New Camera

[kaivalagi]

I agree, more light would be good, but it would either mean 1) adding more tubes to a tank taking the brightness way beyond normal levels which would be expensive and not a great solution as some places are always in the shade or 2) using a flash which except for the one off pics now and again I would sooner not use...or am I missing a trick?

For the most part at f2.8 I get ISO100/200 shots with a shutter speed of atleast 1/30th as I have 2 x 4' T5 tubes, but if I had a better f-stop rated lens I could get to keep more shots as I could get the shutter speed up and get less blur for fast moving fish...

Maybe pics using zoom lenses would suffer from their widest aperture being used but my prime is just fine, and having a lens with the lowest possible f-stop for what you can afford is not a bad thing...just expensive none the less.

Photography is a great hobby though aye, lots to it and always stuff to learn, I am still very much an amateur....I'm waiting for the spring to get out and about with the motorbike and SLR a lot more

My favourite pic I have taken with the macro with no extra lighting, still haven't beaten it yet, trying though:

Needed more depth of field...another f-stop issue

 

[markandhisfish]

not to sound thick lol but what is asa?

kavalagi i am already on the case cataloging the fish , ive updated the journal with the 2 pics in this thread , and will continue to do so right up to adulthood.

im looking at getting a canon 55mm f1.8 prime lens next

 

[markandhisfish]

ooops lol just realised asa is shutter speed

 

[kaivalagi]

im looking at getting a canon 55mm f1.8 prime lens next

There are a few good review sites, these 2 are my favourites:
http/www.dpreview.com/
http/www.cameralabs.com/

I don't know much about that lens but it aint gonna be bad, it's a canon lens...and f1.8 means you have a lot of room for low light situations

I went and got a Tokina AT-X 100mm F2.8 Pro-D Macro lens, can't rate it highly enough! Couple of the reviews:
http/www.photozone.de/canon-eos/270-tokina-af-100mm-f28-at-x-pro-d-macro-canon-review--test-report
http/www.shutterbug.com/equipmentreviews/lenses/0106tokina/

ooops lol just realised asa is shutter speed

Nope not shutter speed, ISO = ASA, ASA is the old school for ISO really.
[font="verdana]ISO = International Standards Organisation[/font]
[font="verdana]ASA = American Standards Association[/font]

In the days of film ISO or ASA is a rating of how quickly a film could "capture" light i.e. exposure speed, so with an ISO 100 film more light is needed to get a good exposure but with a less grainy outcome, ISO 800 would give a far more noisier picture but require less light so higher shutter speeds and/or higher f-stop (smaller aperture) can be used. Now with a DSLR you still have an ISO rating which dictates the sensitivity of the sensor, more sensitivity (i.e. higher ISO) can result in more noise being captured...

ISO (exposure speed), Shutter speed and F-stop (aperture, higher = smaller hole) all play off each other if you know what I mean, it's about finding a balance between all these for the shot you want. Other factors need to be considered also though such as depth of field which is affected by the f-stop, higher = higher etc etc

You'll get the knack of it after a little while experimenting..just play about, it's not like there is film in the camera which cost money to replace

 

[markandhisfish]

yeah thats the beauty of digital photography , if you get a bad shot you just delete it and try again. ive been using "tv" mode mostly . where you set the shutter speed yourself but the camera does most of the work. ive sussed so far that if you press the shutter half way , if the shutter speed number flashes in the viewfinder you need to turn the dial to slow it down untill it doesnt flash , but so far thats about as far as ive got. i think i need to stop being such a bloke and just read the manual lol

 

[kaivalagi]

yeah thats the beauty of digital photography , if you get a bad shot you just delete it and try again. ive been using "tv" mode mostly . where you set the shutter speed yourself but the camera does most of the work. ive sussed so far that if you press the shutter half way , if the shutter speed number flashes in the viewfinder you need to turn the dial to slow it down untill it doesnt flash , but so far thats about as far as ive got. i think i need to stop being such a bloke and just read the manual lol

There are some good sites that give you some good starting points, you really need to get to grips with the ISO/F-Stop/Shutter thing...you can see what happens if you use either aperture (Av) or shutter priority (Tv) modes and start scrolling

 

[markandhisfish]

any good sites you could reccomend?

 

[kaivalagi]

Just looking though my bookmarks, so far got this:

• http/www.geofflawrence.com/
• http/www.dslrtips.com/
• http/www.photoxels.com/digital-photography-tutorials.html
• http/photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
• http/www.photoanswers.co.uk/Video-Tutorials/

 

[markandhisfish]

wow plenty there to keep me going lol . thanks

 

[kaivalagi]

wow plenty there to keep me going lol . thanks

No probs, the first on the list hits all the points you need to get your head around now and more

 

[markandhisfish]

yes indeed . very interesting reading , and mighty useful too. particularly the section on shutter speed and aperture. i knew what the nimbers meant for shutter speed but not aperture. but now i do . hmmm i want that f 1.8 lens even more now

 

[bonzo]

I,m with star on this one. Big black thing with button and point click and pray and then swear a few times. How do you get oscars to stay still.

 

[markandhisfish]

you get them to satnd still by having the shutter speed as high as possible for the light available

 

[bonzo]

Yip i understand that. fiddle with the dial and press the button

 

[raptorrex]

yes indeed . very interesting reading , and mighty useful too. particularly the section on shutter speed and aperture. i knew what the nimbers meant for shutter speed but not aperture. but now i do . hmmm i want that f 1.8 lens even more now

you get them to satnd still by having the shutter speed as high as possible for the light available

thing is, as i say. a lens will not give its best, at the widest aperture. though a 1.8 lens will offer better quality at 2.8 than a lens with a maximun aperture of 2.8 would. but using your lens at maximum aperture, is not giving you the best quality.
there is another, perhaps more important, factor using maximum lens aperture, depth of field. the wider the aperture used, the less of any picture, is in sharp focus. this is compounded (made worse) the closer you get.
another suggestion, for picture quality. save your images, and edit them, in RAW format. indeed taking RAW images is the only way you will get close to the best quality your camera can produce. JPG's are handy (you can get far more on a 8gb card) but is "lossy". (it disregards information and reconstitutes it, via an algorithm). i know raw are big files. but here's is the thing. they are big because they need to be to hold all the information. thats why they are better than JPG's and the like. it is vitally important you edit in RAW, tiff (uncompressed) or any uncompressed format. editing JPG's as JPG's, mealy looses more quality.

kaivalagi may well be happy with his picture quality at maximum aperture. but his pictures would improve, if he stopped down. this is not my guess, or my thoughts. but a basic established and well known physical effect of maximum aperture photography. and has been common knowledge for over 100 years.

can i suggest you either, buy or lend a book on the photographic basics! having read that, you can sort the wheat from the chaff, in the webs site department. unlike fishkeeping, the rules of photography are FIXED. any real photography student will confirm my comments.


lol, lol, lol, lol, I've just read the photoxles comments on aperture. honest guys get your information from those who know. or buy a good book. whilst the place covers, very loosely, the basics. there is so much rubbish information there. you will only learn by using the advice, and finding is duff.