Hello from York UK

[JSH50]

Hello

I'm John ( JSH50 ) I've been into photography a few years now and my main photography interests are Transportation ( Railways ), aircraft and motorcycle racing. However my wings are clipped at the moment by illness. I have a Nikon D300 with 18-200 lens, this lives in the car and just a general use camera. I also use a Canon 7D with 24-105mm lens + A 40D with a 100-400mm lens a 70-200 & 400 F2.8 Although I'm paranoid about changing lenses as I hate dust on the sensors so I tend to leave the camera body on the same lens as much as possible.

I'm looking forward to being an active member of the group

Many thanks John

 

[DorkSterr]

Welcome. Which menu layout do you like better Canon or Nikon?

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Welcome aboard John!

 

[JSH50]

Thank you very much indeed!

 

[JSH50]

Welcome. Which menu layout do you like better Canon or Nikon?

Thank you for the welcome, I prefer the Canon menu system best, although the Nikon's is more comprehensive I always take a second or two to switch from the Canon to the Nikon

 

[Overread]

Welcome to the site John!

With regard to dust my advice is (barring extreme examples like shooting in a dust storm) don't fear it. As someone who shoots a fair bit of macro photography and even into high magnification photography I know well the effect dust has (a photo at 3 or 5 times life size will nearly always have dust somewhere).

The thing is its important to remember:

1) Dust often won't appear unless you are using a small aperture (eg f8 or smaller) and also shooting a scene with a very low variation in detail/colour (eg a white sheet of paper - for an extreme example).

2) Removing dust in editing is often as simple as one or two clicks with the spot heal tool.

3) Cleaning your own sensor is, whilst scary the first time, not an impossible task and is just part of the DSLR world. A good cleaning kit (even just a natural air blower like a rocket blower) used every so often will keep the worst of the dust off.

 

[IceCanAm]

Welcome to the site.

 

[JSH50]

Welcome to the site John!

With regard to dust my advice is (barring extreme examples like shooting in a dust storm) don't fear it. As someone who shoots a fair bit of macro photography and even into high magnification photography I know well the effect dust has (a photo at 3 or 5 times life size will nearly always have dust somewhere).

The thing is its important to remember:

1) Dust often won't appear unless you are using a small aperture (eg f8 or smaller) and also shooting a scene with a very low variation in detail/colour (eg a white sheet of paper - for an extreme example).

2) Removing dust in editing is often as simple as one or two clicks with the spot heal tool.

3) Cleaning your own sensor is, whilst scary the first time, not an impossible task and is just part of the DSLR world. A good cleaning kit (even just a natural air blower like a rocket blower) used every so often will keep the worst of the dust off.

Thank you for the warm welcome and the advice, The dreaded spots on the sensor, I had a speck of dust on a camera that drove me crazy! In the end I got it with a piece of a Post it note bent into a loop and very gently touching the sensor to grab it. I swore never to never let it happen again! So when I change a lens now I do it near an Ioniser to keep the dust at bay!

 

[JSH50]

Welcome to the site.

Many thanks indeed!

 

[JonathanGallagher]

Welcome along, im also into photographing transport

Jonathan

 

[Overread]

Thank you for the warm welcome and the advice, The dreaded spots on the sensor, I had a speck of dust on a camera that drove me crazy! In the end I got it with a piece of a Post it note bent into a loop and very gently touching the sensor to grab it. I swore never to never let it happen again! So when I change a lens now I do it near an Ioniser to keep the dust at bay!

EEK! There are better ways to deal with dust than the post-it-note
Sensor cleaning kits come in wet and dry forms - do some searching on them or throw up a thread asking for advice (its a common question so searching along can give you some answers).
You can even get LED sensor loops which magnify and shine a light over the sensor so that you can view any potential dust present.

 

[JSH50]

Thank you for the warm welcome and the advice, The dreaded spots on the sensor, I had a speck of dust on a camera that drove me crazy! In the end I got it with a piece of a Post it note bent into a loop and very gently touching the sensor to grab it. I swore never to never let it happen again! So when I change a lens now I do it near an Ioniser to keep the dust at bay!

EEK! There are better ways to deal with dust than the post-it-note
Sensor cleaning kits come in wet and dry forms - do some searching on them or throw up a thread asking for advice (its a common question so searching along can give you some answers).
You can even get LED sensor loops which magnify and shine a light over the sensor so that you can view any potential dust present.

Yes it sounds bad doesn't it! I was taking to a Photographer at a wedding who told me to try it. This speck had resised several attempts with cleaning kits I even sent the camera away to get it sorted. The problem was it was moving every time the shutter operated and often appeared on the prism in the view finder. So now I'm of the opinion of prevention is better than cure. Another tip this pro photographer suggested was to get a large O ring from a car accessories shop and place it over the lens to give an extra seal between the camera and lens.

 

[JSH50]

Welcome along, im also into photographing transport

Jonathan

Thank you very much for the welcome, Do you favour any type of transport ?

 

[Overread]

That was one determined bit of dust!
That said I can still beat it - had an earwig in my camera once! That really makes you pause and think first - what the heck is this this crawling over the viewfinder image - and then How the heck did that get in there - followed by turning the camera upside down and hoping it falls out!

I'm not even sure it fell out - it could still be in there somewhere! (although pretty dead by now I would expect)

 

[JonathanGallagher]

Welcome along, im also into photographing transport

Jonathan

Thank you very much for the welcome, Do you favour any type of transport ?

Into my Trucking & Aviation scene