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Cameras
Nov 15, 2013 18:06:07 GMT -8
Post by WettCoast on Nov 15, 2013 18:06:07 GMT -8
Having used both - I prefer a dslr because I like being able to compose using a viewfinder when sunny. I have the Olympus E-PL1 with an attachable electronic viewfinder. I have used it on two tours of Europe. Going micro four thirds means having more available lenses to purchase. They have an adapter that will allow you to use full-size Olympus lenses. Stay away from the Nikon 1 camera! Keep in mind that the higher end mirrorless cameras mostly have integrated EVF's (electronic viewfinders). Depending on make/model these work well and may be regarded as being a reasonable substitute for the optical viewfinders found on true DSLR's. Note that this clas of camera are sometimes referred to as EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens).
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Cameras
Nov 16, 2013 22:07:52 GMT -8
Post by paulvanb on Nov 16, 2013 22:07:52 GMT -8
That's good to know. Hopefully, third party lensmakers like Sigma and Tamron get on board. I bought an Olympus 70-300mm telephoto zoom ( a big pig) and attached it using an adapter. My E-PL1 looked miniscule next to it.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 17, 2013 18:49:58 GMT -8
Today, I ordered a new camera for myself. I wanted an upgrade, because I think that for the amount of time and energy I'm investing into travelling and seeking out good photo/video opportunities, I should have a better camera to better capture the results of my efforts. I like my Canon point&shoot SX10-IS, and I like the simplicity of a 1-lens small camera. But I want better quality that a newer and larger sensor can deliver. So I looked around at options, with great help from my special camera consultant (he's based in Kitimat, BC). I considered a few different items, and most felt like I'd be missing some of what I wanted. ie. most felt like they weren't quite the right fit for quirky me. Finally, I think I found the camera for me. And so I've ordered it. I think it gets shipped in two weeks or so; it's a new model so it's a pre-order. I've ordered a Sony DSC RX10. For the price I'm paying, I know that I could have gone in a different direction that's more popular, forum wise. But the all-in-one aspect of this model is what swayed my decision. And I can still bring my Canon SX10-IS along to shoot video, while I do stills with my new Sony. That combination would be perfect for a morning at Morant's Curve, or for a ferry passing through Seymour Narrows. ----------------------------- Review HERE
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Post by paulvanb on Nov 17, 2013 19:19:50 GMT -8
Wow, that looks like an incredible camera! Should do great video too. I have been considering upgrading to the Canon 70D for work.
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Post by Cable Cassidy on Dec 6, 2013 22:08:41 GMT -8
So earlier this week I had a fire sale of all my Nikon DX equipment (Tokina 11-16mm, Sigma 17-70, Nikon 35mm f1.8 and my D7000). Why would I do such a thing? Well, it's all pretty useless if you have a FX (full frame) body haha
I was originally planning on buying a Nikon D610, but at last second I was offered an amazing price on a brand new D600. Since the D600 to D600 was more of a name change, I decided to save a few bucks and go with the D600.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 7, 2013 8:44:04 GMT -8
I tried out my new Sony RX10 this morning, outside in the cold, crisp dawn.
I was at Nanaimo harbourfront for some dark shoot testing with Quinsam, and then at Pipers Lagoon park for some dawn shoot testing with Coastal Inspiration and Queen of Oak Bay.
I tested video and stills, using a variety of nighttime and sunrise settings.
What I like about the RX10 is that I can choose "Sunset" or "Night Scene" as creative-styles while using P-Mode, or aperture priority mode, or shutter priority mode. So this gives nice flexibility. - And while shooting movies, I can use the same modes as stills with the same creative lighting styles.
Annoying discovery #1, which I discovered, and then later figured out: - the beeper for the 2-second self-timer is too loud, especially when I'm next to an apartment building at dawn.
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It's always fun to try out new stuff, and to finally see the results, and also to encounter unexpected (but simple) things that I then need to troubleshoot. A fun challenge to get up to speed with new equipment.
Now it's time for me to look at what I've shot this morning, and see the results on my big computer screen. Hopefully I see a nice improvement from the old equipment .
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Post by Elwha on the Rocks on Dec 7, 2013 11:39:23 GMT -8
I guess I'll add my name to the list of members that got a new camera this week. Yesterday I purchased a Nikon d5100, and it's (quoted from SolDuc) "Pure awesomeness!" It was becoming apparent that my old camera wasn't living up to I wanted it to be, so I started looking at DSLRs. I wanted to stay with Nikon, I didn't want to spend too much money, and I wanted a reliable camera that takes great images. At first I looked at the Nikon d3100, but mixed reviews and the fact that it had 14 MPs vs. 16 on my old camera turned me away from it. Then I looked at the d3200, and it looked great, but after a while I decided that I wanted something a little farther up the line that was better to grow on. That lead me to the d5100, which I ended up buying. I took it out this morning around the neighborhood, and it performed really well. I can't wait to take it on the ferries!
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Cameras
Dec 21, 2013 10:39:45 GMT -8
Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 21, 2013 10:39:45 GMT -8
I had another successful morning outing with my Sony RX10, using the "shoot and learn" method of getting comfortable with a new camera.
I've learned that my new camera, compared with my old Canon Sx10IS, has less zoom but a better sensor. So taking a photo of a distant ferry in low light is a situation where I now gain clarity but lose some zoom. - But as my buddy Scott pointed out, with better clarity comes the ability to crop the image in order to get that same old zoomed-in effect.
I was shooting at Departure Bay beach this morning, and the attraction was when the Oak Bay arrived at 8:00am and left again at 8:30am. I was there for about an hour, shooting lots of things. I started with a full battery, and ended with a 50% remaining battery. Oops, that is a problem. - I discovered that I needed to change a setting on my LCD display panel, to change it to a less-elaborate energy saving brightness/clarity. And when I shoot video for 1 minute of longer, I need to switch-off the LCD display panel, in order to save battery.
Those new habits re the LCD panel, plus my back-up battery in the bag, should work to give me enough battery life for those all day trips. If not, I'll just need to buy a 3rd battery.
I was also happy to get a pretty good pan-effect shot of Oak Bay.
I've still got lots to learn, and I'm having fun doing it.
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Cameras
Dec 21, 2013 12:01:44 GMT -8
Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 21, 2013 12:01:44 GMT -8
The LCD display (and viewfinder too) on my RX10 shows a level indicator. ie. whether the camera is level, or tilted (both left-right, and forward-backward). I found this level-indicator helpful today, when setting up for my tripod set of photos at Departure Bay, of the arriving Oak Bay. I was able to pan the tripod head as the ship moved across the bay, and it kept perfectly level the entire time. However, an interesting quirk is this "Faux-Slant" effect caused by the object and background not being directly in-front of my camera. I shot at an angle from a corner across the bay, and so the background land of Newcastle Island was at an angle, and the ship's path was also at an angle, from my vantage point. Here's the impact, on these 2 crops of the same shot, where the camera was perfectly level: ------------------- So I think this is a situation where even though the camera is level at my tripod location, and the distant horizon would normally be level, the near object and the island are at such an angle that they distort the levelness of my image. So if I were to properly edit the above photo, I'd rotate it a bit using software, to correct for the faux-slant effect. What do the rest of you fine photographers think of this issue? - When the subject is not straight-on, do you adjust to remove the faux-slant, or do you embrace it?
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Post by WettCoast on Dec 21, 2013 17:08:21 GMT -8
I had another successful morning outing with my Sony RX10, using the "shoot and learn" method of getting comfortable with a new camera. ... I started with a full battery, and ended with a 50% remaining battery. Oops, that is a problem. I believe that that camera is using the same battery pack that I have in my NEX-6. In order to reduce camera size Sony has provided a battery that is smallish compared to the typical lithium ion packs found in most decent cameras these days. The downside is that they lack capacity. My advice is that you go with three battery packs and that you have what you need to recharge batteries on the fly (such as via your car's 12 volt power outlet with USB adapter). You also commented in a separate post above on what constitutes 'level' as regards your photos. The camera's level indicator presumably does not lie. So those photos you take that appear to have out-of-level horizons are in fact level. Should you (we) leave them that way? I don't think so. It does not look right. Certainly I try to make the horizon look level in anything I post here, or on Flickr, even if in reality the non-level original from the camera truly was level.
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Cameras
Dec 26, 2013 10:31:17 GMT -8
Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 26, 2013 10:31:17 GMT -8
Another morning in the camera education of Flugel Shutterbug: Today, I spent over 3 hours at one of my favourite spots near the Nanaimo harbour ferry terminal (Cameron Island visiting-vessel float). While shooting video for the entire time, with a few interruptions for stills of Bowen Queen, I managed to use up 1.5 memory cards (32GB memory cards). And I used up 1.5 batteries. Part of what I'm doing is finding out the maximum-level of things that my camera can do. This means that I'm shooting stills and video at the highest quality settings. And I'm enjoying the results of the high-quality settings, but they take up lots of memory card and hard-drive space, and use lots of battery life. My next stage of camera learning will be to try some of the lesser quality settings, to see how they compare. To see what is good enough for my purposes. Question for others (Scott, Jim, Chris, Guy, Brandon, Mike, etc): Do you normally shoot using your camera's highest-quality settings, or do you use intermediate quality, and then switch up to high-quality for those special moments? Obviously I need to find a good balance for the things that I do. I know that I need to keep trying different things, and comparing results. That's a fun thing to do. ps: my maximums are: - stills: Extra-Fine, at size 4864 x 3648 - Videos: "AVCHD 60p 28m ps" ie. 60 frames/second, Progressive, maximum quality (frame size of 1920 x 1080)
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on Dec 26, 2013 12:01:17 GMT -8
Question for others (Scott, Jim, Chris, Guy, Brandon, Mike, etc): Do you normally shoot using your camera's highest-quality settings, or do you use intermediate quality, and then switch up to high-quality for those special moments? I use RAW for photos (approximately 15 MB's per photo) and 1080p at 24 fps for video. I do not change those settings. However, my D7000 has two SD card ports. I use two SanDisk Extreme 64 GB SDXC cards for a total of 128 GB's of space.
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Cameras
Dec 26, 2013 14:11:06 GMT -8
Post by paulvanb on Dec 26, 2013 14:11:06 GMT -8
When you think about it, one second of video shot at 30 fps - that is like 30 images in one, therefore, video will always use much more memory. As our piano god says - shoot everything as hi-res as you can! London Drugs has memory cards on sale. For those of you who got new cameras and other related goodies - get good post production software! For work I am using Lightroom, then using Nik Software. (now owned by Google) Do a quick pre-sharpen in Raw Sharpener. Next is a run in Color Efex Pro. Lots of good presets or create your own, followed by any manual adjustments. I can do an output sharpen in Raw Sharpener but try and avoid that. Lastly, Define Pro is a good noise reduction technology. One piece of advice in using this, allow the system to make .tif files to retain image quality.
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Cameras
Dec 26, 2013 15:33:35 GMT -8
Post by WettCoast on Dec 26, 2013 15:33:35 GMT -8
I almost always shoot at max resolution on whatever camera I am using, and I save the photo to the camera's memory card at the highest quality jpeg setting available (i.e. lowest level of compression). I tend not to shoot in the RAW (e.g. save in non-compressed formats like NEF & TIF). I do this because using uncompressed formats results in using large amounts of memory on your camera's memory cards, as well as your computer's hard drive, or any other storage formats for that matter. Uncompressed photos are also slower to load, slower to save, etc. Going uncompressed means you will likely be filling up hard drives rather quickly.* Going with high quality jpegs is a reasonable compromise in my opinion. I mostly shoot stills, & when I do, I mostly take 'bracketed' pics (in otherwords one at the camera's recommended exposure, one underexposed by 0.7 EV, and another overexposed by 0.7 EV. I also now often use my camera's HDR function to take photos with extended dynamic range. That feature is very useful in challenging lighting conditions. I would like to know other peoples habits with regard to saving & archiving photos once downloaded from their camera to computer: - Do you save all pictures, or are you ruthless in that you delete all but the best, or are you somewhere in between those extremes? - Do you save photos in two or more places or are you keeping just one copy on your computer's hard drive? Do you save photos for long periods on the original memory card that the camera recorded the image on? - When posting to websites like Flickr & the WCFF, do you tend to be very selective (i.e. maybe one in ten or twenty of your pics makes it), or do you post most of what you have taken? - To what extent do you crop & edit photos before you post them on Flickr, WCFF, etc? *Filling up hard drives fast also is a function of your camera's maximum resolution. Currently I am using Sony & Pentax cameras, both of which are 16 MP max resolution. If I was to upgrade to the new Sony mirrorless full frame A7r with 36 MP max resolution I could expect to fill memory cards & hard drives much faster.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Dec 26, 2013 18:26:07 GMT -8
For Christmas I got a new Nikon Coolpix P520 which extreme nice to take pictures with since they come out clear compared to my last camera. It is quick to get the pictures with which is good for on the move people.
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Cameras
Dec 26, 2013 18:58:53 GMT -8
Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 26, 2013 18:58:53 GMT -8
I would like to know other peoples habits with regard to saving & archiving photos once downloaded from their camera to computer: - Do you save all pictures, or are you ruthless in that you delete all but the best, or are you somewhere in between those extremes? - Do you save photos in two or more places or are you keeping just one copy on your computer's hard drive? Do you save photos for long periods on the original memory card that the camera recorded the image on? - When posting to websites like Flickr & the WCFF, do you tend to be very selective (i.e. maybe one in ten or twenty of your pics makes it), or do you post most of what you have taken? - To what extent do you crop & edit photos before you post them on Flickr, WCFF, etc? I save all my photos and most of my videos. - Most of my videos get processed into YouTube, and so I eventually delete some of the less-memorable original video files, after a couple of years. I have them saved on my main hard drive, with a backup taken every 10 days or so onto a portable hard-drive. - I use an organized series of folders, by date, with an overall folder for each of the 4 seasons of a given year (which helps me to remember the Equinox and Solstice dates) I download my photos from memory card to home computer on the same day that I took them. If I'm on a multi day trip, I will backup daily onto my travel laptop, until I run out of room. On a multi-day trip, I will keep my memory cards in my camera bag, and my camera bag stays with me almost all the time because it fits nicely into my day-backpack. I will never be one of those tragic tales of a car being broken into with valuable photos lost from a memory card in my camera which was stolen. (or at least I'm taking steps to prevent this). - I'm a bit of a paranoid archivist. Regarding my selectivity, I am selective, but I still post more photos from an outing that most WCFFers likely do. But I enjoy the selection process. I take my day's photos, and copy them into a temporary folder (then I archive the original folder). In my temp folder, I'll make sub-folders to arrange by ship or by style of shot (close, long, inside, outside) and then once I've grouped similar items together in subfolders, I'll go through each subfolder and find my best 1 or more items from that group. Then I look at my various best-of each groups, and find that there are still some redundancies between groups, and I eliminate a few of the best-of items. I do lots of cropping before I post to WCFF. For other editing, I used to do contrast & colour adjustments and sharpening, with my Canon SX10IS pics. So far, my Sony photos haven't required much editing. I will always check for straightening. Then I resize to the 1024 x "something less than 768" and then I upload to Google Web Albums, which is my photo host. ...and then I post, and think of something interesting to say about the photos, which sometimes entails some google or bookshelf research. I consider myself to be an amateur travel-journalist (maybe just a travel-blogger) and so I want my photos to be part of a story, or at least to have some appreciable context to them.
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Post by Mike C on Dec 26, 2013 22:50:28 GMT -8
I almost always shoot at max resolution on whatever camera I am using, and I save the photo to the camera's memory card at the highest quality jpeg setting available (i.e. lowest level of compression). I tend not to shoot in the RAW (e.g. save in non-compressed formats like NEF & TIF). I do this because using uncompressed formats results in using large amounts of memory on your camera's memory cards, as well as your computer's hard drive, or any other storage formats for that matter. Uncompressed photos are also slower to load, slower to save, etc. Going uncompressed means you will likely be filling up hard drives rather quickly.* Going with high quality jpegs is a reasonable compromise in my opinion. I mostly shoot stills, & when I do, I mostly take 'bracketed' pics (in otherwords one at the camera's recommended exposure, one underexposed by 0.7 EV, and another overexposed by 0.7 EV. I also now often use my camera's HDR function to take photos with extended dynamic range. That feature is very useful in challenging lighting conditions. I follow nearly identical rules, except in circumstances that require a good quality (family portraits, important photos, etc). For the most part, I find I don't need the quality that RAW offers, utilizing JPGs (converting to PNGs in the editing process). I would like to know other peoples habits with regard to saving & archiving photos once downloaded from their camera to computer: - Do you save all pictures, or are you ruthless in that you delete all but the best, or are you somewhere in between those extremes? - Do you save photos in two or more places or are you keeping just one copy on your computer's hard drive? Do you save photos for long periods on the original memory card that the camera recorded the image on? - When posting to websites like Flickr & the WCFF, do you tend to be very selective (i.e. maybe one in ten or twenty of your pics makes it), or do you post most of what you have taken? - To what extent do you crop & edit photos before you post them on Flickr, WCFF, etc? I have a pretty vigorous selection process - I generally choose about 35 out of 1,000 (average day-trip) to edit for straight horizons, colour, cropping (if necessary), followed by an upload on Flickr. I then take about 15-20 of those and post them on the forum. I make an effort to reduce repetitive photo postings, so as to make the post more interesting and enlightening. Photos that I don't edit are added to my computer's HD (and subsequently on my external). I figure that if there's ever a need for those photos (flagship theme or otherwise), editing is not hard.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 27, 2013 17:53:16 GMT -8
For Christmas I got a new Nikon Coolpix P520 which extreme nice to take pictures with since they come out clear compared to my last camera. It is quick to get the pictures with which is good for on the move people. That looks to be a very nice camera. Once you start using it, let us know what settings and functions you like to use best.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 28, 2013 17:33:20 GMT -8
I also now often use my camera's HDR function to take photos with extended dynamic range. That feature is very useful in challenging lighting conditions. I'm very happy with my HDR results, on some photos that I've taken today. The downside is that it takes a few seconds longer for my camera to recover and be ready to shoot again, and so I need to be careful and only use HDR when I can afford the extra time between shots. ie. not when I want to do rapid-fire of a ship moving across my view.
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Post by Cable Cassidy on Dec 28, 2013 20:31:47 GMT -8
I'm all over the place right now with images, but I always shoot at the largest JPEG files and will sometimes shoot RAW for landscapes or in situations where I plan on doing more complicated editing. Sadly, my version of Photoshop doesn't support the .NEF RAW files from my D600, so everything is JPEG for now.
The JPEG/RAW file will get cropped, colour correction ect and then have two versions saved. The first will be at the max resolutions (so if I cropped my 10000x10000 down to 8000x8000, that gets saved) and then the smaller 1024x683 for online posting. This way, if I plan on getting prints I have a larger file just in case. Everything is then stored on an external drive.
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Cameras
Dec 31, 2013 15:41:28 GMT -8
Post by compdude787 on Dec 31, 2013 15:41:28 GMT -8
I also now often use my camera's HDR function to take photos with extended dynamic range. That feature is very useful in challenging lighting conditions. I'm very happy with my HDR results, on some photos that I've taken today. The downside is that it takes a few seconds longer for my camera to recover and be ready to shoot again, and so I need to be careful and only use HDR when I can afford the extra time between shots. ie. not when I want to do rapid-fire of a ship moving across my view. I haven't tried HDR with ferries yet, but I have with other shots. It's pretty worthwhile. Besides the fact that you can't do it for an action shot, another problem I had with it was that one of the shots in the series was in focus, but the other two were blurry. Of course, you never notice it until you view your pictures on the computer. Ugh, stupid camera! Yeah, I know, I should get a DSLR camera. But I don't have the money for that yet.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Cameras
Dec 31, 2013 17:54:27 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2013 17:54:27 GMT -8
I am posting this photo here because I have a few questions about low-light photography. I've been making several trips out to Langdale to test out different Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO combinations in low light. Obviously there are some limitations to my Canon SX20, especially in low-light situations, but I''m wondering if any improvements can be made in terms of the settings. Is there any way to reduce the grainy area which is the mountains on this photo? Would lowering the ISO a little and increasing the shutter speed help?
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Cameras
Jan 23, 2014 22:31:08 GMT -8
Post by paulvanb on Jan 23, 2014 22:31:08 GMT -8
So, how is everyone making out with their new cameras? I put my new Canon 70D into revenue service this month and have been pleased with the results so far. Video ahs been good, images have been very good, and the built-in digital level has made for some very straight shots. Have not tried shooting ferries yet as both soccer and basketball officiating are in full swing as well as the day job.
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Cameras
Jan 23, 2014 22:36:36 GMT -8
Post by Low Light Mike on Jan 23, 2014 22:36:36 GMT -8
So, how is everyone making out with their new cameras? So far, so good, with my Sony RX10. I recommend it as a good all-in-one compact camera. Fog willing, I will try it on this coming weekend to capture the long-distance approach of a ferry crossing Georgia Strait. That will give me an idea of its zoom limitations.
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Cameras
Jan 31, 2014 19:22:02 GMT -8
Post by Low Light Mike on Jan 31, 2014 19:22:02 GMT -8
Not camera, but the software that I use afterwards in editing my videos. Here's the program that I use: VIDEO PADI like it; it suits the kind of edit work that I do.
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