dSLR thread

udaman

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Hmm, e_dawg said in Jan '09 he was getting married in the summer, so we can conclude the marriage is the reason he no longer posts on SR :D. Ergo, just rent women, might be much more expensive to maintain, but much easier to discard :)

Yes, we all have our price...

If you think about it, going into a relationship is like getting a car. You can either rent (date / club), lease (longer term relationship), or purchase (marriage).

Some people get tired of renting and like the convenience of always having a car around so you can just get in and start driving when you need it, so they lease. But there is a time limit with a lease -- you either need to buy at the end of the term, or you need to return it... you can't just extend the lease indefinitely. As well, when you want to return it at the end of the lease, you may find that it's not quite so easy. You can get blamed for all kinds of damages and might have to pay various charges or risk a lawsuit.

To avoid the hassle of leasing and returning every few years, some people feel purchasing for the long haul is the solution. Some figure although it's a massive up-front cost, you save in the long-run. Problem is, as the years pass, the value depreciates. In fact, they say you take the biggest hit as soon as you drive off the lot.

In an effort to maintain the value, some will put a lot of effort into pampering their baby, buying lavish accessories, treating it to a deluxe service, etc. But after the initial 3-year no charge maintence , you find that it constantly needs new parts and accessories. The cost of maintenance and upkeep seems to keep going up, and yet it doesn't perform quite the way it used to when it was new. Breakdowns become more frequent, and you're starting to think about a new model.

Now you realize that getting rid of your old car is not quite so easy either. After doing some research, you find that you will take a huge loss to sell the car, and you wonder whether you're better off keeping it until it dies ;)
 

mubs

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Awesome! So who says bugs are filthy? They have a bath everyday even before most of us! And in really fresh water!
 

Will Rickards

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I took some pictures and they came out with like a white haze over them. I have the raw NEF file. I couldn't seem to figure out how to fix it in Nikon's ViewNX. Maybe I can't.

What causes this? Was the sun shining in the lens? Is this what those lens covers are for?
 

Stereodude

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That's either lens serious flare or overexposure, or perhaps both. They're reasonably fixable.



You need to crank the brightness way down and the contrast way up. I'd push the RAW file down about 1 to 1.5 stops and then do the rest with software brightness and contrast adjustments.
 

Pradeep

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Must have had sun shining of the cockpit window or somesuch.
For what looks like very bright conditions like that an ISO of 100 or so may give you better results.

If you can, set the camera to bracket your exposures (it will take shots above and below your current settings).
 

Pradeep

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If your lens isn't too heavy in situations like that you can often shield the lens from direct sunlight with your left hand.
 

udaman

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That's either lens serious flare or overexposure, or perhaps both. They're reasonably fixable.



You need to crank the brightness way down and the contrast way up. I'd push the RAW file down about 1 to 1.5 stops and then do the rest with software brightness and contrast adjustments.

Hmm, I just might be skillier than SD, supposed he did a quickNdirty on the image, while I went and fired up Photoshop and tweaked it with 'curves' as well as desaturating.

Looking at the histogram in PS, we see all channels, red, green, blue oversaturated, with red being the worst, so I took some out of each channel. So I think SD's rendition might have oversaturated colors, which is what Ken Rockwell loves...me I prefer accuracy!

After doing that we see there is a triangular piece of metal that is reflecting sunlight and overexposing the image. The human eye, as well the LCD on the D40, do not register what the sensor is recording. That severe reflection off of the piece of shinny metal, as well as a small strip we can see is reflecting off the 'strut' are what lead to significant overexposure.

But we can see not all detail has been lost, and bcuz I'm skillier, I've recovered more detail in the faces of the boys (ie the important subject matter) while SD has caused the boys face on the right to lose highlight detail :p.

Notice that translucent red circle at the border of the blue/magenta? jacket/brown pants? Guess we'll have to wait for LM to chime in, but I'm guessing it's a lens flare artifact, the light reflecting off of the metal piece is bouncing around from the lens optical grouping and ending up with that red circle on the sensor :(

Just a guess, but a polarizing filter might have mitigated those harsh (our eyes don't see the reflections as harsh, probably almost invisible) intense reflections?

Rockwell recommends Hoya or Nikon over B+W polarizing filters, but the HD filters are pretty expensive, not sure the software Rockwell mentions can do all that much in such a situation.

You still need grad neutral density and polarizers, same as with film explained in paragraphs below. These effects cannot be duplicated electronically. nik multimedia's color efx pro is the best way to simulate these looks if you forgot to use the filter when you made the shot....

Also many polarizing filters, even the most exotic and expensive B+Ws, often alter the color balance towards cooler blue, and thus the warming ones often wind up being neutral. I always hand-pick my polarizers for neutrality. I found the cheap off-the-rack linear Tiffens here and the very expensive Nikons here are the best. I found the B+Ws not good. Also the Hoya circular polarizer I have is quite good.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/filters.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/hoya/hd-filters.htm

http://www.adorama.com/HY58CPLHD.html?sid=127053714146123
 

udaman

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btw, though it's not quite as good as the 7D in IQ (same sensor, shouldn't it be exactly the same IQ?)... dpreview seems to love the 550D

Don't think it was an April fools review:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos550d/

If only it was a FF Rebel for $800 instead of a crop factor, I'd buy that in a heartbeat...alas, will probably be another 5yrs b4 that happens...in the meantime I'm likely buying a Sony camcorder w/30mm effective wide-angle zoom lens.
 

Stereodude

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Hmm, I just might be skillier than SD, supposed he did a quickNdirty on the image, while I went and fired up Photoshop and tweaked it with 'curves' as well as desaturating.
I gave it a real quick & dirty in about 30 seconds with Gimp which is all that's installed on my work PC. Sorry if that's not up to your standards. :wink:
 

Stereodude

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Uda's looks pretty good. Do you know how I'd do that in the gimp?
I think that was with my 18-55mm lens which has no filter on it.
You don't want to do it in GIMP on the file you uploaded to Picasa. You want to process the raw .NEF file to recover some of the highlights first. You want to adjust the exposure by about -1EV and then use that file in GIMP. I've never used ViewNX, so I'm not sure exactly how you would go about doing that (but it can adjust exposure).

Then in gimp you'd want to use the curves tool while monitoring the RGB values of the light and dark areas to make sure you're not chopping them off.

And just for Uda I gave the picture another shot (still using GIMP) without making it look all undersaturated and full of artifacts like his.

 

Handruin

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My Canon 5D MKII arrived today (came in 2 days with free 3 day shipping from B&H!) along with a new Lastolite 33' 8-IN-1 reflector that I can play around with.

Sorry Lunar, you never got back to us with details on your used equipment. I have a few photo projects coming up (one next week) so I bit the bullet and bought it new. I'm excited to play around with it this weekend.
 

Stereodude

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FWIW, I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to sell and of his gear used to any of us because he'd have to provide a return address to the shipper and then he'd lose all of his privacy. So, it sits unused and collects dust instead.
 

Handruin

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That's kind of what I was figuring also. I had the same concern if I were to buy a multi-thousand dollar item and I don't even know Lunar's name. :) I'd have to know an address to send money or like you said a return address in case something was wrong. If he lived near me (which he might and I'd have no idea) I could have even met in person to purchase. I respect his privacy concerns which is why I went forward with my retail purchase. No hard feelings from this side, I just wanted him to know I decided to move on and buy my own.
 

udaman

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Was thinking I should go buy the 7D @Costco, use it for up to 90days, and then return it via their 90-day buyer satisfaction guarantee. Then go buy the 550D and use it for up to 90-days to see if I like either and return it for full refund, to know if I like one better than the other, justifying paying nearly 2x for the 7D...for what?

Then I thought...meh, neither really is what I want, as both are cropped sensors...and Nikon is rumored to release as many as 3 new DSLR's soon....wait N see what Nikon does.
 

ddrueding

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BorrowLenses doesn't look awful. I stuck a sample in my cart:

1D MkIV
200/1.8
Gitzo G-1410
Gimbal Tripod Head
Quick Release Plate

$627 for all that for the weekend? Not a bad deal, and the price per day falls of dramatically as you approach a week.
 

LunarMist

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They have an GigaPan Epic Pro available...so tempting.

Lunar, what is the longest lens you have shot with on yours?

Zip, zilch nada. :( It is not useful for my purposes and I waited too long for the return. It is probably useable with a medium body and up to a 200/2.8 or a small zoom like a 70-300/4.5-5.6. A pro body and a 70-200/4 or 300/4 are not too stable, since the mount must be on the camera rather than the lens tripod mount ring collar as with a normal tripod.
 

Handruin

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Hmmm...I might just want to try an 800mm lens since I'll never be able to afford one in real life! I also love the comments and reviews. The one for the 85mm F/1.2 L prime is also funny:

Roger’s take: Be warned: This lens is hugely addictive. Strong photographers have wept standing in line at the post office to return it. Please don’t let your tears fall on the return label’s bar code – it slows down return shipping when the scanner can’t read it.
 

udaman

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Hmmm...I might just want to try an 800mm lens since I'll never be able to afford one in real life! I also love the comments and reviews. The one for the 85mm F/1.2 L prime is also funny:

^$430/week...maybe a hour with a 'g/f experience' would be better, lol can't afford of one them in real life either.


The 800 f5.6 is also the photography equivalent of a D cup: Not a necessity, but wherever you go with it, you’ll make lots of new friends.
 

Handruin

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^$430/week...maybe a hour with a 'g/f experience' would be better, lol can't afford of one them in real life either.

Already have the g/f for the experience and don't need to waste money on a fake one. $400 is relatively cheap to borrow a exclusive $10,000+ item for a week. I would only do the 4 day and save a couple hundred. I would likely need a decent tripod to support it.
 

ddrueding

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Already have the g/f for the experience and don't need to waste money on a fake one. $400 is relatively cheap to borrow a exclusive $10,000+ item for a week. I would only do the 4 day and save a couple hundred. I would likely need a decent tripod to support it.

They rent the gimbal heads as well ;)
 

udaman

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Cell phones to obsolete dSLR's :D

http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNLDE63J15F20100420?rpc=44

HELSINKI, April 20 (Reuters) - Fast developing cameraphone technology will shortly make SLR system cameras and even professional cameras obsolete, the sales chief of the world's top cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE) said on Tuesday.

"They will in the very near future revolutionise the market for system cameras," Anssi Vanjoki said in a speech in Helsinki.

"There will be no need to carry around those heavy lenses," Vanjoki said, pointing to a professional photographer taking pictures of him.

The proliferation of smartphones with picture quality comparable to most pocket cameras has boosted photography around the world, but they have so far not challenged real system cameras due to phones' smaller size and weaker technology.

Vanjoki said high-definition (HD) quality video recording was also coming to cellphones within the next 12 months.

"It will not take long, less than a year, when phones can record HD quality video and you can transfer it directly to your HD television set," Vanjoki said.
Apparently the chief of *sales* @Nokia has gained access to Steve Jobs' reality distortion field supply of Xtra potent Kool-Aid :bstd: Either that or the translation done by Bablefish failed :p

While they may dent sales of stand alone Flip HD candy bar style HD camcorders or many of the less expensive, less capable PnS digicams; I don't see either higher end PnS or dSLR sales being impacted in a significant way by the ever improving cellphone/cam/vid models. Both will exist for a long time, imho.
 
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