It's always frustrating when you go on a shooting trip and your camera lens failed you. It is also important that when you return home to do a bit of cleaning of your equipments before you store them. As for me I had to learn the hard way by having one of my lens spoilt. My kit lens 18-55mm started to malfunction a day before my honeymoon trip!! It was my darkest day of my photography life. I was resorted to bring my 50mm and my 50-200mm. Another lens has a spec of dust stuck in the lens. And the dust is really big with no way I can take it out without a professional technician.
The good thing is that buying magazines monthly helps you to learn more about cameras. The bad thing is that not putting into practise of what you learn. I go thru both........Sadly I am unable to use my kit lens anymore.
Tip No 1.
Remember to switch to manual focus for your lens or camera(if they have any) before putting them into your bag. That was exactly what happen to my lens. My lens' rotary hook(I don't know what's the technical term is) to move my focusing snapped when I try to quickly take out the camera out of the bag!!!! The lens totally burst.. I can't even manual focus cos it will just mve by itself. And that feels sucks since I only have three lens. I face a difficult task of unable to take any wide angle shot.
Tip No 2.
Try to protect the lens by using a filter. Normally you use a skylight or a U.V. filter as it doesn't change the quality of your image. And usually this filter are quite cheap. I got one from Tokina at SGD17 for a 67mm. The filter will helps to protect your lens from dust or moist touching your lens. At least when you accidently scratched the glass when whipping the dust or any moist off. In worst senario, a very small flying stone hit your lens as it helps to prevent hitting directly to your glass lens. Besides changing a filter is far more cheaper than getting a new lens. Especially if you don't earn that much for a living.
Tip No 3
Its always good to clean you lens and the rest of you equipment after a shooting trip as this will help maintain the condition of your equipments. Use a micro fibre cloth or pre-moistened cloth to clean your equipments. A great tip I learn is that especially when you take sunset(by the sea) or sea sports is that micro salt will start to develop at ur equipment after while by the sea. This is very critical as it is difficult to clean it when it start to crystallise on your lens glass. It is also be dangerous with its start to go thru all the small corners of your equipments. Don't say I didnt warn you as it happens to my lens and luckily I got my filter to protect it. Imagine if you put your camera in your drybox without cleaning it, the salt crystal starts to hardened. You got to go to a professional to clean it. And if you are in doubt, send it for servicing. It is still be cheaper.
So thats the few tips that I have learn, and will share with you more once I find more info.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy shooting
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
My Nikon D50
Although it is longer in production or probably at most of your camera store, I will just write about Nikon D50 since I am using it right now. Next investment will be Nikon D300 or maybe...D700x(probably if I am that good photographer)
Note: Nikon D50 taken from Nikon.com.sg
This is the first post for this blog and of course making the grand entrance is my very first digital Nikon D50. Bought it in 2005 with only the knowledge of using auto function in any type of cameras. Like most people, I bought this camera out of the brand and because it was the cheapest among the Nikon and Canon. Reason I choose either this two brand when i bought D50 is, to be honest, I only knew these two brands in term of high quality image it produce and No. 1 choice for most professional photographer. Don't get me wrong, there are many others that are also very good such as Leica, Sony Alpha, Hassleblad, Pentax, Olympus etc... But like I say I have zero knowledge in camera.
Anyway, I learn to use this camera by spending hours in the bus travelling thru and flow to work reading the manuals. Trust me, It is really IMPORTANT that you read the manual. If you don't understand some of the technical terms in it, go to the web and find out more. there is no point buying expensive camera and not knowing or using every single specs of the camera. Nikon D50 cost me SGD$1450. Thats really expensive. For me and maybe some of you guys. Trying all the functions such as Aperture Priority, Full Manual or Program will also help you understand more on your camera and improve your photography technique. No harm trying, its digital!!!! You can delete unwanted images you preview without coming out a single cents. So its free trial and error. For a solid one year, I bought at least two to three magazines a month to read and learn techniques and compositions. And this cost money...hmmm....well it's ok since I gain a lot of info and advices from their editors and even professional photographers.
Nikon D50 has already stop production and being replaced by its successor which is Nikon D40x and D60. They are a fantastic camera with better quality functions and give much much quality images compare to my Nikon D50. You see Nikon D50 is only 6 megapixel (will post about it in the near future) compare to D40x and D60 both using 10 megapixel which massive I mean in term of the size you want your image to be. Both successor lowest ISO is ISO100 compre to D50 which is ISO 200. Will post about ISO in another post. To make things simple about ISO is that the smaller the ISO is the less grainy(noise) your image will be. Nikon D50 images taken with ISO200 will show quite a lot of noise even with a good lighting. As a microstock photographer too, a lot of my images are being rejected due to unacceptable amount of noise level. The built in white balance in D50 is fixed, so you can adjust the level compare to the rest of Nikon cameras.
Alright before you guys start condemning me especially those D50 users, let me just say the good part of this camera COMPARE to D40 and D60. One thing I am happy about D50 is its versatilty. You see D40x(also the early version D40) and D60 can only use DX lens or lenses that has its own AF/Manual(motor drive) switch. So you need to use all those latest version of Nikon lenses or any other brand that has its own motor drive. A friend of mind borrowed my Tokina 124 for awhile and he was left with dissappointment cos he can only engage the lens in manual focusing. And most of the DX lens.... well they are a bit more expensive.
Ok below are some related links that you can click on
Nikon D50 users images posted on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikond50/pool/
Technical Specs of Nikon D50,D40,D40x and D60 in one go
Nikon Camera
Visit these blogs to find out more about Stock Photography
http://www.myersonphoto.com/blog/category/stock/
http://stock-photography-blog.blogspot.com/
View my stock images using D50
Note: Nikon D50 taken from Nikon.com.sg
This is the first post for this blog and of course making the grand entrance is my very first digital Nikon D50. Bought it in 2005 with only the knowledge of using auto function in any type of cameras. Like most people, I bought this camera out of the brand and because it was the cheapest among the Nikon and Canon. Reason I choose either this two brand when i bought D50 is, to be honest, I only knew these two brands in term of high quality image it produce and No. 1 choice for most professional photographer. Don't get me wrong, there are many others that are also very good such as Leica, Sony Alpha, Hassleblad, Pentax, Olympus etc... But like I say I have zero knowledge in camera.
Anyway, I learn to use this camera by spending hours in the bus travelling thru and flow to work reading the manuals. Trust me, It is really IMPORTANT that you read the manual. If you don't understand some of the technical terms in it, go to the web and find out more. there is no point buying expensive camera and not knowing or using every single specs of the camera. Nikon D50 cost me SGD$1450. Thats really expensive. For me and maybe some of you guys. Trying all the functions such as Aperture Priority, Full Manual or Program will also help you understand more on your camera and improve your photography technique. No harm trying, its digital!!!! You can delete unwanted images you preview without coming out a single cents. So its free trial and error. For a solid one year, I bought at least two to three magazines a month to read and learn techniques and compositions. And this cost money...hmmm....well it's ok since I gain a lot of info and advices from their editors and even professional photographers.
Nikon D50 has already stop production and being replaced by its successor which is Nikon D40x and D60. They are a fantastic camera with better quality functions and give much much quality images compare to my Nikon D50. You see Nikon D50 is only 6 megapixel (will post about it in the near future) compare to D40x and D60 both using 10 megapixel which massive I mean in term of the size you want your image to be. Both successor lowest ISO is ISO100 compre to D50 which is ISO 200. Will post about ISO in another post. To make things simple about ISO is that the smaller the ISO is the less grainy(noise) your image will be. Nikon D50 images taken with ISO200 will show quite a lot of noise even with a good lighting. As a microstock photographer too, a lot of my images are being rejected due to unacceptable amount of noise level. The built in white balance in D50 is fixed, so you can adjust the level compare to the rest of Nikon cameras.
Alright before you guys start condemning me especially those D50 users, let me just say the good part of this camera COMPARE to D40 and D60. One thing I am happy about D50 is its versatilty. You see D40x(also the early version D40) and D60 can only use DX lens or lenses that has its own AF/Manual(motor drive) switch. So you need to use all those latest version of Nikon lenses or any other brand that has its own motor drive. A friend of mind borrowed my Tokina 124 for awhile and he was left with dissappointment cos he can only engage the lens in manual focusing. And most of the DX lens.... well they are a bit more expensive.
Ok below are some related links that you can click on
Nikon D50 users images posted on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikond50/pool/
Technical Specs of Nikon D50,D40,D40x and D60 in one go
Nikon Camera
Visit these blogs to find out more about Stock Photography
http://www.myersonphoto.com/blog/category/stock/
http://stock-photography-blog.blogspot.com/
View my stock images using D50
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