Team-BHP - The Digital Camera Thread: Questions, discussions, etc.

Thank tsk and Samurai. I am going with the pro lens because of it's wider aperture. I am going to take many indoor family pics and the larger aperture defnetely helps. Sometime next year i will buy a faster telephoto zoom, probably 50-200. In between i will throw in a flash.
I already have a Seknonik L308s light meter from my old film camera kit, a 25 years old cullman light weight tripod.
There is another review on E-510. The Nature, Wildlife and Pet Photography Forum: The Olympus 510 Feild Review by John Isaac

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Originally Posted by satish_appasani;497103There is another review on E-510. [url=http://www.nwpphotoforum.com/ubbthreads/information/php/2007_Reviews/Isaac/Oly510Review.php

The Nature, Wildlife and Pet Photography Forum: The Olympus 510 Feild Review by John Isaac[/url]

This guy has some very serious glass...:Shockked:

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Many of my other photographer friends have tried several times to convince me to switch to a camera with more mega pixels and more focusing points. However, the E-510 camera is so nice, and I am very happy that I chose to stick with Olympus as my camera system of choice. To me, the 4/3 System has many advantages. For example, with those systems I would have had to lug all those heavy lenses and humongous cameras to the field. My entire gear fits into a Lowepro Rolling Compu Trekker bag. I am talking about my 90mm-250mm lens, two bodies, 50mm to 200mm lens, 150mm f/2 lens, 1.4x teleconverter, 50 mm macro 14mm-54mm lens, plus my laptop and a small tripod.

From his collection, I have all except the super pro grade 90-250mm F/2.8 and 150mm F/2, these two cost $5500 and $2200 respectively.:p

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Originally Posted by kvish (Post 499002)

After loads and loads of reviews and research, I finally bought the K100D with the sigma 17-70mm macro. And I am quite pleased with it. (bought for 1330SGD) The lens is really sharp and the IS in the camera works very well. I still havent explored it a lot though. Will post some pictures in a day or two.

Wow! Congratulations buddy. I am waiting to get my hands on the same setup with a K100D and a good macro lens. So, abt 35k INR eh? Pretty Cool... And yes, I am waiting to see the pictures soon. :). I am getting impatient here, post the pictures soon!

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Originally Posted by kvish (Post 499002)

1330 USD is very steep. The Canon 400D is 722$ with the kit lens and its 10 megapixels.

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Originally Posted by tsk1979 (Post 499743)

Did you buy the Pentax K100D Super or just the K100D.
BTW how much is the Singapore $ doing nowadays.
This cam with kti lens is around 600$ approx in the US

I bought the K100D. The K100D super is not out yet. Well, the dust reduction system in the K100D super is supposed to be the same as K10D which I heard is not that effective. Also I dont plan to use any SDM lenses ( they are going to be available in $1000 range) which is why I decided to go for the K100D itself.

Singapore dollar is hovering around 26-27 range.

Prices in US are cheaper than in Singapore. That is because US dollar has weakened, but Singapore dollar has remained the same. I think buying in US would anyday be the best option if there is a choice :)

Now for the questions for experts:

Any good s/w for doing borders? (freeware?? :p )

How does one set the circular polarizer? I was just trying out something random!!

On ebay some OEM versions of photoshop elements 4.0 are available for around $25. And the 5.0 is double in terms of the price difference. I feel 4.0 should be fine for basic fixes. What do you suggest??

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Originally Posted by kvish (Post 505108)

I shot these pictures soon after purchasing the K100D, Infact didnt even set the date on it!! This combo is really really good. The IS is just awesome and the images straight off the camera are really nice. [ All photos that I have taken are handheld. ] Very little pp needed. I did some basic fixes using picasa. That too for a couple of them, rest are just resized samples.

I spent 4 days in Cambodia and 3 days in Singapore. Cambodia is an AWESOME PLACE! A Must see! Of the 750 odd photos which I clicked I took some random ones and posted them here. I plan to put it in a gallery sometime soon. I posted thubnails since images were quite large
Any good s/w for doing borders? (freeware?? :p )

How does one set the circular polarizer? I was just trying out something random!!

On ebay some OEM versions of photoshop elements 4.0 are available for around $25. And the 5.0 is double in terms of the price difference. I feel 4.0 should be fine for basic fixes. What do you suggest??

Awesome pics!
First suggestion. Spend some 20-30$ and get an online gallery. you will need it. Zenfolio is a cheap choice(though I am a smugmugger).
Circular polarizer.
Look at glass with reflections through your viewfinder. Rotate the polarizer till reflections vanish. This is max setting. While looking at sky(sun at 90 degrees to your left or right) turn polarizer and watch sky turn deep blue, thats max setting. Circular polarizer cuts through haze and makes your photos stand out.
Photoshop elements 4.0 is good enough, but for simple needs gimp is excellent.
Gimp is not as powerful as Photoshop CS2, but still can do most things which photographers desire, namely
1. Watermark
2. Borders
3. Unsharp mask
4. Auto levels
5. Curve adjustment
6. RAW processing(need to install plugin)
7. Layers and palettes.

Stuff like HDR etc., is difficult, but most of the things like Orton effect etc., are possible.
Look at GIMPguru.org for tips and tricks.
The best part, its free.

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Originally Posted by tsk1979 (Post 505130)

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I have been thinking of getting a good gallery. zenfolio is good. But these days, own website with gallery s/w costs almost the same price!! :) So thats another option that I am exploring.

I am going to try out the circular polarizer settings this weekend (but no blue sky in Bangalore !!!) So may be some good macro's since I havent really explored the macro abilities of this lens yet.

I stayed away from GIMP because some of the tutorials were really cryptic. But that site GIMPguru.org you mentioned is really good.

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Originally Posted by HellwratH (Post 505204)

Awesome pics there Kvish! Thanks for posting them. Now I am pretty sure I would buy this one or the K100Dsuper with a good macro or a prime.. :).

For primes, I think sigma 30mm f1.4 and pentax 50mm f1.4 were easily available. (sigma is more expensive but images on pbase are really good). Pentax DA* 16-50f2.8 is being launched next month for only $900. So if you have the budget, that is the lens to go (you need K100D super for this one). Pentax is positioning this lens as identical to the L series canon lenses. Whether they will match it in performance is only to be seen !!

I will probably look out for some used limited edition pancake lenses (which is what pentax is famous for) for my next purchase which I dont see coming for quite some time.

Tsk, Samurai and Rudraji and other photo experts,

I should have long come to this thread, but i found this only about 3 days back (sad).

Without wasting much time, i am here to ask references or links to tutorials where i can learn the basics and finer details of digital photography. I'm not too good with the cam, but i'm learning to take fairly acceptable photos.

I purchased a unique DSLR cam, the 'fixed-lens' Olympus E-20 i believe in Jan 2006 and i've put it to good use for the major part of 2006. It's been with on some long road trips, and takes very impressive snaps for a 5.2megs.

A friend of mine had actually nudged me into buying this and try to learn things before i could get the Evold 500 - which is what i was planning to buy back then. We got the cam with a 256mb card, an olympus tripod and a 1.45x Tele Extension Lens Pro Lens for 25k).

I want to learn and better understand how to control the settings better (exposure, AP, Shutter speed et al) before i venture into buying the Canon 400D.

Please help me with any references that you could cite which i consume for learning. I'm also flexible with joining any weekend classes on the basics on digital photography in Chennai.

I'm just attaching a couple of snaps, just to showcase the cam's capabilities :)

Photo1

Photo2

(the photo's specs would say that it was snapped on 12/26/06 but i hadn't fixed the date on the cam ever.. er)

I'm hoping you guys could help. I've even pm'd Rudraji on the same.

Thanks and Cheers,
ak.