My birthday is coming up soon and my husband as asked me what I like. ; Im thinking of adding to my camera, but not sure what to add. ; I have D90, 50 mm, 18- 200 mm, UV filter for both lens, Cir Polarized Lens for 18-200 mm a trip pod(but not a small, but it works for now). ; Just now starting to learn post production on Gimp. Thing I have been thinking of, external flash or White Balance lens for 18-200 mm. ; But Im not sure what would be the best thing to add next. ; What would you guys suggest? ;
Hmm an Expodisc may be good if you do a lot of JPEG shooting, otherwise an external flash wouldn't hurt.... While the SB-400 is almost a perfect fit for you, you should probably upgrade to at least a 600; ; the 900 seems like overkill.
I think an external flash is a great addition! I have and love the sb-400, small and cheap. There have been only a few times I would have liked a bigger flash. The sb-400 is small enough to stay on the camera almost full time. Of course though, a sb-800 or preferably a sb-900 is on my list of new gear to get.
I would like to have an external flash, but it all depends on what type of photography you want to shoot.
You do know that you can't get an 800 "new" anymore, right? ; ; I think Nikon was making a big mistake with that one.....too much of a gap between the 600 and the 900. ; Who knows, maybe tomorrow they'll announce it to go with their "something big".[nb]Not another Blues Traveler concert[/nb]
Thank you everyone. ; I forgot to add, that my budget was around $100. ; The SB 600 sounds wonderful, but a bit of our range at the moment. ; The SB 400 is better budget wise. ; Would it be a good starter and then add on the SB 600 or something else later? ; Or is it better to save up for SB 600? Is there anything other then practice, to help with dark ride photos? The photos I tend to take is anything Disney, outside, inside, trying nights photos lol. ; Im sure we will travel other place. ; I tease my husband when he wants to go somewhere, asking him if there is a Disney park there? ; Because why would we travel to a non Disney location? ; lol ; Anyhow, traveling is in our future. ; Family photos, candid shots, micro photos, later on. ; Right now, just trying to add something that will be helpful now and as I grow as a photographer. ; Which in m price range, it may not work right now and that is fine.
I think others can help with the SB400. ; I've heard it's a great flash to just use for off-the-cuff shots. ; It's inexpensive, but it can't be used with the wireless Nikon CLS like the 600 can (off-camera flash). For dark rides: ; I think the best way is to set your camera up beforehand for the ride. ; I'm really enjoying using Auto ISO and shutter priority mode - set your shutter to the slowest you can go - a good rule of thumb for your camera would be at least 1/60 to 1/90 of a second, you may be able to go down to 1/30 sec., and let the camera do the rest. ; If you set your ISO at 200, it will stop the aperture down before bumping the ISO up. I'd also practice around your home/town with the different metering options when doing so. ; It might be beneficial to use a spot meter and then bump exposure with exposure compensation so you are metering for the bright areas but then bumping up exposure in the shadows so you don't have to post-process as much. I'd also turn D-Lighting off.
Thank you Roger. ; Good idea about setting up the camera before the ride. I always forget and spend half the ride trying to set it up. ; lol ; What is a spot meter?
I'm going to go the converse of Roger on this (but the same general idea). ; Go Auto ISO and aperture priority mode, and set the aperture wide open with a minimum shutter speed and exposure comp of -1 and the ISO set to 800 or 1600. ; The reason being that 1) you can recover that stop in post, 2) a faster shutter speed is going to do more to improve the picture (in my opinion) than a smaller aperture, so I want the shutter speed to increase if possible to make the shot more crisp. As for the SB-400, I have it and like it. ; It's nice for the parks in that it's small, and I am not huge on creative use of flash in the parks anyway. ; It's one thing when you have the time to set it up, but honestly, I'm not messing around with that during our trips. ; The ability to bounce for indoor family shots is invaluable, and the price is right at $75-100.
Spot meter is where the camera only looks for the light levels around a small part of the scene rather than the entire scene as a whole. Imagine a small circle around your center AF point, that would be the spot meter. ; I know the D90 has that metering mode. And to counter Figment's point, it's been my experience that the 50/1.4 is a little soft wide open, and stopping it down yields slightly better results especially in the center. ; I can't answer for the Sigma 30/1.4. [attachments posted prior to 4/27/2010 have been deleted by admin. be sure to link images to make sure they don't get removed]
That is a good point, Roger. ; I haven't really had many problems with it being too soft wide open, but if you are really close to the show scenes, there is the issue that at 1.4, and especially if not all the set pieces are the same distance from you, you might have issues with DoF. ; A or S mode is probably all a matter of personal preference. One question though, why start at ISO 200 as the baseline? ; With the exception of maybe IASW, there is no dark ride that would have settings of even 1/30, f/1.4, ISO200, so every attraction will hit your minimum aperture and then start raising the ISO. ; Why not go with a higher ISO (since the camera will invariably do it anyway and since (at least for me) you'd rather have an ISO of 800 or 1600 before lowering aperture/shutter speed) to start?
Starting at ISO 200 is a habit just in case you forget to turn it off after you finish the ride. ; Or if you're shooting on the TTA/ToT where it goes from bright/dark.
Ha, haven't we all been there... The problem that I see, though, is that if you don't set it to ISO 800 or 1600, since most dark rides are quite dark, if you start with ISO 200, you might as well have just set the camera on manual (with auto ISO), using your aperture and minimum shutter speed as your manual settings, because the rides are so dark that you will always be hitting that minimum aperture/shutter speed, anyway. ; Do you see what I'm saying (not sure I explained it so well)? ; I guess you have to determine whether you'd like the shutter speed or aperture to potentially go to "more favorable" numbers or whether you'd rather play it safe in avoiding bright daylight shots after you get off the ride at ISO 1600.
Paul, I got a comfortable strap after my first day with the camera in the parks. ; At the end of the day my neck was sore from using Nikons strap. Roger, I'll look for that mode. Thanks for the explanation. If I go with the SB-400, when would you use it? ; I know your not allowed to use in on rides. ; But I've heard people say use your flash more during the day. ; Which I have tested and see how it can be better. ; Is that the case with a flash that is more then just the one that is built in?
The external flashes give you a little more oomph than the built in flash, and you can bounce it (all of the ones for digital). ; They also work well with the Nikon auto fill flash option - you can try firing a test flash (flash exposure lock) and it should help with using it for fill flash during the day.
