What camera do you own?

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by HeathDavisSpeed

Finally got my 100-400mm Canon lens a week ago.

Shame it took so long to get, as I've been on a few trips with only a 70-300mm Tamron which is nowhere near as good.

Took some great shots of keas down South and managed to snap a great picture of a hawk in flight over in Sydney, and a decent close up of it when it landed. With a bit of zoom trickery and sharpness enhancement on the old computer, I've now got a great photo of a hawk's head in profile.

How's it go through the neighbour's windows?

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Son Of Coco

How's it go through the neighbour's windows?

Next thing you know he will be banging on the neighbour's door: "I've come to cleanz da pool".

[Bracken]

Originally Posted by Craig

Is Manfrotto the best tri-pod to buy? Or are they all the same?

Definitely not all the same. A lot of the cheaper tripods are so flimsy and unstable that you'd be better served shooting hand held.

Manfrotto and Gitzo are the two big names in tripods, but they are bloody pricey. You can easily spend hundreds on either brand, and then you have to buy a head to go along with it. For a pro, it is money well spent- but for a hobbyist it is just way too much to justify.

I've seen a couple of no-name carbon fibre models, and some of them are pretty good. They aren't up to the standard of the bigger names, but they do the job pretty well. Just don't skimp on the head. And stay away from aluminium. It'll either be too flimsy to do you any good, or too heavy to lug around all day.

I have a Manfrotto tripod, but if I had my time over I wouldn't buy it again. Don't get me wrong- it is absolutely brilliant, but I've seen a no-name tripod (I think the brand was "Troppo" or "Trioppo" or some such) that was probably 80-90% as good for a third of the price.

So get Manfrotto or Gitzo if you have deep pockets, or search around for a decent no-name CF tripod if you don't. Don't skimp on the head, though, and try it with your camera, flash, grip, and heaviest lens (or whatever you have) before you put your cash down.

[Son Of Coco]

I didn't even know you could get tripods with a separate head until I read about them last week. Thought they were all the same.

This is a good spot for info on photography Craig: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

"Manfrotto 486rc2 > $70 rated 13.5 lbs
Slik 700dx > $79 rated for 15 lbs

love this combo...all for $150 new
if you can find used then it will be alot cheaper."

The Slik is the tripod and the Manfrotto 486rc2 is the ballhead I think, you can look them up in google.

This isn't the one I was talkiing about though, I'll find it...

This is it on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Benro-A269-A-269...3A1%7C294%3A50

This one mught be better...basically the same but less sections to undo http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Aluminum.html can get it on ebay too.

[Craig]

Some photos I took when I was up at Q1 (you have a 360 degree view of the whole Gold Coast) earlier in the year:











I was doing an experiment there.



Any feedback is welcome.

[nightprowler10]

Some pictures from around Scotland when I was there a few weeks ago.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Ooooh. I like #2 and #4 there, nightprowler. I'm a sucker for sun on water or sunset shots. #5 would be good if it wasn't for the haze.

[nightprowler10]

Cheers. #2 is Helensburgh and #4, 5, 6 are from Ayre beach. Was annoyed that the sun disappeared as some of those Ayre beach pictures would have come out so much better. Went there for Electric Brae but was awestruck by the beauty of the place. Some more pics from Ayre beach.

[luffy]

My camera takes pictures.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Excellent nightprowler. What sort of settings did you use? Getting the right shutter speed can be a bit tricky in those fading light situations I find.

I really like the focus in the first of that set - you can get the detail on the waves with the sun setting in the distance. Brilliant.

[nightprowler10]

Originally Posted by HeathDavisSpeed

Excellent nightprowler. What sort of settings did you use?

Auto.



I know next to nothing about cameras. Only thing I know how to do on my camera is the color accent/swap. All I can tell you is that I took all the pictures in this set from the car as my cousin was driving it 15 mph bar the last one.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Haha. Well, I like 'em anyway!

I'll post a couple from my camera in a sec of a similar type. They may be too big though. I'll see what I can do.

[nightprowler10]

Alright this is what the details of the picture is telling me:

Canon Powershot S5IS
f/3.5
Exp time: 1/1600 sec
ISO-100

Does that help?

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by nightprowler10

Alright this is what the details of the picture is telling me:

Canon Powershot S5IS
f/3.5
Exp time: 1/1600 sec
ISO-100

Does that help?

Can you change the aperture (f) setting on the Powershot S5? If so an aperture of around 13-18 is good for landscape shots by all reports...not much use in a moving car though at sunset

Nice shots mate, you did really well on the move!

Some nice shots from Q1 too Craig! My only tip would be to pay careful attention to the horizon and try to make sure you have it level in your shot. Unless you're trying to be particularly arty of course That and get a tripod for the night shots. I like the last one.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.

A 1/1600 exposure though is quite a short one, which suggests (as your camera was on auto) that the light conditions were pretty good.

The f number is a bit more complicated to explain, but I think (in my knowledge as a layman) generally equates to sharpness of the picture. You will generally have a better sharpness of image and resolution if you are able to use a lower f number. I think it equates to how much light you are able to get into the camera in a particular exposure and is a factor of lens diameter and focal length of the length.

I think you can get quite low f numbers in short focal length lenses, but the really expensive lenses will have a long focal length (and thus "zoom") but still have a low f number.