Project 365 : 50/365 – Nifty Fifty
What better way to celebrate the 50th day of my Project 365 than with a photograph of one of my favorite lenses, my Nifty Fifty. This lens is worth every penny of its tiny price tag for its sharpness and the image quality that it produces.
Click on the photograph to view it on a nicer background
DSLR Shopping? Skip The Nikon D5000 And Buy The D90
A colleague of mine recently came to me expressing his interest in moving into the world of digital photography by purchasing his first DSLR. As a lifelong Nikon point and shoot owner, he started digging into the current line of Nikon DSLR cameras. As a Nikon user myself, I was happy to help him out.
Quickly he narrowed his decision between the D5000 and the D90 originally leaning toward the D5000 from a price standpoint but after comparing the bodies side by side my recommendation to him was to get the D90.
Here are my four reasons that I would spend the extra $150-200 on the D90 over the D5000 and why you should too:
- The lack of a selector wheel on the front of the D5000.
This was a missing feature that drove me nuts when I first learned what I was doing on my D40x. It prompted me to step up to the D80 within only a few months after my original purchase.
- The D5000 does not have a top mounted display.
I know that with both camera bodies you have the option of viewing this data on the LCD monitor on the back of the camera but personally, I don’t like using the LCD to display the information.
- The D90 has a built in motor for non AF-S.
Autofocus lenses that are not AF-S will only work in manual focus mode with the D5000.
- The D5000 feels cheap.
Simply put, the D90 feels much more substantial and sturdy in your hand.
These reasons may not seem as important to a buyer as saving a few bucks but if you are anything like me (I replaced a D40x for a D80 after 5 months), you will long for these features once you get to know the camera and wish you would have purchased the D90 from the start.
An Idea to Break From a Creative Drought
It is no lie that I have been slacking lately in taking new photographs. While I have been spending a decent amount of time making some refinements to this site as well as placing a lot of focus on my Etsy shop, I have been at a creative standstill and I am not to sure why. It seems as if I go through cycles where I am either photographing a ton, or not at all.
Seeing as how I am in that “none at all” part of the cycle, it is time for some action. It it is my goal to take my camera everywhere I can with me this weekend and to take at least 1000 photographs by sunday night. For some of you, this may be a very easy task to accomplish. For others, like myself, this could be an opportunity to spend some long overdue quality time with your camera.
So, if you are in the same boat as me, sign on and take this little challenge. Dust off your camera, blow the dust of your sensor, and clean your favorite lenses. Take as many photographs as you can by Sunday night. Tomorrow evening I will share the favorites that I took this weekend here in a new post. I invite you to comment with a link to where we can see your galleries online.
Ok, no more typing. Time to grab my gear and to get to work!
How Am I Doing?
I am coming up on the one year anniversary of this site and while I am having fun writing it, I am curious to know what you think about it. I would greatly appreciate you taking a moment to answer the question below and if you would be so kind to add a comment about what you like, don’t like, or have any feedback on what you would like to see more of, I would be thrilled. For example, would you like to see more of my photographs, more reviews, or more tutorials (or all of these)? I am anxious to build this site in a positive way and your feedback is invaluable to me.
Thank You !!
Loading ...Wireless Radio Flash Triggers
With all of the playing that I have done using the Strobist technique of off camera lighting, I was interested in using wireless radio triggers to fire my SB-600 off camera. I had been using Nikon CLS up to now where I had the pop-up flash set to 1/128 to trigger the SB-600 without affecting the exposure. My hope was to abandon this method in favor of a completely wireless way of getting the SB-600 to fire.
Through searching the Strobist Group on Flickr, I learned about Pocket Wizards, Cybersyncs, and Cactus Triggers. Here is a quick breakdown of the three:
- Pocket Wizards – Work on a radio signal that is sent from the transmitter when the shutter is released to a receiver that is mounted on the flash unit. The receiver can be up to 1600 feet away. They are TTL capable, 16 channel selectable, highly reliable, and the preference of most professional photographers. The downside is that one transmitter/receiver set will run close to $400.
- Cybersyncs This system is also 16 channel selectable and has a maximum range of 400 feet between the transmitter and the receiver. One transmitter/receiver set will run close to $150 which is attractive, but with the loss of range, you also loose TTL capability.
- Cactus Triggers This is the least expensive route to go down when exploring wireless radio triggers. A transmitter/receiver set runs for less than $50. With the decrease in price, you also lose performance. The Cactus Triggers have a very limited range (~20 feet), are only 4 channel selectable, and (are reportedly) highly unreliable.
Being a complete beginner in this area I opted to try the Cactus Triggers first. I figured that using them would be a great way to play around with the technology with minimum investment seeing as how I will mostly be using them around the house where my need for range and channel selectivity will be at a minimum. I am sure that once I really start playing with them I will learn if they are right for me or if I need something more. Seeing as I only have one SB-600, I only got one transmitter/receiver set. Additional receivers are under $20 but I believe that I can pick up a second strobe with an optical slave so that I can fire it that way.
I should also mention Radio Poppers. They are another option to consider that are priced a closer to the Pocket Wizards.
Yet Another Lens Upgrade …
For those of you whom have followed this blog, you may remember another post or two about me upgrading my standard zoom lens. Well, I have done it again. I had been fairly satisfied with my purchase of the Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens that I picked up back in February until my wife and I got back from our honeymoon in Bali. When I was looking over the hundreds of shots that I took with the lens I came to realize that I wasn’t that happy with the sharpness and the overall Image Quality (IQ) that I was getting.
I knew that the only step up for me was to bite the bullet and spend the money on a proper Nikon lens. The only choice was if it was going to be the 17-55mm or the 24-70mm. While the reviews for the 24-70mm are a touch better than they are for the 17-55mm, I found that I really the 17-55mm focal length range on my D90.
While the price tag of a new Nikon 17-55mm can be a little shocking I was able to track down a fair amount of used lenses on sites like eBay, Adorama, and Craigslist
After scouring sites like these, I grabbed one off of eBay at an amazing price. The seller seemed highly creditable and provided extremely detalied photos of the lens and its cosmetic flaws. It was this disclosure that steered me away from buying from a site like Adorama who grades the used equipment on their site.
The lens came on Friday afternoon and I could not be more happy with it. I have learned my lesson and I will never by a third party lens like that again. In the case of lenses, I really believe that you get what you pay for and that putting cheap lenses on a nice body is a waste.
