[bender16v]

I’ve never seen an F3, but one question is could it be the batteries? On my FG if the battery is low it will do that when in any shutter speed other than M90. And since I seem to only fool around with it about once a year I have to put a new battery in it each time.

[bender16v]

Somewhat off topic, but I just came across this article tonight about high ISO for night photography. I’ve never really tried shooting much after dark but the images from last week’s contest were all compelling so maybe I’ll have to try it. Back on topic, there are some good body comparisons but the author determines that a fast lens makes the biggest difference.

[bender16v]

I hear you, I’ve waited for a while for a replacement for the D300s to come out and it never did so I bought a different one. I bet now a D400 will come out soon.

The D7000 is a really good camera and I’m sure you will be happy with it. Here’s a comparison that shows the D7000 vs. D5200.

[bender16v]

Many of my customers have these and use them for lots of stuff from making prototype tubes, gages, and fixtures for production. They aren’t very fast but you can start them and let them run all night. Which solid modeling software do you use? All places I have seen are using SolidWorks and then they just hit the “print” button and the part opens in the printer’s software where it estimates time and lets you position the part on the pallet. I really want one! But I don’t have/know SolidWorks and don’t know what I want to make yet. But I want one!

Actually some public libraries have started installing these. My wife used to work at Paul Smiths College in New York and they just bought one and I heard about several places in CT adding them. I think that in the future these will be everywhere and availability to the public will be easy. I’m just waiting for a decent CAD package that is free or reasonably priced.

[bender16v]

Last fall I bought a D600 to enter the full frame arena. My biggest surprise is how great high ISO performance is with an FX sensor. I chose it over the D800 because the RAW files are much smaller, faster FPS, a it’s little cheaper. Sometimes I question the decision when I see tiny crops from D800 images that are still perfect. But I know that the D800 isn’t as easy to use since any tiny motion blurs the images due to such a high pixel density on the sensor. It takes a lot better technique to get good images and I’m not sure if I’m good enough to use it yet. The D600 is a really great camera and I’m not at all dissatisfied with it, but the D800 does add a lot. Kind of a pro vs. pro-sumer body.

The main thing I shoot is wildlife, including a lot of birds. For this job the longer lens is generally better but a 500mm or 600mm is out of my range. I went for a 300mm f/4 + teleconverter. It is small compared to the big guns so it’s a lot easier to handle. Also it is very, very sharp. The biggest downside is that it doesn’t have VR. With a 1.7 TC on a full frame from you are at 510mm @ f6.7 and on a crop frame effectively 750mm. On my D7100 in the 1.3 crop mode it’s effectively almost 1000mm, for less than $2,000. It was the most cost effective way to get that much reach that I found. Granted it is much slower and not as sharp as the 300mm f2.8, that lens is incredible (so is it’s price). Plus it’s still pretty fast with teleconverters for extra reach. The 80-400mm is new so I don’t know about that. The Sigma 150-500/50-500 lenses also seem to be pretty good.

If you are going to go big then for sure you can’t go wrong with the D800E + 300mm f2.8, but that combo is pushing $10k. 🙂

[bender16v]

Wow, sounds like a popular place! Slightly off topic, but are most parts of Toronto pretty safe? I used to spend a lot of time in the GTA for work but haven’t been there for several years. Around here the places with lots of graffiti aren’t generally places that are safe to explore, especially carrying a big old camera.

[bender16v]

I think that orionid covered the TCs pretty well except that you need to be careful that they will even fit. Nikon has a compatibility chart for theirs. Maybe other brands are designed differently. I have a Nikon 1.7 and it won’t fit on my 70-300 VR because the rear element will have a collision. It works on the 70-200 and 300 f4 but does take a lot of light and loses a bit of quality, especially since I have to crank up the ISO to maintain a fast enough shutter speed. I hate the fact that the super-tele lenses cost so much, but to have a fast and long lens it’s the only way and I know I miss things since I don’t have one.

I had a Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 DG OS (IIRC) lens and it was pretty good. I had a little trouble with getting consistently crisp photos but I think that was mostly my fault for not know what I was doing and using poor technique. When I look back at EXIF data from a couple years ago I say WTF was I thinking? For the price I would recommend it. Mine didn’t have the Macro switch on it but most do and it would be a nice feature to have.

One other lens to consider in that neighborhood is the Rokinon 8mm fisheye. I know it’s the opposite of what you discussed, but it is interesting to use.

[bender16v]

Crap, I was downtown Detroit last night and forgot about this theme. I do have one entry already that I did when this theme was just a suggestion.
cameraflage, I think laneway is a Canadian term, I think it means where you queue at a Tim Horton’s drive-thru. It does sound rural though. I’m interpreting the theme as urban, but maybe that’s not necessarily correct so I should open mind.

[bender16v]

I have two pairs of binoculars, good ones with 8x and the a cheaper pair that is 8-24x. When I get out to 24x I can’t see much since there is so much shake. Rav, does the stabilization work pretty well? I’ve never tried any. That would be my main concern with 25x magnification. And the $2,000 price of course.

[bender16v]

I actually had things lined up to shoot this week but have been working 16 hours each day this week with my boss in town from Italy. I haven’t even opened my camera bag and I’m not sure I will be able to today either which is unusual since I try to shoot every day.

[bender16v]

Yes, I hadn’t really considered abandoned buildings for this. I’m about 45 minutes from Detroit but I haven’t been downtown recently and I generally don’t take photos of the decay there since there are a million photos of it already. I might try to get in on a photo walk of an abandoned building down there since they have them regularly but I haven’t had time to do it.

[bender16v]

I’ve had outages before and it is frustrating when you can’t do anything but wait for the internet gods to give you their blessing to come back. I’m happy that it is back.

[bender16v]

I’ve had this one up for a few months, it’s about time to change.

[bender16v]

It seems that last September that happened: http://education.niksoftware.com/2012/09/17/google-acquires-nik-software/
I think that they bought Nik for Snapspeed and then killed that recently: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html

I’m not sure why they are having such a big sale, but I am happy about it since I was considering shelling out $300 for the LR suite. Now I got the whole thing for $130.

[bender16v]

That is really cool. This was shot through that spotting scope or telescope that you posted the other day? Do you set up and track the sun or preset a calculated position and wait for everything to come together?

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