Playing with my new camera

Reef Happy

Reef Happy

New member
I just got my new Nikon D-80 today. Having fun playing with it to see what all it will do. I hope the 18-200mm zoom lens will be a all around multi purpose lens. So far I am very pleased with this set up. Don't know if I will need to get the close up filters or not. I want to see if it will take good macro shots as is with the 18-200 lens.
Does anyone else have this camera? If so can you give me any tips as to what mode is the best pics taken from.
 
I suppose I will need to get set up with photo bucket or something like that. I dont know what is the best. I have never done this before so it will take me awhile to get familar with how to do it.
 
I have Photobucket, and it works great! I just plug the camera in my computer and go to photobucket and go straight to my camera and put the pics on!!!! I LOVE IT!!!..... Try it out, ITS FREE!!!!....

-Dustin
 
Thanks.
I am now registered with photo bucket, but have not attempted to hook up camera yet. Hope it is easy to use. What I am wondering is how to get the size of the photo correct in order to post on comas. I have seen some postings where some members were having problems getting their pics larger than a thumbnail size.
 
From what I have experienced, I have not had problems at all!!!... Just upload, and post!!!! You can see my thread (dtkings 125gal tank log) and you will see!!! :)
 
I don't have that camera but can say your best bet is to shoot in raw format. JPG is another format which is ok for snapshots but JPG is a compression format and will remove information and pre-cook the image as it sees fit. So for macro shots of corals where you want to be able to get the most, shoot in raw. As for what mode is entirely up to you, some people want manual to have control over every aspect. I prefer AV mode, where I pick the aperture and ISO and the camera chooses the best shutter speed for that aperture and ISO setting. This is especially nice with macro photos where depth of field is very important. My old photography teacher preferred shooting in TV, where you pick the shutter speed and the camera does the rest. Just try them out and see which works best for you. The best thing about digital is that your not wasting film trying to figure it out. Stay away from most of the preset modes like portrait, sports, etc, they are mostly junk on all cameras. Just remember as a rule of thumb when shooting hand held that you want a shutter speed to be equal to mm of zoom. So if your shooting at 100mm you would want to have a shutter speed of at least 100. Not to get too complicated but with digital depending on the camera you have to add 1.5 for most Nikons and 1.6 for most Canons, meaning if shooting at 100mm and hand holding you need to have at least 150 shutter speed due to the sensor size being smaller than actual 35mm film. Macro photography is far easier with a tri-pod and takes some of guess work out of the shutter speed issue. Sorry that is probably way more than you wanted to know or may have already known.
The 18-200mm is a nice all around zoom lens, however in the future I would look into a true 1:1 macro lens. The difference will amaze you. I sold my 100mm f2.8 Macro and wished I didn't ever since. That is a very nice camera hope you enjoy it.
 
I agree with cisco, just play with it for awhile, I am still playing with mine and I still cant get the hang of it! I have alot of "shooting" to do! You'll get the hang of it!

-Dustin
 
I have a D50, which is the little bro of the D80. For what it is worth, I think you have made a GREAT choice with the D80. And that 18-200mm zoom lens will be a GREAT general purpose lens.

I mainly use an 18-70 lens and a 70-300 lens. I am constantly switching them on and off the camera and would love a nice lens someday that covers wide to telephoto. I have also discovered recently that I need a super-wide lens for good landscape and architectural shots, but that's another story.

As for picture format, do NOT use RAW unless you actually know how to post-process them. In short, don't use raw pics. The pics are harder to deal with after the fact and take up MUCH more space on both your memory card and your hard drive.

I would recommend for "picture quality" setting, get to know how to change easily. For my D50, there is a "Qual" button on that back which, combined with the wheel, allows me to scroll between size (Small, Medium, Large resolution) and compression level (Fine, Medium, Low).

As I am taking pictures, I generally try to stick with medium size & quality for general shots. If I think that I am likely to want to print something BIG that I take, then I will hop it up to large size and either medium or fine quality. If I KNOW that I will only EVER view a picture on my laptop or print it small, then I will jump down to small size and medium quality.

I take enough pictures that if I do not manage my "picture size" like this, then I will end up with WAY to full of a hard drive. It also allows me to take more pics on a memory card.

As for MODE, stick with full auto for now. It will work surprisingly well for your general purpose needs. The ONLY thing that will specifically improve your reef shots is to learn how to set custom white balancing. It basically involves putting the camera in a white balance configuration mode and then taking a picture of a neutral gray card in the lighting environment that you will be photographing. That can very much help with resulting colors in reef pics.

Lastly, buy the close-up filter set. It will be FAR worth it for the inexpensive price (especially compared to what you have already spent on the camera and lens) and will allow for a MUCH closer minimum focal distance.

Just my two cents (or 5 cents) or so....
 
Paul makes a good point shooting in jpg and using the auto setting is a great place to start but once you get the hang of your camera try some of the other settings, when set properly you will see the full potential of that fine camera. JPG is fine usually for most stuff that you are going to post on the web or emailing to people, but for photos that you want to print I would suggest shooting RAW and converting to TIFF for printing, the colors will be deeper and richer due to a much larger color space. You should have software that came with your camera that will process RAW format pics. I don't shoot everything in RAW, just shots that I really want to try and make look their best. I use Photoshop CS2 which make processing very easy but it's very pricey and not really justified unless you know how to use it and use it a lot. Photoshop Elements 5.0 is much more reasonable in price and still very good software. A good place with lots of info on your camera and tutorials on photography is Photo.net, you can find answers to just about every question there. Happy shooting.
 
Sounds like I have so much to learn. I do love this camera and 18-200mm lens. I did alot of shopping for cameras and lens. I think I made the right choices. I think my next purchase will be close up lenses. I appreciate the tips.
 
DSC_0033.jpg
 
I am playing with a few photos trying to edit them in different sizes from photo bucket. So just a few more pics to post on here. I will get the hang of it, bare with me.

DSC_0063.jpg


DSC_0018.jpg
 
Doug, try setting the camera to iso 800. press the iso button on the back and rotate the thumbwheel on the back. That should increase shutter speed sufficiently that shake isnt an issue.

Paul.
 
Thanks Paul.
I pressed the iso button and then moved the thumbwheel on the back upper right to show 800 on display. Here are some pics. Do you see a improvement?

DSC_0065.jpg


DSC_0064.jpg
 
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