The *Official Photography Thread*

9+

 

That sounds like a deal then.

 

Sort of a poll question for everyone minus the pole. Out of curiosity, what is overyone's favorite (or most used) focal length?

I don't like the whole scenario thing, like "if you could only keep one prime at any one focal length and sell all your lenses . . ." But if that helps you then go for it ha

I've found that 50mm (equivalent) really is my most used and favorite now. I used to prefer a longer lens (85-135) for general stuff but as I've grown some I've realized I can really utilize a 50mm in most situations (plus I'm more comfortable with shooting from closer to people now).

So, what's your favorite/most used focal length? Why? What do you shoot with it?

 

I've never bought anything from them that's used. Always new. I did meet them at PMA once. What a great group of peeps.

 

18-55 kit lens lives on the camera and is what I use 90% of the time.
I bought a refurb 55-200 and really like it, but I think the Tamron 70-300 might replace it as my 2nd favorite... we'll see how it does at its first air show, as the Tamron does not have VR, the Nikon does... but I really like 300 for airshows.

 

the Tamron is nice but AF is super slow. Make the air show a challenge

 

Meh... everything will be over 50ft, just AF once and flip it to manual unless I'm shooting static.

It does piss me off that of all of my glass, it's the two Samyang lenses where infinity is actually infinity.
The 4 pieces of expensive glass, infinity it just a hair shy of the stop.

 

Just pick your fstop. focus and shoot away. f/2.8 probably isn't it. More like 8-16 is what you want. Faster shutter speed too.

 

50mm, all I have currently, everything.

 

Yup... great thing about DSLR... having ISO to work with as a third option allows for some things not practical with film.

When I shot film, for the most part I shot 400 since it was a decent all-around speed and worked well for tight aperture shots for good DOF at high shutter speeds. I got a bitchen shot of the vapor cone just as it flattened into a disk around the tail of the Super Tomcat at Miramar.
I also got one of a C-130 taking off that not only froze the props, but also captured perfect vapor spirals trailing the prop tips!

My biggest "waste of film" was when I shot Comet Hale-Bopp.
36 exposure roll of 1600 (had them push it to 3200 in processing).
Ended up with two shots suitable for framing.
I basically set the shot up, put the camera into "B", and used a cable release to bracket from 15 seconds up to over a minute.
The best shots were the longer exposures, but while the star trailing was acceptable at 30, it kinda blew the comet itself.

I think the best shot was at 25s... a shot that I thought was ruined, because a car made a turn down the road and panned the headlights across my foreground.
Turned out to be great because it was just enough to give a ghostly glow to the Joshua Trees!

Next time I set up a shot like that, I'm going to pop the flash a few times to bring the foreground up a bit.

 

400mm. The glass is rreeeaallly nice and I love birds. 'nuff said

 

Nothing for the challenge had worked out yet ha oh well. I've got time . . .

 

I guess mine would be the 70-200. Not because I want to keep space but because the IQ and contrast is just so much better on high end glass. The kit lenses aren't bad but once you use good glass it's just hard to get the same results with kit glass. Plus the low light capabilities are nice to have when needed.

 

Low light is a big one for me. One of the perks of fast primes.
I hated walking into a room lit with a lamp or two and have to suddenly max out ISO when I had my kit zooms.

 

Dang b&h sold that already. Was a hot deal

 

Finally got to some pix in the snow!


IMG_1704ps by Captures by Colin, on Flickr


IMG_1713ps by Captures by Colin, on Flickr


IMG_1717ps by Captures by Colin, on Flickr


IMG_1722ps by Captures by Colin, on Flickr


IMG_1695ps by Captures by Colin, on Flick

 

I got some stuff this morning just in case I don't get anything this weekend.

 

I picked up a Canon AE-1 in the 70's and 4 lenses out of Japan that I used for a few years. Out to sea so much that I got tired of shooting sunsets, sunrises, cat launches and fly overs so ended up giving it to my sister as a wedding present. I did run up to Miramar once for some pics though. Yeah 400 was pretty much all I used it was awesome. Just got back into it again and have had my DSLR just shy of 2 weeks. Still get a kick out of not having to waste the rest of a roll to change ISO by changing film. But have so much to learn yet that is almost daunting if I think about it.

Wildlife and birds are my main focus so the 300 f4 stays on most of the time. The 60-250 f4 is fantastic but that extra 50mm of the 300 prime comes in handy, on the other hand sometimes 300 is too much. But I will be picking up a 1.4x tc soon for the 300 because it just isn't enough sometimes too.

-14 F this morning and as the sun came up a Sun Dog formed 22 degrees from the side of the sun. The 300 blew through the "diamond dust" too much and I ended up putting on the 18-135.



Cropping with film wasn't near as easily done either....

 

I want your grille in pyrite mica

 

The main grill is a grillcraft - Main Grille without Logo Cutout in black I picked up from Autoanything. http://www.autoanything.com/billet-g...A6740A0A0.aspx Do a search on google for "autoanything promo code" and you can usually find some codes to use for a discount.

The logo is from http://www.toyotapartszone.com/ and is Toyota part number 75311-90K00 I purchased my color matching grill from them at the same time so shipping was free. Any questions PM me and glad to help. There are also a couple of threads on here some place about how to do it. I feel it was well worth doing.