***DSLR/Photography MegaThread***

nocturn

nocturn

what I am, you shall be
So Im finally going to take the plunge into the wonderful world of DSLR. Im tired of using my wifey's little P&S Sony Cybershot and seeing my N90 and $5k worth of lenses collecting dust.

Im looking seriously at the New Nikon D80. I have a friend that has a D200 and a D70 and swears by them.

Ive done quite a bit of research on the D80 but want to hear from the average Joe, not a corporate talking head with a padded wallet.

Any thoughts?


PS, No! I will not buy a Canon.
 
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My brother has the first of the Canon Rebel DSLR camera's that came out (5ish years old?) and absolutely raves about it.
 
Don't you people read? He's NOT buying a canon.

Here's a link to a site with some good reviews, and they have forums that are specific to what you are looking for.

http://www.dpreview.com/
 
I have a friend who has (I think) the D70 and is happy with it. I'll get the scoop from him at the game tonight, but he was saying that one of the Nikons, the right side of the body is not big enough to fit comfortably in your hand so you don't get a good grip.

My girlfriend has a Canon and she loves it, but I can understand not wanting to replace all your lenses.
 
Jesus. I should have posted I was buying a Canon. I probably would've been inundated with "Nikon's are better" blah, blah.

Bandit said:
I have a friend who has (I think) the D70 and is happy with it. I'll get the scoop from him at the game tonight, but he was saying that one of the Nikons, the right side of the body is not big enough to fit comfortably in your hand so you don't get a good grip.

My girlfriend has a Canon and she loves it, but I can understand not wanting to replace all your lenses.
Click to expand...

Bingo.

johnmac44 said:
I read. Canon has the better lenses. Sorry. He asked for an opinion and he got mine. I prefer Canon. After owning several other brands, I found one that has the quality I prefer and as a scrapbooker, I want the best pictures.
Click to expand...

...on the Nikon D80. Not Canon nor its better lenses. Thanks anyways.



I went ahead and bought the D80 and the 70-300mm DX, VR lens from Ritz. I noticed my old 70-210mm had a busted turret.
Got everything for just under 2k. I'll be getting a pretty fat rebate back from Nikon as well.

Soon as the battery charges, I'll shoot off some shots from around the house and post em.
 
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Not that this really helps, since you've already pulled the trigger on the purchase, but for all future DSLR consumers, the decision as to which brand to go with shouldn't be made with body options, but which lenses you prefer and which ones you already have. Spend almost your entire camera budget on the glass, what ever you have left over should go to the body. Good glass does not depreciate.
 
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Alright! Here's the first batch of images.

Other than some cropping, no image processing has been done.

All these were taken in really bad light. A massive fog bank moved in early this am and killed the light making the shots "softer" than I would've liked to see.

The mute ambient light was good however for color.

Enjoy!

bell.jpg

sycamore.jpg

mockingbird.jpg

birch.jpg

japanmaple.jpg

backyard.jpg

nandinaberries.jpg
 
Thanks Guys.

I'm really impressed with this camera's "Depth of Field". I shot a few pics of a flock of Titmouse (har har) that didn't come out well because the subjects move so friggn fast. But one particular shot has a incredible field depth. I'll post it later.

BTW,
#1 is a macro of dew on very large red Christmas bells hanging on my lamppost. (12mm)
#2 is a micro of one of my Tulip poplars. The blue/gray looked phenomenal in the fog. (18mm)
#3 is (obviously) a large Mocking bird @ about 300mm. I don't know if any of you have seen Eastern Mocking Birds but they are twice the size of the Westerns...Very impressive bird.
#4 is of my American Beech leaves. Love the reds and yellows. 25mm
#5 Is of my Emperor II Japanese Maple. 18mm
#6 is the backyard overlooking the Appomattox River. Boat console is @ the bottom right (oops!). 55mm
#7 Nandina Berries @ 12mm

I dig texture. #1 is my personal fav with #2 close second.

I tried to get a couple Blue Jays but they were more interested in kicking the **** out of each other than pose for a pic.
 
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What lens do you use for the macro shots? I've been thinking of getting a macro lens for my D100.
 
So it's not a true macro lens?

There's a difference between that Sigma lens and the DX Nikon lenses. The DX lenses are built for digital cameras, so there's no "chopping" of images. The lens I use the most is a Nikon 28-200 ED, and because it's a general purpose AF lense (as opposed to the DX digital-specific lenses), I have to really be careful of my framing since I'll lose about 1/4" of image of the right and left sides.

Chances are, that with the Sigma lense you'll only get about 100-105 degrees of FOV since the camera's CCD will only see that much.

THIS is the macro lens I'm thinking of getting someday soon.

And THIS is on my list of soon-to-gets, too. I want the vibration reduction feature.
 
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Opps! Sorry FBJ. I misread your post and I f'ed up my discription above. I read "MICRO" in your first post as in "Up Close" not macro.
I also realized I f'ed up in line #1 in my discription saying "Macro"..My bad.

None of the photos above were done in MACRO. Hell, I dont think anyone makes a 1:1 or better Macro lens in the 12mm range anyway.

Photo's #1,#2,#5 &#7 were all taken with the above Sigma.
Photo #3 was taken with a new Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5 - 5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR
Photo's #4 & #6 were taken with a new Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX
 
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I used my old Nikon 70-210mm AF with really good results. I didnt notice any chopping. Not that I was looking.

I cant however use the camera's 3D Color Matrix, Bracketing or White balancing. I think Im going to dump it and keep the 70-300mm ED VR.
 
nocturn said:
I used my old Nikon 70-210mm AF with really good results. I didnt notice any chopping. Not that I was looking.

I cant however use the camera's 3D Color Matrix, Bracketing or White balancing. I think Im going to dump it and keep the 70-300mm ED VR.
Click to expand...

That's an advantage of the new computer lenses. The old ones won't talk to the camera to let you use those features.

I'd like to try out a 70-300 VR lense sometime.
 
If you have a Ritz Camera near you they may let you use a loaner lens. I have the 18-55mm here with me for 72 hours.
 
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