What camera do you use?

Dec 31, 2009 at 8:49 PM Post #16 of 70
how does the d40 perform at night?
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 8:57 PM Post #17 of 70
I take my cameras to places where they can get destroyed really easy. There are heavy moisture issues and bad terrain where you could loose everything fast. For the risk reason, I will never walk around with a better $1600.00 camera. The back up for the d40 was a d3000 but even though they are close to the same, the d40 seems better. They are not pocket size but small. There are a lot of really small old 1970s prime lens out there that are clear as heck. You need to shoot the camera in manual mode but it works great. I like to focus manual too.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 9:06 PM Post #18 of 70
I've never used a D40 at night, but I would expect it to perform quite well. How well the camera performs at night will also be effected quite largely by your lens, of course. A prime (fixed focal length) lens is likely to perform better at night then a zoom lens.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 9:08 PM Post #19 of 70
I've had good luck with Panasonic Lumix camera's. My girlfriend just ordered the Lumix ZS1 which seems to have a lot of features for it's price point including 12x optical zoom and facial recognition for adjusting the zoom. It seems like a good deal at $199 on amazon.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 9:09 PM Post #20 of 70
I use it indoor at iso 800 with a 1.4 50mm which comes out to an 80mm portrait lens. I have another 2.? less fast 50mm also. I like the soft small depth of field. Sorry, no total night photography with the d40 yet. I did take some night shots with a film camera last month. I pushed the Kodak B/W to 800 iso and developed it in c41 and had it put on disks. Worked grand.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 9:22 PM Post #21 of 70
With night photography I have not figured out how to manually hold the shutter in bulb mode? Yes you can do different long exposures but after as I remember 6 seconds or so you may not have a way to remote (with a cord) release and hold the shutter for 30 second exposures. I have used a Glossen Luna Pro light meter and gave it two stops extra for reciprocity failure problems. Night photography is fun but you better be ready to lug around a heavy tripod.

Maybe some of the more expensive Nikons would let you do longer exposures timed or plug a remote cord in to avoid camera shake in photographs at night taking longer than six seconds.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 9:44 PM Post #23 of 70
At night you just wing it. If in the wind you hang sand bags off your tripod. Another way is to put your camera in an windless place and put a sandbag on top of the camera. A remote plunger is used to go for 30 min exposures. Get ready to lock the plunger in place. Hang out for a while and learn how lights work at night. Early morning photography is fun as I have taken 45min. film exposures. It is really all a guess in exposure times. One f stop would be 60 min as time is 2X from30 min in time haha. Thus it goes like this 1 Second and add an f stop 2 seconds then 4 seconds 8 seconds 16 seconds 32 seconds 64 seconds about two minutes four minutes eight minutes 16 minutrs half and hour then one hour. All shot wide open so you have no depth of field but have something on the film when you bracket.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 10:00 PM Post #24 of 70
Quote:

Originally Posted by ceekay84 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I'm looking at getting a better digital camera than typical point and shoot cameras that suffer in low-light conditions and poor focus in close-up shots. It frustrates me to no end spending $$ on point & shoot digital cameras when all I get is blurry pictures when taking pictures of an object (earphones for example). Anyone got any sample pictures and the camera they used in this thread will be greatly appreciated.


First, macro mode. Second, depending on what you've got you may be able to pick auto-focus points. Check the manual for the camera, there should be something on how to use them if you've got them. If you're shooting from a tripod you may be able to put the focus point on whatever object you're trying to focus on, otherwise just tell it to focus down the center, then focus on the object, hold the shoot button halfway so it doesn't adjust focus and exposure, and then compose your shot. Lastly you may have a manual focus mode, but trying to manually focus with an LCD viewfinder or screen can be annoying.

An inexpensive entry-level DSLR will have you looking down the lens so you'll see exactly what you're getting, but of course that's bulkier and not nearly as automated.

I use an old Canon 20D, mostly with the 10-22 wide-angle and Sigma 18-125 zoom lens for convenience. But a 5D Mk2 with the 24-105L lens is in the works. I already have a 17-40L and 70-200L so it's not quite as big of an initial financial layout. Don't have any point-and-shoots though.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 10:42 PM Post #26 of 70
I use a Nikon D70s and love it dearly. It's been tempting to upgrade, but it works so well I'll hang onto it until it dies.

Night shots are simple enough with the Nikon. I bought Nikon's IR remote (about $25) and put the camera on a tripod. Click the remote and let the camera do its thing.
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 11:24 PM Post #27 of 70
I've tried Nikon, I've tried Panasonic, I've tried Olympus, I've tried Fuji, I've tried Canon. Seems like no matter what camera I use, I always managed to get crappy looking pictures...
 
Dec 31, 2009 at 11:39 PM Post #28 of 70
I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS3

Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-ZS3A-Blue-Digital-Camera-0.jpg


My next camera:

The Nikon D40
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Jan 1, 2010 at 12:50 AM Post #29 of 70
Canon S3is, or SX20, though either way if your looking for good night shots i think you just need more control over your camera. You'd want to adjust ISOs, shutter speed and aperature size to the correct application. So look for a camera that has a high ISO setting, 800+ (ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor to light tho the trade of is grainier shots), and a manual mode.

Quick comparison of shots used S3is, first is with ISO 80, exposed 1 second, second is with the highest ISO (dunno since im using cfw), and with a 1/20 second exposure. Both in Canon's "Supermacro" mode. Quick note, if your doing moving photos you would want to use a higher ISO, so you can use a lower shutter speed to reduce the "blurriness", but if your doing still shots like headphones, use a lower ISO, and longer exposure time

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