As I’ve been improving my photography skills and trying a few more creative shots I’m starting to find the limitations of my current DSLR. My current area of experimentation is macro photography.
I bought a macro lens earlier this year, a Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro which I’m very please with. If you’ve read any of the reviews on this lens you’ll know it’s reputation and I haven’t been disappointed. I have managed some great shots with this lens, however I do have a problem. The problem isn’t with the lens, but the camera.
I’m currently using a Nikon D40 which I purchased off ebay earlier this year. I knew at the time it was quite and old model but I didn’t want to pay out a lot of money at the time as I wasn’t sure if my interest in photography would last. I’m now finding the 6.1 megapixels somewhat limiting. For landscapes and general photographic subjects it isn’t an issue. However, to get a great macro shot, there is usually a lot of cropping involved. This is where the relatively small number of pixels becomes an issue.
Now I have to make a decision. I have been thinking about getting a new camera for a while, but I can’t decide on which model. I will obviously be buying a Nikon, I’ve already made a significant investment in lenses and don’t want to end up buying all new ones.
I am currently considering the D300s and the D90. I’m not sure if I can justify the cost of a D300s. At just over £1100 currently, it’s a more than I want to part with. The D90 is more my kind of price at just over £500. Obviously, if money wasn’t an issue I’d take the D300s over the D90 any day. I’m also hearing a few rumours of some new models being announced. Nikon Rumours are hinting that the D90 is about to be updated/replaced with a new model, the D9000. The D90 has been around since 2008 so I suppose this is not unexpected, although some of the specs being touted are a little unbelievable! I guess I’ll hold off a while and see what is announce in the next few months before parting with any cash. I don’t want to be buying another outdated camera.
As you may have noticed if you’ve checked out my 365 project lately, there are quite a few blank spaces over the last couple of months. I was doing quite well with it, right up to our trip to Austria.
The trip turned out to be a lot more tiring than I expected and I didn’t get as much time with my camera over there as I’d hoped or wanted. The trip was a great experience, but the courses and terrain were hard work. Couple this with the heat over the first few days (between 25c and 30c) and by the time we got back to the apartment each day we were exhausted. It took me about a week to recover from the trip and by this time I was way behind with my project. Once I’d got behind, I found it tremendously hard to get going again.
Well, I have managed to get going again, mostly due to getting my hands on some new kit. I’ll be uploading the recent photos to the galleries here in the next couple of weeks but for now you can see them at http://www.365project.org/andyb/365
After weeks struggling with the digital camera I bought while on holiday last year I decided it was time for an upgrade. My previous camera was an Olympus X-42, a low end model but an improvement over my 5 year old Kodak LS443….or so I thought when I bought it.
The LS443 was a good camera when I bought it, 4 megapixles, a distinct upgrade from my original Agfa camera at a mere 1mp. So I figured camera technology had moved on a lot in a few years and the x-42 was 12.2mp so I figured the photo quality would be much better. How wrong I was.
The x42 was perfectly fine outside in good light conditions, in lower light conditions and indoors however, it was terrible. It produced washed out images using the flash and colourless, dark images without the flash. After a few random attempts at changing some of the settings I had control over I figured it was about time I read the manual!
The X-42 doesn’t come with a printed manual of any description except a one sheet quick start guide. THe manual is actually on the CD supplied with the camera in .pdf format. After reading through the manual, and playing around with a few more settings I decided it was time to give up and get a decent camera. After all, I only paid £69 for the X-42 and as they say, you get what you pay for!
After doing some research and reading a few reviews, I decided to replace it with a Samsung IT100. So far, the image stabilisation and a better quality lense have cured the low light problems and I’m getting some decent results with it. It was double the price of the X42 but the performance is much better. So far I’m happy with it, but time will tell.
