[OFB Cafe] Photographers?

[Timothy Butler]

> nothing. i have two of 'em. i use my existing nikkors -- 105 f1.8,  
> 85 f2,
> 500 mirror reflex nikkor (which is a 750 f8 using the tiny sensor!) --
> fairly rarely. i typically use the 12-24 and the 18-200. digital  
> slrs have
> a far greater risk from dust than film ones do. first, any speck of  
> dust
> is half again as big; second, film had a kind of self-cleaning  
> aspect. if
> there were a speck of dust that landed on the focal plane, it would  
> move
> along when the film was advanced. with digital, it sits there, picture
> after picture. so the 12-24 pretty much always sits on one body and,  
> all
> else equal, the 18-200 on the other. the fewer times i have the lens  
> off,
> the less likelihood of contamination getting in.

	Ah, now that's something I'd love to do. For the moment, I just try  
to be careful and hope the ultrasonic sensor cleaning system will keep  
the thing clean. I'll end up taking it in for a sensor cleaning,  
eventually, I am sure.

	How do you like your 500? I've been considering Sigma's 180-500mm,  
which is optically stabilized and appears to be pretty good. I have a  
70-300mm f/4-5.6, which is relatively good for most telephoto work,  
but 500 would be handy for birding and such.

	I hear many good things about the 18-200mm, Nikon's famed vacation  
lens. That was almost enough to make me go with Nikon -- actually, I  
wanted to go with Nikon for a long time, I just ended up elsewhere for  
a variety of reasons.

> i still have a hard time thinking of digital photography as  
> photography,
> and an even harder time thinking of it as art. there was such a zen to
> chemical photography.

	I think it grows on you in this sense. The art aspect becomes much  
more focused on the objective of creative framing, positioning of  
subjects, etc., rather than the the lighting and such which is easier  
to work with.

	Of course, they keep making digital photography easier. My father  
bought my mother a Sony DSC-H50 for her birthday awhile back. It's a  
point and shoot superzoom (15x, goes to about 480mm equivalent). It  
had not only face detection, which made it focus on faces, it also had  
"smile shutter," which made it wait to take the picture until the  
subject smiled. It actually worked. But the pictures were noisy. I  
talked her into a Canon Digital Rebel XSi (450D for those across the  
pond), which has worked out much better...

	-Tim

---
Timothy R. Butler | "Do  not forget that  the value and interest of
Editor, OfB.biz   | life is not so much to do conspicuous things...
tbutler at ofb.biz   | as to do ordinary things with the perception of
timothybutler.us  | their enormous value."
                                       -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin