Photography Thread: Pics, Cameras, Lenses, and Learnings
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Boudoir Guitar
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In the original thread you mentioned wanting an upgrade for hiking/canoeing/etc. Honestly, for all of that stuff...I prefer to use my phone, unless I'm going out for like a dedicated "photography trip". Most of what I'm trying to grab in those instances is wide angle in decent light with no concern about creating a shallow depth of field and phone camera's are pretty darn good at that stuff and way less cumbersome to bring along. For paddling, I have a little leash I attach between phone and PFD so I'm not worried about dropping it -- not this exact one but a cheap amazon knock off: https://www.hangtimegear.com/produc...WdNysoHfguBFd4aYRe3YTujutnWPqYiIaAnEGEALw_wcB
All from my phone on hiking/paddling adventures over the summer. There are some situations where I needed my old Canon 5D, but more often then not on hikes/paddles, if I can't get it with my phone, its because the light sucks or I'm not thinking clearly about how to take the shot:
All from my phone on hiking/paddling adventures over the summer. There are some situations where I needed my old Canon 5D, but more often then not on hikes/paddles, if I can't get it with my phone, its because the light sucks or I'm not thinking clearly about how to take the shot:
Boudoir Guitar
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This is from the same trip as the second pic above. Sunrise with 5d mk ii and 24-105 F4 lens at 105mm. Honestly, I wish I'd had something closer to 200 to help make the sun look as big as it did in real life. This kind of thing needed the Big Boy, partly to be able to capture it exposed to keep the sun tame and then pull details from shadows, mostly for the longer lens so the sun that was HUGE IRL didn't come out looking tiny due to perspective of a short focal length phone-camera lens.
Boudoir Guitar
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I upgraded to an R7 and snagged a Sigma 70-200 F2.8 sport lens this fall. The lens is a chunky beast, even by 70-200 standards, but I wasn't ready to drop $2k on a lens, and I'm at most spending an hour shooting a game/race so its not really that bad:
paisleywookiee
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I worked at Wolf Camera (if anyone remembers that chain) for 10 years in the 90’s/00’s, and shot weddings for a bit longer than that. I’m a Nikon guy, but probably more due to habit than anything else (and the fact that Canon royally pissed me off).
Currently still shooting a Nikon for just basic shit, and believe it or not ever guitar and amp shot out of my buddy’s shop.
As mentioned, thinking of jumping ship to mirrorless, due to the writing being on the wall for dSLRs.
Currently still shooting a Nikon for just basic shit, and believe it or not ever guitar and amp shot out of my buddy’s shop.
As mentioned, thinking of jumping ship to mirrorless, due to the writing being on the wall for dSLRs.
Blix
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I did this summer. I like shooting portraits, often wide open or close to, and the eye-tracking autofocus you get in the better mirrorless cameras is truly a game changer, my camera seems to nail it every time. No more focus falling on eyebrows or the frame of glasses, it nails the eyeball 100%.
Truly amazing.
Boudoir Guitar
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Yeah, I went from having a decent number of throw-away pics at the x-country races due to focus challenges of 100 kids running straight at me to none. Eye detect plus having autofocus points everywhere made SUCH a difference.
The football game was a test run and took about ten minutes to get sorted - I had it set to eye tracking and with all the players in helmets those first shots all kept grabbing the referee or a parent in the background for focus. Once I turned off all the various auto-detect options, it was still really impressive how much more quickly and accurately I could get the camera to grab onto the kid I wanted to track and hold it…my old 5D forced me to keep the subject pretty darn centered to track given it’s limited number of autofocus points.
@la szum if you don’t know about mpb and keh, they are worth keeping in your radar - used camera gear that comes with easy return and six month warranty, so worth the premium Inpay over eBay to me. If you just want to give an interchangeable lens camera with a big sensor a try for a few hundred, rather than a few thousand, it’s a great option. My new mirrorless system is a huge upgrade for sports stuff but in terms of just image quality - there are lots of cameras that sold for $3k 8-10 years ago that you can get for under $500 now that still capture GREAT images.
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That's more like where I want to go. Manual settings. Dialing aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and all the
rest to truly learn the skills of decent photography. Along with the meditative. focusing, and frustration
elements that are also part of the deal.
Thanks for sharing!
paisleywookiee
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That’s tough, and often comes down to personal preference. I don’t think anything out today is really bad, per se.I'll probably go used. Gimme that Axe Fx Ultra Camera.
Any specific recommendations? I am not beholden to brand.
Boudoir Guitar
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If you’re wanting to be fairly slow and methodical about it, a used full frame DSLR is a great entry at “Mexican made” prices. The phone pics were all from an iPhone12 mini, I think.That's more like where I want to go. Manual settings. Dialing aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and all the
rest to truly learn the skills of decent photography. Along with the meditative. focusing, and frustration
elements that are also part of the deal.
Thanks for sharing!
Boudoir Guitar
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I know Canon better than Nikon or Sony. Fuji also makes some stuff worth checking out. In Canon world, I’d go with a used 5D mark iii. Start off with something as simple as the cheap 50mm 1.8 lens and you’ve got a hell of a set up for $500.Come on, man! I want Brand Wars!
metropolis_4
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Photography has been a big hobby of mine for a long time now!
I’m old school when it comes to photography, I love film and still use 35mm SLRs as much as I can.
For digital I stick with Nikon DSLRs because I love older lenses with an aperture ring on the lens and I can use almost any old Nikon lens with my D750. I haven’t gone mirrorless because it doesn’t offer anything I need, and I hate the changes they’ve made to the lenses.
Phones have come a long ways, but there are still things you can do with a real camera that you just can’t do with a phone. And there is still a noticeable difference in image quality.
I’m old school when it comes to photography, I love film and still use 35mm SLRs as much as I can.
For digital I stick with Nikon DSLRs because I love older lenses with an aperture ring on the lens and I can use almost any old Nikon lens with my D750. I haven’t gone mirrorless because it doesn’t offer anything I need, and I hate the changes they’ve made to the lenses.
Phones have come a long ways, but there are still things you can do with a real camera that you just can’t do with a phone. And there is still a noticeable difference in image quality.
Boudoir Guitar
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@metropolis_4 "use old lenses" shout is a good one. Pretty sure you can do that with Pentax still, too. I started with a Pentax camera specifically for that reason. My wife took this shot of me and the kids using an old 135mm f2.8 manual focus, manual aperture ring lens I got off eBay for $30 -- she just took the camera from me at the start of the walk and asked how to focus, but otherwise knew nothing except having a great eye in general. She didn't nail the focus, and that lens wasn't the highest performing lens, but it was really fun to shoot with and had a definite "look" to it, especially for $30 at a time when I didn't have nearly as much disposable income on "fun" hobbies.
I don't have any interest in going to film for loads of reasons, but once the kids are older and I have a bit more free time to just go hang out in the woods for a few hours with a camera -- would love to get back into using old lenses on digital cameras. This also raises another point in the "brand wars" analysis -- as a newb its probably best to think through that puzzle in terms of "what lenses do I want to use" more so than "what camera do I want?" because in a lot of ways the lenses available on each platform are a lot more different than the cameras themselves if you don't already have muscle memory/workflow down for one brand of camera body.
I don't have any interest in going to film for loads of reasons, but once the kids are older and I have a bit more free time to just go hang out in the woods for a few hours with a camera -- would love to get back into using old lenses on digital cameras. This also raises another point in the "brand wars" analysis -- as a newb its probably best to think through that puzzle in terms of "what lenses do I want to use" more so than "what camera do I want?" because in a lot of ways the lenses available on each platform are a lot more different than the cameras themselves if you don't already have muscle memory/workflow down for one brand of camera body.
paisleywookiee
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I miss film, but I miss the dark room even more. Hours and hours of listening to Q101 or XRT, the smell of the chemicals, the ambience of the room, with the orange low light. The art of printing every bit as much an art as the shot in the first place.
paisleywookiee
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I want one of these:
Because when I shot film, I had three of these:
I love the physical controls on the Zfc.
Because when I shot film, I had three of these:
I love the physical controls on the Zfc.
paisleywookiee
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So, here's my plan, to get back into event photography:
- Nikon Zfc x2 (third down the road)
- Nikon 24-120mm f/4
- Nikon 70-1800mm f/2.8
- Sigma 16mm f/1.4
- Sigma 30mm f/1.4
- Sigma 56mm f/1.4
- The two high powered flash units, with Quantum batteries, and frames
Boudoir Guitar
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I need to figure out how to monetize the work I do for middle school sports. Not a cash cow or anything, but even if it's just like a PayPal tip jar to offset gear and cloud storage cost, that'd be nice. This year I had a google drive location set up with a folder for each kid on the x-country team that parents could access ... 75 kids on the team. Loads of gratitude, but I need to figure out how to turn that gratitude into, like, $10-15 a kid for the minimum 3 quality shots at different locations during each race (so 21 shots) per kid.
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