Suggestions? No lens, no money.

[Infidel]

[SARCASM]My situation is a little different than the OP's. I'm double the OP's age, my wife and I are employed, and I shoot with a D40 and a kit lens. I want a D700 and F/2.8 glass covering the 12mm to 200mm range, as well as some faster primes. I may still have a lot to learn about how to be a better photographer (hell, who says I even want to get better?), but it doesn't matter...no justification, no apologies; I just want the fancy gear. In fact, to a certain extent, I just want it because it's expensive, but I'm willing to play along and say that build quality, weather sealing and ISO performance (and **** like that) is important to me. It's not really that important though, because I tend to spend more time reading posts on this website than taking pictures. Nevertheless, it feels good to fiddle with the camera while sitting on the sofa, watching tv (taking dumb pictures of the ceiling fan, etc). It's just that this would be soooo much more satisfying if it were with $10k worth of gear, not $400.

Has anyone else been in this situation? Any pointers or advice? Thanks in advance.[/SARCASM]

Sarcasm tags shouldn't be necessary, but I put them to avoid serious responses, along the lines of "You need to get out more" or "Step away from the computer" or "Just get out and shoot, man".

 

[o hey tyler]

Leica the most expensive lens in the world | Leica News & Rumors

Get this lens and stop being such a ****ing noob. This is all you need to do sports photography, duh. You also may need a forklift, but you can rent one of those.

 

[Infidel]

Leica the most expensive lens in the world | Leica News & Rumors

Get this lens and stop being such a ****ing noob. This is all you need to do sports photography, duh. You also may need a forklift, but you can rent one of those.

Will it auto focus on my D40?

 

[o hey tyler]

Leica the most expensive lens in the world | Leica News & Rumors

Get this lens and stop being such a ****ing noob. This is all you need to do sports photography, duh. You also may need a forklift, but you can rent one of those.

Will it auto focus on my D40?

It will autofocus on your optic nerve. It's that ****ing intense.

 

[Infidel]

It will autofocus on your optic nerve. It's that ****ing intense.

Do I need a special adapter or something?

 

[o hey tyler]

It will autofocus on your optic nerve. It's that ****ing intense.

Do I need a special adapter or something?

No, it interfaces with your eye like some Avatar ****.

 

[Chiuy]

Please do feel free to comment, but you're all probably going to find all the negative things about it, since you all hate me now.

Canon XSi, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @18mm, approx 30 shots to take 360 degrees on a tripod. Flash: Off, ISO: 1600? Or 800, forgot.

Used only Photoshop CS2 to crop and stitch the images together.
Did not do any editing at all beside crop and stitch.

Info on the picture: Our Junior Prom dance. Theme was Circus. Color: Red, White and Orange. This was in our gym.
60 leadership kids and over 1000 hours of work and planning (6 months). Took us 24 hours to set it up and 12 hours to clean it all up.
Cost: $5000
There was no professional work involve, it was just us 60 leadership kids and 5 parents volunteering.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/374/dvhsjuniorprom360bylchi.jpg

 

[den9]

i read this thread, and honestly all it seems like you want to do is argue with yourself.

you have no money, there for you wont get a lens.

yes L lenses are nice.

i started at the age of 17 with a manual point and shoot and a 5 dollar tripod, i learned, read countless books experiemented then moved on to a dslr with 5 megapixels, and a 50 dollar lens, saved up and bought a kit lens and used that for a while. now that i have a job i can afford 1000 dollar lenses.

now im using a film camera and currently saving for a full frame digital camera, but you dont hear me bitching.

in all honesty, you sound like a little ***** who doesnt take a nice camera and decent lens for granted, it seems like you just want to ***** and moan until someone donates a lens to you for free.

there is nothing free, you want a good future? suffer now with school then you can afford better stuff when you are 24. shovel snow this winter, find a summer job making 200 bucks a week. or you can just ***** and moan and disagree with everyone. i know what option might get you a new lens. find a crap job on the weekends, even if its just one day for 8 hours, by the end of the winter you will have a nice macro lens for the spring.

 

[den9]

Flickr: Chiuy's Photostream

your photos seem pretty fine, i dont see what the problem is, if anything id say you should invest in a flash for outdoor portraits.

 

[Chiuy]

Now... when did I ever said that I wanted someone to donate a lens to me? Stop making those craps up. If I could get a job right now, I would.
Even on the weekend I spend most of my time studying. Taking classes related to Biomedical Engineering is kind of tough you know.
And if you're wondering why I'm on this forum and not studying it's cause I'm on an one week break off from school.
Right now, I'm using a cheap $30 flash, $20 50" tripod, and a Canon XSi that was used for $400 with the standard kit lenses. That's pretty cheap back then cause I got lucky.

I met some professional photographers in my area, they said that my works were pretty fantastic. I also do a lot of experiments on photography and sometime they will ask me for some tips on how I take those pictures with the lenses I have. Those photographers are friendly, I don't know what's wrong with this forum.

In another 8 years though, I can probably afford anything I want.

 

[memento]

OT - maybe you could squeeze an English class in between your Biomedical Engineering classes?

 

[manaheim]

Sheesh. I suppose I'm in no position to criticize since I was pretty sarcastic, but it seems calling people names and such is taking this someplace it doesn't need to go.

To OP... I do think it's basically simple economics. You need to budget your time and your money. If you can't free up either, then you're going to have to stick with what you have. I think people here are railing against you, because I really don't think you should need us to tell you that and we're all fairly baffled.

That's pretty much it.

 

[o hey tyler]

Sheesh. I suppose I'm in no position to criticize since I was pretty sarcastic, but it seems calling people names and such is taking this someplace it doesn't need to go.

To OP... I do think it's basically simple economics. You need to budget your time and your money. If you can't free up either, then you're going to have to stick with what you have. I think people here are railing against you, because I really don't think you should need us to tell you that and we're all fairly baffled.

That's pretty much it.

:thumbup:

 

[Chamelion 6]

Please do feel free to comment, but you're all probably going to find all the negative things about it, since you all hate me now.

Canon XSi, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @18mm, approx 30 shots to take 360 degrees on a tripod. Flash: Off, ISO: 1600? Or 800, forgot.

Used only Photoshop CS2 to crop and stitch the images together.
Did not do any editing at all beside crop and stitch.

Info on the picture: Our Junior Prom dance. Theme was Circus. Color: Red, White and Orange. This was in our gym.
60 leadership kids and over 1000 hours of work and planning (6 months). Took us 24 hours to set it up and 12 hours to clean it all up.
Cost: $5000
There was no professional work involve, it was just us 60 leadership kids and 5 parents volunteering.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/374/dvhsjuniorprom360bylchi.jpg

I'm not hating ya, I'm just trying to get you to see you are far better off than most people in high school and much better off than a good many people on this forum. Looking at your stuff you have a good deal of potental, but room for some improvement.

The push back you're getting is because people keep saying "I started off worse off than you and made it work," and you sound like, "I'm good enough I don't need to pay my dues." Maybe not what you intend, but it's there...

Like everyone keeps saying, there is no magic key to the white lens. You just gotta work for it. But I'd focus on school, the field you plan to major in is highly competative these days and academicly demanding. Plan on having a 4.0 to get into a program and plan on loosing it the first semester you're in.

 

[tommypalloj]

When I was in High School I was in all AP classes and taking part time classes at the local community college (for free). And I saved up $9500 for my car, and plenty of other goodies including my XTi. I never got a penny from my parents for wants, but they covered all of the needs as in food, school supplies, and clothes once a year.

I was in your situation and I had time to get a job over the weekend. I was paid minimum wage for 4 hours a day and paid for my car in full and everything else I bought. It will never happen in your mindset that "I need a lens, but have no money". You do not need a lens, or even a DSLR for that matter. You ended up saving $400 for your camera so do the same for the other things you want. Save up your pennies and sell the stuff you consider "crap" on a local forum.

I made my money by a 8 hours a week job, packing my own lunch and keeping my $2 a week lunch money (I was on the discounted program because of my parent's income), and buying car parts and selling them on different forums for close to double the money. Now that I am at UCF, I do the same thing without having a job now, and have a rising income while paying for my own apartment, school, food, and everything in-between.

Pretty much, take all of the suggestions given to you and apply them to your situation. Or don't ask for help at all.