One for the photographers on here
- Thread starter Sam Vimes
- Start date
I’ve got three digital cameras and for each I printed off the Owners Manual. But they were so large I never read through any of them. So I guess I grasped about 20% at most of the camera’s capability. However, the cameras only come out of the cupboard periodically to have batteries and spares recharged. We go to Northumberland in September and strangely enough I have been thinking it might be a good idea to take the LUMIX FZ200 and not rely totally on my iPhone. Perhaps I could also take the copy of the Owners Manual as I doubt we will have 15 nice dry sunny days🤞🤞
Way back in the early days of microprocessor design a study showed that only 20% of instructions got used 80% of the time. This lead to the development of RISC microprocessors.
So your 20% coverage of the manual is about right. But you have to hope it's the right 20% 😉
In fact you can apply the 80/20 rule to many things in life.
So your 20% coverage of the manual is about right. But you have to hope it's the right 20% 😉
In fact you can apply the 80/20 rule to many things in life.
I have the Canon E200 and again a lot of the manual went over my head. I then bought an easy to understand book, but the camera just has so many capabilities it is confusing. I bought it mainly for long distance shots with the hope that we will be able to visit a game park in South Africa. Sadly the phone camera did not do these pictures justice as you can hardly see the rhino.
Rhino and Wildebeest
I bought the FZ200 specifically for wildlife photography when on the move as it combined a flexible lens system with relatively compact size, and we could react quickly too. It is also good in towns too. I’ve got a TZ80 compact with 30x optical zoom. But my right arm Essential Judder makes using it to the fulll neigh on impossible. Got these shots of Red Panda and Blood Pheasant with the Fz200 both of which appeared then disappeared into thick undergrowth very quickly, and they are quite rare. I’ve got camera-lazy these last few years with iPhone etc. But I think that I will recommission the Fz200 as there are good photographic opportunities in Northumberland.
My son has some really sophisticate camera gear with long ranger lens as he is a game ranger in South Africa. Cost of the long range lens is probably more than a decent second hand car! Some of his pictures have featured in National Gepgraphic magazine plus him being in one of their documentaries.
Digital cameras have improved significantly over the years. My first was an Olympus C860L 1.3Mpixels and it used to take a long time to actually take the shot after the button was pressed.
Camera phones are pretty good these days too. But as one famous photographer quoted:-
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!”
― Ansel Adams
Northumberland is one county we like very much and its about as far south as we want to travel with the caravan. Just a few from around there.
Lindisfarne, Dunstanburgh, Craigside, Wooler
Camera phones are pretty good these days too. But as one famous photographer quoted:-
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!”
― Ansel Adams
Northumberland is one county we like very much and its about as far south as we want to travel with the caravan. Just a few from around there.
Lindisfarne, Dunstanburgh, Craigside, Wooler
Nice photos it is a lovely county not overly sown with Grockles. We particularly like a long drive along narrow winding roads to cook lunch at an old Roman mail post and encampment. It’s right on the border with Scotland. And if the road is open we wend our way back through the Otterburn ranges.
Doesn’t get any better.
I did have a Canon EOS 400 D but didn’t master it.
Someone else commented that my photos were quite nice ( never even thought about it myself, just point and press) and got fed up carting all the gear around so now just use my iPhone snd the edit settings on it to tweak the snaps
Here’s some I took while on a walk where I live during Covid
View my photos at: https://steve1962.smugmug.com/Out-walking
Steve
Someone else commented that my photos were quite nice ( never even thought about it myself, just point and press) and got fed up carting all the gear around so now just use my iPhone snd the edit settings on it to tweak the snaps
Here’s some I took while on a walk where I live during Covid
View my photos at: https://steve1962.smugmug.com/Out-walking
Steve
John Constable painted this view and his painting was bought for £23.1 million by Tate Britain but was thought to be possibly worth £40 million.
........view my photo of Salisbury Cathedral below for free
........view my photo of Salisbury Cathedral below for free
Although a nice painting by Constable of your photo, I don't think the painting is worth even tuppence.
Seriously I cannot understand people paying these huge amounts for a painting!
Seriously I cannot understand people paying these huge amounts for a painting!
Excellent pics Steve. You clearly have an eye for it.
I do not use my Sony SLR anymore. Just too much hastle. But it is amazing what can be achieved with a mobile. I have an iPhone 14 plus, I was looking for a new digital camera and decided to upgrade the phone instead. There is so much info on line about the built in cameras. I really need to study it.
Johm
Thanks,
Like you I couldn't be bothered carting all that gear around.
I've started to watch videos by this guy......really good.
Steve
This could be another EV vs ICE discussion.
I'm a control freak admittedly but find using a smartphone doesn't allow enough control in some situations. It's more akin to using my small compact camera on Auto. Biggest drawback for me has always been the poor visibility of the screen in bright light, meaning it becomes a Point and Hope camera.
The processing of the image data can also be a bit doubtful in my opinion but perhaps the latest phones are better than mine when it comes to Jpeg.
I shoot Raw format on dSLR and smartphone as I'm prepared to put the time in to process these, if needed, on my workstation.
I'm a control freak admittedly but find using a smartphone doesn't allow enough control in some situations. It's more akin to using my small compact camera on Auto. Biggest drawback for me has always been the poor visibility of the screen in bright light, meaning it becomes a Point and Hope camera.
The processing of the image data can also be a bit doubtful in my opinion but perhaps the latest phones are better than mine when it comes to Jpeg.
I shoot Raw format on dSLR and smartphone as I'm prepared to put the time in to process these, if needed, on my workstation.
In 2019 we bought a SLR camera specifically for photographing game, but then Covid struck and no more trips abroad. A Smartphone camera is totally useless for capturing game as normally they are too far away as per the example.
Birdwatching enthusiasts often combine a smartphone with a telescope - taking the phone shot through the eyepiece of the telescope.
That seems like one big hassle and can be tiring waiting for the right shot. Might as well have a SLR camera as saves carting around two extra bits of equipment.
The telescope is used for finding specific birds in the first place so not easy to leave behind.
A couple of our friends have switched from DSLRs with telephoto lenses to a bridge camera, and very pleased with the results as well as being less bulky to carry.
This picture was taken from quite a distance away and doubt if anyone with a telescope and Smartphone would have been able to capture the bird in flight. As you can see it is about to snatch some prey. Remember these birds are extremely quick.
I bought a LUMIX FZ200 bridge camera specifically for trips to India/Bhutan It was a real pleasure to use and so much easier to carry around. So with a pair of Zeiss 10x40 and the FZ200 camera we didn’t feel disadvantaged, in fact for general wildlife and tourist photos the FZ200 was a very good compromise. If a scope was required our guide invariably had one available.
I still use the FZ200 but recently gave away a compact Samsung, and the remaining compact LUMIX TZ80 rarely gets used as it competes with the smartphone.
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My wife has a FZ100 and a TZ70 and I have a TZ80 plus lots of SLR kit.
The one thing I notice from many of the above pictures is lack of positioning and levelling. Both the FZ series and the TZ80 have the ability to display a 3x3 graticule in the viewfinder and on the screen. and I would always recommend it is used. (The TZ70 does as well except it is not a symmetrical 3x3.)The horizontal lines make it easy to get the picture truly horizontal- per the leaning spire in G Bill's shot? - (the TZ80 actually has active lines in the viewfinder that show when the camera is horizontal and upright!) and the crossing points show where a subject should be placed to get the most pleasing composition. Also if your camera (any type) has the graticule and multi-segment metering, the horizontals are where you should place the horizon. My Nikon dSLRs have multi-segment metering - four corner-based sections and a round central area. If the meter sees the UL and UR segments bright with the LL and LR segments dark it tends to use the centre circle metering on the basis that the upper half of the picture is the sky. Put the horizon along the upper horizontal line and you will get a much better exposed shot. Similarly if you are taking a shot of a big sky, putting the horizon along the lower line and the exposure will be correct for the sky.
Simples?
More hints will follow further down this thread - assuming it goes any further!
The one thing I notice from many of the above pictures is lack of positioning and levelling. Both the FZ series and the TZ80 have the ability to display a 3x3 graticule in the viewfinder and on the screen. and I would always recommend it is used. (The TZ70 does as well except it is not a symmetrical 3x3.)The horizontal lines make it easy to get the picture truly horizontal- per the leaning spire in G Bill's shot? - (the TZ80 actually has active lines in the viewfinder that show when the camera is horizontal and upright!) and the crossing points show where a subject should be placed to get the most pleasing composition. Also if your camera (any type) has the graticule and multi-segment metering, the horizontals are where you should place the horizon. My Nikon dSLRs have multi-segment metering - four corner-based sections and a round central area. If the meter sees the UL and UR segments bright with the LL and LR segments dark it tends to use the centre circle metering on the basis that the upper half of the picture is the sky. Put the horizon along the upper horizontal line and you will get a much better exposed shot. Similarly if you are taking a shot of a big sky, putting the horizon along the lower line and the exposure will be correct for the sky.
Simples?
More hints will follow further down this thread - assuming it goes any further!
Thanks for the tips. When a piece of wildlife appears it’s not always feasible to do the perfect thing. Blood Pheasant and Red Pandas don’t tend to hang around whilst you compose your photo. But it’s generally possible to rotate the photo in order align the horizontal/vertical axes using the editing software.
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