Any Photographers with DSLR's Around ?

[ReMetau]

Nick,

I find your pictures inspiring. Wife and I have decided that our next lens will be the Nikon 105mm f2.8.

Saw this Great Egret outside the boat the other day catching some lunch. The green facial skin is due to mating season.

Edit. This was using Nikon D7000 with 70-300 lens at 300 mm 5.6.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by ReMetau

Nick,

I find your pictures inspiring. Wife and I have decided that our next lens will be the Nikon 105mm f2.8.

Saw this Great Egret outside the boat the other day catching some lunch. The green facial skin is due to mating season.

Edit. This was using Nikon D7000 with 70-300 lens at 300 mm 5.6.

Do you mean the 105mm macro (called micro by Nikon) lens? If so, welcome to the world of the small things Don't forget a macro flash if you want to go after bugs. You can buy one or build around a regular speedlite flash unit (see pic below)

With your lens at 300mm on the D7000 crop sensor (1.5x) you have an equivalent of 450mm at work :-) The Nikon D7000 is the equivalent of the Canon 7D and a very good choice for aboard.



ciao!
Nick.

[George Hoskins]

I would love to buy one but I am very confused by it all.

What is a good entry model camera? (I don't have a fortune to spend as I'd rather spend it on the boat and cruising but I do want something better that my current small digital snapshot camera?

Do the lenses swap from one make to another?

Do they have internal, re chargable batteries? How long will they last before needing to be recharged? How long does re charging take?

Ideally I would like a good long range zoom lens so that I can take pictures of whales etc.

I wouldn't mind a secondhand one if I could be assured it was working okay.

All advice much appreciated.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by George Hoskins

I would love to buy one but I am very confused by it all.

What is a good entry model camera? (I don't have a fortune to spend as I'd rather spend it on the boat and cruising but I do want something better that my current small digital snapshot camera?

Do the lenses swap from one make to another?

Do they have internal, re chargable batteries? How long will they last before needing to be recharged? How long does re charging take?

Ideally I would like a good long range zoom lens so that I can take pictures of whales etc.

I wouldn't mind a secondhand one if I could be assured it was working okay.

All advice much appreciated.

The lenses are not the same between brands... the mount is different and also the electronics. Modern lenses have CPU's to do image stabilization etc.

Batteries are big and Li-ion. They last long enough for me although I take a spare one with me. Long zoom lenses for whales are very pricey. A friend bought one for exactly that and spent $12,000.- on it... and didn't find any whales so you might just want to start with a bit easier goals.

Where to start depends on your budget. If you want good zoom range and buy new, you will need around US$4k for a initial kit. That can come down to $3k second hand. If that is too much then you better go for something like the Canon G1-X which gives close to DSLR performance without the price tag.

Here the picture for this post: just ordinary cattle here in Panama. As you can see there are no mega feeding installations, just some cleared land with grass where the cows roam and find shade under the trees. The meat tastes much better too as they aren't fed the genetically modified corn.


ciao!
Nick.

[s/v Jedi]

Please go to Adobe Lightroom 4 is here! to read about it



ciao!
Nick.

[deckofficer]

This is only showing a point and shoot camera's image stabilization capability. Hand held at 6:11 PM tonight at lat 38, so you know how low the light level is. Sony Cybershot cheapie P&S. Contrast lousy, technical poor, but that stabilization sure works.


Now at 6:21 PM and zoomed in a bit more, but still handheld. My camera is idiot proof


Yesterday in the park. You all know how 18 month olds move around, long focal length for sensor size and again hand held. Boy I like image stabilization.

[deckofficer]

Nick,

Don't tell any of my multi friends, but I'm starting to look at monos again, Sundeer 57, 60. 64 is out of my price range. One picture I can not seem to find is the much touted engine room. Is the 64's engine room similar, and do you have pictures?

[Jimbo485]

Just got another GoPro today along with the 3-D waterproof case. It holds the two GoPros at the same time and synchronizes the recording.

Has anyone from CF tried the double GoPro to produce 3-D photos and videos? It might very well change the way we perceive wave height in photos...

[twistedtree]

Ordered a D800 a couple of weeks ago. Should be fun!

[andreas.mehlin]

How about the Sony SLT-a65 and SLT-A77? Looks good with super fast af

[deckofficer]

For image stabilization, I'm sold on anything by Sony.

[s/v Jedi]

Been busy today replacing the lazy jacks... but needed to document it using hi-res pictures of course:



You can find my blog post with all the pictures about it here: Seaman or landlubber ?! - s/v Jedi

ciao!
Nick.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by twistedtree

Ordered a D800 a couple of weeks ago. Should be fun!

Oh my, you better order a high end iMac or top model MacBookPro with the D800 ti handle all 36 megapixels :?

Originally Posted by andreas.mehlin

How about the Sony SLT-a65 and SLT-A77? Looks good with super fast af

I'm not convinced... if it really was so good, it would have taken off much more by now. Nikon and Canon are selling so much by pre-orders alone that their new gear hardly arrives in shops for general sales....

Originally Posted by deckofficer

For image stabilization, I'm sold on anything by Sony.

Are you? Time to look through a new generation Canon lens on DSLR body. The nice thing with in-lens stabilization is that you see it working in the viewfinder. The latest technology from Canon and undoubtly Nikon too, provides you with 4 stops compensation ! 4 stops ! So let's see what it means... we shoot at 200mm and rule of thumb says we need 1/200s shutter time for handholding and getting a sharp capture. There is often not enough light for that speed. Now with the stabilization, 1st stop brings 1/100s, next 1/50s, third 1/25s and fourth 1/13s !!!

My 200mm is of a previous generation with 3 stops compensation from the stabilizer. And I actually get sharp shots at 1/30s so it works. And the way it kicks in when you're looking through the viewfinder keeps amazing me. It is many times better than those stabilized binoculars.

Oops, forgot the picture again... could still edit the post so here it is:


ciao!
Nick.

[deckofficer]

Nick,

Starting reading your blog today. While there is no way I can compete with your photographs, some of us need small, P&S type cameras for our use. This picture has a moderate zoom, on a very bumpy road in Bisbee, Arizona (the first town in the US that the killer bees arrived at). I'm driving a light, stick shift hot rod, and shooting pictures. I'm not sure I could do that with a camera at 3X the weight.


This is probably the only picture I have of the camera that I use.....

[deckofficer]

Nick,

Since this thread is where you hang your hat, I'll ask you to be a fact checker on my forum, a post about you. My forum is an odd mix, 80% T-bucket hot rods, 15% sailing, and 5% care giving to a family member.

Tell me what should be changed, or better yet, join in the fun.
Laura from the start, ages 12 to 14