PF Photography: Tips, Tricks, & Photo Sharing

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Andre said:
Better be really sure if you need one.

I'd go for anything that can shoot RAW and have interchangeable lenses. My point and shoot ALWAYS has either jpg artefacts or a lot of noise (even when shooting manual with low iso). Unless it's your ideal 25 degrees C, sunny day, 5 metres from subject type conditions, it just doesn't do what I'd like it to do.

Oh, and here's another of my creations, a heavily manipulated find from a museum in Lviv, Ukraine:

http://images-2.redbubble.net/img/art/border:noborder/product:mounted-print/size:small/view:preview/373985-6-scratch-this.jpg
 
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phyzmatix said:
I'd go for anything that can shoot RAW and have interchangeable lenses. My point and shoot ALWAYS has either jpg artefacts or a lot of noise (even when shooting manual with low iso). Unless it's your ideal 25 degrees C, sunny day, 5 metres from subject type conditions, it just doesn't do what I'd like it to do.

Oh, and here's another of my creations, a heavily manipulated find from a museum in Lviv, Ukraine:

http://images-2.redbubble.net/img/art/border:noborder/product:mounted-print/size:small/view:preview/373985-6-scratch-this.jpg
[/URL]

Nice work.

The Panasonics are all RAW capable and the supporting software includes the http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/SILKYPIX-Review-78117.shtml but noise is a problem for all smaller sensors. One should not use any ISO higher than the basic setting. That's why I moved to the SLR, where image quality at high ISO was the main criterium, since if you want to shoot butterflies and such, you need but small apertures and short shutter speeds, hence you're forced to crank up the ISO or use flash.
 
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Well I've finally got fed up of having to choose between my old Olympus OMs (pain of having to get the film and photos developed!) and my low resolution 'idiot camera' (pain of such little control over the settings), and have treated myself to a nice new shiny Olympus E420 DSLR, with a 14-48mm f3.5 lens. What a fantastic camera. The lens is ok for the price too, but I'm looking at their 'pancake' 25mm f2.8 prime. Still trying to get to grips with the autofocus system but you'll hopefully be seeing a few more of my entries in the photo competition now!

I took this one this morning in the woods up behind my house.

PB290541.jpg
 
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brewnog said:
Well I've finally got fed up of having to choose between my old Olympus OMs (pain of having to get the film and photos developed!) and my low resolution 'idiot camera' (pain of such little control over the settings), and have treated myself to a nice new shiny Olympus E420 DSLR, with a 14-48mm f3.5 lens. What a fantastic camera. The lens is ok for the price too, but I'm looking at their 'pancake' 25mm f2.8 prime. Still trying to get to grips with the autofocus system but you'll hopefully be seeing a few more of my entries in the photo competition now!

I took this one this morning in the woods up behind my house.

PB290541.jpg

Beautiful shot!
 
brewnog said:
Well I've finally got fed up of having to choose between my old Olympus OMs (pain of having to get the film and photos developed!) and my low resolution 'idiot camera' (pain of such little control over the settings), and have treated myself to a nice new shiny Olympus E420 DSLR, with a 14-48mm f3.5 lens. What a fantastic camera. The lens is ok for the price too, but I'm looking at their 'pancake' 25mm f2.8 prime. Still trying to get to grips with the autofocus system but you'll hopefully be seeing a few more of my entries in the photo competition now!

I took this one this morning in the woods up behind my house.
Very nice! I hope you have fun with the new gear.

I sold off my OM-1s and OM-4 and primes on eBay years back, got a small digital camera, and waited until the prices of the DSLRs came down to the point where I could jump in. Even so, to get the body and lenses I wanted, I had to sell off a bunch of my antique Winchesters.
 
larkspur said:
Beautiful shot!

Thank you! Freezing my arse off this morning was worth it!

turbo-1 said:
I sold off my OM-1s and OM-4 and primes on eBay years back, got a small digital camera, and waited until the prices of the DSLRs came down to the point where I could jump in.

Well I've kept hold of my OM lenses, and have ordered an adapter such that I may be able to use them on my DSLR. I know the focal lengths will be screwed up and focusing may be tricky, but those old OM lenses aren't even worth selling now and it pains me just to lock them away never to be used again. It might not work, but the adapter is only a few pounds so I thought I'd try it.
 
Congrats, Brewnog, a lot of bang for the buck, see the review here. For this one, it's advised to either turn the noise filter off or shoot in raw to avoid too much loss of detail.
 
brewnog said:
Thank you! Freezing my arse off this morning was worth it!



Well I've kept hold of my OM lenses, and have ordered an adapter such that I may be able to use them on my DSLR. I know the focal lengths will be screwed up and focusing may be tricky, but those old OM lenses aren't even worth selling now and it pains me just to lock them away never to be used again. It might not work, but the adapter is only a few pounds so I thought I'd try it.
Good luck! Some of my old Zuicko primes were hard to part with... 24mm, 50mm (f:1.2 and f:1.4), 135mm were all good performers.
 
turbo-1 said:
Good luck! Some of my old Zuicko primes were hard to part with... 24mm, 50mm (f:1.2 and f:1.4), 135mm were all good performers.

Anybody care for a Minolta MD11 set? From 1978, first electronic camera with shutter speed adjustment when the light was to low for the largest aperture. The lenses are worthless for Minolta/Sony A-type, nowadays.
 
brewnog said:
Thank you! Freezing my arse off this morning was worth it!

Definitely!
 
brewnog said:
I took this one this morning in the woods up behind my house.

Nice shot! Was there natural fog there?

I wish I had such nice scenery.
 
~christina~ said:
Nice shot! Was there natural fog there?

I wish I had such nice scenery.

The fog was entirely natural! Bloody freezing it was too.

Don't be so downhearted about the lack of scenery, you can find the prettiest landscapes in the strangest of places. I have a great series of photos stashed away (not digital, sorry!) taken in industrial wastelands; cooling towers, steelworks, abandoned warehouses etc. Just go out with a camera and an open mind.
 
Andre said:
On the short list are the Canon EF 100mm USM Macro and the Tamron 90mm Macro. Suggestions anybody?

Well the first one won. I just unpacked and tried it.

20jfpls.jpg


To the left the full frames on 10%, to the right 100% crops (red rectangles). The first shot is a small candle holder on a comfortable butterfly distance. The second the details on 1:1 magification (on the sensor). The lower crop is about 1-2 mm in real size.
 
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That is most impressive. Well Done :smile:

TFM
 
To compare:

some_bee1.jpg


That's my 75-300 mm with a lens, not sure about magnification, but that's just crop of the original image (full frame visible here):

some_bee.jpg


Upper image scale must be similar to Andre's lower crop.
 
Andre said:
Well the first one won. I just unpacked and tried it.

20jfpls.jpg


To the left the full frames on 10%, to the right 100% crops (red rectangles). The first shot is a small candle holder on a comfortable butterfly distance. The second the details on 1:1 magification (on the sensor). The lower crop is about 1-2 mm in real size.
Congrats, Andre! Watch out, butterflies!
 
Thanks,

This is a screen shot or "print screen"

nausw.jpg


Notice that the greens are crisp and the reds are not
 
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Andre said:
Thanks,

This is a screen shot or "print screen"

Notice that the greens are crisp and the reds are not
Interesting that the blue and green pixels terminate rather cleanly at top and bottom, and the reds seem to bloom, giving them rounded-looking ends.
 
Andre said:
Notice that the greens are crisp and the reds are not

Chromatic aberration?
 
exactly

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/47/Lens6a.svg/415px-Lens6a.svg.png
 
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Foggy evening and two dollars laser pointer.

laser_fog.jpg


It doesn't look like that, but it was lying on the camera, about 6 to 7 centimeters from the lens center.
 
Borek said:
Foggy evening and two dollars laser pointer.

laser_fog.jpg


It doesn't look like that, but it was lying on the camera, about 6 to 7 centimeters from the lens center.
Oh, noes! Your laser set that house on fire!
 
shot that I had sent everyone on their postcards.

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/9639/sunrisekx7.jpg
 
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It is a very nice picture that was badly printed (all PF postcarders know what I mean).
 
Hey, nice! I've seen the light painting thing done a few times, and this is a really original take on it. It bothers me ever-so-slightly that there's a bit of colouring over the lines on the globe's shadow, but I bet it must be really hard to avoid.
Great shot!
 
I suppose that's all in the way you move your hand - I was just standing few steps away and waving.
 
Borek said:
Playing with laser pointer part two.

laser_globe.jpg

wow! do you got an HD version. I'd love this for my desktop background.