clive_murray_white

<p>I can understand no Photo Shopping that alters the "truth" but banning getting the picture "right" in LR or similar seams downright counter productive to me, JPEGs aren't immune from tampering. Glad to see no one thinks its a great idea from Reuters.</p>

<p>http://petapixel.com/2015/11/18/reuters-issues-a-worldwide-ban-on-raw-photos/</p> <p>What do we reckon? seams downright ridiculous to me</p>

<p>Sad though Bruce it doesn't happen, it's what you'd call an aspirational statement, indeed art should be seen but sadly there's an industry measuring it..... and has been ever since there was art. </p>

<p>There is the Voigtlander Nokton 58/1.4 (manual focus) but very nice character in my opinion</p>

<p>always an interesting question.................and I suppose the most important question is, are you traveling to make great photographs or just photographing on your travels? or somewhere between?</p> <p>Personally I don't find my D800 too big, too heavy or unsuitable for travel but when you have to team it up with a big bag of gear that's when the problems start - my solution was a small cheap zoom 24-85mm 3.5/4.5 because in Lightroom the lens profile action and massive cropping potential effectively sorts out its shortcomings. The greatest problem out and about with a D800 or a decent sized DSLR is its effect on people. So I now all I take is a small Timbuktu bag, with the Nikon with one lens and a Fuji X100 (doesn't cause alarm at all).</p> <p>The advantages of a modern digital camera over film really gets down to infinitely variable ISO, something not to be under-estimated.</p>

<p>I read this thread this morning (Aus Time) and it has engaged me on and off throughout the day - I've been involved with pro level visual arts all my life and all the questions to do with documenting any kind of artwork are well known to me.</p> <p>Regardless of what people say the only important person in the whole set up is the artist whose work you may be photographing, and we all have different ideas about what is right or good - there is always a discrepancy between how a flat artwork looks on a lit gallery wall, the artist's own studio and a evenly lit photographic set up, none are more right that the other. What's even harder to cope with is the difference between screen view and print or publication, with artists requiring both print and web versions, life for the photographer gets very interesting, especially with "thumb nails" being the first thing anybody may see.</p> <p>Workflow is the easy bit, getting it right, what ever that means, is often a nightmare as profound as any argument between Nikon and Canon users concerning accurate colour and dynamic range. The safest and most reliable technique has always been to attempt to use natural light though noticing the slightest tonal changes over any surface is a skill that everybody needs to work on.</p> <p>Best way to start - just take as many pictures as you can and get very very critical of your efforts</p>

<p><em>Holding a camera at arm's length to shoot hardly qualifies as "ergonomic."</em> That's right Edward, just as I said before. Holding a camera that has been specifically designed to hold up to your eye is not just intuitive it is logical. Similarly if you tried to use a medium format camera with a waste level finder in the same way that you used a DSLR it would be counter-intuitive and illogical.</p> <p>I have 2 mirrorless cameras, a Fuji X100, and even though it has a good range of viewfinder options, increasingly, I find myself using it at arm's length, just like a phone (my other mirrorless camera). Interestingly phones don't give you an option to put them up to your eye and because they're now the most used cameras, staring at screens is probably more intuitive and automatic than looking through a view finder.</p> <p>I don't shoot video but given that virtually all cameras these days have that option, the easiest way to see just how badly designed cameras are, you just have to look at all the bolt-on bits and pieces, like follow-focus, matte box, shoulder rig and stabilisers, that are needed to make your camera perform in an optimum way.</p>

<p>Forgive me if my quick scanning of this thread missed mention of this. My concern about mirrorless is all about ergonomics, the current cameras have evolved straight from ones that were very well suited to using when held up to your eye, they are not well designed to be held at some distance away from your body.</p> <p>So if Nikon was to go for a serious Pro FX mirrorless, I'd suggest its time to incorporate ease of use into the design, make it easy to hold away from your body and give it the advantage of being able to be operated comfortably at anywhere between waist and eye level.</p>

<p>Problem solved, I'm now the proud owner of a MustHD 5"monitor, thanks for the advice Roger. I'm glad I went 5" rather than larger, it's quite big enough. MustHD deserve a plug here, I ordered it on 22 Sept from mainland China, it was shipped 23 Sept, it arrived in Australia 25 Sept (Friday) and I got it from my post office in rural Australia yesterday, 28 Sept, and by my standards that's almost a postal record.</p> <p>I did send their help desk a question, that too was attended to instantly, it very nice and comforting to receive service like that and, of course the product works exactly as its supposed to. </p>

<p>Thanks Roger, I haven't bought anything yet, still fairly confused! MustHD gets a very good B&H review rating but I'm wary of buying anything electrical for the US market because our Australian voltage is 240 and US is 110 isn't it? MustHD isn't marketed here at all.</p> <p>Why did you find MustHD better?</p>

<p>Thanks Matt - your mention of Lilliput confirms much of my own search, the 7" versions seem to come supplied with just about everything I'd need, though their numbering is pretty confusing for a guy like me 665 - 663 - 667 with some difference in prices but all claiming to be outstanding. </p>

<p>Hi all, this question has evolved from one that I posted on the Nikon forum, I was looking for an external live view screen/monitor to attach to my D800 to assist primarily with tilt shift manual focus still photography. For a short while it looked as if my HTC One phone was going to be a pretty good answer but even though it is listed as being compatible, it is not.</p> <p>So now I'm looking at 5" - 7" monitors usually used for video work but maybe perfectly OK for live view stills, I don't need touch screen. I suspect all I need is a screen that duplicates the Nikon screen in color and resolution, is Nikon d800 compatible, has an easy battery system, a reasonably robust hot shoe attachment, an effect shade system and is modestly priced.</p> <p>I have started looking at various products but have, as usual for me, got quite lost in the sheer number of products all claiming virtues that I don't understand. May be you guys can help? - thanks in advance - Clive</p>

<p>Now before I go to the RA finder - I'm looking at Monitors and again there is a bewildering number of choices of product from many manufacturers, nearly all the info concentrated of using these monitors for video, whilst I'm more interested in using mine for tilt shift still photography. If anybody has any recommendations I'd love to hear them.</p> <p>Criteria: 5" - 7", works on D800, quality of image as good as D800, reasonably easy to use, hood included, sensible battery options.</p>

<p>You are not wrong Shun but D750 would also have to rate as the most expensive option</p>

<p>I am sad to announce that despite our best efforts we've been unable to connect my HTC One phone to the D800. We tried it with both DSLRdashboard and Helicon. Although most of the online literature says that HTC is OK for this we started to find many people who came to the same conclusion. HTC with OTG cable does work for some other applications. Short of hacking the phone there is nothing we can do. </p> <p>So its back to the drawing board for me!</p>

<p>If anyone finds the ideal way of attaching a phone to the camera it maybe helpful to post it here.</p>

<p>Clearly Scott manual focusing with DR-5 is fine, what's a reasonable price on that auction site? I can't remember ever seeing one come on Australian EB. A few DR-4s but you need adapters for them on a D800 and they're very rare.</p> <p>I'm beginning to think that I should pay the very few dollars for a OTG cable and get also get a DR-5 if I find one at a reasonable price, that looks like covering all the bases. Cheap angle finders?</p>

<p>Thanks for all the quick replies, time to do some homework, re: DR-5 how would it be with manual focus 45 PC-E?, I currently use live view on Manual mode.</p>

<p>More than a few times over the last couple of weeks I've wished that my D800 had a fully articulated screen or waist level finder so I went looking at the options and got completely lost. Plug in monitors, eye piece monitors, connecting to my smart phone and even angle finders all vied for some attention. </p> <p>Many of these devices seem to be aimed at video work, something that I never do. All I need is a small(ish) auxiliary screen that is pretty much the same quality and resolution as the fixed screen on the camera and effectively captures the live view function.</p> <p>Every time I look at the possibility of using my HTC One phone as a handy occasional monitor my search gets lost in issues to do with controlling the camera via the phone's touch screen and downloading controller apps. Does anybody know which adapter cables I'd need, where you plug them in to the camera and which app is best?</p> <p>The more I looked at all this the more a simple good quality analogue angle finder seemed like a reasonable option, any opinions?</p>

<p>Sorry I couldn't help but join in - my favourite lens on my D800 is a Nikon 45mm 2.8 but its PC-E not P, 45mm is a wonderful length for what I do, the tilt shift has magical crispness/clearness to it.</p>

<p>Thanks Thomas and Shun, interesting re: illuminator-assist and informal photographs of people at events, seeing the light pointing at them could cause problems with their facial expressions.</p>

<p>Thanks Shun - I wonder just how many more buttons and rotations of command dials etc lie in wait for me now - thanks again.</p>

<p>Thanks Elliot and Shun, in both of your comments I found myself suspecting that there was something fundamental about focus of the D800 that I'd not grasped..............coming to Nikon from a Leica M8 where none of these intricacies came into play................both my 50 and 85 1.8Gs do the same thing occasionally, so I reasoned that it was an attribute of their cheapness, never happens on 20, 24, 180 or even the 24-85 3.5-4.5 (which is also pretty cheap) but a quick search found a nice explanation of it all from Mr Rockwell, so there's a button in the middle of the AF/M switch! and there I found all of Nikon's ingenious focus variants. And what is more, once set on a less general setting I found it impossible to make the lens decide not to take a picture - so thanks a lot.<br> Eric - I did try AF-C but didn't enjoy it - but maybe I'll get used to that too.......one day</p>

<p>Thanks everyone - I'd better get the manual out!</p>

<p>Hi again - just looked at AF in the menu and discovered it was set to 51 points the other option was 11, I switched over to 11</p>