Archive for the 'gear' Category

After slowing down significantly with posting on my blog and realizing that writing for the number of visitors should not cannibalize any more time from learning photography and taking pictures I could not stand and bought my next lens.
The new guy is a AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED.
You should not expect a serious review of the lens from me. For such a thing have a look at the pros’ opinion instead.
The point of writing about the lens is rather to point out my weakness. Even though it is quite reasonable to have the 70-200 and the 17-55 in my bag and covering a quite wide range in focal length with great quality glasses (please don’t mention the obvious gap to my wife ) the real reason for buying it was the burning desire and the fact that I am quality freak. Luckily I do have my (and my family’s) financial limitations to hold me back.
Now I really want to spend some time on actually shooting pictures.

But the lens is really a great one. It is fun to experience the wide angle after having only the big-boy-70-200 on my camera for a few months now. Some of the first few test shots:

f/9 at 55mm

f/2.8 at 28mm

f/4.5 at 30mm Socks in focus

I realized that in order to find the very same few sites about Nikon lens reviews or evaluations I always start from an old post of mine and/or Google. I decided to collect the links in one post.

These are the sites I consult day dreaming about new lens purchases:

• Lens Survey And Subjective Evaluations by Björn Rorslett
• Subjective Lens Evaluations (Mostly Nikkors) by David Ruether
• Nikon Lens Tests by Ken Rockwell
• Thom Hogan’s reviews on practically everything produced by Nikon
• SLRGear.com
• and a huge collection of review links on NikonLinks.com (look for the Lenses menu on the left side)

A friend of mine told me the other day that he is planning to buy his first DSLR and asked me about focal lengths and F values of lenses. I told him what I think about a starter kit and I recommended a way to follow, but a different one that I went through.
And I recommended that because I have done wrong.

When I entered the DSLR world I bought a Nikon D80 with a 18-135mm kit lens.

I am still really happy with the camera body. As learning more and more I am happy with not being forced to use any of the programmed modes. I can use aperture priority - that I use most of the time - and shutter speed priority as well. Automatic ISO setting can be switched off - you don’t want to leave it on ’cause that can result horrible pictures in weakly lit situations. It can create raw image files enabling you to adjust things like white balance on your PC, or even play around with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography starting from a single raw file. Can be used in manual focus mode which helps for example when shooting through glass or wire fence. And it can control remote speedlights even in TTL mode without any additional hardware.

However I think the lens was not a good choice considering that I really wanted (and still want) to learn photography.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no complaints about the quality of the lens. I still think that it’s good value for money, the pictures I made with it are quite sharp and have never had a bad thought about the plastic mount ring. (It’s chromatic aberration and vignetting can be somewhat handled by image processing software.)
However the issue with the lens is that it’s versatile - even too versatile if I can say that. With the range of zoom it has it practically hides the important differences of the wide angle, normal and telephoto focal lengths. You simply don’t have to think about that and as a result you don’t know how close or far you should be from your subject matter or what angle of view will be seen at certain focal lengths. You zoom in and out without thinking. 

My suggestion for someone who is eager to learn photography would be this kit:

• a DSLR with the mentioned functionality and freedom (currently D80 in the Nikon world)
• an auto-focus fix 50mm F1.8 normal lens that can be used in different lighting situations, gives you the experience of quality images - like amazing silky smooth background at wide open aperture settings for portraiture, and real value for price
• and a speedlight capable of TTL and remotely controllable by your camera like the Nikon SB-600
• slow down when purchasing your gear even if you have the money :-)  

Just fallen in love with digital photography, DSLR, remotely controlled speedlights, silk smooth background for portraits, mindbogglingly minor details of little creatures, saturated colours and HDR and it happened all of a sudden that I saw a few photos made with a medium format film camera and scanned after that.
And those photos are great in a way that I think my photos made with my Nikon D80 will never be.
And I am scared of medium format, scared because medium format equipment is way more expensive than that I can afford.

When talking about about medium format photography the first thing that is usually mentioned is its resolution. Medium format is big. Bigger even than full frame. An SLR has a 35mm wide film- and a fullframe DSLR has a the same sized sensor - while the medium format starts at 60mm. A popular size in this world is the 6 cm x 4.5 cm which is often mentioned as 645 in the model name of cameras. Some digital backs result 39 megapixel images. 39 megapixel, can you imagine that?

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Taking photos is fun and it is even greater fun when you can use top quality professional equipment. However owning top quality gear hides a few traps for the inexperienced.

I have been a happy owner of an AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens for some time now. It is definitely a professional lens and it performs extremely well even in my unprofessional hands. But in spite of that I encountered issues with owning and using this great piece of glass.

I spent a bit more than a week with this pro thing - and of course with my family - during my holiday. I carried the lens in my Lowepro Slingshot 300 AW with other pieces of my gear and held it in my hands for quite a few hours. The lens’ 1470g weight has been proven many times on my shoulders and in my hands. It is heavy, man. My wife could make just a few shots with it because of its weight.
Trap #1: Professional photography equipment is heavy in most of the cases. These things are designed for providing quality results for commercial photography purposes and making them light weight is not a primary requirement.

After making a few shots with my new lens I fell in love with its bokeh - the smooth haziness of the out-of-focus areas - which can be especially useful in portraiture creating a nicely blurred background.

taken with an 18-135mm “kit lens“

taken with the expensive 70-200mm lens

My very first impression was that this effect can be achieved only with such a top lens, and it took me quite a few weeks to realize that even I managed to make a photo with comparable bokeh but with a much cheaper lens.
Trap #2: thinking that only expensive gear can give you the desired results.

When photographing people with this 70-200mm lens I realized in pain how far I have to walk away to shoot a standing figure. I should have known what I will get before buying the lens. I had been told by a friend that this lens is a professional and generic purpose lens used by the pros every day. I checked the reviews and evaluations of this specific glass written by professionals and they stated that this is a great thing to have. But they know what to expect from 70mm and I did not. It was also a kind of surprise to me that I cannot focus when going too close to my object, which means that this glass cannot be used as a micro lens.
Trap #3: buying something when you don’t know exactly what to expect.

A 70-200mm lens is definitely a telephoto lens. With all of of its advantages and disadvantages. Landscape photography is mostly done by wideangle lenses. Within buildings you might want to use normal or wideangle ones and for photographing very small objects you use micro lenses. But if you are - like I was - travelling, carrying your camera equipped with your beloved, expensive and heavy lens and you are - just like I was - reluctant to change your lens - because of loving your new purchase so much or being afraid of dust getting into your camera - to an other one that would fit and serve better in the given circumstances, then you have chosen the wrong lens for your trip.
Trap #4: using your top quality gear in situations where other ones - possibly not that good pieces - would be better.

I’m thinking of buying an other lens. A wide-angle zoom. And if I had bought a pro lens for telephoto why should I buy a cheap one for wide-angle? I need exceptional quality, right?
Hey, am I stupid? I am still not a professional photographer. Why on Earth would I need an other lens in the wide area when I have the 18-135mm kit lens? What are my problems with it?

1. It is a DX lens, which means that it was designed for “small” sensor of the Nikon DSLRs and it does not give a full frame picture. But I don’t have a full frame DSLR (even Nikon does not have.)
2. It has cromatic aberration. But that can be handled in Lightroom, right?
3. It is vignetting. But that can be handled in Lightroom as well, right?

But I need it, period.
Trap #5: you cannot stop if you are in the loop of top gear.

Good gear is not evil though, but one should be prepared to use it both mentally and practically. I heard it many years ago that before buying a house the buyer should rent it for a while to probe it. A colleague of mine refused to buy a used car without a test drive. I know it is not always feasible but in most cases you can rent or borrow the pro camera, lens, flashlight or whatever you are planning to purchase. Do it and decide after that. And eventually it will give you pleasure.

Portraiture is a very exciting - but also challenging - area of photography. Doing it well is not trivial and one cannot master it without practicing. I managed to organize my first portrait photography session a few days ago with real people not from my family. I made quite a lot of mistakes, but a few good pictures as well. Might be beneficial for beginners to read about my experiences. Here comes how the session went.

The story

Anita, the better half of an ex-colleague of mine attended a Professional Make-Up training course lead by a pro Hollywood master. She would like to build her portfolio and could use a few good pictures representing her work.

Myself, the beginner photographer, after reading a lot about photography, lighting and other related things, but practicing relatively little would like to practice portrait photography.

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