The Shutterbug Thread

[Nick]

Any big photographers out there? I've been taking a ton of pictures every year for probably a decade now. Usually about 1500 - 2000 a year. I used to just have point & shoots, but a few years ago I picked up an Canon Rebel XTi, and last year I upgraded to a Rebel T2i. I'm still working on getting the knack of it though.

I have two lenses right now, my Nifty Fifty which is an awesome cheapo lens that takes great pictures, really fast (50mm f/1.8 ) and a general walkabout lens, the 15-85mm F/3.5-5.6, which has awesome build quality and is USM but is kinda slow unfortunately

I'm still working on getting better. I rarely do post processing other than cropping and some lighting fills. Normally shoot in JPG. I"ll try to post some of my "best" pics here, although I'm definitely still working on it

 

[bvibert]

Very amateur photog here. I don't think I really have an 'artistic eye', so I doubt I'll ever really be really good at it. I mostly just use photography to capture events and goings on in my life (and I'm usually so wrapped up in whatever it is that's going on that I forget to take any pictures.. :roll.

I also have a nifty fifty, which is the lens I use most of the time. I have two others, but I can't recall what they are, one is something that goes to like the 200mm range, and the other is a cheapo kit lens. I got my wife's Canon 20D when she upgraded to a 7D (she's more into it than I am). We also have a 10D as a backup.

I don't do too much post processing, mostly because I don't know what I'm doing and I don't have a whole lot of patience. I use Lightroom, which works pretty good for organizing and doing light touch up work.

 

[Nick]

I've been primarily just using Picasa, but I haven't really shot RAW files yet either. I took some with a new point and shoot I got (S95) but haven't figured out how to process them yet. :roll:

 

[bvibert]

I always shoot in RAW with the DSLR. It offers more flexibility in post processing, if needed. Your camera should have come with some software to allow you to work with the RAW files. I like using Lightroom, which handles the RAW format, but I'm not a serious enough Photog to justify buying it just for me (my wife's license allows us to use two copies).

 

[Geoff]

My camera criteria the last time around was to get the best quality camera that I could fit into my pocket to take skiing. I was OK with needing to separate the lens from the camera body to do that. I wanted to be able to do HD video clips.

I have an Olympus micro 4:3 setup. The idea with micro 4:3 is to get rid of the mirror that is used in a traditional SLR. You use a high quality electronic viewfinder instead of the optical viewfinder on a 35mm where you're looking at light bounced off the mirror. You can then shrink the camera body significantly. I can fit the camera body in my pocket easily and the zoom lens I use for ski photos and video clips in the other pocket.

My camera body is the PEN E-P2. The image stabilization electronics are built into the camera body so it lightens up and simplifies the lens. I have a detachable electronic viewfinder for it. Skiing and on salt water, cameras are useless without viewfinders since you can't see the LCD on the back of the camera in really bright light. I also now require reading glasses. With the viewfinder, I don't need reading glasses to see what I'm doing.

Video: 1280x720 30 fps in AVI Motion JPEG. The camera has HDMI so I can watch clips on my plasma TV. Like any video camera with a big zoom, you have to really stabilize it. Works great with a tripod. I really need a telescoping ski pole with a monopod attachment on top of the grip.

Stills: I tend to use the 3-shot automatic bracketing so I can pick between exposures. The continuous shoot is a compromise compared to a good 35mm. It only does 3 frames per second. If the camera is in raw mode, it can only do 10 shots at 3fps before RAM fills up. I shoot automatic mode most of the time.

Lenses: There's a size compromise. I usually have a 14-150mm lens on it (28-300mm equivalent on a 35mm SLR). The optics are excellent but the lens is a little slow. f/4.0 pulled all the way back and f/5.6 when zoomed. The stock lens is 14-42mm. It folds into itsself when powered down and makes for a very compact setup. I almost never use it since it doesn't have enough zoom. I also have a 9-18mm (18-36mm equivalent) wide angle zoom that is great for shooting scenery. It's also great for capturing home renovation project shots. That lens is also f/4.0.

The camera with a 14-150mm lens:

Wish list:
For my Olympus:
A fast fixed focal length lens for my Olympus setup. Panasonic makes a 20mm f/1.7 lens for micro 4:3 cameras. I'd love to have that in my bag of tricks for low light indoor candid shots and stills where I want to play depth of field games.

For a 2nd camera:
The newest Canon G series pocket camera. They finally added HD video to it. I'm more apt to carry that around than my Olympus setup. The G12 is shipping now. A G13 is rumored out in August.

 

[Nick]

A Nifty Fifty pic:

Drink o' Choice:

I've know I've got better ones they are just all meshed up together :roll:

Geoff that's a sick setup. The T2i I have does let you take pics from the screen but I almost never use that feature, since it takes a few moments to put the mirror up and initiate the screen.

Ski Stef just picked up a T3i, I'd like to hear her thoughts on it so far - I assume she just has the kit lens right now.

 

[Geoff]

I always shoot in RAW with the DSLR. It offers more flexibility in post processing, if needed. Your camera should have come with some software to allow you to work with the RAW files. I like using Lightroom, which handles the RAW format, but I'm not a serious enough Photog to justify buying it just for me (my wife's license allows us to use two copies).

I usually leave my camera in "BOTH" mode. The RAW file is there on the SD card but if I'm just pushing it up to flickr.com, I do some trivial Photoshop work (boost contrast a little, crop) to the JPEG image and upload it.

 

[Geoff]

Olympus PEN E-P2 with 14-150mm lens
Rogman in his Hawaiian spring skiing splendor. I really need to start with the RAW image in Photoshop. This was with the JPEG image and is cropped.

The drawback of shooting in auto mode with an EVF and without a tripod. The AF wasn't quite right. and I didn't know it ...but I wasn't going to lug a 35mm DSLR to the bottom of the Grand Canyon

The 9-18mm lens. Great for scenery and home improvement progress shots

Hiking in the Grand Canyon last fall

 

[bvibert]

Nice setup Geoff, those 4:3 cameras are definitely hot right now. Looks like you're able to get some good shots with it too.

 

[TheBEast]

We've got a Canon 20D that we're currently having issues with (ERR 99) and are bringing it in to Precision Camera in Enfield, CT to get checked out. We've really turned over our point and shoot stuff to our iPhones (which we'll be upgrading to version 5 in the fall) which just makes it easier as you always have it on you and with little kids it's much easier to wip something out of your pocket than to go find the camera (even if you do sacrifice some quality with our current 3G and 3GS iPhones.. At some point we'll upgrade the 20D to something newer that takes HD video so we can essentially have a high quality camera and video camera in one.

 

[bvibert]

A Nifty Fifty pic:

Cool shot!

 

[bvibert]

We've got a Canon 20D that we're currently having issues with (ERR 99) and are bringing it in to Precision Camera in Enfield, CT to get checked out. We've really turned over our point and shoot stuff to our iPhones (which we'll be upgrading to version 5 in the fall) which just makes it easier as you always have it on you and with little kids it's much easier to wip something out of your pocket than to go find the camera (even if you do sacrifice some quality with our current 3G and 3GS iPhones.. At some point we'll upgrade the 20D to something newer that takes HD video so we can essentially have a high quality camera and video camera in one.

We used to get that error sometimes when using a non-canon lens, I believe. I mostly use my canon 50mm now so I haven't seen it in awhile. From what I've seen ERR 99 is the catchall error code for when the camera knows something went wrong, but isn't quite sure what...

I hope the camera shop is able to determine the problem and fix it!

That reminds me that my shutter button has been getting a little flaky. I've been doing some research and I think I'm going to be attempting camera surgery at some point...

 

[Nick]

I've found my Android phones so far really not acceptable for replacing my P&S camera. Especially indoors.

 

[Geoff]

I've found my Android phones so far really not acceptable for replacing my P&S camera. Especially indoors.

No cell phone can fully replace a good p&s camera. Simple optics. The lens on a phone is far too small. It doesn't gather much light and it will always have a lot of defects in the lens. Doesn't matter how fancy the receptor is. 10 megapixels with very little lens in front of it is still useless.

 

[bvibert]

Here's a few of mine:

DHS with Bracket Basin in the background (note the AZ peak on his helmet, Nick )

IMG_7326 by Brian Vibert, on Flickr

gmunni on Misery Whip - This one was sort of a happy accident. I meant to have gmcunni in focus, but I like how it came out with the foreground in focus instead (when cropped as it is)

IMG_7253 by Brian Vibert, on Flickr

Woodcore on the Whip

IMG_7251 by Brian Vibert, on Flickr

Sometimes I manage to get some decent scenery shots

IMG_6521 by Brian Vibert, on Flickr


IMG_6576 by Brian Vibert, on Flickr

 

[bvibert]

I use my android smart phone a lot for taking pictures, just for the convenience factor (size, I always have it with me, and I can easily upload to FB). Not the greatest for sure, but adequate for catching the kids being kids, or other stuff like that.

I didn't even realize that I had 'lost' my point and shoot until last week when I 'found' it in my MTB hydration pack. :lol:

 

[Nick]

Dude your pictures are way better than mine.

I like the sticker, it looks kinda tiny though

 

[bvibert]

Dude your pictures are way better than mine.

Thanks! I don't really do anything special. I always shoot in aperture priority mode. Sometimes I forget to look at what ISO I'm using, but other than that it usually works out pretty good. For the skiing shots I put it in continuous fire mode and picked out the best from the sequence. I have trouble getting the focus right for action though...

I like the sticker, it looks kinda tiny though

Much bigger and I'd have trouble fitting one on my helmet.

 

[riverc0il]

I started getting a little more serious about photography this year. Just picked up an E-PL2 a few months ago and joined the Micro Four Thirds band wagon. It is totally the way to go. I think higher end P&S cameras are pointless when you can get a M4/3 kit with pancake for a few hundred more. Especially this summer as the newest cameras from both Oly and Panasonic might be barely pocketable with the 14mm pancake. My E-PL2 is ski jacket chest pocketable with the 14mm pancake. I am bummed they had such a massive size reduction just a few months after I got the E-PL2. Panasonic and Lecia have a 25mm (50mm equiv) coming out next month. Mmmmm...... :roll:

It is a ton of fun and the quality of images is a significant step up from P&S.

I use Gimp and UFRaw. Gimp works well, no need for Photoshop when Gimp is free. Oly has such great color and saturation JPGs, I rarely use UFRaw but I do shoot double in both JPG and RAW for my photos just in case.

 

[bvibert]

I played with Gimp several years ago, I remember not being overly impressed. I think it was because I didn't know what I was doing. I was probably trying to achieve some menial task, for which Gimp was overkill, though. I've been meaning to give it another look.