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B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
I'm a total lens noob. Can someone explain them to me?

Ex: I shoot in a lot of low light conditions, like playing with depth of field, and take sweeping landscape shots on occasion. What kind of lens should I be looking for?

:monkeydance:
 
urbaindk

urbaindk

The Real Dr. Science
Jul 12, 2004
4,819
0
Sleepy Hollar
One with a really low aperture (f-stop) for low light, short depth of field, shots. For sweeping landscapes, look for a wide angle lense, like 28 mm.
 
narlus

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
blue said:
I'm a total lens noob. Can someone explain them to me?

Ex: I shoot in a lot of low light conditions, like playing with depth of field, and take sweeping landscape shots on occasion. What kind of lens should I be looking for?

:monkeydance:
Click to expand...
low light? shoulda gone canon :busted:

for depth of field, you want lenses w/ wide apertures (f/2.8 or faster...check out some primes). for lowlight, you will either need to use a tripod or to use high ISO to get a shutter speed suitable for hand-holding. for landscapes, given your 1.5x crop factor, something around 18mm or wider would work well.
 
B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Hayhayhay, the camera was essentially free ;)

Now I'm stuck with getting a D200 someday...hopefully prices come down with the release of the D300.

Anywho...The kit lens is 18-55mm. It isn't bad, but I was definitely noticing its near-total lack of ability when it came to shooting macro stuff.

I was actually fairly impressed with the cameras high-iso performance, given Nikon's bad reputation in that arena. I was able to crank crap out handheld in a darkened room at 1600 that didn't look terrible. By terrible, I mean it looked far better than my Powershot could ever dream of at 400iso :busted:

Boosting to HI1 just turned things to crap, however...
 
narlus

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
blue said:
Hayhayhay, the camera was essentially free ;)

Now I'm stuck with getting a D200 someday...hopefully prices come down with the release of the D300.

Anywho...The kit lens is 18-55mm. It isn't bad, but I was definitely noticing its near-total lack of ability when it came to shooting macro stuff.

I was actually fairly impressed with the cameras high-iso performance, given Nikon's bad reputation in that arena. I was able to crank crap out handheld in a darkened room at 1600 that didn't look terrible. By terrible, I mean it looked far better than my Powershot could ever dream of at 400iso :busted:

Boosting to HI1 just turned things to crap, however...
Click to expand...
for macro shooting, you need one of two thing:

1 - a macro lens, which allows for 1:1 magnification and close focusing

or

2 - a set of extension tubes


i guess you can also try an adapter and reverse mount a lens, but i never tried that. i went w/ #2 (got a set of Kenko tubes via a Hong Kong seller from ebay), and they work well.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
the vast majority of the time i'm either shooting at 12mm (sigma 12-24) or at 135mm (canon 135mm f/2L). too bad you didn't go canon -- the 135/2L is one sweet piece of glass... :)
 
H8R

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
The one and only wide aperture prime for the D40 that will autofocus is the Sigma 30mm HSM. $400.

Other than that go for a manual focus Nikkor off ebay. Avoid the "E" series 50mm - they are dirt cheap but not as sharp as the other old 50mm Nikkors.

One excellent thing about the D40 - it will accept ANY Nikkor lens from 1959 onward in manual mode. Not all Nikon bodies can do this. The only one you can't use are the Pronea series, which suck ass anyway.

Manual focus is quick and easy, the little green dot in the viewfinder still lets you know that you're in focus.

If you can find one for a good price, ($200-$250) the Nikkor 18-70mm G that came with the D70 and D70s kits are awesome cheap lenses. Quiet and fast focusing. Not very much like a "kit" lens at all.


Some reference material for ya:

Compatibility chart:
http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/slr-lens.html

Everything about every Nikkor lens (seriously - everything)
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/index.htm

Serial numbers for every Nikkor lens: (handy for ebay shopping)
http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html

Scary data:
http://olegkikin.com/shutterlife/nikon_d40.htm

Crack smoker:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm

Review w/ good high ISO information:
http://www.bythom.com/d40review.htm
 
urbaindk

urbaindk

The Real Dr. Science
Jul 12, 2004
4,819
0
Sleepy Hollar
Mr Tiles said:
wow! good stuff...
Click to expand...
Those are good. Some of those pictures are almost where grew up. In fact my Mom volunteers here:

http://www.marktucker.com/r_brushy/source/brushy_01.html

She goes every year before Christmas and takes pictures of the inmates so they can have something to send to their families. It's a hardcore place in a very rugged corner of East TN. James Earl Ray escaped from there in 1977, spent a couple of days in the woods, decided he'd had enough of the great outdoors, and went back.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,098
1,144
NC
There's a guy on DPReview who shoots his numerous Pomeranian puppies, named "PerfectPoms".

He's killed a few shutters because he basically just aims the camera at the puppies and holds down the shutter button. If you've ever wanted to see a hundred thousand of the exact same pictures of a few puppies, look no further. He killed a D70 several times, a D2X at something like 100k actuations, and the crowning achievement, a D2Hs:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=23793969 - 637,851 actuations.
PerfectPoms said:
I took 16 of my dogs and puppies down to the beach at 7 am this morning and took a little over 5,300 photos before the shutter went.
Click to expand...
A PBase gallery: http://www.pbase.com/billmcintyre/may12c_07
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,408
20,200
Sleazattle
binary visions said:
There's a guy on DPReview who shoots his numerous Pomeranian puppies, named "PerfectPoms".

He's killed a few shutters because he basically just aims the camera at the puppies and holds down the shutter button. If you've ever wanted to see a hundred thousand of the exact same pictures of a few puppies, look no further. He killed a D70 several times, a D2X at something like 100k actuations, and the crowning achievement, a D2Hs:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=23793969 - 637,851 actuations.


A PBase gallery: http://www.pbase.com/billmcintyre/may12c_07
Click to expand...

I like dogs but his photos make me want to swing at a pomeranian with a sand wedge.
 
narlus

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
jdschall said:
Sir, have you ever heard of this little thing called a video camera, it's much better suited to your application.
Click to expand...
there was a dpreview thread about some woman who switched to canon recently for the 1D mk III just for the 10fps...she shoots ice skaters in jpg, and uses the machine gun approach. she had something like 10K actuations in the first week or two of owning a body.

:twitch:

HD video....look into it.
 
H8R

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
narlus said:
holy crap, one user #28) has over 500K clicks on a now-dead camera...assuming he got the camera body the day of release, and that the shutter died today, he averaged 1750 actuations PER DAY.

:twitch:
Click to expand...
28) Submitted by idiotproof
Clicks: 578,234
Shutter still alive: No

29) Submitted by those numbers by idiotproof are dubious
Clicks: 56,298
Shutter still alive: Yes
Click to expand...
:rofl:
 
Silver

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
narlus said:
there was a dpreview thread about some woman who switched to canon recently for the 1D mk III just for the 10fps...she shoots ice skaters in jpg, and uses the machine gun approach. she had something like 10K actuations in the first week or two of owning a body.
Click to expand...
I can't even imagine sorting through that many images. There are times that call for the machine gun approach, but that's just crazy.
 
Transcend

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
narlus said:
there was a dpreview thread about some woman who switched to canon recently for the 1D mk III just for the 10fps...she shoots ice skaters in jpg, and uses the machine gun approach. she had something like 10K actuations in the first week or two of owning a body.

:twitch:

HD video....look into it.
Click to expand...
Wow, some of these people need to be shot.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,098
1,144
NC
Transcend said:
Wow, some of these people need to be shot.
Click to expand...
Have you ever in your life shot 5,300 photos in one day?

That guy only stopped at a mere 5,300 because his shutter decided it was sick of exposing the same picture over and over, and committed suicide :D
 
H8R

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
binary visions said:
Have you ever in your life shot 5,300 photos in one day?
Click to expand...
All the time. I set my camera on a tripod and take pics of my cat. I tape down the shutter and go make a snack. Come back, throw in a fresh card, tape the shutter again.

Sometimes my cat even wanders into the frame.
 
BigMike

BigMike

BrokenbikeMike
Jul 29, 2003
8,931
0
Montgomery county MD
binary visions said:
Have you ever in your life shot 5,300 photos in one day?

That guy only stopped at a mere 5,300 because his shutter decided it was sick of exposing the same picture over and over, and committed suicide :D
Click to expand...

I shot a marathon once. (and there is a reason only once) I clicked 3,200 that day. All in single frame. No machine gunning for me!

(I did cheat though, I had it on AI servo in Program mode. I maybe took 100 or so in Manual, and called it quits)

That day sucked
 
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