watmm photographers

  On 6/21/2012 at 7:09 PM, mcbpete said:

Just got myself a macro lens last week (Canon 100mm f2.8 USM), still very much a beginner with that lens type and my shaky hands from medication are not the very best of friends with it in all but the best of lighting conditions. This came out OK though -

 

Looks great! Just shoot in AP @ F5.6, ISO ~800-1600 and let your camera do the hard work.

The lumix tz series (by panasonic) is really great. I used to have a tz-7 but I lost it in a bus fire, now I have a tz-10 which does almost everything I need at a decent quality.

What do you guys think of all those new compact camera's on steroids, the lumix gf5 for example? Sounds to me like they can be a great alternative for people who want (near) dslr quality with a smaller form factor. The reason I don't have a dslr is because I don't want to take such a bulky, delicate instrument with me, especially when travelling.

stills from a short film I shot around xmas - you can't go wrong with Russian glass

  On 6/21/2012 at 4:32 PM, TRiP said:

sweet jesus - those Fuji's cost quite the pretty penny

 

Have you taken any photos with it that you could post?

 

i've been considering picking up a decent small rangefinder that I could (in an ideal world) take everywhere I go...but i've invested a good bit'a cash into my SLR m42 lenses collection that for me to buy a new type would seem counter productive...time shall tell

Yeah selling my DSLR kit helped fund for the Fuji. You can get a fixed lens rangefinder for ~$100... be a good test to see whether is mends to your style or not.

• Yashica Electro 35
  
• Canon Canonet 28 (highly recommend this guy, but 28mm is my ideal focal length)
  

As for pictures... here was the first shot I got with it when I went up to Boston:

GF670_TMAX400_Scan-120506-0001 by akagoffer, on Flickr

Can click the link in my sig and any image with "GF670" in the title was shot with the Fuji.

  On 6/21/2012 at 7:00 PM, The Overlook said:

Don't be hatin' on my 1.6 crop, you racist!

 

Sheeeit homie... no hate over 'ere

Damn TRiP... really dig the lighting.

my main issue is size - if I bought a rangefinder that was roughly the same size as my Pentax spotmatic it'd just be silly, may as well just carry around that instead

but in terms of what i search for in a rangefinder - it can't be so small and compromised to a point that its almost a disposable camera - would still like to have some manual control of it

at the moment i'm leaning towards the Rollei B35

The B35 is a nice camera, just the lens is a bit slow. As you are gonna be stuck with a specific speed of film throughout the roll, it's nice to be able to open the lens up a bit to get more light when the sunny 16 rule no longer applies.

The Yashica Electro 35 is a 40mm f1.7 and the Canon is a 28mm f2.8... but if you plan to do most of your shooting outside in good light, my gripe against the B35 is null.

this is true - a faster lens would be ideal, but since i'd only be using this as a camera to just bring around in case something catches the eye - the size would be a bigger issue than the lens speed.

The Canon and Yashica look close enough to the same size as my Pentax - but the rollei is super small and carry'able

This thread makes me realize I know absolutely nothing about photography

Where does one accumulate such a wealth of knowledge?

Just by playing with the bastards - It's actually overtaken making music for me now for time spent per hobby. Until I got my DSLR a couple of years ago I knew nothing of f-stops, nifty fiftys, prime lenses, uv filter / lens hood options, lens equivalents, chromatic aberrations, vignetting etc. etc. but slowly you just pick up stuff (mainly by looking at other peoples photos, especially something like Flickr where the EXIF (picture information generated by the camera that records the camera settings) tell you exactly how a shot is set up.

  On 6/22/2012 at 1:37 AM, sergeantk said:

This thread makes me realize I know absolutely nothing about photography

 

 

Where does one accumulate such a wealth of knowledge?

i like this youtube channel

http://www.youtube.c...m?feature=watch

it's half serious and half fun

Yeah a bloody awesome channel, and an equally good online shop / photo sharing community too ! I learnt a hell of a lot of stuff from Kai et al's videos.

  On 6/22/2012 at 1:48 AM, mcbpete said:

Yeah a bloody awesome channel, and an equally good online shop / photo sharing community too ! I learnt a hell of a lot of stuff from Kai et al's videos.

cool! i found it one or two months ago by chance after doing some searches on youtube

my new mission is to find and buy one of these babys, on the cheap:

http://www.thelostcompass.net/index.php?x=olympus-epic

They may not look like much - but they're said to be possibly the finest point-and-shoot camera ever made - perfect for just tossing into your pocket but with the ability to take super sweet shots with its beauty lens

they seem to be going for quite the pretty penny on ebay tho, so I'll try not to dish out too much for something that potentially is sitting somewhere for 2 yo yos

  On 6/22/2012 at 1:44 AM, mcbpete said:

Just by playing with the bastards - It's actually overtaken making music for me now for time spent per hobby. Until I got my DSLR a couple of years ago I knew nothing of f-stops, nifty fiftys, prime lenses, uv filter / lens hood options, lens equivalents, chromatic aberrations, vignetting etc. etc. but slowly you just pick up stuff (mainly by looking at other peoples photos, especially something like Flickr where the EXIF (picture information generated by the camera that records the camera settings) tell you exactly how a shot is set up.

d00d h0\/\/ c0ULd u leav3 0ut ``d1ffraction``.

By not head-butting the keyboard like a mentalist ?

question:

i want to buy a new camera. i'm wanting to buy a dslr, but wife wants to buy a small one, that she can carry around all the time.

i'm relatively new to photography, but want to make it a little hobby.

i don't want to buy a digital compact camera again, because i was not satisfied with the pictures i took with it.

i want to take photos with i.e. shallow depth of focus (is it called like this?), but i also want to take some good pictures of my kid on the go.

so i'm thinking about to buy the nikon j1 with the 10mm pancake lens and the nikkor vr 10-30mm lens.

does anyone here owns this camera? opinions, please. (maybe links to samples)

thank you!

I was in the same situation as you and ended up with an olympus e-pl1. They were practically giving these away at the time, so I could afford to pimp it out with a couple of exrta lenses and the vf-2 viewfinder. I wouldn't really use it without the viewfinder these days, the lcd screen is a bit crap. I'm really an amateur/novice at best, and it seems my capability is limited, but I still manage to knock out a few good shots here and there. My favourite lens is the zuiko 45mm f1.9, but it takes a bit of getting used to as it's a 90mm equivalent on a 4/3. Anyway I've tried a few of them and I'd definitely recommend getting a micro 4/3 camera. My camera has a few quirks, and I wish it had a couple more dedicated button, but all cameras have their own problems in this price range it seems. Anyways, I'm very much in love with it still, and you'll probably be more than satisfied with a hybrid camera in this category. My mother has a J1, and I don't really like it, it's a bit of struggle to get it to do what I want. It takes decent pictures, but my ageing olympus seems to do better in similar circumstances, this could be down to the lens, not really sure what sort of sensor is in it? It's not very hands on, feels more like a compact than other hybrids I've tried. I haven't used it for more than a couple of shots though, so maybe it's better once you get to know it.

thanks gocab for the suggestion. i took a look at the Olympus PEN E-PL3 and it looks promising.

what kind of lenses can i put onto this one? am i limited to olympus lenses like

i am limited with nikkor lenses on the j1?

you can use any micro 4/3 lens, there's quite a few manufacturers around and you can buy adapter rings that lets you use normal DSLR lenses (no autofocus though as far as I know).

  On 6/21/2012 at 8:01 PM, TRiP said:

stills from a short film I shot around xmas - you can't go wrong with Russian glass

 

 

 

Beautiful

At the end of 2011 I bought myself a Panasonic GF3. I know nothing about cameras and stuff but have been taking pics every now and again. I took a few when on holiday in NYC. Really like how they turned out and have stuck some in frames around the house.

I probably went a bit crazy with the effects in Picasa, but I like the first three in B&W and have put them up as a series of three frames.

  On 7/1/2012 at 12:54 PM, CJM said:

thanks gocab for the suggestion. i took a look at the Olympus PEN E-PL3 and it looks promising.

 

what kind of lenses can i put onto this one? am i limited to olympus lenses like

i am limited with nikkor lenses on the j1?

i hear good things about the Sony Nex 5 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_NEX-5

think its around the same price range

i'm buying the AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G lens in a few days. i have a nikon d40 which i'm quite happy with. i'll probably update the body sometime in the future but not yet.

  On 7/1/2012 at 1:51 PM, jhonny said:

At the end of 2011 I bought myself a Panasonic GF3. I know nothing about cameras and stuff but have been taking pics every now and again. I took a few when on holiday in NYC. Really like how they turned out and have stuck some in frames around the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I probably went a bit crazy with the effects in Picasa, but I like the first three in B&W and have put them up as a series of three frames.

what lens did you use?