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Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

FISHMANPET posted:

So, is the A99 mirrorless and not a DSLR?

No, but yes. It has a mirror, but not a reflex mirror. It’s fixed and semi‐transparent. Some light passes through to the sensor, and some is reflect to the autofocus system.

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Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

Mr. Despair posted:

I normally just pop out the little reflector card it has built in. Since I leave it on the hot shoe the flash isn't pointing right at the subject, and the bounce is generally good enough to light it without putting down any really harsh shadows.

The reflector card is for when you want highlights in someone/some creatures eyes but don’t want to meaningfully illuminate them. Reflection won’t help by itself.

You need to make the apparent size of the light source larger, e.g. by bouncing the light off a white wall or umbrella or firing it through an umbrella, soft box, or large Tupperware container. Getting the soft box or equivalent as close to the subject as you can is also important, and this makes its angular size, as perceived by the subject, larger, softening the light.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

Bob Mundon posted:

This is also my first lens with a focus meter, is the infinity focus the setting you want for shooting at f/16 for long DOF shots(would prefer 22, but this lens only goes to 16). Any other uses for the focus meter and infinity focus?

Don’t use f/22 even if you can. Diffraction will make the image look terrible. Use f/16 if you must, but f/11 will be sharper if you don’t absolutely need the extra depth of field.

As for where to focus, you want to focus at what’s called the hyperfocal distance. This distance depends on the aperture.

Most lenses with distance scales have marks for what’s in focus at different apertures. If you had one of those, you’d line up the mark for the aperture you were using with the infinity mark.



Your lens does not have such marks, so you’ll have to look up the hyperfocal distance if you wish to use it. At f/11, hyperfocal distance is 4–6 m, depending on how strict you are about what constitutes “in focus”. Your lens scale, like most autofocus lens scales, isn’t marked finely enough to have a mark for that. Just back it off a bit from the infinity mark or autofocus on an object you estimate to be 4–6 m from you.

As for the infinity mark, since this is your first lens with a scale: the vertical line is infinity focus under normal conditions. The horizontal part past that is so you can still focus at infinity under extreme temperatures or if the tolerances on the lens or your camera are bad.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

casa de mi padre posted:

I had the chance to handle somebody's fancy prosumer Nikon the other day and was amazed at how bright the viewfinder was. I'm using a Canon 450D and it feels all murky and poo poo now. Do newer models in that line have brighter viewfinders or would I want something like a 60D?

Newer models have slightly better viewfinders, but they still have pentamirrors. The 60D and every camera above it have pentaprisms, which are inherently brighter (as well as heavier and more expensive).

By far the biggest jump, though, is the jump to full‐frame. There’s more than twice as much light to work with. If the prosumer Nikon you handled was a D600, D700, or D800, that’s what you experienced.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.
I suspect that photojournalists would use superzooms if they could get them with f/2.8 apertures. Photojournalists aren’t the pixel‐peeping sort. I’ve seen some excellent photojournalism done with cameraphones, for instance.

That said, superzooms suck and you should never buy one.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

DGK2000 posted:

Can I ask how much more zoom you get compared to a 18-55mm lens? I've got the kit lens that came with my Rebel T3 and I found that I just can't get some of those far away shots that I crave.

Five more zoom.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

Boneitis posted:

Or shake it really hard, maybe the buzzing will stop

If you shake it too hard, you’ll kill the bees that power the autofocus.

If you drop it, the bees will escape.

The Dark Wind posted:

Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but I have a basic question about focal lengths and crop sensors. I heard that if you're getting a 50mm for a crop sensor body (like my D5100) you're better off getting a 35mm, since due to the crop it really functions as something like a 50mm (30mm times the 1.5 crop factor gets you about 52.5). I'm wondering if this only refers to the amount of a scene you'll be able to get in frame, or if it also affects lens distortion? I've been reading Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Book (Vol. 1) where he recommends a focal length from about 85mm to 100mm as the sweet spots. If I were to get a new lens with the specific intentions of using it for portrait photography, would I still be looking for something in the neighborhood of those ranges, or would I actually be looking at something in the neighborhood of 55 to 70ish (85/1.5 and 100/1.5)?

The “lens distortion” you’re talking about is caused by how close you are to the thing you’re photographing, not any property of the lens itself.

Don’t limit yourself to to 55–70 mm, though. You won’t find many lenses in that range. 50 mm and 85 mm are more standard focal lengths.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

Headhunter posted:

Don't Nikons have rear end-backwards zoom as well? As in you turn the lens left to zoom?

Yes, if by “left” you mean anticlockwise for a greater focal length. This is true of focus and aperture as well, but don’t quote me on that last one.

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Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.
I miss the asterisk‐ist dee.

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