Yet another camera question..

[Kat]

Going on vacation to FL in about a month. Going to see the space shuttle launch (hopefully) and hit a few other spots on FL while we're there.

I've been wanting a decent zoom lens for a while and am thinking about picking this one up..

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/SLR_Lenses/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=A1288381#Overview

Reason why through Dell is cause we get a discount from work buying stuff from them...

[sweetbmxrider]

i think you would want something more like a 500mm lens. i'm pretty sure you are every bit of a mile or so away from the pad so if you want a shot thats pretty "in your face", you'd want at least 500 IMO. also, the lower the f-stop the sharper and quicker the lens would be. that lens would be good for entry level though and could be used in many other scenarios. make sure you bring a tripod and i'd always stick a polerizor on the lens. $50 scratched polerizor is much better than $500+ scratched lens :)

you could also look into renting a lens, my dad did that when he went to ireland.

[ar0ck]

I've rented through www.rentglass.com before and I was pretty happy with the product as well as the customer service. You can pick out a top of the line glass that you couldn't usually afford and get exactly what are you looking for instead of just settling.

I'm with Adam on a better lens with a lower f-stop. That particular one looks like a standard kit lens.

[grandkodiak]

at the range they are gunna stick you its gunna be a matter of atmospheric conditions, platform stabilization and iso.

any lens you pic, make sure its outside and give it plenty of time to climatize to the temperature and humidity. too much zoom and your gunna pick up thermal distortions as it is depending on the cloud cover... floridas been awal recently, temp in the 30s overnight back to the 60's-70s during the day in that area. depending on what time they launch, you might get alot of wind and thermal updraft which cause heat blur like the mirrage you see on blacktop in the summer at that range.

youll want a fast lens though too, "low fstop" so you can use a faster shutter speed to reduce the blur from vibration. tripod is a must, and id recommend a remote release shutter switch, or time delay shutter release so the motion of you clicking the ****ter wont transmit into the exposure.

id treat it as a night time photograph in terms of technique, telephotos not easy in florida atmosphere!

everything else you could probably fix in photoshop on a raw, youll probably want to bump up the contrast just a tad and the saturation a bit in the reds and blues to get a good definition out of the red tank against the white shuttle and blue sky, assuming its sunny out. polarizer is a great idea, at the very least it will deflect some glare.

at any rate, dont forget to WATCH IT! its one of hte last shuttle flights EVER, do you really want to see it all through a lens? sit back and enjoy it :)

[ryanfx]

I can't recommend getting a 500mm lens to keep as an every day lens however for this situation, you'll be unhappy with anything less than that. Catch 22 - yes I know.

[grandkodiak]

look up return policys for stores, some still have 30 day on stuff like that :)

[Kat]

Right now I just have the lens that came with the camera (Nikkor 18-105 AF-S VR ED DX) I don't think that I'll go for the 500mm lens tho, I don't think that I'll need that kinda zoom for anything that I'll ever shoot.

Nikkor has a 70-300mm for 550 that Im thinking about getting. Tho, some people told me to go with a older better quality lens thats fast for arround the same price.

As for returning it it nahh if I buy it I'll use it at the track and stuff so this will be an addition.

Yep I have a tripod. Bought one to take decent pics of the lava out in Hawaii. Cant hold a camera still when you have a 6 sec shutter..

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm21/kat136913/hawaii/7%2006%2009/DSC_2687.jpg

Heh.. Keep in mind there was a little bit of the moon showing behind me. Other than that, it was pitch friggin black out.

[sweetbmxrider]

mmmmmm lava

[grandkodiak]

dunno how much you cropped that photo but if you want better night shots id use a much lower iso setting, max the app out as long as you can retain dof and just do a longer shutter to get rid of all that distortion and noise

[Kat]

It isn't cropped at all. We were about a half mile away from the actual lava pouring into the pacfic. The ISO is 1600 on that. I tried longer exposure time with lower ISO (800) and was to dark. So I raised the ISO to compensate.

[sweetbmxrider]

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/853165

yeaya!

[79CamaroDiva]

It isn't cropped at all. We were about a half mile away from the actual lava pouring into the pacfic. The ISO is 1600 on that. I tried longer exposure time with lower ISO (800) and was to dark. So I raised the ISO to compensate.

Night shots try ISO 400, big aperture (low number, ie 4.0, 5.6) and 15-30 sec shutter..

Just start doing research on lens reviews, dpreview is good, but theres others out there to google. I really like my 70-300 canon lens, but a fixed, fast aperture lens is always better than variable aperture, but i can't afford that :lol:

[Kat]

Night shots try ISO 400, big aperture (low number, ie 4.0, 5.6) and 15-30 sec shutter..

Just start doing research on lens reviews, dpreview is good, but theres others out there to google. I really like my 70-300 canon lens, but a fixed, fast aperture lens is always better than variable aperture, but i can't afford that :lol:

Thanks guys!

Melissa the only prob that I have with that long of an exposure is that the subject isn't in a fixed location. It's moving. Hence why I try to up the ISO a bit to get some definition. Then again Im idiot so its a moot point.

[79CamaroDiva]

if its moving, its moving. 6 seconds or 30 seconds won't make any difference. to stop anything thats moving even a little bit you need at least 1/60th or faster.

[Knipps]

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/853165

yeaya!

damn, that picture's awesome. It actually made me go find an Exif add on for Chrome, but that pic doesn't have one :(

[Kat]

damn, that picture's awesome. It actually made me go find an Exif add on for Chrome, but that pic doesn't have one :(

This was shot at 320th f8 and 320 iso on a mk3 with a 400 DO

As for viewing the space shuttle. They sold out of tickets already :( But I'll stay on cocoa beach for that night and watch it from there.. Yay :(

[Knipps]

Thanks, I wasn't paying much attention when I read it :lol: