Photography Thread

pinno

Rolf has a steady hand, that's for sure. Superb definition.

'Steady Rolf'. Doesn't really roll off the tongue.

pinno

Aha - 'Rock steady Rolf'.

Ben6899

Another from Mexico:

Teotihuacan by Ben H, on Flickr

rolf_f

Pinno wrote:

Rolf has a steady hand, that's for sure. Superb definition.

'Steady Rolf'. Doesn't really roll off the tongue.

Taa folks - though I give most of the credit to the rather fabulous Fuji X30. All that definition yet only 12mp. Camera didn't sell because the pixel count was too low - buying public don't understand optics! Also credit to the models; mating butterflies are pretty good subjects as they don't tend to be interested in anything happening around them (which is just as well as that shot is 28mm Macro and very close to the subject) and they have serious staying power!

I just bought a Fuji XT2 and am using a 200mm (300mm equiv) to photograph them from a bit further away. This gets me back to using the (terrific) EVF and manual focus. Steep learning curve and all that!

Incidentally, it gets harder when you try to feed and photograph them at the same time! (this one looks a bit crap on the forum - much better full size on Flickr. Wish Photobucket hadn't commited suicide).

DSCF2921ed by Rolf F, on Flickr

rolf_f

And something a bit different - again with the X30. Grayling butterfly wing. I like these shots as it gives a whole different understanding to the appearance of the wings. You need a very compliant subject and what I realise now is that I need a composte of at least three shots to be knitted together to keep the focus sharp across the whole image. But it's nice all the same.
DSCF5450 detail2 by Rolf F, on Flickr
DSCF5431 by Rolf F, on Flickr

Ben6899

These are brilliant. I need a macro lens.

briantrumpet

I'm still mucking about with basic stuff, torn between the instant & easy (but brutal HDR) of the phone camera, and the capabilities of my (still fairly basic) Sony HX50. Both have their uses, I suppose. I'm sure you can tell which is which.





I still like the slight hit-&-miss nature of auto-settings photography. And I'm too lazy to fiddle with settings, on the whole.

pinno

I like the slightly hazy second shot FWIW.

briantrumpet

Pinno wrote:

I like the slightly hazy second shot FWIW.

Ah, a man of taste. Yes, my preference too. The first is from my Jack Vettriano collection (immediately appealing, but formulaic), the second from my "let's try to be a bit cleverer like" collection. Both are subsets of my "I'm a very lazy snapper" collection. Just occasionally I get a bit lucky, though if I were using real film I'd be bankrupt.

pblakeney

I'm in the middle ground there. Although I'd possibly veer towards the former as it is closer to what my eyes see. 60%/40% though, not 90%/10%.

briantrumpet

Only to show how excellent Rolf's are, but there were some splendid butterflies at Newby Hall today, and a 60x zoom (30x optical) with good image stabilisation is useful...

rolf_f

briantrumpet wrote:

Only to show how excellent Rolf's are, but there were some splendid butterflies at Newby Hall today, and a 60x zoom (30x optical) with good image stabilisation is useful...

I like that; it's remarkable what you can do with these small lensed cameras with enormous zoom capability. I'm tending to go the other way though now - I have a Minolta MD to Fuji X adapter heading my way in the post and will be dabbling with vintage glass; initially with my old manual focus Minolta 35-70 "macro" zoom which turns out to be very highly rated by the internet. Not quite what I expected to happen when I bought the high tech XT2 only a couple of months back! Might be able to post some of those in the near future. Might also post an XT2 shot or two using the 55-200.

briantrumpet

Rolf F wrote:

I like that; it's remarkable what you can do with these small lensed cameras with enormous zoom capability. I'm tending to go the other way though now - I have a Minolta MD to Fuji X adapter heading my way in the post and will be dabbling with vintage glass; initially with my old manual focus Minolta 35-70 "macro" zoom which turns out to be very highly rated by the internet. Not quite what I expected to happen when I bought the high tech XT2 only a couple of months back! Might be able to post some of those in the near future. Might also post an XT2 shot or two using the 55-200.

The development of these c.£200 digital cameras with decent optical zoom & image stabilisation must have devalued the role of the jobbing pro photographer - I'm very much a snap-it-and-see 'photographer', and yet some of the results surprise me. Once upon a time, the barriers to high quality images were many, not least the expense of equipment and cost of film and processing, and the actual skill of taking the photos, involving tripods & suchlike. If people say I take good photos, I tell them that they ought to see the thousands of rubbish photos I take but never show anyone.

But even at my lazy amateur level, getting the odd lucky one is worth the minimal effort.

Having said all that, even a decent £200 camera is no compensation for those people who have no eye for composition & form. My pro-snapper friend who does premium property portfolios (properties mainly in the £500k+ bracket) bemoans the rubbish images that many estate agents use, who won't pay for decent photos, and think that a good camera (or phone camera) is all you need for good photos.

rolf_f

Funny thing is of course that the little cameras only limitations tend to be when you blow things up largee than normal print size which in the old days people didn't do but they do do now all the time.

But with the Fujis I am getting so much more pleasure from the actual act of taking pictures than I do with the small cameras - using mechanical dial controls on the camera and lens is just far superior to button and touch screen pressing and, of course, using a viewfinder is way, way better than just using the screen.

In terms of costs, I bemoaned that the Fuji, with the optional power hand grip takes three batteries which, if you buy the Fuji ones, cost about £50 a pop, was expensive to power up but £50 was about 10 rolls of film and I'm taking more than that many photographs every day I go looking for butterflies!

redjeepǃ

Sorry to hijack this thread a little, but does anybody have any recommendations for a small, cheap but decent quality camera that I can take with me on cycle tours ? I'd like something that I can throw in my back pocket so that I actually use it, but still with some manual controls.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on it, as I don't want to have to worry about it when I'm out on the bike. I'd say under a £100 and so probably second hand.

I'm thinking of maybe something like a Canon Powershot G10. Is there anything else similar ?

pinno

Redjeep! wrote:

Sorry to hijack this thread a little, but does anybody have any recommendations for a small, cheap but decent quality camera that I can take with me on cycle tours ? I'd like something that I can throw in my back pocket so that I actually use it, but still with some manual controls.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on it, as I don't want to have to worry about it when I'm out on the bike. I'd say under a £100 and so probably second hand.

I'm thinking of maybe something like a Canon Powershot G10. Is there anything else similar ?

We had this before earlier in this thread. How about a Sony DSC-W630? Used for very little money. Great little camera, easy to use:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-Cybersho ... SwGrNZhhrq

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-Cyber-sh ... Sw0h9ZrAfX

pblakeney

Canon Powershot G series are good cameras but bigger and heavier than I'd like in a jersey pocket. To be honest, phone cameras are as good as anything I would put in my pocket, and as you have a phone anyway... Just an opinion.

redjeepǃ

Thanks both.

I have an iphone 7 which has a pretty good camera, but was looking for something a bit more versatile. I'll take a look at the Sony.

briantrumpet

Pinno wrote:

Redjeep! wrote:

Sorry to hijack this thread a little, but does anybody have any recommendations for a small, cheap but decent quality camera that I can take with me on cycle tours ? I'd like something that I can throw in my back pocket so that I actually use it, but still with some manual controls.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on it, as I don't want to have to worry about it when I'm out on the bike. I'd say under a £100 and so probably second hand.

I'm thinking of maybe something like a Canon Powershot G10. Is there anything else similar ?

We had this before earlier in this thread. How about a Sony DSC-W630? Used for very little money. Great little camera, easy to use:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-Cybersho ... SwGrNZhhrq

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-Cyber-sh ... Sw0h9ZrAfX

I've got one of the Cybershots, and it's OK, but not a patch on the HX50 (which is bulkier, I know). The Cybershot only had optical zoom of 6x, and rubbish image stabilisation, compared with the HX50's 30x optical zoom and fantabuloso stabilisation. Having said that, I only take it out if I've got a particular subject I want to capture, otherwise it's just the phone, as the Cybershot doesn't give enough advantage over the phone to compensate for the reduction of space for cake in my jersey pocket.

redjeepǃ

MMmm cake....or camera. Tricky one !

Thanks, that HX50 looks perfect. I'm really just looking for something to go on tour with me, in which case I'll also have panniers or maybe next year, some bike packs, so plenty of alternative (and bigger) spaces for cake.

briantrumpet

Redjeep! wrote:

MMmm cake....or camera. Tricky one !

Thanks, that HX50 looks perfect. I'm really just looking for something to go on tour with me, in which case I'll also have panniers or maybe next year, some bike packs, so plenty of alternative (and bigger) spaces for cake.

It does fit easily in a jersey pocket, if I'm not loaded with cake and cheese-filled baguette, and takes incredible shots on auto settings. Go back a few posts and the butterfly was simple point and shoot, from about 4 metres. At the other end of the scale, here's Mont Ventoux from about 50 miles away, handheld...

pblakeney

Redjeep! wrote:

MMmm cake....or camera. Tricky one !

Thanks, that HX50 looks perfect. I'm really just looking for something to go on tour with me, in which case I'll also have panniers or maybe next year, some bike packs, so plenty of alternative (and bigger) spaces for cake.

Different kettle of fish then.
For touring with bags I'd have a DSLR and a lightweight travel zoom lens.

courtmed

briantrumpet wrote:

I'm still mucking about with basic stuff, torn between the instant & easy (but brutal HDR) of the phone camera, and the capabilities of my (still fairly basic) Sony HX50. Both have their uses, I suppose. I'm sure you can tell which is which.





I still like the slight hit-&-miss nature of auto-settings photography. And I'm too lazy to fiddle with settings, on the whole.

I'm in a similar situation, I've recently got a Samsung Galaxy S7 & think that's plenty of camera for me currently. Have only recently began actually thinking about what pictures I take so I think learning about composition etc will benefit me a lot more than getting a new camera. Here are two that I've taken recently - the vast majority of my pictures are taken on dog walks!

keef66

I just got a Panasonic Lumix TZ70 for my birthday! Definitely pocketable, 30x optical zoom and decent image stabilisation which give great flexibility in image composition / wildlife bothering. Also apparently pretty good low light performance, and it's got a decent viewfinder. (got fed up with waving my iPhone about on sunny days, unable to see what I was snapping)

And I'm sure loads of other stuff I don't yet know about. Only had it 3 days, but I can tell it's a keeper!

pblakeney

keef66 wrote:

I just got a Panasonic Lumix TZ70 for my birthday! Definitely pocketable, 30x optical zoom and decent image stabilisation which give great flexibility in image composition / wildlife photography. Also apparently pretty good low light performance, and it's got a decent viewfinder. (got fed up with waving my iPhone about on sunny days, unable to see what I was snapping)

And I'm sure loads of other stuff I don't yet know about. Only had it 3 days, but I can tell it's a keeper!

FTFY. :shock:

keef66

PBlakeney wrote:

keef66 wrote:

I just got a Panasonic Lumix TZ70 for my birthday! Definitely pocketable, 30x optical zoom and decent image stabilisation which give great flexibility in image composition / wildlife photography. Also apparently pretty good low light performance, and it's got a decent viewfinder. (got fed up with waving my iPhone about on sunny days, unable to see what I was snapping)

And I'm sure loads of other stuff I don't yet know about. Only had it 3 days, but I can tell it's a keeper!

FTFY. :shock:

I thought bothering was more accurate as it's usually flown / run away by the time I compose the picture. There's very little actual photography involved. I can usually manage to creep up on mountains and architecture without startling them...

eric_draven

A couple of sun ups and downs from this year,sunsets were at the Tarn Foot campsite in the Lake District



got the sunrises on the way to work,always go this way to work,as i get to check the surf when on early shift,only had my phone with me,the sun was the most perfect bright piercing red i have ever seen,the photos just don't do it justice

Ben6899

Eric, they're lovely! The red/pink of the sun in the third... wow.

Ben6899

Something a bit different...

Caps! by Ben H, on Flickr

And something more like my usual style...

Strand Lane by Ben H, on Flickr

pinno

Both good. Both unusual.
The bloke in the cloth cap coupled with B&W gives that picture a throwback feel.

What was the event (I presume) to do with the hats: a retro bike thing?