[the chemist]

If you want to venture back into MF lenses I would recommend picking up a cheap stellar lens like the 105 2.5 AI-D. This lens is fantastic from corner to corner even at 2.5(~$100). If you find MF to your liking you can then move to zeiss if you fancy. Personally i find MF impractical unless you are in a need for tilt/shift lenses. It is simply ALOT easier to go AF and I couldn't imagine using an MF lens at a payed gig under most circumstances.

 

[dj_mocok]

I got my MF lenses pretty much covered I think.
105mm f/2.5 is very sought after nowadays it's hard to get it for a hundred bucks. Here on eBay they usually sell around 200 bucks.

 

[john_jcb]

Deftly slipping the topic away from lenses a minute. When using the AF feature do you select your focus point or let the auto setting handle it? I have had a few shots where it wanted to select the wrong point. Perhaps I should practice selecting for myself.

Also what do you all think about the D lighting. I am going to try some shots today as it is finally sunny out and see if I like the difference it makes.

The new D90 is fun but there is a lot of learning. In a way I miss using my old manual Minolta. But I do think there are more keeper pictures now.

Returning to lenses; here is one I took with the Nikon 35mm f1.8

 

[dj_mocok]

I don't know about other people but I always use manual focus point so I know for sure which one the camera will focus (hopefully, lol).
Not really a fan of letting camera predict what I want to focus - it can be a hit and miss quite often in my case.

 

[Towert7]

Well, it seems no one has the nikon 20mm F/2.8.
Hm...

 

[ka-boom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't own one, but looking at the sample pictures, 35mm 1.8 AFS looks like a lens that performs better than the asking price.

Give it a try some time, man. As much as you like those 50's - you might really enjoy the 35mm focal length. I am really happy with this lens so far, yes I own it. Focuses just as fast as my 50 f1.8 D, no quicker or slower on my D300. But for a lousy $200, its a deal.

My lenses now are:

Tamron 17-50 f2.8
35 f1.8 AF-S
50 f1.8 D
85 f1.8 D

 

[Zodduska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_jcb /img/forum/go_quote.gif Deftly slipping the topic away from lenses a minute. When using the AF feature do you select your focus point or let the auto setting handle it? I have had a few shots where it wanted to select the wrong point. Perhaps I should practice selecting for myself.

Nice shot! Personally I use manually selected single focus point with my D80 and always leave it on the center since its the only cross type sensor. In conjunction with the AF-ON button (programmed AE-L/AF-L button in the D80's case) and AF-C mode it's easy to focus on whatever I want, recompose if necessary, then shoot.

To set the AE-L/AF-L to function as an AF-ON button it must be set in the custom settings menu, once this is done the camera will only engage auto-focus when you press the AE-L/AF-L button instead of a half press of the shutter. After some practice this makes it much easier to recompose shots without the camera trying to auto focus on something else.. and generally it just gives the photographer more control over AF than using the shutter button IMHO. I use AF-C mode because otherwise the shutter will not trigger after recomposing if it thinks the area underneath the selected sensor is out of focus. The higher end cameras (D200+) have an option for Shutter Priority and a dedicated AF-ON button so you can always take a shot in any focus mode.

Though, using a single sensor point is probably not as effective if you are shooting wildlife or other moving targets.

 

[blackbird]

Hey, do you people recommend me buy a used D40 from KEH or B&H? B&H is slightly cheaper, but I don't know how their quality is. Both would cost about $380 for the whole outfit. As for the lenses, I would like to get a 35mm(which, plus 1.5 fov magnification) 1.8 lens, but I don't know if I should get one with a AF motor, or just a regular manual one. If I just get a regular manual one, how much would that cost?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackbird /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey, do you people recommend me buy a used D40 from KEH or B&H? B&H is slightly cheaper, but I don't know how their quality is. Both would cost about $380 for the whole outfit. As for the lenses, I would like to get a 35mm(which, plus 1.5 fov magnification) 1.8 lens, but I don't know if I should get one with a AF motor, or just a regular manual one. If I just get a regular manual one, how much would that cost?

Be advised that the only Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens ever made is the current AF-S DX model. There had been earlier 35mm f/2.0 Nikon lenses without a built-in AF motor, including the still-in-catalog AF 35mm f/2.0D lens, which will autofocus on higher-end Nikons but must be focused manually on the D40/D60/D#000 (4-digit) series DSLRs. The non-CPU manual 35mm f/2.0 lenses were discontinued a few years ago, and Nikon DSLRs up to the D100 (including the D3000 and D5000) will not meter at all with such a non-CPU lens mounted (only the D1, D2, D3, D200, D300 and D700 series DSLRs will meter with a non-CPU lens--and all of those except the D1 series allow Color Matrix metering if the focal length and maximum aperture information is entered manually into the cameras' internal memory; the D1 series cameras allow only center-weighted or spot metering with a non-CPU lens).

By the way, the AF Nikkor 35mm f/2.0D lens actually costs more money than the AF-S Nikkor DX 35mm f/1.8G lens. This is because despite its simpler optical design (a traditional retrofocus design (length of lens changes with focus) with 6 elements in 5 groups for the AF 35mm f/2.0D versus a rear-focusing design with 8 elements in 6 groups for the AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G), the older AF Nikkor f/2.0D lens was designed to cover the full 35mm film frame or FX sensor while the AF-S f/1.8G DX lens needed only to cover the smaller DX sensor.

 

[dj_mocok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ka-boom /img/forum/go_quote.gif Give it a try some time, man. As much as you like those 50's - you might really enjoy the 35mm focal length. I am really happy with this lens so far, yes I own it. Focuses just as fast as my 50 f1.8 D, no quicker or slower on my D300. But for a lousy $200, its a deal. My lenses now are: Tamron 17-50 f2.8 35 f1.8 AF-S 50 f1.8 D 85 f1.8 D

I might, but I can't possibly get one more lens now without selling my other ones. My breadbox that I use to keep my lenses is already full.

(and I already have 1 attached to my camera, not in the breadbox)
But looks like this 35mm 1.8 is slowly creeping up to 50mm 1.8's popularity as the must have value prime from Nikon.

Another two shots from yesterday afternoon - as always I was too lazy to bring tripod that's why the shots are not as sharp as they could be. But it was pretty crap day for shooting - didn't come home with that many good shots.

By the way I hope I can cough up a new lens review by next week. Won't be so much controlled test because I am too lazy for that but just a quick write up with some pics.

 

[ka-boom]

Here are a couple from the first weekend I got the 35mm f1.8.

ISO 1400

ISO 1000

ISO 640

ISO 200

 

[M0T0XGUY]

^ What kind of processing do you do?

 

[ka-boom]

Not much of any, really. Add +5 vibrance and +5 contrast to each, if that? I may have bumped the exposure up by a 1/3 stop, but I'd have to go back and check. I'm not big in heavily processed shots.

The last one is terrible white balance, I freely admit that. It was a yellowish, hazy, overcast, rainy morning as you can see in the sky.

 

[xkRoWx]

Just got my D300, now looking for a flash. Which of the three should I buy? 600? 800? 900?

 

[ka-boom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xkRoWx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just got my D300, now looking for a flash. Which of the three should I buy? 600? 800? 900?

Depends on what you want to do, ultimately. Will it ONLY be used ON the camera? Off camera? Used to trigger other flashes as a commander, etc? You need to be more specific. The SB800 has been discontinued, keep in mind.