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NeoGAF Camera Equipment Thread | MK II

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
I'm reading some of his site and he seems really picky with lenses. Looks like the D800 series is really picky with lenses as well according to him.
he's very picky about everything. I dont really read his lens reviews cause he doesnt post enough samples its just text. I want to see examples of problems not just words about problems.

Anyway I read him for his industry thoughts and opinions.

But yes, the d800 high resolution is going to magnify any flaws in a lens.

It's kind of an unsolvable problem imo. phones are much better at generic tasks than cameras can ever be. It's kind of unreasonable to expect cameras to have full software stack to be able to deal with sharing to social media and many other things.
i disagree. IF you read the article i posted IIRC he even says you should be able to have better connection to a smart phone to do more things. The basic premise is better connectivity and manufacturers haven't hardly even tried.
 
he's very picky about everything. I dont really read his lens reviews cause he doesnt post enough samples its just text. I want to see examples of problems not just words about problems.

Anyway I read him for his industry thoughts and opinions.

But yes, the d800 high resolution is going to magnify any flaws in a lens.
I'd have to buy a new lens set up for a D810...never happening.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
I'd have to buy a new lens set up for a D810...never happening.

not necessarily. I use the old 35mm f2 seems to work fine. Its all relative, for instance if corners are soft at f2 the d800 is going to magnify that, but if they're fine by f5.6 it depends on what your using the lens for.

Anyway... you seem to talk about gear you want all the time. Pick something and buy it lol.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
i didnt buy a d500 for snapbridge, but it would be nice to say have it setup on my wifi (with ease and no issues) in my house and automatically transfer photos to my NAS so i can just open lightroom and have it import.

That sounds like a real elegant solution. With Sony you have to jump through hoops a bit just to get it on the cell. I mean, WiFi equipped bodies are on constantly, it only makes sense to make use of autoconnect capabilities with trusted sources.
 
not necessarily. I use the old 35mm f2 seems to work fine. Its all relative, for instance if corners are soft at f2 the d800 is going to magnify that, but if they're fine by f5.6 it depends on what your using the lens for.

Anyway... you seem to talk about gear you want all the time. Pick something and buy it lol.
There's this thing called money I don't have a lot of it. I sort of prioritize certain things and if I find the right deal then I'll buy it. I'm pretty much trying to figure out what I should buy now to have my next camera make some sort of logical sense. Like I'd never buy a DX lens since I want my next events camera to be FX so I'm trying to make sure I can just transition properly into it. I'll probably get a mirrorless like a year and a half from now or at least when I'm not so monetarily fucked. I could just Paypal credit a Tamron 24-70, but I'm still trying to figure out "where's the money going to come from to pay this off?" I don't want to pay for a lens for the next two god damn years.
 

RuGalz

Member
i disagree. IF you read the article i posted IIRC he even says you should be able to have better connection to a smart phone to do more things. The basic premise is better connectivity and manufacturers haven't hardly even tried.

I read it. How do you propose having better connection? You are dealing with limits of wifi and bluetooth speed on large files. I see a lot of photographers bitching about these issues without having software/hardware background. Camera's signals probably can be made better by wiring antennas toward the exterior because there's a lot of interference from the metal frame body on professional grade cameras. I agree the workflow is currently shitty but from software and hardware point of view it's not an easy problem to solve. The best is they can sell you a card reader dongle that you connect to your tablet/phone and it auto launches the app that recognizes it and does as much as possible automatically -- if auto launching app is even possible on all platform.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
There's this thing called money I don't have a lot of it. I sort of prioritize certain things and if I find the right deal then I'll buy it. I'm pretty much trying to figure out what I should buy now to have my next camera make some sort of logical sense. Like I'd never buy a DX lens since I want my next events camera to be FX so I'm trying to make sure I can just transition properly into it. I'll probably get a mirrorless like a year and a half from now or at least when I'm not so monetarily fucked. I could just Paypal credit a Tamron 24-70, but I'm still trying to figure out "where's the money going to come from to pay this off?" I don't want to pay for a lens for the next two god damn years.
so get a job ya bum. JK I used to be there, straight out of college i made not a lot.

I read it. How do you propose having better connection? You are dealing with limits of wifi and bluetooth speed on large files. I see a lot of photographers bitching about these issues without having software/hardware background. Camera's signals probably can be made better by wiring antennas toward the exterior because there's a lot of interference from the metal frame body on professional grade cameras. I agree the workflow is currently shitty but from software and hardware point of view it's not an easy problem to solve. The best is they can sell you a card reader dongle that you connect to your tablet/phone and it auto launches the app that recognizes it and does as much as possible automatically -- if auto launching app is even possible on all platform.
the problem is not connections, wifi is plenty fast to transfer files. In fact i routinely download my d800 files to my surface pro 3 on a shared drive over wifi to my NAS, it works just fine. Hardware problems are easily solvable, wifi not strong enough? Put in a better wifi module.

the problem is the software, as Thom suggested multiple times in his article. The software is crap, the integration between software and facebook, flickr, whatever to the camera is non existent. THAT'S what people want and thats what would drive more camera sales.
 
so get a job ya bum. JK I used to be there, straight out of college i made not a lot.
I do have a job. Doesn't help that I have a car note that I'm paying off, which I'm trying to get rid of but getting rid of a financed car that you still owe money on even after the sell isn't easy, not to mention not living with my parents any more...life is god damn expensive.
 

RuGalz

Member
the problem is not connections, wifi is plenty fast to transfer files. In fact i routinely download my d800 files to my surface pro 3 on a shared drive over wifi to my NAS, it works just fine. Hardware problems are easily solvable, wifi not strong enough? Put in a better wifi module.

the problem is the software, as Thom suggested multiple times in his article. The software is crap, the integration between software and facebook, flickr, whatever to the camera is non existent. THAT'S what people want and thats what would drive more camera sales.

it's not really as simple as throwing in better wifi modules... but anyways, there are two camps of people. one is the ones that want to do everything they can do on phone from their camera directly -- unsolvable. the other is just wanting better software after transferring the data to the camera/tablet -- agreed, every oem's software I've tried so far is shitty.
 
It's kind of an unsolvable problem imo. phones are much better at generic tasks than cameras can ever be. It's kind of unreasonable to expect cameras to have full software stack to be able to deal with sharing to social media and many other things.

This is definitely true, but at the same time, we *can* expect the UI, controls, and wireless transfer features to become smoother and faster, by taking lessons from Smartphone design. If there's one thing that smartphones are good at, it's forcing people to make simple UIs that can still accomplish a lot.
 

RuGalz

Member
How so? They're blending different res images when zoom is between 1 and 2x.

I was thinking in terms of sensor output characteristics would be different if they were different sensors so you would have to process them to match. But Apple had 800 ppl working on camera stuff and they are much smarter than I am so who knows!
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2016/01/camera-sensor-size.html

the thing is if you view a d800 print on 4x6 and a iphone camera print on 4x6 you're not going to see a whole lot of difference. Not until you get to 8x10 or 16x20.

Aside from the dynamic range, low light detail, depth of field effects, etc...There'd still be a lot of difference.

I'd have to buy a new lens set up for a D810...never happening.

You wouldn't *have* to do anything. Unless you mean because your lenses are DX crop, but you'd have to do that anyway even if you're getting a cheap D700 that you mentioned earlier.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
Aside from the dynamic range, low light detail, depth of field effects, etc...There'd still be a lot of difference.

obviously theres more to it, but if its a generic snapshot in daylight both properly exposed theres not going to be much difference... most people dont care though, nor would they even be able to tell much of a difference. I'm convinced most people are partially blind.

maybe saying viewing both at 1024x800 on a computer screen would better please you?
 
You wouldn't *have* to do anything. Unless you mean because your lenses are DX crop, but you'd have to do that anyway even if you're getting a cheap D700 that you mentioned earlier.
My lens set up is 2 DX and 2 FX lenses. That's why I'm looking into Tamron's 24-70. Once I get that it would make the transition into FX a lot easier.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
obviously theres more to it, but if its a generic snapshot in daylight both properly exposed theres not going to be much difference... most people dont care though, nor would they even be able to tell much of a difference. I'm convinced most people are partially blind.

maybe saying viewing both at 1024x800 on a computer screen would better please you?

A generic snapshot in JPG with in camera processing, yeah maybe. I mean, I see what you're saying with the resolution perception, but that's pretty much it. There's a lot of other factors that go into image quality, and having to gimp the comparison by just boiling it down to "generic snapshots" ignores why we use particular cameras for particular usage scenarios. Not much point in using a D800 if all you're taking are generic snapshots in JPG mode.

My lens set up is 2 DX and 2 FX lenses. That's why I'm looking into Tamron's 24-70. Once I get that it would make the transition into FX a lot easier.
You'd just be relegated to only your two FX lenses, then. You wouldn't have to replace everything.
 

Saturnman

Banned
Damn, I was interested in the E-M1 II. Guess I'll have to wait.

But that 25mm 1.2 will be mine, that's for sure!

If the IQ of the 12-100mm f4 is similar to the 12-40, I may consider it, but I kind of doubt it with that range.

There's supposed to be a lens road map to go along with the introduction of the Zuiko 25mm f1.2 where other f1.2 primes will be announced.
 
A bit, but you could still use them. You wouldn't have to buy a new lens setup.
Only if I didn't want to do landscape shots, I'm not asking for a UWA, but I'd be more comfortable with at least a 24-70 range, but that just depends on if I'd have my second camera with me at that point. Could just use my crop sensor for the wide angle stuff.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
A generic snapshot in JPG with in camera processing, yeah maybe. I mean, I see what you're saying with the resolution perception, but that's pretty much it. There's a lot of other factors that go into image quality, and having to gimp the comparison by just boiling it down to "generic snapshots" ignores why we use particular cameras for particular usage scenarios. Not much point in using a D800 if all you're taking are generic snapshots in JPG mode.
well that was kind of the point of the conversation... If all your doing is viewing a picture on a small screen or 4x6 print, there isn't much of a point in using a d800.


And you'd be surprised, apparently having unique camera equipment means "come talk to me." I've had number of people with d800s and 7D's come talk to me saying they just got the camera cause its supposed to be the best and that they dont really know how to use it.
 
And you'd be surprised, apparently having unique camera equipment means "come talk to me." I've had number of people with d800s and 7D's come talk to me saying they just got the camera cause its supposed to be the best and that they dont really know how to use it.
There really are a lot of people with disposable income that can't operate their cameras aren't there?
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Only if I didn't want to do landscape shots, I'm not asking for a UWA, but I'd be more comfortable with at least a 24-70 range, but that just depends on if I'd have my second camera with me at that point. Could just use my crop sensor for the wide angle stuff.

Well, yeah. It's just that I thought you meant "buy a new lens setup" to also include replacing your current FX stuff.

You can still do landscape with 50mm. Do a panorama if you need wider.

well that was kind of the point of the conversation... If all your doing is viewing a picture on a small screen or 4x6 print, there isn't much of a point in using a d800.
OK, point taken.

There really are a lot of people with disposable income that can't operate their cameras aren't there?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Well, yeah. It's just that I thought you meant "buy a new lens setup" to also include replacing your current FX stuff.

You can still do landscape with 50mm. Do a panorama if you need wider.
I have never done a panorama before. I'm pretty sure it's not too difficult to learn, but I'm worried about getting the spacing wrong with the pictures and it looking weird.
 

Ty4on

Member
50 and 70-200 is a bit limiting.
Reminds me of looking at old film cameras. 50mm was the kit lens back then and it seemed like everyone got a cheap ~70-200 ~f4 in addition to it. I already have two cameras with that lens combo :p
I have never done a panorama before. I'm pretty sure it's not too difficult to learn, but I'm worried about getting the spacing wrong with the pictures and it looking weird.
Lock exposure and focus, take a bunch of overlapping pictures, dump the JPEGs into Microsoft ICE. That's how I do it and it works quite well :p
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I have never done a panorama before. I'm pretty sure it's not too difficult to learn, but I'm worried about getting the spacing wrong with the pictures and it looking weird.

It's very easy. You can even do it by hand. Just take pictures and turn, then merge in Lightroom.

Ideally, you'd use a tripod. Then if you want to get really fancy, you'll google about nodal points and all that.
 
It's very easy. You can even do it by hand. Just take pictures and turn, then merge in Lightroom.

Ideally, you'd use a tripod. Then if you want to get really fancy, you'll google about nodal points and all that.
I do not walk around with a tripod. I have one, I just do not use it at all, it would be hand shot. Hell I've only taken a handful of shots on a tripod.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I do not walk around with a tripod. I have one, I just do not use it at all, it would be hand shot. Hell I've only taken a handful of shots on a tripod.

Not that you need to walk around with a tripod. You can do panos hand held.

It's just that if you want to be serious about it, and do one in the best and more deliberate fashion, you're gonna need a tripod.
 
Not that you need to walk around with a tripod. You can do panos hand held.

It's just that if you want to be serious about it, and do one in the best and more deliberate fashion, you're gonna need a tripod.
I should really practice those at some point. Anybody here have a Tamron 2.8 28-75 and would they recommend it? They can be found pretty cheap these days.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
always tripod, tripod4lyfe except for when you're on a boat.

Just practice. I do Panos all the time. I do 2 shot and 3 shot with the camera in landscape, then crop to 2x1 or 3x1 whichever i think is better. You can also do it in portrait for more resolution, but it requires more shots. For a 3 shot with the camera in landscape position i say you want to overlap up to 20% of the the frame. When doing it with the camera in portrait you probably want to overlap 15-20% but your going to need at least 5 shots across to get a 3x1 pano.

For instance this was a two shot pano handheld on a boat with my 35mm @iso 800 i think.


its a lot easier and faster now that lightroom has photo merge in it. And i like that you dont need to convert he raw files to do it either. I have a photoshop proper license just for editing panos, between my film ones and making multi shot digital into panos.
 
I have a shitty eye for panoramas, but typically I do a 50mm (FF), portrait orientation, and just use the panning on my tripod head to take a shot every 50% of the frame.

Or just use my 14mm and crop the top and bottom half. Less resolution though haha.
 
always tripod, tripod4lyfe except for when you're on a boat.

Just practice. I do Panos all the time. I do 2 shot and 3 shot with the camera in landscape, then crop to 2x1 or 3x1 whichever i think is better. You can also do it in portrait for more resolution, but it requires more shots. For a 3 shot with the camera in landscape position i say you want to overlap up to 20% of the the frame. When doing it with the camera in portrait you probably want to overlap 15-20% but your going to need at least 5 shots across to get a 3x1 pano.

For instance this was a two shot pano handheld on a boat with my 35mm @iso 800 i think.


its a lot easier and faster now that lightroom has photo merge in it. And i like that you dont need to convert he raw files to do it either. I have a photoshop proper license just for editing panos, between my film ones and making multi shot digital into panos.
Yeah I'm going to have to practice in landscape one day. Would be nice to have a couple of those since I've never done it before.
 

Ty4on

Member
This is from 34 pictures. Tons of overlapping though.
29467909081_2573b19bd1_b.jpg
Link to the full ~100MP picture

Definitely in need of some editing, but apart from the laptop needing some time to process it all it was dead easy to make. All pictures were taken handheld.
 
I do not walk around with a tripod. I have one, I just do not use it at all, it would be hand shot. Hell I've only taken a handful of shots on a tripod.

Lmao I was in Vegas the last week and I saw an Asian dude drag his girl around the strip on Sunday night hauling a tripod from the MGM Grand to the Bellagio and back. I initially thought that it was pure dedication to the art of photography but then lens attached on the body was the damn Canon kit lens.

@___________@

Meanwhile, I left my DSLR at my hotel room and only used my iPhone 6+ to take pics and vids lol.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Lmao I was in Vegas the last week and I saw an Asian dude drag his girl around the strip on Sunday night hauling a tripod from the MGM Grand to the Bellagio and back. I initially thought that it was pure dedication to the art of photography but then lens attached on the body was the damn Canon kit lens.

@___________@

Meanwhile, I left my DSLR at my hotel room and only used my iPhone 6+ to take pics and vids lol.

To be fair, if you're doing long exposure with a tripod, you will be at around f8 or higher, at which point the performance of the kit lens is pretty good anyway. Plus, for long exposures, a tripod is necessary, or else you need to prop your camera up on a trash can or something.
 
Lmao I was in Vegas the last week and I saw an Asian dude drag his girl around the strip on Sunday night hauling a tripod from the MGM Grand to the Bellagio and back. I initially thought that it was pure dedication to the art of photography but then lens attached on the body was the damn Canon kit lens.

@___________@

Meanwhile, I left my DSLR at my hotel room and only used my iPhone 6+ to take pics and vids lol.
Lol. Tripod probably costs more than that lens. 9/10 times when I see a camera there's a kit lens attached to it. Oddly with me I have a 70-200 attached to my camera at times and yeah...people take notice of it. An event photographer at the parade I was at was sought of jealous of it. I think he had like a D3s or something though with quite possibly a 50mm D lens on it.
To be fair, if you're doing long exposure with a tripod, you will be at around f8 or higher, at which point the performance of the kit lens is pretty good anyway. Plus, for long exposures, a tripod is necessary, or else you need to prop your camera up on a trash can or something.
Believe it or not tourists mostly take pictures of buildings, probably different in Vegas though.
 
There's supposed to be a lens road map to go along with the introduction of the Zuiko 25mm f1.2 where other f1.2 primes will be announced.

Please no, don't do this to my wallet.

In the last few weeks I bought the 7-14 2.8, 40-150 2.8 and 75 1.8

Love the Olympus pro lenses, and the 75 1.8 is just outstanding.
 

Ty4on

Member
To be fair, if you're doing long exposure with a tripod, you will be at around f8 or higher, at which point the performance of the kit lens is pretty good anyway. Plus, for long exposures, a tripod is necessary, or else you need to prop your camera up on a trash can or something.

Nikon's (I think they're all very similar performance wise) is still somewhat soft, especially in the edges and at points of light. APS-C also has some diffraction at starting at f8.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Nikon's (I think they're all very similar performance wise) is still somewhat soft, especially in the edges and at points of light. APS-C also has some diffraction at starting at f8.

At any rate, the quality difference of a kit lens vs some other expensive lens is somewhat negated due to the fact that he has a tripod and given the settings he'll probably be using. Maybe all of his expensive lenses are too narrow, and the kit lens is the widest thing he's got.

I'm just saying I could plausibly think of myself in a similar situation with the same loadout.
 
Nikon's (I think they're all very similar performance wise) is still somewhat soft, especially in the edges and at points of light. APS-C also has some diffraction at starting at f8.
No wonder why I've never liked most of my Nikon kit lens pictures. I lost the 18-105 and 18-55 when I got kicked out of my parents house and didn't even shed a tear over it.
 

DOWN

Banned
Mirrorless GAF, I hear Sony dominates at great Mirrorless alternatives for casual DSLR hobbyists. Anyone have a Sony mirrorless camera? Or opinions on Mirrorless in general?

I'm in lust with what I've tried of the Sony a6000
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Mirrorless GAF, I hear Sony dominates at great Mirrorless alternatives for casual DSLR hobbyists. Anyone have a Sony mirrorless camera? Or opinions on Mirrorless in general?

I'm in lust with what I've tried of the Sony a6000

I have a Sony A7. Its the best value body. Big EVF, Full Frame Sensor, WiFi equipped. Its the perfect body for me.
 
Mirrorless GAF, I hear Sony dominates at great Mirrorless alternatives for casual DSLR hobbyists. Anyone have a Sony mirrorless camera? Or opinions on Mirrorless in general?

I'm in lust with what I've tried of the Sony a6000
I've also heard really good things about the Fuji's. If you can get a good deal on an XT1 with the 2.8-4 kit lens you should probably get it.
 

Aurongel

Member
I have a Sony A7. Its the best value body. Big EVF, Full Frame Sensor, WiFi equipped. Its the perfect body for me.
The limited AF lens selection at affordable prices is what makes me push casual enthusiasts away from the Sony A7. The Sony a6000 easily beats it in terms of raw value.
 
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