So it's July 23rd, and nothing is happening. I know I've gone AWOL, but I was really disappearing from a lot of my online stuff because of all that's been going on. Right now I'm working on learning Flash, and I have to learn it as quickly and effectively as possible, so photography has been pushed to the side for the time being. It's a hard program to learn when you've never used it before . I'd be lost if I didn't have a lynda.com subscription. So, how's everyone else doing?
I am doing good. I just got a Nikon 70-300mm VR lens. Haven't had tons of time to use it much but where I have I have been impressed. I was going to get the sigma 70-300 for it's macro abilities until I saw a last second review of a guy pointing out all it's faults in detail so I ended up just getting a long ranger. It is very heavy compared to my other lens a bit stiff on the zoom rotation, but aside from that I love it. It's great to finally have a second lens I can use.
Hey, that's actually the lens I have. ED, right? It's a good lens. Has a few faults, but it does a good job and is a great deal. The VR is great too . I got mine a little over a year ago and haven't regretted buying it once. It gives me a bit of chromatic aberration as you zoom further, but it's not really noticeable, and is easily corrected if you shoot RAW. Also, having a UV filter on it will make the chromatic aberration even worse, which is the reason that digital photographers aren't really supposed to use lens filters, as I found out. I'm not sure about this, but doesn't have a macro/telephoto lens make it a little softer? I don't have one, so I wouldn't know, but it seems like it would. I suppose I could just look that up though, haha.
Yeah I always shoot RAW and JPEG. That's funny that you should mention the filter, the guy at the store recommended one to me and said it would help. I didn't end up buying it, the only filters I am interested in are infrared and polarized. Are you referring to the Sigma 70-300. Yes I heard that it got really soft especially around the edges in the extremes. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, that effect is kind of what was drawing me to it.
No, I have the Nikkor 70-300 IF ED. The glass is barely low enough quality that the light ends up getting out of sync the further you zoom. It's only noticeable at higher resolutions though, and it actually took me a while to finally notice. I actually bought a filter for mine. I don't regret it, as I use it occasionally, but rarely. Mostly at the beach and so forth, just to keep chemicals from getting on the glass. I definitely remove it in the studio, since that was when I really noticed the aberration. I think those are the only two filters that you actually can't imitate on the computer, so you're rightfully interested in those . I would like to get my hands on them, but I can't even afford McDonald's right now, let alone camera gear. Oh, and even though the lens is mostly plastic, it's still fairly durable. I had it on a tripod in the studio last year, and the tripod wasn't quite distributing the weight so well, so it ended up falling forward when I was writing some stuff down. The lens took the brunt of the fall, and the floor is concrete. It didn't take any damage at all. I was very happy for that, haha. Out $550 if it broke.
Geez, I have been worried about using mine on a tripod as well. It really should come with a tripod mount.
One of the legs wasn't extended as far as it should have been, so it was slightly off balance. As long as the tripod is extended far enough and the legs are even, it should be fine. That's the only time I ever had a problem.
Yeah but that is so easy to do, and with such a heavy and off balancing lens it is cause for worry. I got some shots off at sunset last night but I have noticed quite a bit of color noise. I did change my ISO from 1200 to 400 though, 500 or so may have produced a better result, trial and error. After looking through my pictures again I have found some better looking ones, less noise and such. It seemed to have trouble focusing but that may have been cause I was so close to my model. I was also handling myself, no tripod. I also tried model shots in front of my car's headlights for the first time and was quite pleased with my result, light discoloration was a slight problem, but can be worked around. All in all, for a first trial this lens was quite good, will have to test it more thoroughly in days to come.
Just don't walk away from the tripod and it'll be fine . I'd actually like to get my hands on a heavier tripod, to be honest. The lens has difficulty focusing properly, yes. It's a bit slow, and misses the mark a lot. I normally manual focus with it, or take several photos in a row of the same thing. It's easy to confuse, but you eventually figure out when it will have the most trouble. You should try to keep your ISO at 200. That's the optimal ISO for Nikon, and 100 is Canon (no matter what the max ISO is, that's what the sensors work best with). I don't know how the D90 does with ISO, but I would imagine that 1200 is really pushing it, since 800 is really pushing it for me. Using a combination of VR and my knee, I can generally shoot 3-4 stops slower than I'd otherwise get. Takes a few tries though
sorry haven't been able to go out and shoot things to much havent picked up my camera in about a couple of weeks been busy lookin 4 a job and a apartment and vacations and spending time with the gf.
I've been the same way, but I have started taking my camera with me a lot of places. Good luck finding a job/apartment.
