Archive for the ‘Nikon’ category

Using Autofocus

August 19th, 2009

The ability for a camera to automatically focus is awesome. The fact that your camera can look at an object, determine if it is sharp enough, and change the focus blows me away every time. When I first got my DSLR cameras, one thing I’ve noticed is that it was unpredictable on what it would focus on. I’d look through the viewfinder, and want to focus on the person in my shot, and it would focus on some leaf in the foreground. Or it would focus on the closest person instead of the person in the middle. Turns out, my Nikon has some settings for the focus mode that I didn’t know about. The factory had it set to focus on the closest object, regardless of where it was. This wasn’t working for me, because I didn’t always want the closest object in focus.

What I’ve done to simplify my life and make my autofocus only focus on what is in the direct center of my viewfinder. Looking through my Nikon, (D40) I have an indicator that looks like:

These boxes are the focus area indicators. I’ve changed the settings in the back menu (check your manual to see what menu), so that only the center square is put in focus.

I know what you are saying, “what if I don’t want the center to be in focus, what if I want something on the right or left to be in focus. I that case you put the item you want to focus on in the center brackets, press the shutter button half way down and then re-compose you image. This blog talks about some of the other features of autofocusing that I won’t rewrite here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80/af-settings.htm

I also noticed that sometimes the camera wouldn’t focus, it just kept searching, and never finds a focus distance. The autofocus in your camera uses lines of contrast to focus. So you need to look at the edge of an object to get the camera to focus. It you are trying to focus on something all the same color, the camera won’t know how to make it sharp

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Posted in Nikon, camera, focus, settings

Becoming Master of Your Domain: Camera Modes

April 9th, 2009

One of the first things that new camera owners start to play with on their DSLR is the little Mode Dial on the top of the camera:

Nikon

inhandNikon

Canon
inhandCanon

Everyone is always tempted to just put it on Auto, and leave it, but here’s what these different Mode Dial symbols mean (I’m going to focus on Nikon and Canon):

Nikon Canon
P P Program Mode: this is almost automatic, but allows you to change a couple settings like ISO and white balance. It is a way to override some of the decisions your camera’s auto sensor is making.
S Tv Shutter Priority: You chose the shutter speed, and the camera selects an appropriate aperture value. This is a semi-auto mode, but it is great for getting a specific effect.

For example, it you want to get a crystal clear picture of a track runner, you need a fast shutter speed to stop the runner. Otherwise you will get a blur. In this mode, you set the shutter speed fast, and the camera picks the appropriate aperture to get enough light.
A Av Aperture Priority: You chose the aperture value, and the camera selects an appropriate shutter speed. This is a semi-auto mode, but it is great for getting a specific effect.

For example, it you want to take a “selective focus” picture of a flower (flower in focus, background out of focus) you need a wide aperture (low f-number). This will put the flower in crisp focus, and have the background all out of focus. The camera then compensates with the correct shutter speed to let the right amount of light in.
M M Manual: Allows everything to be set by the user. I shoot most of the time in this mode.
Auto Green Box (Auto) Auto: “photography for dummies”. This setting uses the camera’s image sensor to decide all settings. It usually gets close, but I’ve found that I can usually do a better job controlling brightness, white balance, and shooting style using the Auto Mode
Icon Icon Scene Select: the second half of the camera mode dial has little pictures on it that are meant to specify a shooting scenario. They basically change some of the pre-set features for each scene type. I find them useless.

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Posted in Canon, Mode Dial, Nikon, camera

Buying Guide – Pro level D-SLR’s

April 1st, 2009

If you have a few thousand dollars to spend, and really want to look like you know what you are doing, I’d recommend you look into a pro level DSLR. To be totally honest, I don’t have the cash for these, so I’m probably not the best person to offer advice. What I can say are a few of the benefits:
• Higher Mexapixel – More sensors in the camera means higher resolution images
• Better in low light – These cameras look better at higher ISO’s
• Better Kit lenses – they pack these into the costs
• More buttons, and dials – the camera body is bigger so they fit in things like LCD displays, separate aperture and shutter speed controls, white balance buttons, etc.
• Video – some of the newer models (Canon 5D – Mark II and Nikon D90) are offering video capabilities.

Along with the higher price tag, these cameras are bigger and weigh more, so be prepared to carry a heavier load.

I’d strongly advise against spending this much money for your first camera. Personally, I got the cheapest camera I could to learn with. My plan is to continue using it till I’ve out grown its capabilities, then upgrade to something a little snazzier!!! But that’s just me.

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Posted in Buying Guide, Canon, DSLR, Nikon, camera

Consumer Level D-SLR Cameras

March 23rd, 2009

So, the first question is: What is a D-SLR?
Answer: It stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. In plain English, it is a digital camera, where you look through the lens that you actually take the picture through. (most point and shoot cameras have a separate view finder) You look down though a mirror that points out the lens. When you press the button (shutter) to take a picture, the mirror lifts up and exposes the image sensor (film) and that captures the image. Here’s a great diagram of how a D-SLR works from “how stuff works” (just replace the film with digital image sensor):

D-SLR cameras are great for photographers who consider taking pictures an art and think of it more as a hobby. These cameras allow for tons of control in how light is captured by your camera or how to compose your picture. You can also change lenses so you can take pictures in unusual situations, like super close up (macro) or things very far away (zoom). They also make it very easy to change the aperture, shutter speed, and white balance.

Consumer level D-SLR have a couple limitations compared to their pro model counterparts. First, they usually have only one dial on the camera body to change both aperture and shutter speed. This is a bit of an inconvenience, but still better than going into menus to change, like in the consumer level cameras. Also, they only have one display to show what your camera settings are (battery life, images left, aperture, shutter speed, iso, etc). This screen also shows the preview of your image, so it is has to alternate between different views when you want to change settings.

The consumer level D-SLR’s are a great entry point for someone who wants to learn more about photography, but doesn’t want to plunk down several thousand dollars to get started. I bought a Nikon D40 for around $600:

D-SLR cameras come in two parts, the body and the lens. You can buy these items separately, however, they also sell them as ‘kits’, which is a body and lens combo. You can also find them with multiple lenses, an included memory card, extra battery, etc. The one I got came with 2 Nikon lenses; an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm. This allows me to have a bit more zoom when I swap lenses. Neither of these are “high quality” lenses, but they do the trick for just learning.

This is the kit that I bought off Amazon.

Another good set of cameras to look at is the Canon Rebel. I don’t know much about the Canon lineup, but I’ve heard good things.

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Posted in Buying Guide, Canon, DSLR, Nikon, camera

Buying a point and shoot compact camera

March 5th, 2009

If a camera can fit in your pocket, chances are, it is a point and shoot. These cameras are great for a night out on the town, or anytime you want to take pictures, but don’t want to lug around a heavy camera. These cameras are generally the least expensive and range in price from under a hundred to around $400. Most point and shoots purchased in the last couple years take pretty great pictures. So, you are probably asking yourself, if these cameras are the smallest and lowest price, why don’t I just stop here, why do I need anything more?

Control, control, control! As we start to get into more advanced features of the camera, it becomes important to be able to change different ‘setting’ that the camera uses to capture the image. The two biggest ones are shutter speed and aperture (don’t worry if you don’t know what those are right now, I’ll be covering them in later entries).

If you look at the controls on the point and shoot cameras,

you’ll notice that they only have an auto setting and a couple pre-sets.


They don’t allow you to individually change the shutter speed or aperture. The camera relies on its internal computer and sensors to make a decision about how these things should be set. It usually gets pretty close, but you can’t do the fine-tuning that makes your images look really fantastic. There isn’t an image sensor or camera processor that can make decisions as well as the human eye… at least not yet.

Also, interchangeable lenses! The point and shoots come with one lens that is attached to the camera. That is the only lens that you will be able to use. If you want to shoot close up pictures, wide angle, or super zoomed pictures, you are out of luck. Point and shoot cameras do have the ability to zoom, and usually say something like “3x optical zoom”. This means that you can make an image 3 times larger. However, ever other camera uses a measure of mm to denote the camera’s zoom. A typical zoom range for a point and shot with “3.8x optical zoom“ is from 28-105mm, but that is hard to gauge, because they have different starting points to do 3x. I’ll get into more detail about what those numbers mean later, but they are useful for comparison.

Also, remember that DIGITAL ZOOM IS A SCAM!!! More on this tomorrow.

Personally, I have a point and shoot that I carry around with me when I want to take some snapshots. It’s a Canon SD850IS.

I bought it two years ago and carry it around when I don’t want to deal with the bigger cameras.

Examples: Canon SD970IS, Nikon Coolpix S230, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3

Thanks to DPReview.com for the camera images above.

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Posted in Canon, Nikon, Review, Sony, camera, photography

Buying a Digital Camera

March 3rd, 2009

If you are like me, then buying a digital camera is an overwhelming process. There are literally hundreds of cameras on the market and dozens of places to buy. Prices can range from under a hundred dollars to a several thousand. I’m not an expert on camera selection, but here is the thought process and learning I had when I selected my camera.

I’ve broken the digital camera market down into four “styles” of cameras:

  1. Point and shoot compact cameras
  2. Consumer model cameras with advanced settings
  3. Consumer style D-SLR cameras
  4. Pro level D-SLR’s

Each camera has a distinct purpose and situation that they are best suited for. The best advice I have is to choose the one that makes the most sense for your photographic needs, but that also fits in your budget. Buying the most expensive camera isn’t going to make you a better photographer. Knowing how to use the camera you have is what is most important. As the week goes on, I’ll create an entry for each segment of camera and walk you through the defining characteristics of each. I’ll also share what I bought, and why.

For now, a couple resources to check out are:

  • DP Review (www.dpreview.com): Checkout the buying guide and camera database
  • Consumer Reports (www.consumerreports.org): Good for reliability and feature comparison, but the site charges to see everything
  • CNet Digital Cameras (www.cnet.com): This link takes you to the digital camera section. There are a lot of good reviews here.

Just a note here, I’m exclusively talking about digital cameras. If you are interested in traditional film I don’t really have any advice for you.

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Posted in Blog, Canon, DSLR, Nikon, camera, photography