow. I am trying to determine which extension tube will get me there and the math for figuring it out is over my head. Any educated tips would be welcomed!</p>

<p>Do you use PTGUI? For your moving object situation you can output to layered .psd files and mask in Photoshop to do what you are describing. In your moving ship at sea scenario you could shoot a few extra frames when the ship is in frame to give yourself choices. With featureless blue sky, if you use a rotator and create a panorama at a particular focal length you can then save that project as a template to apply to any new file with the same parameters. This will preposition your images, making stitching much easier and stitching that featureless blue sky. I would think this would be advantageous. There may be a craft and lots of extra time to manually stitch but if I may ask, what are the advantages? I have done hundreds of panos with PTGui, everything from 360 sphericals to multi row shot at 180 mm to single row shot at 200mm, encountering all of the situations you describe, but after initially stitching manually realized PTGui could do a better job more easily. In circumstances that it has a difficult time I can manually add control points. I'm just curious why you would want to spend time stitching manually!<br>

I am also curious about uneven overlap; lenses don't always have even image quality across the whole frame. Do you run into problems blending?</p>

<p>I forgot one step for single rows with enough foreground to introduce parallax problems. You can use the upper rail from the M2 to mount on the clamp atop the rotator to get a correct nodal point. That is the beauty of the M2 system based on Arca Swiss clamps ( and admittedly very similar to RRS systems! ) </p>

<p>Get whatever ball head meets your requirements. Assuming you have Arca Swiss or equivalent mounts on your gear, buy a Nodal Ninja M2 http://shop.nodalninja.com/products/ultimate-m2-with-rd8-ii-rotator-f8001<br>

If doing multi row panos go with the whole kit. If doing single row, keep your L bracket and your camera / collared lens will mount directly to the clamp on top of the RD8II rotator. Level the rotator off using your ballhead and the level bubble on the clamp. So; clamp on ballhead attaches to plate on bottom of rotator. Clamp on top of rotator can either be used to clamp entire M2 or just your camera and lens. Very simple.<br>

Most people who shoot panoramas, myself included, have missed shots, ruining panoramas. They usually are not the shots of the back yard; they are shots from halfway around the world that come with very expensive plane tickets! The process of shooting panoramas has a number of steps, a checklist to complete a successful panorama. Stops on rotators are invaluable and greatly lessen the chance that after successfully going through your checklist you inadvertently shoot yourself in the foot. I have a RD16II rotator which can be locked, but that defeats the purpose of having a rotator with stops. The stops are quite positive. It also means that once you are set up and have determined the right exposure for your whole scene, just shoot and rotate; no need to look through the viewfinder. On longer lenses it can mean a long time looking through the viewfinder.<br>

RRS makes beautiful stuff, but their refusal to adapt a rotator with stops has always baffled me. NN has been at the front of the pack in developing panorama gear. I highly recommend their gear. </p>

<p>Cue the weird space noises! This has to be one of the strangest posts I have seen, proving that the internet really is a truly democratic institution, where everyone can post whatever bizarre stuff they want.</p>

<p>I picked up a Canon G1X a couple of years ago to supplement my D 7000. Something easier to carry around. The image quality is outstanding. Obviously there are situations where it will not do as well as the D7000, but for landscape and nature photography it does a superb job. </p>

<p>I must have gotten lucky with my D300 using focus tracking. Black dog on snow coming towards me, I got a lot of sharp pictures. Not so much with my D7000. The 3D mode is not as good as the D300 focus tracking so I pretty much don't bother with it and just go with AF C. Do either the 7100 or 7200 improve on focus tracking? Is the 7100 noticeably better than the 7000, enough to justify an upgrade, as prices are getting lower?</p>

<p>My father has been an accomplished photographer since the 50's and has thousands of slides and hundreds of slide shows. I want to do low res scans of the slides from the slide shows so my siblings can have access to them. I have a Coolscan 4000 but need to put a Firewire card in my PC and also bring scanning hardware up to date on my Win 7 machine. A friend was involved in this effort: http://www.dpbestflow.org/camera/camera-scanning and makes a good case for it, especially in dealing with large quantities of slides. Is it worth setting up the Coolscan to offer high res files of individual slides after initial scanning via the above method? Another option is to send the slides out to be scanned by a lab. I would be interested to hear some opinions / experience if others have had a similar situation.</p>

<p>How does the AF on the D7100 compare with the D300? I sold my D300 and bought a D7000, but for sports photography the D7100 was a step backwards. I know the D7100 had a major improvement of AF capabilities, but does it match the D300. The other capabilities of the D7000 were an improvement on the D300, but I do miss the better AF</p>

<p>Start with what type of pack you are using and work backwards. Assuming you are not going to be switching lenses frequently, you can nestle your spare lens in with a raincoat or some of your clothes. What I tend to do is use one lens for a while and then switch off. carrying a backpack and then lugging along another bag to carry somewhere is a PITA. Make sure to enjoy the hike and don't get too caught up with the bag question. I generally put one arm through the camera strap to stabilize it when walking.</p>

<p>Not mentioned yet is the fact that the FOB, who is a photographer, wants to insert himself ( or assistant ) into the situation. As a photographer, he should be aware of how things work. What he is asking is unprofessional. I know this would not happen, but Graham should ask the FOB to reverse roles. The FOB has instigated the problem, perhaps because he thinks he is entitled to some kind of courtesy, one which, should most photographers oblige, would be a terrible precedent. By asking for carte blanche, he poisoned the well; his problem.</p>

<p>Having grown up with a father who is a very accomplished photographer I loved the slideshows we would get to see after our various hiking vacations. When I started shooting I loved the color rendition of Velvia. It still seems to me that with film and slides you would get reliable color rendition without the interpretation of the digital camera's processor, which seems to throw wild cards at you, ( think Nikon rendition of reds ). We will go to great lengths to preserve the colors of a color neg or slide when scanning them into the computer, when they become " useful " in our workflow. The convenience of Photoshop and inkjet printers have a powerful allure. I still love my D7000 though. I suspect many of us who shot color negs or slides have conflicting loyalties! It is definitely true that the anticipation of seeing 30 rolls of slide film from a Nepalese trek was agonizing. On one level I wish I had a laptop to take on vacation so I could troubleshoot my day's images, but being methodical as I would with film ensures that I will have good results. It kind of ruins the experience to see all of your vacation pictures before getting home!</p>

<p>It does seem that HDR is getting way out of hand, with many images in magazines routinely subjected to over HDR. One wonders whether this is from photo editors who are too young to remember that a lack of shadows just looks wrong, or worse, whether this new look is becoming accepted. The irony, of course is that our eyes can see a far greater dynamic range than cameras, but HDR does not represent that range.<br>

As for cats.... as much as my allergies make me think Oven Mitts ( Ten Thousand Uses For a Dead Cat ) the video circulating of the cat that saved a boy from a dog attack is very cool!<br>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/14/cat-saves-boy-dog_n_5323973.html</p>

<p>My family and I will be traveling to St. John's USVI in April. We are staying at Cinnamon Bay Campground in one of the cottages. I normally take my photo equipment on trips such as this, but am uncertain of whether there are any theft / security issues that anyone here has come across at Cinnamon Bay.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>If you want more bracketing capability you may want to look at a Promote controller: http://www.promotesystems.com/products/Promote-Control.html<br>

A pricey work around.</p>

<p>Ken:<br>

One question is how much do you see yourself using your camera? If you use it frequently it may be a pain to extricate it from the bag and have to put it back before proceeding. It may be difficult to keep the camera out while hiking because the bag will take up space. I like to keep my neck strap around my neck and it may also be difficult to maneuver the camera in and out of the bag with a neck strap. I have logged many a mile with my camera around my neck. I put one arm through the neck strap when not shooting, which helps distribute the load and keep it from swinging. It also helps to have my Nikon 18 - 200, eliminating the need for most lens changes.</p>

<p>I have had the same dilemma, where to put the camera gear in a backpack while carrying camping gear. My solution is this:<br>

http://www.amazon.com/Crumpler-BUCKET-Camera-Organizer-Oatmeal/dp/B000W8SUI4<br>

It will carry the gear you listed and, importantly, it is well padded. The caveat is whether you have enough room left for it after you pack your camping gear. Depending on your pack, it can fit nicely on top, and because it has just a zipper and not a flap it is easy to access. I wanted a bag that will fit into my pack and protect my camera gear. For day trips and travel it fits nicely into my day pack and is far less obvious than a camera backpack. </p>

<p>My Nepalese treks were done with film cameras, carefully meting out the number of shots I could take each day to ensure enough film for the whole trek. Although it might be a disaster, failure of a camera and or lens might be a blessing in disguise, allowing one to experience the trek through another lens, so to speak. I wonder whether the image gets more fully implanted when one is not taking pictures and relying on memory?</p>

<p>It seems there is some pent up demand for a good Off Topic discussion! To be honest, and I suspect that it may be true of others, the OT discussions cause more time to be spent on this forum, which gets more eyes looking at the ads. From a purist perspective the OT discussions may not be strictly photographic, but they can be interesting and, dare say, provocative!<br>

How far things have come since the days when a friend would rent a huge stepladder to get a better perspective on houses he was shooting for realtors! Some of the beautiful aerial panoramas such as these of the Taj Mahal <br>

http://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=Taj-Mahal-India<br>

show what an amazing tool RC helicopters are. </p>

<p>I would think the bigger problem at 8,000 - 10,000 ' in the spring would be snow and not altitude. I have not found altitude to be a problem, skies may be bluer but exposures are fine. Snow, on the other hand ....</p>

<p>This brings up an interesting question. I have thought one of the benefits of digital is that the picture you can take more pictures without needing to consider processing costs or how many exposures you can carry. Sometimes removing this barrier can yield interesting shots and frees us for more experimental stuff. At the same time, the very considerations that limit us in film also make for a more deliberative work flow, making us think about how we want to use a more finite resource. Trips to Nepal with film were that way, pacing my shooting in order to have enough film for the whole trip.<br>

Kent refers to it as discipline.</p>

<p>I have my D7000 set at -.7 EC. Others have come to this same conclusion. Find what works for you.</p>