Photographers: tips, tricks, equipment, etc

[bodzcampers]

[QUOTE=mtnguy;263437]I will use manaul focus when:

When I am chasing a butterfly or moth across the yard. I will preset the focus on how I think the shot will develop, and the fine tune the focus when the shot happens. Using auto-focus uses a second or 2 to lock on.......and that is "if" you can get the critter in your lens focal point.

Love the pics. Beautiful. Stunning. Never learned much about cameras.
But when it comes to "mental" pictures, I completely want to see MTNGuy chasing a butterfly or moth across the yard holding a camera. OMG! My mental picture is a scream! Especially if he's wearing that nifty Hawaiin shirt in his pic.

[jjdcamper]

Originally Posted by f5moab

I started with the Nikon F5 (and still use the "f5" for a internet ID), but since it became next to impossible to find and have developed Fuji Velvia/Provia; I made the jump about six years ago to digital.
My current cameras:
Nikon S9300 Coolpix (point and shoot, better than my Razr Phone camera)
Nikon D300
Nikon D700
My current lenses:
NIKKOR 20-35mm F/2.8D EDIF ZOOM
NIKKOR AF-S 24-70 F/2.8G EDIF ZOOM
NIKKOR AF-S 70-200 F/2.8D EDIF VR ZOOM
NIKKOR AF-S 300mm F/4D EDIF

Most of my photography revolves around landscape/nature only.

Taken with my F5 28-70F/2.8G EDIF ZOOM back in 2006


F5 28-70F/2.8G EDIF ZOOM


D300 28-70F/2.8G EDIF ZOOM


D700 AF-S 24-70 F/2.8G EDIF ZOOM

f5Moab:

Beautiful shots! I too was happy with film cameras but the digital market makes it harder and harder to purchase the film you want to use and the price of film has gone out of sight. I still have my Nikon N90 and all the lenses that go with it. (I noticed that although my lenses were auto focus, they won't work on my digital camera. And a lot of features on my N90 are not built into the digital cameras. Nasty trick Nikon pulled to sell more products.) However, you're shots are beautiful!
Jim

[MtnGuy]

Originally Posted by bodzcampers

Love the pics. Beautiful. Stunning. Never learned much about cameras.
But when it comes to "mental" pictures, I completely want to see MTNGuy chasing a butterfly or moth across the yard holding a camera. OMG! My mental picture is a scream! Especially if he's wearing that nifty Hawaiin shirt in his pic.

The Hawaiian shirt is not my everyday attire, but if there were an occasion where and I were wearing that and a photo opportunity appeared, I wouldn't hesitate to do some chasing for an elusive shot.

I think the neighbors are amused by my chasing flying insects, or laying in the grass for a close-up of something. But they will give me a call like in the case of the eagle sighting, or momma taking her brood to the lake for their 1st swim:

[prof_fate]

Originally Posted by jjdcamper

f5Moab:

Beautiful shots! I too was happy with film cameras but the digital market makes it harder and harder to purchase the film you want to use and the price of film has gone out of sight. I still have my Nikon N90 and all the lenses that go with it. (I noticed that although my lenses were auto focus, they won't work on my digital camera. And a lot of features on my N90 are not built into the digital cameras. Nasty trick Nikon pulled to sell more products.) However, you're shots are beautiful!
Jim

I'm a canon guy, not a nikon guy. But back when AF came on the market canon opted to put the focus motor in their lenses (EOS system) which forced everyone to buy new cameras and lenses.
Nikon opted to put the focus motor in their bodies so you could use your old manual focus lenses. Canon's thought was that putting the focus motor in the lens would mean faster focus - and since canon until about 5 years ago ruled the sports world they were right.

Over 20 years time nikon changed their take on it and started to follow canon and began putting the focus motors in some lenses. The D40 and other 'consumer' SLRs don't have focus motors in their bodies so you HAVE to use the new lenses that have the focus motors built in. Get a midlevel and up body and you can use any nikon lens on it.

[f5moab]

"Nikon opted to put the focus motor in their bodies so you could use your old manual focus lenses. Canon's thought was that putting the focus motor in the lens would mean faster focus - and since canon until about 5 years ago ruled the sports world they were right."

Actually, Nikon continued to use the DC motor in the body with the screw drive so that older style AF lenses could be used. Manual focus lenses, which can still be used on almost all Nikon pro-consumer and higher models, does not need a focus motor. Focus is done by hand. Nikon has remained with the same basic F-mount since 1959.

Canon introduced the new (I believe) 1987 with the EOS line of cameras; I believe this was the 5th design change in lens mounts for the Canon camera line. (Great way to make money on new lenses.) Nikon introduced their first internally focused lens in 1996. That was about 9 years difference in lens focusing, but even today, Nikon continues to make cameras (pro-consumer/pro cameras) that accept manual and screw drive AF lenses that were produced back in the 60s. To some that is a good thing. The consumer cameras tend to accept only AF-S lenses which have the internal focusing motor.

Except for some lenses, the old manual focus and some AF lenses can still be used on most Nikon pro-consumer or pro cameras made. Not true for all lenses, but the majority of lenses can be used. (I agree the D40 could not use non AF-S lenses, but the consumer D70 could, I had one and used my AF lenses with no problems.)

Many people who jumped in to the digital world were told by many camera sales people that they needed new lenses. Problem being in the sensor size being smaller on most digital cameras. The film camera they were coming from was 35mm, but most of the digital cameras released were 24mm (Nikon anyway), thus you had a multiplication factor to figure in when figuring out the crop factor of the final image.

For example, my 28-70 AF-S (which has an internal AF motor, and was purchased and used on my F5 and F100, as well as my D70, D200 and D300 digital cameras) had an effective focal length of 42-105 when used with the 24mm digital sensor. The actual focal length of the lens does not change, only the crop factor of the image (also known as the field of view crop.)

However, I have used all my film lenses with all my digital cameras with no problems, other than having to purchase a 12-18mm lens for landscape use to take the place of the 20-35 so that I could obtain the same focal length equivalent. (I do believe that you might not be able to use a DX lens (DX meaning the 24mm sensor) on a full frame camera.)

I believe that some of the newer Nikon consumer cameras on the market will not accept the older lenses; AF with screw drive or manual focus. Not sure if this is true, but I do believe I read it somewhere. Nikon also has the G lens that does not have an aperture ring.

Today, I use the D700, which is a full 35mm frame sensor with my 24-70 lens that replaced my 28-70, and the 20-35 for most landscape shots. If I am shooting birds or animals (something I do very seldom) I will use the D300 with one of the telephotos mounted. Don’t need to do any cropping an enlarging this the D300 is a 24mm sensor.

For those unfamiliar with Nikon DSLR cameras, the term "Pro" refers to models that are comprised of 2 or 3 characters with the First Character being a "D", the second character being a numeral and the third character (if used) is a letter (example D4 or D3X). The term "Pro-Consumer" (aka Prosumer) refers to models with 4 characters with the first character being a "D", and the next three characters being numerals (example D300/D700/D800; and in some cases a letter may follow the three numerals denoting an upgrade to that film body (example D300S). The term "Consumer" refers to models with five characters with the first character being a "D" and followed by 4 numerals (example D5200/D7000). There is one oddity and that is the D90 which runs from the "Consumer" models into the "Pro-Consumer" models. It's old relative the N90 film camera did the same thing.

I also used to shoot Canon cameras, until one vacation the camera screwed up a roll of film and I got a bit uptight, and took it outback and decided to shoot the camera. I will say it took three 9mm from about 25 feet before it was too shattered to shoot at. From that day forward, I went with Nikon. I will say that when jumping to digital I did take a look at Canon and Fuji, but decided to remain with Nikon. Basically all my pro level lenses could still be used on the Nikon digital cameras or Fuji; whereas with Canon, I would have had to purchase all new lenses as well as a camera body. Fuji used a Nikon body with Fuji guts so my lenses would have worked on those cameras too.
Today, if I was starting up from scratch, I would take a very close look at Sony. They have come a long way with digital SLR cameras.

ADDED: Want to add one thing; although I'm a person who owns Nikon cameras, Canon, Sony, Pentax and a few others are just as good. I had a problem with a Canon, but that was many years ago. And I had a Nikon F100 screw up once in the Smoky Mountains.

[grayfox]

Originally Posted by f5moab

"Nikon opted to put the focus motor in their bodies so you could use your old manual focus lenses. Canon's thought was that putting the focus motor in the lens would mean faster focus - and since canon until about 5 years ago ruled the sports world they were right."

Actually, Nikon continued to use the DC motor in the body with the screw drive so that older style AF lenses could be used. Manual focus lenses, which can still be used on almost all Nikon pro-consumer and higher models, does not need a focus motor. Focus is done by hand. Nikon has remained with the same basic F-mount since 1959.

Canon introduced the new (I believe) 1987 with the EOS line of cameras; I believe this was the 5th design change in lens mounts for the Canon camera line. (Great way to make money on new lenses.) Nikon introduced their first internally focused lens in 1996. That was about 9 years difference in lens focusing, but even today, Nikon continues to make cameras (pro-consumer/pro cameras) that accept manual and screw drive AF lenses that were produced back in the 60s. To some that is a good thing. The consumer cameras tend to accept only AF-S lenses which have the internal focusing motor.

Except for some lenses, the old manual focus and some AF lenses can still be used on most Nikon pro-consumer or pro cameras made. Not true for all lenses, but the majority of lenses can be used. (I agree the D40 could not use non AF-S lenses, but the consumer D70 could, I had one and used my AF lenses with no problems.)

Many people who jumped in to the digital world were told by many camera sales people that they needed new lenses. Problem being in the sensor size being smaller on most digital cameras. The film camera they were coming from was 35mm, but most of the digital cameras released were 24mm (Nikon anyway), thus you had a multiplication factor to figure in when figuring out the crop factor of the final image.

For example, my 28-70 AF-S (which has an internal AF motor, and was purchased and used on my F5 and F100, as well as my D70, D200 and D300 digital cameras) had an effective focal length of 42-105 when used with the 24mm digital sensor. The actual focal length of the lens does not change, only the crop factor of the image (also known as the field of view crop.)

However, I have used all my film lenses with all my digital cameras with no problems, other than having to purchase a 12-18mm lens for landscape use to take the place of the 20-35 so that I could obtain the same focal length equivalent. (I do believe that you might not be able to use a DX lens (DX meaning the 24mm sensor) on a full frame camera.)

I believe that some of the newer Nikon consumer cameras on the market will not accept the older lenses; AF with screw drive or manual focus. Not sure if this is true, but I do believe I read it somewhere. Nikon also has the G lens that does not have an aperture ring.

Today, I use the D700, which is a full 35mm frame sensor with my 24-70 lens that replaced my 28-70, and the 20-35 for most landscape shots. If I am shooting birds or animals (something I do very seldom) I will use the D300 with one of the telephotos mounted. Don’t need to do any cropping an enlarging this the D300 is a 24mm sensor.

For those unfamiliar with Nikon DSLR cameras, the term "Pro" refers to models that are comprised of 2 or 3 characters with the First Character being a "D", the second character being a numeral and the third character (if used) is a letter (example D4 or D3X). The term "Pro-Consumer" (aka Prosumer) refers to models with 4 characters with the first character being a "D", and the next three characters being numerals (example D300/D700/D800; and in some cases a letter may follow the three numerals denoting an upgrade to that film body (example D300S). The term "Consumer" refers to models with five characters with the first character being a "D" and followed by 4 numerals (example D5200/D7000). There is one oddity and that is the D90 which runs from the "Consumer" models into the "Pro-Consumer" models. It's old relative the N90 film camera did the same thing.

I also used to shoot Canon cameras, until one vacation the camera screwed up a roll of film and I got a bit uptight, and took it outback and decided to shoot the camera. I will say it took three 9mm from about 25 feet before it was too shattered to shoot at. From that day forward, I went with Nikon. I will say that when jumping to digital I did take a look at Canon and Fuji, but decided to remain with Nikon. Basically all my pro level lenses could still be used on the Nikon digital cameras or Fuji; whereas with Canon, I would have had to purchase all new lenses as well as a camera body. Fuji used a Nikon body with Fuji guts so my lenses would have worked on those cameras too.
Today, if I was starting up from scratch, I would take a very close look at Sony. They have come a long way with digital SLR cameras.

Nice write up Moab. I'm just a novice but, you provided alot of good history to digest

Thanks again, two thumbs up
Rick

[bodzcampers]

Some of these pics are so stunning, they look unreal!
I love the duckies! How sweet!
Please keep them coming you photo hounds. I am really enjoying these pics.

[f5moab]

[f5moab]

Not good photos, but how many female bears do you see with 4 cubs? I came upon her and her cubs on a hike in the Smoky mountains. Lucky for me, she stood upright and caught my attention so I stopped, took a photo and was backing up when she decided to take off and I took another photo and I was surprised, she had four cubs.

.

[bodzcampers]

OMG! Some of these pics bring tears to my eyes. That Eagle!!! How rare, at least where I am. Those bears with the cubs! Amazing places and amazing shots. TY!

[Oakman]

A large number of Eagles winter here in MO. I love watching them, but it's so darn cold.

[bodzcampers]

Originally Posted by Oakman

A large number of Eagles winter here in MO. I love watching them, but it's so darn cold.

A large number of eagles? I only saw one my whole life waaaaaaaaay up in the sky. Where in MO? What months? I'm there! Need a break in the winter.

[Oakman]

Originally Posted by bodzcampers

A large number of eagles? I only saw one my whole life waaaaaaaaay up in the sky. Where in MO? What months? I'm there! Need a break in the winter.

Lock and Dams along the Mississippi River. Fish are stunned passing through the dams and make for easy fishing for the Bald Eagles. The photo I posted was taken in Clarksville, MO at Lock and Dam 24. Winfield, MO. Grafton, IL. and Alton, IL. are great places to view Eagles in winter too.

[bodzcampers]

Wow! Thanks! Something to look forward to this winter! 270 days (9 mos.) till Eagle Watching. LOL

[prof_fate]

Originally Posted by bodzcampers

OMG! Some of these pics bring tears to my eyes. That Eagle!!! How rare, at least where I am. Those bears with the cubs! Amazing places and amazing shots. TY!

BaldEagles aren't rare - I've taken a few trips from pa to detroit across the ohio turnpike - I see multiple eagles every trip. Went to FL last january and took an airboat tour of the everglades around christmas FL and lots of bald eagles there too.

I've probably seen 20 in the past 2 years. None at my house - I see a lot of red tail hawks (almost daily)

The coolest critter I've seen was a few years ago, I had a tree trunk that was rotting and every morning at 10 am on the dot a large wood pecker would arrive and have breakfast. I tried like heck to get pics but he was a touchy critter, anything and everything would get him on the move.

I hear woodpeckers often but rarely see them, same for owls.

[Oakman]

Originally Posted by bodzcampers

Wow! Thanks! Something to look forward to this winter! 270 days (9 mos.) till Eagle Watching. LOL

If you do come to MO you might also consider a visit to the Wild Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, MO. They have quite a collection of exotic birds and quite a few Bald Eagles. Almost all of the Bald Eagles they have were injured and unable to be returned to the wild. Here’s a photo of one of their Eagles flying at Busch Stadium during pre-game festivities at a baseball game. They are truly majestic birds.

[ggrady]

We Took these in Arkansas last year around Fairfield Bay area the land scape was from a state park that is an Island you had to hike to the top to get the shot. We happened to be there when the hummingbirds were migrating. What a site to see so many at once.

[bodzcampers]

That would be awesome. I'm putting up a hummingbird feeder this summer for the first time. Can't wait for my birdies!

[bodzcampers]

Originally Posted by Oakman

If you do come to MO you might also consider a visit to the Wild Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, MO. They have quite a collection of exotic birds and quite a few Bald Eagles. Almost all of the Bald Eagles they have were injured and unable to be returned to the wild. Here’s a photo of one of their Eagles flying at Busch Stadium during pre-game festivities at a baseball game. They are truly majestic birds.

Wow! Baseball and Eagles in the Same place! I love my Tigers, but we don't get anything extra, except one year....extremely rare and odd...a swarm of flying Ants. I swear.
Corrected: I first remembered it as Locusts, but it wasn't.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas...roit_swarm_ap/.

[f5moab]

Eagle was taken at Reelfoot lake in TN, right across the border from MO. Reelfoot I believe is the only non-manmade lake in TN and was made in 1811 or 1812 due to the earthquake in the St. Louis Area. During the winter, bald eagles come there to fish; like Oakman stated.

This photo was taken back in 2011, at a small outpost outside of the entrance to Canyonlands NP; Needles District...