*THE HULL TRUTH is the world's largest FREE network for the discussion of Boating & Fishing. Whether you're researching a new boat, or are a seasoned Captain, you'll find The Hull Truth Boating & Fishing Message Forum contains a wealth of information from Boaters and Sportfishermen around the world.
Welcome to the updated THT!
If you are having trouble signing in, please email feedback@thehulltruth.com with your username and we will help you. We thank you for your patience as we help you access the new site!
Random Quote: Before a man gets married he has one agenda. After he gets married he still has one agend - HERS!
I have the 28-200 which gives you close to what you get with the 300mm tele. I love it...
The nice thing is you will likely never need to swap lenses unless you want better low light (larger f stop) settings. The lens you are looking won't work well at low light...
It is OK but if you really want the good one go with the 2.8. Much sharper, faster focus and of course the advantages of 2.8 at any focal length. Depends on how serious you are which is directly related to how much $$$ you are willing to spend.
what will you use this lens for? At what F stop and shutter speed do you normally shoot? how much light will you have? are you trying to stop action?
That lens is a good low end all around lens. nothing wrong with it but the questions I asked will determine if it is right for you. you never want to shoot at the max or min F-stop of any lens. it has 5.6 at 300mm. you would want to be 1 to 1 1/2 stops from that to get the sharpest shots. that means yo will wan to shoot at f 8 or higher. to stop action at f8 you will need no clouds and bright sun to use 500/sec or faster.
with camera lenses buy the fastest you can afford. from your profile photo I would say you can afford better than this.
Yea probably, but I don't waste it. I am new to this camera thing. I want to be able to shoot far away things, like planes etc. I bought a Nikon DS3000 and really like the night shots I have taken. We were taking pictures on the Seine River in Paris with a pocket digital, and they all came out pretty crappy.
Here is a picture I took of my daughters house; it was taken with no light at all.
what will you use this lens for? At what F stop and shutter speed do you normally shoot? how much light will you have? are you trying to stop action?
That lens is a good low end all around lens. nothing wrong with it but the questions I asked will determine if it is right for you. you never want to shoot at the max or min F-stop of any lens. it has 5.6 at 300mm. you would want to be 1 to 1 1/2 stops from that to get the sharpest shots. that means yo will wan to shoot at f 8 or higher. to stop action at f8 you will need no clouds and bright sun to use 500/sec or faster.
with camera lenses buy the fastest you can afford.
x2 ....you can never have enough lens....that or you have ten lenses (figuratively speaking).
We were taking pictures on the Seine River in Paris with a pocket digital, and they all came out pretty crappy.
Your pix came out crappy because you were using a Canon SD850, not really noted for it's low light capabilities, e.g. the images from that specific make/model of camera have excessive noise if shot in low light situations. And you were using ISO 800 -- every pix from that camera will look crappy at ISO 800, it can't handle it.
Lots of folks think two ways about taking pix; when you go on vacation, take the smallest, lightest compact camera so you have less weight to lug around and less toys to manage and more vacation to enjoy. Then, when you want to take pix of boats, the family, or specific events, break out the dSLR with your smorgasbord of lenses.
Regard the lens you are considering, chromatic aberrations (CA) is an issue at the extreme zoom range, you will need to use software to correct it. CA is seen when there is a light area next to a dark area, roof tops or trees next to a daytime sky. This is what CA looks like for that lens; look at the black squares -- blue line on one side, yellow on the other.
The Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR may not be the Über-lens everybody was hoping for (nor was that realistic) but it is still a very good lens. At 70mm the results are nothing short of stellar and still easily on a very good level at 200mm. At 300mm there´s a performance penalty specifically at the image borders @ f/5.6. Stopping down to f/8 helps to overcome most of the problems but unfortunately there´s also a quite pronounced but still correctable degree of yellow/blue (lateral) CA. Distortions and vignetting are basically non-issues throughout the range. The build quality is pretty decent and about in line this Nikon's recent medium grade zoom lenses. The AF is quite fast and almost silent and unlike most lenses in this league the front-element does not rotate during focusing nor zooming. The pricing of the lens may be relatively steep in absolute terms but price/performance-wise it remains a harmonious package.
Lastly, I wouldn't buy any DX lenses, only lenses that will work on a full frame sensor. It's just a matter of time before you are using a full frame dSLR. It would be nice if you could use the same glass. That lens will work on a full frame sensor, but how well has not yet been reviewed by the folks at that website. I suspect you will see performance degradation at full frame.
Good luck, hope that helps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sanchoco
... you would want to be 1 to 1 1/2 stops from that to get the sharpest shots. that means yo will wan to shoot at f 8 or higher. to stop action at f8 you will need no clouds and bright sun to use 500/sec or faster.
What you are talking about used to be correct -- then things went technical and messed up everyone.
1- that lens resolution at max apertures is fine. CA is the issue.
2- that lens is a VR II (image stabilization) model, meaning it can be handle reducing shutter speed by 4-stops allowing for its use in lower light.
I am impressed. Not only did you give me good information, but you figured out what camera I was using. I would like to know that trick
All digital cameras embed a text file with a crap load of information into every digital image the camera creates. Photo editing software updates or alters that data. As mentioned above, it is called exif data and there are a lot of freeware programs that allow you to look at, and sometimes edit the exif data.
I have the same camera, a Canon sd850, around here somewhere. That's how I know its limitations and crappy low light results.
Here is about 5% of the exif data embedded in your night shot above:
File type: JPEG
File size: 83.9 KB
Creation date: 7/15/2009 15:54 <the data/time you took the pic>
Last modification: 11/8/2009 00:21 <the date/time I extracted the exif data>
Make: Canon (http://www.canon.com)
Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Dimension: 800 x 600 px (0.5 MP, 4:3)
Focal length: 5.8 mm (equiv. 35 mm)
Aperture: F2.8
Exposure time: 1/13"
ISO speed rating: 800/30°
Metering Mode: Pattern
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
And here is a smidgen of exif data from the pic of your daughter's house.
NOTE: although you say it was "taken with no light at all", the exif data says different.
File type: JPEG
File size: 55.2 KB
Creation date: 1/5/2010 19:09 <<< reminder to set the date and time in your D3000
Last modification: 11/8/2009 00:00
Make: NIKON CORPORATION (http://www.nikon.com)
Camera: NIKON D3000
Software: Ver.1.00
Dimension: 640 x 428 px (0.3 MP, 3:2)
Focal length: 36 mm (equiv. 54 mm)
Aperture: F5
Exposure time: 1"
ISO speed rating: 200/24°
Program: Not defined
Metering Mode: Pattern Flash: Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected
Fwiw, that Canon compact camera (sd850) yields very good results also when a flash is used. It just really sucks for low light images -- too much pixel noise.
The Nikor 70-200 AFS VR F2.8 is one of the best lenses aver made.
That's a gold ring lens (e.g. a professional lens) not in the same class as what Kingair is looking at. Otherwise, hell yes!!! If I bought Nikkor lenses I'd definitely have that 70-200.
That lens is pretty good but it's very delicate. I've lost one when a "go-fast" boat hit me with it's wake. I replaced it with a 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG Macro Sigma. The Sigma at the time was also cheaper in price but built much more rugged.
I guess the file does not lie. I used the night shot setting, but did not see the flash fire. Oh well. I will not tell the Admiral she bought a crappy camera.
I set the date and time, but when I remove the battery to charge it, the time resets
Per your D3000 user's manual, when you insert the charged camera battery the camera pulls some of the charge from it and recharges a smaller, internal clock battery. It takes the camera about 3-days to charge the internal battery but when completed it will keep the camera's clock alive for about 30-days without the camera's battery installed.
See the box on page 19 of your D3000 user manual.
Something they don't tell you about digital photography -- it has just as many steps as film photography.
Film photography:
(1) expose the film
(2) process the film
(3) make the print
Digital photography:
(1) expose the sensor (make a digital file) (2) process the digital file
(3) make the print (or display on your computer)
It is that step 2 that most folks overlook -- it is a necessary part of getting a digital image anywhere close to being as acceptable as a film image. This is where Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture NX, etc comes into play. Just a very basic understanding of processing digital files will improve any digital photography by a huge margin.
One thing to remember about all this equipment is that cameras come and go but lenses go on for a real long time. I have upgraded enough lenses to know....
I would not be afraid to buy lenses used from somewhere like KEH either...
The 70 - 200mm Nikor f2.8 is a wonderful lens. To go longer at f2.8 the money really starts to add up.
You can probably spend many hours on the dpreview website forums finding out more than you ever wanted to know. A lot of it is mixed in with the typical web junk but if you can figure this forum out you can figure that one out.....
__________________ "Years grow shorter not longer"
Per your D3000 user's manual, when you insert the charged camera battery the camera pulls some of the charge from it and recharges a smaller, internal clock battery. It takes the camera about 3-days to charge the internal battery but when completed it will keep the camera's clock alive for about 30-days without the camera's battery installed.
See the box on page 19 of your D3000 user manual.
Something they don't tell you about digital photography -- it has just as many steps as film photography.
Film photography:
(1) expose the film
(2) process the film
(3) make the print
Digital photography:
(1) expose the sensor (make a digital file) (2) process the digital file
(3) make the print (or display on your computer)
It is that step 2 that most folks overlook -- it is a necessary part of getting a digital image anywhere close to being as acceptable as a film image. This is where Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture NX, etc comes into play. Just a very basic understanding of processing digital files will improve any digital photography by a huge margin.
I am using Lightroom's eval version. It looks pretty good, but is it worth $200
I am using Lightroom's eval version. It looks pretty good, but is it worth $200
Sorry but I am not the right person to ask about Lightroom, never used it -- I'm too cheap. I use free software, Capture NX that came with a Nikon camera and Photoshop Elements that came with a Wacom editing tablet. PS Elements is usually available at Costco for around $50 or so.
I have no need for advanced photo editing, so I have no need for Photoshop and the like. I only do sharping, color correction, enhance saturation and contrast, and crop. For those basic editing functions I really like Capture NX, it is well thought out and the U Point technology is a lot easier to use, and has better results than Photoshop. To get similar results with PS takes a lot of learning, a lot of trial and error, and a lot of clicking ... and I have a very short attention span.
I do use Photoshop Elements but only because it supports many of Photoshop plugins such as Silver FX Pro, which I use extensively to create B&W images from color RAW files. Actually, I don't use PS Elements at all, I use the 3rd party plugin to it, Silver FX Pro.
Btw, I downloaded that crappy night photo from your sd850 and tossed it into Silver FX pro, applied structure, contrast and Fujifilm Arco 100 film grain. The results is a dynamic B&W night image! All I had was a 600x800 image, would be better, more dynamic, if working with the fullsize file. There is a lot of detail in the bridge bricks that can be pulled out.
Camera Lense 
....you can never have enough lens....that or you have ten lenses (figuratively speaking). 
I would like to know that trick
