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Seeking Advice On Good Nikon Camera For Work and Pleasure

19K views 246 replies 25 participants last post by  Natty 
#1 ·
I'm going through filming school and I would like a nice camera. Before I ask the real question, does anyone know if they can make slides from a digital camera photoshot? I was planning to ask the camera shop tomorrow about that, but if anyone knows and can answer beforehand, that would be cool.

Anyhow, real question:

I need a nice camera recommendation around the range of $300-1200. I want to get a Nikon. I want one that's great for macro shots, shooting very small things with great details...pictures that rain- the user has. Her photos are very inspiring. Anyhow, of course I would also like the camera to take normal shots, definately something with a lot nicer picture than my Canon Powershot point and shoot.

I've also done a search on this forum beforehand, DSLR (digital slr right?) came up, any recommendations on which to get? I'm not looking into getting a spanking elite super professional camera, I would just like a pretty good one that'll last me for a long time with no real need to upgrade.

I'm currently using my school's borrowed camera, Nikon FM 10. Any idea on the quality of that? I just hate borrowing it from the school because I have 3 days to use it before returning it and the only days I'm free is Thursday and I can't borrow it on Monday or Wednesday...........they won't let me.

So I'm abit tired of that.

Any great links on how to look for a good camera would be cool too, I'm going to google around for the next few days.

Thanks.

Usage:
-Shoot really small stuff in great details
-Can also be used for great normal shots...scenery shots etc.
-Shots of the tank, etc.

Oh yeah, question:
-So I'm guessing since it is DSLR, it uses SD memory cards? Any benefits to shooting film than putting it into a sd card instead? Like better quality etc? Total noob on this.
 
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#206 ·
1. the lens should be parallel to the glass of your tank.. Glass will distort & blur on an angle.

2. You'll have to adjust the colors in photoshop or something. color saturation is tricky depending not only on the camera but on the software that displays the image on a monitor. And it depends on the monitor too!.. Color shifts.. It's not a constant.
 
#207 ·
1. the lens should be parallel to the glass of your tank.. Glass will distort & blur on an angle.

2. You'll have to adjust the colors in photoshop or something. color saturation is tricky depending not only on the camera but on the software that displays the image on a monitor. And it depends on the monitor too!.. Color shifts.. It's not a constant.
Wow thanks!

For question number 2, so if the color isn't to my liking and the camera cannot capture it in full detail like I want, I have to take it in RAW and then edit it on photoshop then?

So just because I don't get the exact same color that I see doesn't mean there's anything bad with the lens or camera, just means I have to edit it on photoshop a bit more? I was hoping I could catch the color without it though, I gotta learn about that photoshop picture editing thing. Going to retrace the last few pages of this thread.
 
#208 ·
you can adjust the color with jpeg output too. It depends what your final goal is.. For the web & video (stop motion animation), jpeg is more than fine.

Actually, if you get a polarizing filter on your lens, it'll make the color a little more saturated without photoshop. And helps with glares. It's less than $10 so it's a good investment.
 
#211 ·
get the 58mm one.. that's what I have on my lens.

might as well get the set
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-EOS-Dig...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236906057&sr=8-3
How do you tell that the 58mm lenses will fit? I mean, I know it says its for my camera, I'm just saying in general because I see a bunch of filters listed as 58mm. I'm just wondering does 58mm filters fit all EF and EF-S lenses?

I also heard of circular polarizing filters, is that better than the simple polarizing filter in that set?

Which one would also bring that more violet look in the thorns btw, the UV filter?

:tongue: I'm gonna go out and take more pics!
 
#221 ·
isn't fun answering your own questions?

when you want to play with regular images (not raw), go to image/adjust

for brightness & contrast do levels. you get more control.
for color balance & saturation go to hue/saturation..

and if you want to feel the pain, go to color curves.
 
#223 ·
isn't fun answering your own questions?

when you want to play with regular images (not raw), go to image/adjust

for brightness & contrast do levels. you get more control.
for color balance & saturation go to hue/saturation..

and if you want to feel the pain, go to color curves.
Lol yeah it was highly amusing talking to myself.

Any benefits in messing with the color curves over the other controls? I would guess the color curves control all the colors so you see multiple changes at the same time. Lol I'll fiddle around with it more tomorrow, just wanted to see real quick what it was about since I had to do other stuff.

I was hoping to gather enough skills one of these days so that I can take good enough pictures of what I actually want instead of continously having to modify it to what I want. Having enough skills to capture what I want, exactly how I want it.

Is that really hard to accomplish? I know you guys edit with RAW a lot, how often do you do it?
 
#224 ·
I got a question.

I'm thinking of purchasing a telephoto lens. I definately want a lens that is not like my macro 100mm which sorta requires me to get close to a bird if I want to have a good focus of it up close.

I want to use this lens for capturing small stuff from a pretty good distance, significantly further than the macro lens. I want to capture small stuff, zoom into it and be able to focus. For example, a flower about half a block away, I want to zoom into it, have it fill out a good majority of the picture frame, and be able to focus and take a shot of it.

So far I'm looking at

70-200mm F4 L Lens
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/183198-GREY/Canon_2578A002_70_200mm_f_4_0L_USM_Autofocus.html

And the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/397663-USA/Canon_0345B002_70_300mm_f_4_5_6_EF_IS.html

Any opinions? Going back to read on it some more. Many people advise getting the 200mm instead that's why I'm considering the 200mm more atm.
 
#225 ·
The first lens will give better image quality because it is a L series but it lacks IS so you are going to have to be very steady at max focal length. The second has IS but the image quality will be worse. Not necessarily bad just not as good as the L lens assuming you can eliminate any hand shake.

The other thing to consider is that you have a 1.6 focal length body so that 200mm lens is going to be giving you something more along the lines of 320mm zoomed all the way in and the 300 will be more like 480.

I can't tell you if this going to allow you to get close ups of flowers from a block away but I would bet they will be nowhere near your macro close up at that distance.

If possible rent or borrow a lens in that focal length to see if it will suit your needs. You might need longer focal length.
 
#226 ·
Will either one fit this description?

I want to capture small stuff, zoom into it and be able to focus even while standing pretty far away.
Because the macro lens is nice but in order to get a real close zoom of a flower, I'll have to walk as close up to the flower as possible as well. This is okay but taking pictures of birds is extremely hard because if I get too close they run away and I can't get a big picture of them and be able to focus.

Macro is nice but it has that issue.

I also considered renting lens but I remember seeing the cost of it, little costly imo....
I can probably buy one of those lens and if I dont like it, sale it back and still not lose that much money (the cost for renting that is). I'll check around, hopefully there will be a store that'll let me try it while I'm inside.
 
#229 ·
Looking at links from post #227

Yeah, can't see much of a difference, maybe I'm just not experienced enough to tell. Like if you mixed all the pictures together and ask me to say which one is from which lens I'd probably be stomped...

Any experienced eyes, please tell me what to look for?
 
#233 ·
I got an issue. I was outside trying to capture some pictures when I noticed something in my camera frame, like a little hair. I also noticed two really small black specks at the lower right of the frame as well.

So my thought was that it was some kind of dust that flew either on my lens or in my camera. Checked and it wasn't on my lens because I took my lens off and still saw it on there through the view finder.

So I took some lens cloth and I took the lens off and did a little cleaning inside the camera, there's two piece of glass in there, one at the top and one that is sort of diagonal. I blew in there so I could get some humidity on the lens and I wiped it and the specs are still there...

Can I use a q tip or something? The specs are really hard to get out, what can I do? I did get the hair out but now I got a few streaks in there...
 
#235 ·
So I can't touch it even with a lens cloth?

Is it too late because I already touched it. I tried blowing the mirror really hard before as well but the specs wouldn't get off...that's why I thought of the lens cloth. Which one is the slr mirror? There's two.
 
#237 ·
Yeah, it isn't on the viewfinder, at least on the outter side of it.

I goofed and I'm beating myself up for it. I'm checking up on Canon Factory Service Centers and the closest one is like incredibly far (Irvine, CA). What a bummer. I just wanted to take some pics now I have to consider sending it in for repairs........:icon_roll.

The booklet even says don't use those aircans since even the pressure on that may damage the mirrors. I didn't fill out my warranty card yet either.

*Punches imaginationary wall*


How do you know if the camera mirrors are damaged and is there no way to manually clean this myself?
 
#239 ·
wait a sec...
is the hair and spec in the photo?! check that first.
man, how did that happen? that rarely happens.

Stop by a camera shop to ask for advice. They also sell these electrostatic soft brushes.. It'll pick pick up any dust & such without any issues.
Yeah, I'll bring it by them tomorrow, so far its just on my view finder. Hopefully the one I'm going to tomorrow is knowledgable enough to be of some assistance.

I'll take a photo in a sec and tell you, the battery is charging. I'm also reading this place atm:

http://www.tribcsp.com/~sigma2/SensorDust01.html
 
#242 ·
I still got the two really small specs and the mirror has some finger print smugges on them, I'll definately have to ask the camera people tomorrow to see if there's anyway to clean it and make sure the finger prints on there wont effect the images somehow.

Here's two more images that I took, the blurriness is partially because of my hand shake I think:

NUMBER 1

NUMBER 2

I think I used auto focus on at least one of those pictures. Probably the second one.
 
#243 ·
If you want to test for dust use really small aperture and take a photo of a wall slightly out of focus so you can see the dust in the camera and not blotches on the wall. Also keep the ISO down because that won't help you when looking for dust.

You might have better luck testing the autofocus with a smaller aperture and faster shutter speed. 1/30s for the focal length you are using is a tad bit slow which might cause blur from your hand shaking to show.
 
#244 ·
If you can see it thru the viewfinder, the dust isn't on the sensor. It won't show up in photos.

If the dust is on the sensor, it won't be visible thru the viewfinder - only in photos (shoot a clear sky or something).

The mirror on SLRs is silvered on the surface side, so they are not meant to be touched. No big deal though, so long as you don't accidentally scrape the silvering (and it looks like you didn't). I'd just let it be - or if the smudge bothers you, get it cleaned by a professional - your camera will work fine.
 
#246 ·
Where can I get it for a good price? I'm gonna look on ebay when I get home.

The mirror on SLRs is silvered on the surface side, so they are not meant to be touched
I just bursted out laughing to myself today when I thought back about this. Everyone, even the booklet is like " DON'T TOUCH IT, IT IS HIGHLY SENSITIVE!!!" and they even said pressurized air is too much....

...and I'm over here really trying to clean it good yesturday hahaha!! I had my lens cloth all in there trying to get the two spots out. ROLMAO. I'm going to take it to the camera people now. Hopefully it'll be okay.
 
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