[phamilyman]

@Shaju - Whatay colors!

@Pawan - You have two different options. A walkaround option is always a good fun compromise versus two decent budget lenses. See here (last 5-6posts): [News]: Sigma to release 8-16mm f/4-5.6 DC HSM - The Global Indian Photographer

[navin]

Originally Posted by gd1418

then surely you will someday go in for a FX camera.
18~105 too is DX lens, hence I would not reccommend.

While FX does offer more light and hence larger print sizes than DX I do not see the need to go to FX for most of us. DX offers us to make as big a print as most of can store. DX even looks pretty good on 40-52" LCD screens (though I must admit FX does look nicer - I was comparing the 40D to the 5D2).

FX is a hangover from the days when Kodak had 70mm film and then the 70mm film was cut in half...you guys know that story na? What bugs me is why Canon and Nikon did not come up with a simple 30x20mm sensor instead of this 1.6x/1.5x multiple. 30 and 20 are nice round numbers na?

Of course there are Gurus like Rudra-da who will argue about the advantages of FX and they are right for their applications. For the rest of us mortals DX or even 4/3rds will work fine.

DX offers us more compact cameras, smaller lenses etc.. and is still large enough (compared to 1/1.6" sensors) to give very decent picture quality even on large screens.

Originally Posted by recshenoy

Does Tamron has IS equivalent, if not IMHO 55-250 canon with IS is much better option.

Tamron's IS equivalent is thee 18-270 VC aka Vibration Compensation. However Tamron's VC is not supposed to be as effcient as Canon's IS or Nikon's VR maybe not even as good as Sigma's OS.

[HellwratH]

Congrats Shaju, now you have a commander to try out the single strobe fun .

[pawan_pullarwar]

Finally after some research, I bought Canon 55-250 IS for 239 EUR. What I read is, for zoom photography, IS helps a lot, so dropped Tamron 18-250.

I was trying this lense in indoor dim light, but the lense was not able to autofocus even at ISO 1600. Will try it outside on coming weekend.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by pawan_pullarwar

Finally after some research, I bought Canon 55-250 IS for 239 EUR. What I read is, for zoom photography, IS helps a lot, so dropped Tamron 18-250.

I was trying this lense in indoor dim light, but the lense was not able to autofocus even at ISO 1600. Will try it outside on coming weekend.

Congratulations!! Focusingg and ISO are not related on your camera. Try it out and be ready to be blown .

[Speed Pujari]

Originally Posted by recshenoy

Speed Pujari,
What rent you had paid for these lenses?

Guys,

Jayesh is quoting 5.9K for Nikon 1.8/50mm prime. Any other place in Bangalore to buy them cheap or 5.9K is cheapest?

@recshenoy IIRC I paid 750 bucks. For 200-400 its 2500 bucks in INR.

Originally Posted by anandtheleo

Hi,

Planning to get the following lens for my Nikon D3000:

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM Lens

How is the lens in terms of performance(read up in the net that its not as good as the Nikkor 18-200), will be used for family functions and general photography only. Looking forward to the feedback, thanks.

Anand.S

Anand, for what purpose u need this lens? If its generic then better purchase two lenses from Nikon stable (18-55 and 55-200 OR 70-300 VR).

Originally Posted by HellwratH

I think the prices have gone down. It's about 10.5k now.

I have been seeing samples from some Zeiss lenses on POTN and man, I think I'll skip the L lenses and jump to Zeiss directly. I can live with MF .

I too have a hidden desire of owning a Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 which is not far more expensive than the Nikkor counterpart.
But I dont have any idea if Zeiss comes with AF for NIkon bayonet. There is no info mentioned on their website.

Originally Posted by pawan_pullarwar

Hi Hellwrath,

Can you please explain what are you guys discussing here, is it anything to do with Zoom lense ?

@Pawan, you post made me smile :-).. I mean I remember my old days.
HW is doing a supermacro setup (and looking for a high maintenance gf).

[shajufx]

Thanks to HW for opening the doors to Zeiss lenses, I spent over an hour drooling over the pics in the canon forum. Amazing 3D effects on most of the flower shots. If anyone wants to know more about the compatibility, availability and related things of Zeiss in bangalore, contact Propix, Ronnie is the person for such things. I also saw the propix ad in Jayesh's shop as these guys do business together since many years.

I was supposed to visit Ronnie 2 weeks back for some gadgets, but a discussion on the commander/ receiver/trigger etc. led to buying of D90 body itself. He is a nice chap, never tried to sell his products to me, but always did his level best to advise me to move in the right direction when it comes to confused choices ahead. Now I have to visit him for a quality tripod.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by Speed Pujari

I too have a hidden desire of owning a Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 which is not far more expensive than the Nikkor counterpart.
But I dont have any idea if Zeiss comes with AF for NIkon bayonet. There is no info mentioned on their website.



@Pawan, you post made me smile :-).. I mean I remember my old days.
HW is doing a supermacro setup (and looking for a high maintenance gf).

Ah, every man has a hidden desire for such amazing glass . And about the super macro rig, it's actually pretty affordable. Paid about 8.5k for the bellows+50mm+25mm. I have an adapter, just have to take it out and test. This is actually poor man's Canon MPE-65. But these FD lenses work amazingly well with m4/3rds and that's what is pushing me to that camera system. Check out one such photograph, taken with an old canon 200mm FD macro lens mounted on a m4/3rd camera.

100300_03.jpg on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sabir actually has a 80-200 L series lens, which I will buy eventually if I get a m4/3rd cam.

Originally Posted by shajufx

Thanks to HW for opening the doors to Zeiss lenses, I spent over an hour drooling over the pics in the canon forum. Amazing 3D effects on most of the flower shots. If anyone wants to know more about the compatibility, availability and related things of Zeiss in bangalore, contact Propix, Ronnie is the person for such things. I also saw the propix ad in Jayesh's shop as these guys do business together since many years.

I was supposed to visit Ronnie 2 weeks back for some gadgets, but a discussion on the commander/ receiver/trigger etc. led to buying of D90 body itself. He is a nice chap, never tried to sell his products to me, but always did his level best to advise me to move in the right direction when it comes to confused choices ahead. Now I have to visit him for a quality tripod.

Shaju,
I am only tempting you . If you get a Zeiss lens, I'll buy a Nikon to Canon adapter and use the zeiss lens. And if you want to buy a nice tripod from Ronnie, check out the tripods he has for macro.

[anandtheleo]

Originally Posted by Speed Pujari

Anand, for what purpose u need this lens? If its generic then better purchase two lenses from Nikon stable (18-55 and 55-200 OR 70-300 VR).

Yes SpeedPujari, I am also leaning towards your idea, I had a chance to try the Sigma 70-300 on my D3000, not very happy with the few e.g I was able to shoot and this lens was without the OS, so this may have contributed to my experience.

But since I already have the 18-55, thinking of going for the Nikkor 55-200 VR.

[raghu230506]

Hi All,

I had bought an entry level SLR Nikon D40 (with the basic 18-55) to start of a year ago, but couldn't manage to use it for quite sometime, I would like to learn to take better pictures using it which I couldn't so far.

Can someone share a nice guide/tutorial to start with?

Cheers
Raghu

[shajufx]

Originally Posted by HellwratH

And if you want to buy a nice tripod from Ronnie, check out the tripods he has for macro.

Any brands to keep in mind bro ? I am checking through SLIK website. Plenty of types mentioned, not having an idea what to chose. You know my usage, it should go lowest to the ground for macros and should be sturdy enough for 2.5 kgs minimum. What would be the ideal material ? Steel, aluminium, carbon ?

[mohit]

Originally Posted by navin

While FX does offer more light and hence larger print sizes than DX I do not see the need to go to FX for most of us. DX offers us to make as big a print as most of can store. DX even looks pretty good on 40-52" LCD screens (though I must admit FX does look nicer - I was comparing the 40D to the 5D2).

FX is a hangover from the days when Kodak had 70mm film and then the 70mm film was cut in half...you guys know that story na? What bugs me is why Canon and Nikon did not come up with a simple 30x20mm sensor instead of this 1.6x/1.5x multiple. 30 and 20 are nice round numbers na?

Of course there are Gurus like Rudra-da who will argue about the advantages of FX and they are right for their applications. For the rest of us mortals DX or even 4/3rds will work fine.

DX offers us more compact cameras, smaller lenses etc.. and is still large enough (compared to 1/1.6" sensors) to give very decent picture quality even on large screens.

I have to agree that for us casual shooters, DX more than suffices.

Originally Posted by recshenoy

@mohit,
what exactly you were trying to shoot in park? I have 55-200mm Nikkor but feels handicapped while birding. So, if you are into bird photography, go ahead with 300mm with eyes closed! That's the minimum needed for birding IMHO.

I was trying to shoot everything from flowers to birds and some water lilies. The handicap was felt mostly with water lilies as I was close but just not there. I can understand that even a 200 will not be enough for birds.

I have mostly decided that I am going to get a 70-300 thanks to the advice from Guruji, Navin and all you guys. It seems to be more future proof and holds its value much better in case I want to offload it later.

[Hurrycane12]

Guys one query; how do I convert Raw *.CR2 files to JPEG; can you suggest any convertor or any method so that i can view this and also mail the pics out as JPEG.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by shajufx

Any brands to keep in mind bro ? I am checking through SLIK website. Plenty of types mentioned, not having an idea what to chose. You know my usage, it should go lowest to the ground for macros and should be sturdy enough for 2.5 kgs minimum. What would be the ideal material ? Steel, aluminium, carbon ?

The Uni-Loc ones are pretty good for macro work, but I don't know how heavy they are. You know me, I usually carry only two lenses (max), because I know what I will be shooting in that session. Tripod weight can be a major pain in the back side, so I'd suggest go for carbon fibre tripods. Not going to be cheap, but worth every penny. Check out Feisol and Benro, they should be within budget.

Originally Posted by Hurrycane12

Guys one query; how do I convert Raw *.CR2 files to JPEG; can you suggest any convertor or any method so that i can view this and also mail the pics out as JPEG.

You can try the latest Picasa, easiest one to do the job.

[TaureanBull]

Originally Posted by raghu230506

Hi All,

I had bought an entry level SLR Nikon D40 (with the basic 18-55) to start of a year ago, but couldn't manage to use it for quite sometime, I would like to learn to take better pictures using it which I couldn't so far.

Can someone share a nice guide/tutorial to start with?

Cheers
Raghu

I am in the same boat as yours. I am looking to improve my photography skills. When I see the quality of photographs people load here especially in the travel section, I really get inspired. I have started reading a bit. Quite a bit of info is available in this forum. But I have started following this site for a detailed tutorial. It seems pretty good to me. Happy shooting.

Free Digital Photography Tutorial Site - Great Photo Tutorials