Episode 113 - Digital Photography! 7 Great Cameras, Night Photography Tricks, Pocket Tripods, Motorola Droid Sound! [Discussion]

[marilee]

Digital Photography Week? Yes, but Motorola's Droid is on our minds, too! 'Still' cameras that take great video. The Best Free Panomamic Stitching Tool. Favorite Digital Photography Gadgets, 7 Great Digital Cameras For Black Friday, Better Night, Low Light Photography!

Watch or download this episode now

[nav13eh]

Funning to think I know a person (pro photographer) who has a camera priced higher than any thing on this weeks show.

[davmoo]

Excellent show! Except for the fact that there were no outtakes. How dare you!!

I actually disagree with the "put a UV filter on everything" crowd. I don't buy thousand dollar lenses to degrade the image by putting an $8 piece of glorified window glass in front of it.

I'm also not big on the whole DSLR with video craze...when I want to shoot video I'll use a camcorder (which is in the same bag my DSLR is in) made specifically for the purpose, not a still camera that has video thrown in as an afterthought.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is the most wonderful photo stitching application on the planet. It blows Photoshop's stitching out of the water. I've thrown sets of 80 and 90 shots at a time at it and it produces fantastic panoramas. Its hard to believe Microsoft has something that good and they give it away for free.

Finally, Patrick and Roger hit the nail right on the head...practice, practice, practice, and RTFM. With digital cameras it doesn't cost you any more (excluding batteries) to shoot 500 shots than it does 5 shots. Not like the film days where every shot cost you a dollar or two. Better to screw up and learn while practicing than to screw up while shooting a friend's wedding or your kid's ball game

[serafina]

Originally Posted by davmoo

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is the most wonderful photo stitching application on the planet. It blows Photoshop's stitching out of the water. I've thrown sets of 80 and 90 shots at a time at it and it produces fantastic panoramas. Its hard to believe Microsoft has something that good and they give it away for free.

It was partly at your recommendation that I tried MICE several weeks (months?) ago. I'd been using Autostitch which I found ~4-5yrs ago when it was completely free because it was made by someone at my university. Worked well, though it didn't have many options. Definitely glad I switched to MICE for the photos I took on my trip. Thanks!

[dxdn]

Originally Posted by davmoo

I actually disagree with the "put a UV filter on everything" crowd. I don't buy thousand dollar lenses to degrade the image by putting an $8 piece of glorified window glass in front of it.

Amen! I winced when the UV filter was so heartily encouraged. Get a lens hood instead. I have read this advice repeatedly from professional and advanced photographers and I practice it myself. Not only does the hood fulfill its designed purpose of shading the lens to keep glare from destroying contrast in images, it becomes a bumper/crumple zone in front of the glass, and does not add any layer of new glass that could diminish the image quality.

Originally Posted by davmoo

I'm also not big on the whole DSLR with video craze...when I want to shoot video I'll use a camcorder (which is in the same bag my DSLR is in) made specifically for the purpose, not a still camera that has video thrown in as an afterthought.

As a user of the first DSLR with video, the Nikon D90, I can attest that video on a DSLR is disappointing and hard to use unless it is equipped with adequate autofocus (the D90 has no AF at all during video) and an external microphone connection (D90 again has none, and the internal mic picks up many irritating noises). I would personally rather carry a little dedicated video camera like the Kodak Zi8 to shoot motion and have the DSLR separate in case I'd like to take crisp stills without having to stop video. Convergence is not always better for me.

Originally Posted by davmoo

Excellent show! Except for the fact that there were no outtakes. How dare you!!

Once more, davmoo, I concur. Where were the outtakes? They are the butter cream icing on the moist, delicious cake of each episode. Who eats cake without icing?

[fee]

Cool episode, alot of cool tips!

[masherscf]

Digital Camera Advice...

1. No SD cards too big.

Actually, a collection of smaller 4GB cards is better than one 32 GB card. SD cards fail all the time.

2. UV-filter.

Proper camera handling is a much better way of protecting your front lens element. An $8 lens filter turns your $500 lens into $8 lens. Cheap filters cause image softness, lens flares and loss of resolution. I've been shooting for more than 10-years without filters and never damaged a lens in a manner that a UV-filter would have prevented. A lens cap and lens hood are usually enough. If you need a filter get a good one. Good filters run $80-$200 or more.

3- Variable F-stop

The F-stop is the ratio of focal length to physical aperture size. The F-stop goes up when the focal length increased because that the denominator of the fraction. This is the reason why F2.8 telephoto lenses are so huge. A fixed F-stop lens is geared so the physical aperture actually increases in size with the focal length.

The light gathering power of a lens goes down at higher focal length because the light is more spread out, not because of more glass.

4 - Flash range

The range on a flash depends on the guide number. This guide number changes with respect the design power of the flash and any focusing accessory. The guide number is computed by multiplying the range to the subject and the F-stop needed from proper exposure at 100 ISO. As you know, exposure varies with the square root of the subject distance and F-stop. So to double the distance, you halve F-stop. However, you can also change the ISO. Since exposure varies directly with ISO, you can increase the range of your flash by a power of 2 by increasing your ISO by a factor of 4. That is increasing your ISO from 100 to 400 will douible the range of your flash. Increasing from 100 to 1600 will quadruple the range. So, if you pair a powerful flash like the Nikon SB900, a flash focusing accessory with a body capable of High ISO, like the Nikon D3, you can actually get quiet a fair range from your flash.

5 - Nikon Backwards capitibility.

The least expensive Nikon DSLR's have removed the focusing motor (Canon DSLRs never had them) but the pro and pro-sumer models starting with the Nikon D50, D70, D80 D90, D300 and up have the motor so there is no problem with backwards compatibility. This is really only a concern if you already own Nikon glass. In any case, most of the "new" nikon models are fully compatible with all Nikon Auto focus lenses. One the other hand, the consumer models that don't have a focus motor can use a wide collection of excellent and inexpensive legacy Nikon Manual focus lenses as well as use AF lenses without an internal focusing motor in manual focus mode.

The designation of Nikon lenses with an internal focusing motor is AF-S, they work on all Nikon DSLR bodies and AF-S is the standard for all Nikon lenses going forward. That is, the Nikon D40, D40x, D60 and D5000, do not have an internal focusing motor, but Nikon, Sigma, Tamron and other lens makers have provided a full collection on inexpensive and expensive AF-S or equivalent lenses to mount on those bodies. So, this is a non-issue to new SLR buyers.



You can get some first class, OEM and third manufacturers lenses for the Canon and Nikon Consumer DLSRs starting at about $400. One of the sharpest lens I own, the Nikon 50mm F1.8 cost about $120. So, you can take great pictures without breaking the bank on $1G lenses.

[davmoo]

Originally Posted by masherscf

You can get some first class, OEM and third manufacturers lenses for the Canon and Nikon Consumer DLSRs starting at about $400. One of the sharpest lens I own, the Nikon 50mm F1.8 cost about $120. So, you can take great pictures without breaking the bank on $1G lenses.

You reminded me of something I left out of my own post.

When one buys a new DSLR, at least if its Canon or Nikon, and I'm sure Olympus would hold true with this also, don't knock the kit lens that comes with the camera. Yeah, it may be designed in such a way that it is as inexpensive as possible (some plastic parts, etc). But Canon, Nikon, and Olympus put a lot of research in those lenses because they know that for most buyers that will be the first lens they use...if that lens sucks, the buyer won't stick with the camera. No, its not going to give you photos as sharp across the field as a $2000 prime. But it ain't going to give you point-and-shoot crap either.

[davidzero]

I can't agree more with Pat's suggestion to read your camera's manual before taking it afield. However, unless you were born with macro-zoom eyeballs, you'll probably find the little booklet with the 4 point font printing will damage your eyesight so much you won't be able to focus on anything after attempting to read from it.

You need to print the PDF file manual every camera comes with on a CD or download it from the manufacturer and PRINT IT OUT in a size normal people can read without a magnifying glass. After printing it, punch the tree holes and put it in a 3-ring binder. Now you have a readable manual you can write margin notes, highlight etc. Save the micro-manual for carrying afield in you camera kit bag. If you've done your homework with the binder version manual you shouldn't ever need it. But it's nice to know it's there and not forgotten back home next to the magnifying glass with all the pages crumpled out of shape from trying to read the thing.

[masherscf]

Not only reading the manual is a good idea, keep the manual in your bag.