The photography thread

stickyfiddle

I highly recommend Imgur rather than the soon-to-be-dead-and-already-a-clusterfuck that is Photobucket

Wolfetone

Can't copy from PhotoBucket for some reason. Is there a better photo hosting site other than Google or PhotoBucket?

Nikko

Cant see them on my Windows laptop either

ThorpyFX

stickyfiddle said:

I highly recommend Imgur rather than the soon-to-be-dead-and-already-a-clusterfuck that is Photobucket

i keep getting emails from them to reduce the amount of storage im using....so i look to download all my files and close my account in line with what they want.... lo and behold i cannot do it easily.  1800 pictures... and apparently i have to download them one by one.. What a shower of S**t

Wolfetone

I have uploaded these to Imgur. Can you se them now?

These (amongst others) were all taken last week on an old Panasonic GX1 with a 45-150 lens.

ThePrettyDamned

Wolfetone said:

I have uploaded these to Imgur. Can you se them now?

These (amongst others) were all taken last week on an old Panasonic GX1 with a 45-150 lens.

Lovely shots and colour. Not big on the frames but seriously nice colours! How did you manage the macro?

Wolfetone

ThePrettyDamned said:

Wolfetone said:

I have uploaded these to Imgur. Can you se them now?

These (amongst others) were all taken last week on an old Panasonic GX1 with a 45-150 lens.

Lovely shots and colour. Not big on the frames but seriously nice colours! How did you manage the macro?

I use the four thirds system which multiplies the focal length of a lens so a 150mm lens becomes a 300mm. I have all Lumix gear having ditched Nikon. 

Nikko

.

Nikko

Heres a few from a trip to Denver, Colorado earlier this year. This was taken from my hotel room at sunrise. My room overlooked the snow covered golf course...

Nikko

For some reason im having difficulty with Imgur posting a few pics in a row...

Nikko

Nikko

Nikko

Nikko

Nikko

Nikko

menamestom

Sensor cleaning.  Is this something you folks do yourself?

I have a few spots on my photos, I can spot repair in PP, but wondering whether to fix it.  I have a reasonable kit from Amazon, have tried using the blower but they are still there.

This is my 2010 Pentax so not a massive value camera and has never been cleaned.

I could also send it in and get it done, but would rather put all funds to the next camera.

RaymondLin

I do it myself, the wet clean method, once a year.

Clean surface - tip, put clingfilm down on the table.  INSTANT sterile worktop.  It also acts like an static charge thing that pulls dusts off the air to it.  Less dusts in air = good.

Only swipe once with the swab each side.  check after per swab.

You can buy pre-made swabs, or make your own with PEC pads and fluids.

Grumpyrocker

I clean the sensor myself. I buy disposable PEC pads these days that are already wetted and ready for use. 

It's easy, and don't worry, as long as you're gentle you won't have any problems. You're not really cleaning the sensor anyway - but a piece of glass in front of it.

Wolfetone

ThePrettyDamned said:

Oh god, I might be about to do something mad.

I've suddenly had pangs of wanting to photograph birds - with the fuji system, this is very expensive... 

So, I have been thinking about what I typically use on fuji and on previous systems and how much by filtering images, and doing some maths. I'm looking at keepers only...

- 71 percent of my shots are at 35mm equivalent 
- 20 percent were at 135mm equivalent 
- 6 percent at 85mm equivalent (I'm including the 75mm equivs in that) 
- the rest are wider or telephoto, based on very low quality lenses seldom used. 

That doesn't surprise me at all. It also provides a challenge - I need a 35mm equivalent more than any other. I use this for street, portrait, landscape and generally everything. By far my favourite has been the fuji 23mm 1.4.

75/85 equiv is nice for short portraits - anything that's not a tight head shot (where it distorts things a bit much). It also makes a great landscape lens. The best I've used was the 85mm 1.4 sigma ex DG HSM on a full frame camera, or the Nikon 50mm 1.8 on crop. The fuji 50mm is a much better lens, but it should be at twice the cost!

Then there is other stuff. I don't get on with really wide stuff in general, but I did try the rokinon 12mm on the fuji and holy crap I love it enough to want to buy one.

But super tele? Fuji doesn't have much. I have heard the 100-400 is good but it's very expensive, even used. I've used a vintage 200mm lens for landscapes on it and love the perspective you get (so much so I actually look for completely different things in landscapes) but it's mostly too short. 

So that leaves me looking at other systems. I'm most familiar with nikon and they have the wonderful 200-500mm 5.6 zoom which would be perfect on a D7200 - plenty of reach, dynamic range for days and amazingly sharp images. 

However, they don't have a 35mm equivalent that's well matched. And it's ugly - small thing, but I seem to get much better street shots with the fuji.

So, I'm considering going for something totally different - possibly:

- D7200 with 200-500 + fuji x100/ricoh gr/micro 4/3 and 17mm lens

- D7200 with 200-500 + fuji xe-2 with 23mm 1.4

- other? Canon 7d + lens (don't know Canon gear) + compact of some kind (fuji x100)  

The part that makes parting with fuji so hard is the look, feel and that 23mm lens. I really would hate to part with it - but I don't want to spend loads of money on a whim.

Are there any wildlife/tele landscape types out there with advice? 

if you go back and look at my dragonfly shots, those were taken on a used Panasonic M 4/3rds GX7 and a 45-150 lens. Total used value about £300. You could do worse than use a different system for your macro shots. You may even be persuaded to ditch Nikon altogether like I was.

Here's some I took with the same set up last weekend....