Photography Thread

pinno

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

Sometimes you can just point and shoot. Done with a £120 phone.

Wow, that's an awesome shot.
I've had images printed in newspapers and shown on the BBC's as picture of the day which were taken using a mobile phone - despite having an SLR, the phone's always with me for those "moments"...

Under what pseudonym?

wolfsbane2k

Pinno wrote:

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

Sometimes you can just point and shoot. Done with a £120 phone.

Wow, that's an awesome shot.
I've had images printed in newspapers and shown on the BBC's as picture of the day which were taken using a mobile phone - despite having an SLR, the phone's always with me for those "moments"...

Under what pseudonym?

My real name. (Phones with HDR capabilities help, especially if you carry a monopod in the form of a walking stick most places)

briantrumpet

I rather like this one from yesterday - actually in colour, but the monochromaticism and shape/texture (it's actually mud) caught my eye. The joy of a decent optical zoom...

eric_draven

My New Toy MT09

Custom bike with a MTB rear shock put to another use

Out on a morning stroll

eric_draven

briantrumpet wrote:

Sometimes you can just point and shoot. Done with a £120 phone.

That's sublime

pinno

Nice shot Brian.

briantrumpet

eric draven wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

Sometimes you can just point and shoot. Done with a £120 phone.

That's sublime

I've been here 26 years, and I don't think I've ever seen the Exe at Topsham so serene - not entirely surprising, given that it's a major river, and tidal. I did also take it on my proper camera (still only on point & shoot), for comparison. Right click to see the full version:



I'm not sure which is more accurate to the colours I perceived, and though the HDR on the mobile is rather brutal, the Sony HX50 seems to turn dusk shots much bluer than I see them. I have adjusted this one somewhat, as it was much much cooler than I think I saw it.

Wheelspinner

The simple stuff in your garden can be so beautiful...

briantrumpet

This one turned out quite nicely - at a reasonable distance (c.20m), and the perspective and light/shadow framed the bird & its reflection rather well.

briantrumpet

Wheelspinner wrote:

The simple stuff in your garden can be so beautiful...

Yes, lovely shots.

And modern cameras with macro capabilities make it so much easier than once it was.

Wheelspinner

Sunrise at the beach a couple days ago

crescent

Wheelspinner wrote:

Sunrise at the beach a couple days ago

Very nice 8)

orraloon

Wheelspinner wrote:

Sunrise at the beach a couple days ago

You're doing it again WS. Us poor barstewards stuck in a Winter Brexitland look on and go xxxx...

My wife's cousin today celebrates 25 years in Brissie, which is different of course, but we can still go 'if only'.

briantrumpet

Both Severn bridges tonight... doing my best to get something from a tricky angle, composition-wise:

pinno

Good.

Wheelspinner

orraloon wrote:

Wheelspinner wrote:

Sunrise at the beach a couple days ago
...

You're doing it again WS. Us poor barstewards stuck in a Winter Brexitland look on and go xxxx...

My wife's cousin today celebrates 25 years in Brissie, which is different of course, but we can still go 'if only'.

Sorry 'Loon... I'd pretend to be sympathetic, but probably fail...

Lived in Bris a bit on and off, can be a bit too warm even for me in summer up there.

Ben6899

A quick phone shot from our New Year's Day walk:
New Year's Day walk by Ben H, on Flickr

Wheelspinner

Out of curiosity as much as anything I bought a reflex mirror lens, which is an effective 750mm focal length and fixed aperture. It's damned difficult to use because far more than any lens I've ever used it is incredibly restrictive in composition, just by the nature of the optic. I've taken maybe 500 frames already with it, and kept perhaps 4.

However I quite liked this one of an ornamental windmill in the garden.

ayjaycee

Wheelspinner wrote:

Out of curiosity as much as anything I bought a reflex mirror lens, which is an effective 750mm focal length and fixed aperture. It's damned difficult to use because far more than any lens I've ever used it is incredibly restrictive in composition, just by the nature of the optic. I've taken maybe 500 frames already with it, and kept perhaps 4.

As a rule, if you are using a lens / camera combo without a VR system hand held, you should always aim to use a shutter speed which at least reflects the focal length of the lens that you are using. Effectively, that means using minimum 1/500 sec with a 500mm or 1/1000 sec with a 750mm but, even then, without a fair bit of practise, getting a picture without any shake can be a challenge. The problem is that with the light in the UK at this time of year, that can sometimes get a bit difficult to achieve without jacking up the ISO. I would recommend a monopod and you can get a half decent one for under £50 (with head). Potential camera shake problems aside, you have already discovered for yourself that very long telephotos have their own issues and require a lot of room to work - telephoto cat lenses introduce a whole new set of issues on top!

apreading

Nowadays you can bring down that shutter speed by as much as 5/6 stops if you have in body and/or in lens stabilisation though - it has got really good especially if you have both.

Mirror lenses often have poor bokeh in the out of focus areas too - the above isn’t bad but if it was nicer that shot would by even better.

ayjaycee

apreading wrote:

Nowadays you can bring down that shutter speed by as much as 5/6 stops if you have in body and/or in lens stabilisation though - it has got really good especially if you have both.

Sorry to contradict you but I've always been a bit sceptical of manufacturers claims the their IS / VR systems will give 5 stops and I suspect that trying to use both in-camera and in-lens IS / VR systems simultaneously is never going to end well. I will confess to not having ever tried to do it as I have never had the right body / lens combination but instinct is telling me that it just wouldn't work. I've recently been lucky enough to have had the loan of a Nikon Z7 with a couple of dedicated Z lenses and the body will also take older Nikon lenses. The Z7 has in-body image stabilisation and if you use a Nikon FX or DX lens with VR (or VRII) with it, the camera automatically switches it off (the lens VR that is). As an aside, the Z7 is probably the best camera that I have ever used and the only two problems with it were that they wanted the loaner back and it's very expensive to buy for yourself if you were that way inclined (over £3K!).

apreading

I was skeptical too. I had Pentax bodies years ago with in-body stabilisation and it was good for maybe a stop or two.

But I have just got some Panasonic 4/3 kit - A G9 body and a GX800 cheapo compact. Just the in-lens stabilisation at 300mm (600mm equivalent for full frame) on the compact that has no in-body stabilisation was incredible. Hand held if I use good technique learned from shooting rilfes to be as steady as possible, I can read the small print at the bottom of number plates on cars over 50 metres away with 1/100 second exposure - and I mean the small print that says which garage had the plates printed, not the main letters.

On recent, 'power=IS' lenses, if you mount them on a body with in-body stablisation like the G9, the system uses both in tandem and I honestly think the claims are accurate. I dont know if Panasonic is the only system capable of doing both together at this stage but I think its something they should all be striving to do.

Wheelspinner

apreading wrote:

Nowadays you can bring down that shutter speed by as much as 5/6 stops if you have in body and/or in lens stabilisation though - it has got really good especially if you have both.

Mirror lenses often have poor bokeh in the out of focus areas too - the above isn’t bad but if it was nicer that shot would by even better.

Neither of my camera bodies have in-body IS, so I pretty much can't use this lens without a tripod, or some sort of rest anyway. AM considering buying another body just for the stabilisation for this one, and the macro lens.

The bokeh is weird, and very distracting, but it seems if you're careful about framing and what's actually behind the object you can get reasonable results. I really wanted the (effective) 600mm "regular" tele lens, but it was 5 times the price.

Wheelspinner

apreading wrote:

I was skeptical too. I had Pentax bodies years ago with in-body stabilisation and it was good for maybe a stop or two.

But I have just got some Panasonic 4/3 kit - A G9 body and a GX800 cheapo compact. Just the in-lens stabilisation at 300mm (600mm equivalent for full frame) on the compact that has no in-body stabilisation was incredible. Hand held if I use good technique learned from shooting rilfes to be as steady as possible, I can read the small print at the bottom of number plates on cars over 50 metres away with 1/100 second exposure - and I mean the small print that says which garage had the plates printed, not the main letters.

On recent, 'power=IS' lenses, if you mount them on a body with in-body stablisation like the G9, the system uses both in tandem and I honestly think the claims are accurate. I dont know if Panasonic is the only system capable of doing both together at this stage but I think its something they should all be striving to do.

I tried a mate's Sony A7R II with that IBIS system, using a 90mm Leica manual lens and adaptor. Walking round in the evening it was possible to take low-light shots down to about 1/15 and get absolutely sharp results, and the rendering from that lens was just gorgeous, but I don't have the budget for that...

On Sony at least, I thought the IBIS switches off if the camera detects in-lens stabilisation, or vice versa, but you can't have both running. They usually claim about 2-4 stops benefit max from it.

ayjaycee

apreading wrote:

I was skeptical too. I had Pentax bodies years ago with in-body stabilisation and it was good for maybe a stop or two.

But I have just got some Panasonic 4/3 kit - A G9 body and a GX800 cheapo compact. Just the in-lens stabilisation at 300mm (600mm equivalent for full frame) on the compact that has no in-body stabilisation was incredible. Hand held if I use good technique learned from shooting rilfes to be as steady as possible, I can read the small print at the bottom of number plates on cars over 50 metres away with 1/100 second exposure - and I mean the small print that says which garage had the plates printed, not the main letters.

On recent, 'power=IS' lenses, if you mount them on a body with in-body stablisation like the G9, the system uses both in tandem and I honestly think the claims are accurate. I dont know if Panasonic is the only system capable of doing both together at this stage but I think its something they should all be striving to do.

Sorry if I'm being thicker than usual but I'm not getting the point that you are trying to make about the GX800 in your second paragraph?

On the third paragraph, I actually wasn't aware that the G9 in-body system was designed to work in tandem with the compatible lens IS system. The G9 is a very good body but I remain unconvinced that using the in-body IS in conjunction with that of a compatible lens would be much better than either individual system on it's own and even more so that it would be worth 6 stops if that's what Panasonic claim. As I indicated earlier, I'm a sceptic, particularly where claims by marketing people are concerned - that's why they always qualify them with 'up to'.

apreading

The point in the second para is that with in-lens stabilisation only, I was able to shoot handheld with an equivalent 600mm focal length at 1/100 and the result was pin sharp.

Its not just the G9 that does dual-IS and its not just Panasonic - a quick google showed up: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/fo ... is.130610/

http://www.thevideomode.com/news/panaso ... test-2360/

https://www.mu-43.com/threads/testing-i ... kii.90101/

or if you want alot of reading: https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.c ... al-is.html

If you have only used old stabilisation, you wont appreciate how much things have moved on. The step from my old Pentax in-body IS to Panasonic with just the lens stabilisation was dramatic - dual IS is even better.

This is also much improved by the fact that these bodies are mirrorless so there is no slap if you use the electronic shutter - if you really want to, you can set a timer too so that you dont have to press the shutter.

That is not to say that I wont use tripods as they are obviously better, but I will be taking longer lenses into the field where I am not carrying a tripod than I would have in the past, on mountain leader expeditions for example. I will of-course look for a suitable place to perch the camera on a bean bag or similar if that can be achieved, but even if it isnt, I will try for shots I wouldnt have bothered with in the past.

ayjaycee

Well at least I've learnt that there is such a thing as Dual IS today but it would take more than that to make me buy an Olympus or Sony (or at least one that wasn't a compact!).

apreading wrote:

The point in the second para is that with in-lens stabilisation only, I was able to shoot handheld with an equivalent 600mm focal length at 1/100 and the result was pin sharp.

Sorry but despite having experience with modern systems, I'm still sceptical about the 6 stops! Using the rough rule that I mentioned earlier from pre VR / IS days of shutter speed at least equating to focal length for hand held shots,’up to’ 4 stops (as in your example above) maybe but 6..........? Guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

briantrumpet

For all the stuff about fancy cameras, it still sometimes amazes me what you can do with the camera tagged on a cheap (£125) mobile phone.

rjsterry

briantrumpet wrote:

For all the stuff about fancy cameras, it still sometimes amazes me what you can do with the camera tagged on a cheap (£125) mobile phone.

Indeed. You can even take a nice picture with a wheelie bin*, but obviously it gets easier to produce something you'd want to keep with better kit.

* https://www.lomography.com/magazine/646 ... n-quinnell

briantrumpet

Another "gosh, aren't modern cameras wonderful" post. £200 camera, casual snap. Cropped from bigger photo.