Used Cameras

Also, if y'all could help me out on my kit it would be awesome. In other words, tell me what I should consider buying for landscapes photography.. any little object I might forgot that could make a difference. As far as I'm going, I'm considering on buying the following. What do you guys think I should add or remove maybe? Or is that enough.

Grolliapod
Tripod
UV Filter / Polarizer Filter / Split Filter
Lens (still don't know which one)
Camera bag (One that could be covered from the rain and such would be great)
Cleaning Kit
4GB Memory Card
 
I'd be inclined to take 2 2GB cards or 1GB cards over a single 4GB card - but that's just personal preference.

For landscape photgraphy, in fact for most photography, one thing I would definitely add to that list is the word "solid" in front of the word "tripod". A cheap lightweight tripod is clearly better than nothing, but I would strongly recommend getting something more substantial. I don't think having everything interchangeable, high-tech materials etc, are necessary, but the tripod being heavy enough does matter, so if on a budget maybe consider looking for an older, used tripod.
 
Ahh okay, but about the memory card- it's simply because as I won't have access to electricity and computers often, I'd rather pick something bigger so I can stuck them all in, and eventually transfer it on PC and same thing again...
 
For landscaping try to get a wide lense. That is the lowest focal length.

DSLR Noob's lens buying guide.

How a lens is named(Canon, others are similar)

Canon------------50mm------------f/1.4------------USM
^manufacturer----^focal length----^max apertrue--^feature, in this case, a USM ring focusing motor

For landscaping you want the middle number to be as low as possible. The max Aperture is better when it is a low number as well.
Nikon uses a few lettering systems to indicate featers in the lens name such as VR (vibration reduction) ED (low dispersion glass) etc.

Focal length guide(variable "L" for length):
L < 28 it is considered wide and would be good for landscaping, somehting around 14 to 21 would be ideal. It is also good for taking pictures in cramped spaces. One can also emphasize the size of a building.

30> L < 80 Is considered a midrange lens. Good for portraits, photos of cars, etc.

L < 80 Is a telephoto, good for taking pictures from a distance. Lengths above 250 are great for nature photography of animals that'd be scared when you approach closely. think a telescope for your camera.

Aperture Guide usages and benefits.
A low aperture number or a high aperture (the lower the number the higher the aperture, don't ask). A high aperture (like 1.8) means that the aperture blades in the lense can open up to a very large hole to let light pass through. Thus you can take a picture in a low light situation, without a shutte rspeed slow enough to make camera shake a horrible reality. The positives, being able to use faster shutter speeds, brighter viewfinder, interesting blurring of the objects not focused on (called bokeh, and is achieved with a shallow DOF [depth of field] ). Downside, fully opened lenses aren't as razor sharp as usual, shallow depth of field can be a bad thing, (i.e. le'ts say you focused on a bench 30 feet in front of a building, this bench has really nice aging wood and beautiful woodgrain, but the building also has a detailed antique feeling. You want to capture both. well if your aperture is wide open at 1.8, when you focus on the bench, the building turns into a blurry series of dots of light[you see them in movies in the background or foreground a lot].

Using a smaller aperture (lower MAX is still preffered in buying a lens but this is a usage tip) can be good becaus emore is in focus. you would be able to take a picture where the bench and the building, are in moderately good focus (naked eye probably couldn't tell the difference). Downsides to this are, longer shutter speeds, possibly needing a tripod, darker viewfinder, and if too high, once again losing razor sharpness on the most focused object.

Most lenses work best (for razor sharpness) at around F/8.

Here is just a feature yo might see someday when looking at lenses.

Macro- indicates a lifesize magnification. In other words, you can focus close enough to a small object, filling the frame, and it would take the picture with the object in life size proportion to your sensor. think, if you sensor is the size of a postage stamp, and you take a picture of a bug that fills the entire postage stamp, then when you uploaded the image, that poster stap image makes a 40 inch high res Monitor sized digital image, and in theory, a 40 inch bug in full detail!


Focal length diagram of how a telephoto sees compaired to a wide angle. (Variable "C" for camera, lines represent everyhting camera can see, not the shape of the lens) Both cameras are pointed at a red Corvette.


Telephoto, 150mm
IMG_0154.jpg

......|...........|.........
......|...........|.........
......|...........|.........
.......|.........|..........
.......|.........|..........
.......|.........|..........
........|.......|...........
........|.......|...........
........|.......|...........
.........|.....|............
.........|.....|............
..........|...|.............
..........{C}.............


Wide angle 28 mm
IMG_0154.jpg

\.........................../
....\.................../....
.......\............./.......
..........\......./..........
............{C}............

On the telephoto, notice the accuracy to fill the frame with a small portion of what the camera is pointed at, but at high magnification (imagine the lines at the end of the camera's sight being edges of a picture frame, the photo is the same size, just stretch or squish the image into that perspective. this camera sees from a few feet in front of the bumper to just in front of the rear tire of the car.


On the wide angle, it captures a lot of what it is pointed at, more than what your eye can pick up (eye is about a 50mm), but everything in the picture is smaller to fit. Once again picture is same size. This image captures the car and the entire parking lot

Always research a lens before buying it. Just because it has the focal length and aperture you want doesn't mean that the image quality is great. ask here before purchasing!

Aperture diagram.
This is a bad example because I rarely take photos with a large peth of field but here is aperture at 2.8
IMG_0235.jpg

See how the girls are both in focus, as is the front of the table to the rear of the table?

Well here is anothe rphoto at 1.8
IMG_0073.jpg

look at the table the can is sitting on. Notice how an inch of depth is in focus. Everything an inch behind the can is blurry everything an inch in front of the can is blurry. Making the can stand out, a desired effect in this instance. The soft background is called bokeh and is visually pleasing without its sharp lines and harsh contrast.
 
Wow, I made that stuff 100% original (my photos, my charts, diagrams and such) but seeing how well they explained stuff, I say they should go in a sticky. It's quite a good explanation. anyone else agree?
 
Of the new Nikons out there I think I would chose a D80 (don't think you can find new ones out there) and I don't like the d40. I do drool over the d200 but just because it's pretty, for me this is just a hobby and can't afford that kind of money - first of all I'd need to learn to take proper photos... maybe in 2-3 years or more.
If you're talking of used, hmm, guess D70s is good.
By the way, be aware that used cameras can have LOTS of exposures, and if I remember correctly I read that these cameras live for around 40-100 000 exposures. Not sure you want to buy a camera slightly cheaper that has been used for 50 000 shots already. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Lens, I have a d50 with kit lens (among others) and I don't like it a lot but it works. I heard several people saying the d70 kit lens is considerably better. I even thought of selling mine and getting a d70 kit lens. So depending on your budget, you could consider it.
 
How much would you expect to pay for these lenses? (second hand)

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens

Canon EF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II Lens

Canon EF 50-200mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens with UV filter

I've taken a look on Ebay but I'm finding it hard to find the exact ones.
 
Thanks a lot DSLR noob, your post helped me a lot to understand about lenses. I understand the thing about landscapes, but as you've said.. if you picture a building with a landscape lens- the building will be distorted. Now, my question is- I said I'd be doing landscapes pictures, but I also will be doing nature ones.. Like this for exemple:

spaceball.gif


I guess I'd need a normal lens(the one you said for portraits) to make this kind of shot or the landscapes would do a good job?

Yeah I'll definitely post here for advices once I'll spot some lenses, and even for the body.


Monster, my budget for lenses would be around 500$ CAD.


Also, this looks like a good deal to me
http://cgi.cafr.ebay.ca/Nikon-D70s-...yZ107912QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

The guy said he took 3 131 pictures with it... does that have anything to do with those exposure you were talking about bencze?
 
klissarov ik said:
The guy said he took 3 131 pictures with it... does that have anything to do with those exposure you were talking about bencze?
Click to expand...


Yep, that sounds good. Quite a low number. If it looks good, it probably is. :)
 
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Heh... finally I think I'll go with a D80.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Nikon-D80-Body-K...QQihZ002QQcategoryZ147174QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I just think it will be better, and since I won't be upgrading cameras for a while... I wanna get something good now that will last me a couple of years.

My question is.. does the D70s Lens Kit could fit on the D80?

And I was maybe thinking of getting the 18-200mm as a lens for my D80..

http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-Tamron-18-20...QQihZ020QQcategoryZ106862QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I think this could give me more opportunities. But if I get this right, could I take landscapes pictures with this kind of lens still?

Or which lens would you suggest me for a D80.

Gmarques, I know you use a D80- what kind of lens do you use for your landscapes pictures? And what would you recommend me?
 
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
klissarov ik said:
Ahhh, I see now.. I thought by getting a better camera body- I'd get better results. But I guess I forgot about the lens. Hmm.. well this being said- I think I'll go back to my old pick and go for the D70s. But I heard the lens kit of this model is pretty good... what do you guys think? And also, which lens would you recommend me for landscapes pictures and night shots. Because I don't really know about lenses.. I mean I know a few basic stuffs but that's it.

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Some advice I found helpful

Have a read at why it doesn't matter what camera you have:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

and a $150 vs $5000 camera:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/150-vs-5000-dollar-camera.htm

Read, digest and make your choice (I only ask for 10% of any money you save :lol: )
 
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