Photo Techniques

[Ross]

i like the angle, just needs a little more zoom, youve done well from the stands.

as for a sports camera for pocket money, it depends on how much pocket money youve got,theres a few on the market, the Konica minolta dimage Z5 gets some good wright ups, it will set you back £250, other than that the canon powershot S2IS is good but at £350 you'd be better off spending a little more and getting a nikon d50 deal, as beginner level slrs go the nikon takes some beating.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by Ross

i like the angle, just needs a little more zoom, youve done well from the stands.

as for a sports camera for pocket money, it depends on how much pocket money youve got,theres a few on the market, the Konica minolta dimage Z5 gets some good wright ups, it will set you back £250, other than that the canon powershot S2IS is good but at £350 you'd be better off spending a little more and getting a nikon d50 deal, as beginner level slrs go the nikon takes some beating.

Yeah it was from the stands, It wasn't at full zoom tho. Do you have to set the aperture and all the other settings on Digi SLR's or is there like an auto focus?, cause I have an old SLR Olympus om10 with a huge Hoya MHC(or somthing) lens on but I find focusing and getting aperture settings fast enough a pain in the arse...

[Ross]

on most DLSR's you have full control over the camera, for instance, im using a nikon d100, for the action stuff i use it in shutter priority mode, this means i select the shutter speed i want on the control wheel and the camera automaticly selects the correct apeture, this is done instantly, if you select apeture priority you control the apeture and the camera selects the shutter speed. you also have full manual mode where you control everything from an internal light meter in the view finder. on the d50 you have all of the above plus a preprogramed auto mode and 6 scene modes so i amagine there will be a default sports mode, you will probably find this on some higher end compacts as well, its basicly a safe shot mode that pushes the shutter speed up so you catch the action, the other masive differnce between dslr and compact is shutter lag, the time it takes for the picture to be taken from the second you press the button, on my coolpix (an older one) this makes it imposible to take good action shots the delay is far too long, this is also afected by light conditions.

as for auto focus, its a bit contentionus, i belive canon has the best auto focus system onthe market at the moment, but the speed is dictated buy the lens, all year ive been using a 70-300mm nikon with a max apeture of f5.6, and its 's been fine......so i thought until i bought a new lens its only a f3.5 but the way it focuses is unbelivable, soooooooo much faster and more accurate, on my old lens it took 7 seconds to go from max to min focus, on the new one that time has been reduced to 3 seconds and that makes a huge difference.

basicly having a shit hot top of the line camera does not automaticly make you a fantastic photographer, it just helps when youve got your basic technique working for you, but if youve got a shit hot camera, lets say a canon d1s mk2 for instance and your using a bargin basment lens it would be a bit like dipping your mars bar in bulluga caviar, yeah its going to work but it could be a lot better. these days the auto focus systems on cameras is very good, but the quality is in the lens.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by Ross

on most DLSR's you have full control over the camera, for instance, im using a nikon d100, for the action stuff i use it in shutter priority mode, this means i select the shutter speed i want on the control wheel and the camera automaticly selects the correct apeture, this is done instantly, if you select apeture priority you control the apeture and the camera selects the shutter speed. you also have full manual mode where you control everything from an internal light meter in the view finder. on the d50 you have all of the above plus a preprogramed auto mode and 6 scene modes so i amagine there will be a default sports mode, you will probably find this on some higher end compacts as well, its basicly a safe shot mode that pushes the shutter speed up so you catch the action, the other masive differnce between dslr and compact is shutter lag, the time it takes for the picture to be taken from the second you press the button, on my coolpix (an older one) this makes it imposible to take good action shots the delay is far too long, this is also afected by light conditions.

as for auto focus, its a bit contentionus, i belive canon has the best auto focus system onthe market at the moment, but the speed is dictated buy the lens, all year ive been using a 70-300mm nikon with a max apeture of f5.6, and its 's been fine......so i thought until i bought a new lens its only a f3.5 but the way it focuses is unbelivable, soooooooo much faster and more accurate, on my old lens it took 7 seconds to go from max to min focus, on the new one that time has been reduced to 3 seconds and that makes a huge difference.

basicly having a shit hot top of the line camera does not automaticly make you a fantastic photographer, it just helps when youve got your basic technique working for you, but if youve got a shit hot camera, lets say a canon d1s mk2 for instance and your using a bargin basment lens it would be a bit like dipping your mars bar in bulluga caviar, yeah its going to work but it could be a lot better. these days the auto focus systems on cameras is very good, but the quality is in the lens.

Cool, thanks for your help. I must now go rob a bank

[drax]

Hey there Ive a Konica Minolta DM5D, learning the basics of it but will be learning it thoroughly early next year

[Ross]

if you need any tips your in the right place, theres a huge wealth of knowlege on here, look forward to seeing your stuff.

[Steve M]

i bought a lense from America and it arrived today, its only a wee one but it has the fish-eye dark corners when im not zooming in, is that meant to happen???

[Ross]

what focal lengh is it? and what does it fit on?

[TaxiDori]

i just bought one of the last Fuji fine pix S7000's yesterday as my christmas pressie, can't wait to start playing.

[Ross]

cool, i dont know much about them only that they're ment to bloody quick, around 3fps ive heard.

[Steve M]

Originally Posted by Ross

what focal lengh is it? and what does it fit on?

eem im not sure what you mean by focal length, its a x2 telephoto one for a Fuji S5100
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1 thats the ebay auction i bought it from, should tell you all you need to know

[Ross]

eeeeer you got me there, not too sure realy, i would guess no it shouldent because its a magnefier not a wide angle adaptor, the minimum focal length of your camera is 37mm so the lens youve bought should in theory give you 74mm on minimum zoom and a maximum of 740mm on full zoom, you only get a fish eye effect when you go below 10mm i think so i would say no it shouldent, only a guess and my theorys normaly get blown out of the water, hopefully somebody who knows what there talking about can help out.

edit: 37mm should not be wide enough for the camera to see the adaptor, witch is what sounds like is happening, how far out do you have to zoom before the effect goes away?

[TaxiDori]

Originally Posted by Ross

cool, i dont know much about them only that they're ment to bloody quick, around 3fps ive heard.

well after speaking to many people who recommended it i wouldn't be surprised. it's supposed ot be loaded with stuff to experiment with. Even it's successor the S9500 is apparently not upto par with the S7000 which is now even a few years old. I'm very happy i got one tbh, and at £300 which isn't bad at all

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Steve_1989

i bought a lense from America and it arrived today, its only a wee one but it has the fish-eye dark corners when im not zooming in, is that meant to happen???

i had the wide angle attachment for my fuji s5000 and if i was at min zoom it would have the dark corners so i don't think it can be helped really as it's actually caused buy the attachment ring being too long i think, just zoom out a tad

[Ed.]

Originally Posted by Zenki Silvia

i just bought one of the last Fuji fine pix S7000's yesterday as my christmas pressie, can't wait to start playing.

Thats my current camera aswell.Photos I took with it can be seen

Here,here,
here,
here and here

The last 3 are photos in the middle of the thread,as the photos in the 1 post of each are Paddys not mine!! Takes a bit of getting used to,but most new toys do anyway

[Steve M]

Originally Posted by Graham

i had the wide angle attachment for my fuji s5000 and if i was at min zoom it would have the dark corners so i don't think it can be helped really as it's actually caused buy the attachment ring being too long i think, just zoom out a tad

thanks mate, i always use a wee bit of zoom so should be fine
and i take it you meant to say zoom in instead of zoom out???

[Graham]

aye sorry !

[Daniel]

Just wondering, how do you get permission to go out on the track and take pictures? I highly doubt they'll let a 13 year old but i'm just asking anyway.

[Ross]

you either get permission from the track or the organisers,

[Ed.]

Originally Posted by BlitzKid

Just wondering, how do you get permission to go out on the track and take pictures? I highly doubt they'll let a 13 year old but i'm just asking anyway.

They wont,you usually have to be over 18 to sign the disclaimer on most tracks