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For those into photography and have SLR cameras
Topic Started: Mar 8 2009, 05:48 AM (620 Views)
8247
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Apparently we look like this now
I tend to use aperture priority unless I'm in a setting where I want to do a long exposure. Then, I set it to shutter priority. Sometimes I'll set it to manual like if I want to do a slightly long exposure, but with a slight bit more or less light than is getting through on shutter priority...after I've adjusted the ISO to compensate. My 24-120mm VR 3.5 is old, so I find myself using manual focus alot more than I used to. I use manual focus 90% of the time when I use the 50mm 1.4
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Dwayne
Profanity deleted by Hoss
Cameras auto focus?

Will technological wonders ever cease? ;)
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8247
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Apparently we look like this now
Dwayne, you aint the only one who can do panoramics. ;)

Posted Image

From 3 different photos.
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Minuet
Mar 9 2009, 09:53 AM
Quote:
 
Fully automatic camera control is for novices and dummies or the lazy IMO




I personally use autofocus because I wear contacts lenses and I have trouble using manual because you have to keep your eyes open a relatively long time without blinking which I cannot do with lenses. Also for some reason I have always had a fair amount of trouble with manual focus. I cannot explain it fully but I just have.
Minuet , I think that my wife has exactlty the same problem , as well as being very much a novice photographer , in her case , I bought a point and shoot camera (8 MPixcel) which is fully automated but has big sharp LCD screen and features such a selectable whitebalance and several photo-modes for her for Xmas , her photos have now improved - A LOT.

It's a handy little camera and she takes it everywhere in her handbang.

This may be what you need , or maybe you need to learn to use Liveview if your DSLR camera has this feature and the option for the mirror to be locked in the up position, this way you can focus using the LCD and electronic zoom (to check sharpness).



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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
8247
Mar 9 2009, 07:53 PM
Dwayne, you aint the only one who can do panoramics. ;)

Posted Image

From 3 different photos.
Yep , most good DSLRs have the option of producing panaramas from multiple images in the bundled image processing software. I've not used it except to check out the option.

I'll be using this feature to produce ultrawide field and very deep long exposure mossiacs of interesting galactic (Milky Way , LMC and constellation wide) starfields, dark, emission and reflection nebulae and of comets when I've sorted my permanent observatory. Being located at 33 south latitude I am blessed with a perfect vantage point for Scorpio - Sagittarius - Crux and Carina Milky Way star fields (pass directly overhead) and the LMC never sets and is always visible at night (if the moon and clouds stay away).
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
8247
Mar 9 2009, 07:53 PM
Dwayne, you aint the only one who can do panoramics. ;)

Posted Image

From 3 different photos.
That's a particularly nice image .... reminicent of what I see from Stockton when I fish for jewfish at night and look across the harbour back at Newcastle . (Less the bridge .... this is no over harbour / river bridge across at Newcastle.

What town and body of water is it ?
Edited by somerled, Mar 9 2009, 08:32 PM.
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8247
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Apparently we look like this now
^^

Damn, I'm jealous. I live in a city, so to get away from the lights to do something like that, I'd have to go up a mountain at night. But most places where I could do something like that, I'd have to pay for a cabin for a weekend. I'm not going to bring my cameras unless I can lock them in a building. Not going to leave them in a car or tent.

EDIT: Thanks! :) Its Downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Tennessee River.
Edited by 8247, Mar 9 2009, 08:34 PM.
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Minuet
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somerled
Mar 9 2009, 08:14 PM
Minuet
Mar 9 2009, 09:53 AM
Quote:
 
Fully automatic camera control is for novices and dummies or the lazy IMO




I personally use autofocus because I wear contacts lenses and I have trouble using manual because you have to keep your eyes open a relatively long time without blinking which I cannot do with lenses. Also for some reason I have always had a fair amount of trouble with manual focus. I cannot explain it fully but I just have.
Minuet , I think that my wife has exactlty the same problem , as well as being very much a novice photographer , in her case , I bought a point and shoot camera (8 MPixcel) which is fully automated but has big sharp LCD screen and features such a selectable whitebalance and several photo-modes for her for Xmas , her photos have now improved - A LOT.

It's a handy little camera and she takes it everywhere in her handbang.

This may be what you need , or maybe you need to learn to use Liveview if your DSLR camera has this feature and the option for the mirror to be locked in the up position, this way you can focus using the LCD and electronic zoom (to check sharpness).



I have a Kodak Z712 IS camera. It is not an SLR - but it does have 12X Optical Zoom. (36mm to 432mm) and 7.1 MP

I used to have a film SLR with 2 lenses. The larger one zoomed to 200mm. I am amazed at what they can throw into a little camera these days. While I was at Disney World I took a picture of my daughter dancing with some characters in a parade from nearly a block away.

My old SLR was the Minolta 5000, one of the first autofocus SLR's. I loved that camera, but it got to be too bulky to carry around and I haven't used it in a long time.
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Minuet
Mar 9 2009, 08:55 PM
somerled
Mar 9 2009, 08:14 PM
Minuet
Mar 9 2009, 09:53 AM
Quote:
 
Fully automatic camera control is for novices and dummies or the lazy IMO




I personally use autofocus because I wear contacts lenses and I have trouble using manual because you have to keep your eyes open a relatively long time without blinking which I cannot do with lenses. Also for some reason I have always had a fair amount of trouble with manual focus. I cannot explain it fully but I just have.
Minuet , I think that my wife has exactlty the same problem , as well as being very much a novice photographer , in her case , I bought a point and shoot camera (8 MPixcel) which is fully automated but has big sharp LCD screen and features such a selectable whitebalance and several photo-modes for her for Xmas , her photos have now improved - A LOT.

It's a handy little camera and she takes it everywhere in her handbang.

This may be what you need , or maybe you need to learn to use Liveview if your DSLR camera has this feature and the option for the mirror to be locked in the up position, this way you can focus using the LCD and electronic zoom (to check sharpness).



I have a Kodak Z712 IS camera. It is not an SLR - but it does have 12X Optical Zoom. (36mm to 432mm) and 7.1 MP

I used to have a film SLR with 2 lenses. The larger one zoomed to 200mm. I am amazed at what they can throw into a little camera these days. While I was at Disney World I took a picture of my daughter dancing with some characters in a parade from nearly a block away.

My old SLR was the Minolta 5000, one of the first autofocus SLR's. I loved that camera, but it got to be too bulky to carry around and I haven't used it in a long time.
Any Minolta SLR is definitely a keeper ....can't find better SLRs .... too bad they decided to stop making cameras not so many years ago....

Hang onto the interchangeable lenses that you have for it too , they can used on other brand SLRs and DSLRs with an adapter .... just means you need to operate the lenses and camera manually which isn't a big deal and produces better photos anyway.

If your camera is in storage .... take the battery out .... a leaky battery will kill or ruin a camera .... I remove the batteries from all my cameras even for overnight storage ....

My wife absolutely loves her point and shoot (an Olympus FE20) , she pestered me for a couple of months about getting one after seeing how nice her bother's point and shooter was at her sister's wedding , and I finally submitted and got one for her and big memory card and a spare battery because I negotiated a great deal from Joyce Mayne Electronics on the day after Boxing Day....
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
8247
Mar 9 2009, 08:33 PM
^^

Damn, I'm jealous. I live in a city, so to get away from the lights to do something like that, I'd have to go up a mountain at night. But most places where I could do something like that, I'd have to pay for a cabin for a weekend. I'm not going to bring my cameras unless I can lock them in a building. Not going to leave them in a car or tent.

EDIT: Thanks! :) Its Downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Tennessee River.
You can reduce the effects of light pollution fairly effectively by using a clip in light pollution filter .

It needs to block Hg emission bands, Na emission bands , and O2 skyglow which are your main offending sources of urban light pollution while passing with high transmission coefficients desireable wavelengths coinciding with OIII , Halpha, HBeta and most other visible wavelengths.

I have an Astronomik 40D CLS clip in which goes inside the camera body infront of the reflex mirror for when I am using my camera lenses for widefields, I use either my Lumicon UHC or DSP or HBeta or OxyIII filters depending on what I am imaging when I using my camera at prime focus (of the telescope).

I am not 100% happy with the Astronomik CLS filter, it blocks reflection nebulae light (like you see in images of The Pleiade's) and effects the whitebalance somewhat , and will likely get a Huteck LPF ,either a big front filter and gaggle of step down rings so I can use the same filter with all my camera lenses or one of their 40D specific clip ins ( though concerned about reports of internal reflections observed by some astroimagers I know who have Huteck clip in LPFs) .

I know a lot of chaps who have had their DSLRs modded by removing the IR cut filter that covers the sensor .... gives "improved" Halpha sensitivity but radically changes the sensor response (no longer emulates the human eye's spectral sensitivity) .... I have chosen not to do this , when I want to get HAlpha ,I'll get a narrow band HAlpha bandpass filter and simply use longer exposures or more subs.

If I decide I want to get a dedicated astroimaging DSLR - I'll buy a secondhand already modded 400D body only. More likely - I'll invest in properly designed pelter cooled CCD imager with 8 - 12 MPixcels .These things are not cheap ....

Edited by somerled, Mar 9 2009, 10:18 PM.
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Minuet
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Quote:
 
My wife absolutely loves her point and shoot (an Olympus FE20) , she pestered me for a couple of months about getting one after seeing how nice her bother's point and shooter was at her sister's wedding , and I finally submitted and got one for her and big memory card and a spare battery because I negotiated a great deal from Joyce Mayne Electronics on the day after Boxing Day....


So are you saying your wife is " dummies or the lazy IMO" ;)
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Minuet
Mar 9 2009, 10:22 PM
Quote:
 
My wife absolutely loves her point and shoot (an Olympus FE20) , she pestered me for a couple of months about getting one after seeing how nice her bother's point and shooter was at her sister's wedding , and I finally submitted and got one for her and big memory card and a spare battery because I negotiated a great deal from Joyce Mayne Electronics on the day after Boxing Day....


So are you saying your wife is " dummies or the lazy IMO" ;)
Definitely a "dummy" when it comes to photography and anything to do with computers , .... she just doesn't get it and I often have to show her how to do things , time and time again , and probably also when it comes to cooking too (I'm the better cook in this house , out of necessity if I want special meals and nice treats occasiionally , easy compared with analytical chemistry and organic synthesis !!! and self taught too , even most of her fried eggs are flops !!! ) , but she is good at other things (of the crafty creative kind) and she has her attractions ....

Edited by somerled, Mar 9 2009, 10:52 PM.
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8247
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Apparently we look like this now
Most Minolta lenses will fit on the Sony SLRs. Sony bought out Minolta a few years ago, and kept the mounts the same.
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~Luthien~
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Little Sister Of Sistertrek
8247
Mar 9 2009, 07:53 PM
Dwayne, you aint the only one who can do panoramics. ;)

Posted Image

From 3 different photos.
and you arent either :P


Posted Image

From 6 different photos.

Edited by ~Luthien~, Mar 10 2009, 03:23 PM.
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Admiralbill_gomec
UberAdmiral
Can't make out your image, Luth. I just have a "posted image" link with a red X in it.
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