Digital photography

Just ordered an X100..... oops. :)

hah! I did that a while ago, now keep nearly checking out with a x10 in my basket.

The missus would crucify me if i bought anything in the next 6 months over £50, i think!!

We're off to Istanbul on Saturday so i'm looking forward to trying it out properly...

Buy my D200.

I'll get round to putting up a proper advert for my stuff soon. I also have two Bowens Esprit 125 heads, £100 for the pair. Great starter heads. Pickup East London.

I'm going to Focus tomorrow, what can I expect?

I imagine loads of guys with £4k cocks/lenses draped over themselves and disappointing freebies?

DSLR videographers: I'm looking to buy a portable set-up for work, mostly to record interviews. Pretty much settled on the GH2 and looking for audio solutions. Was thinking of either the Rode VideoMic Pro or Sennheiser MKE 400, and possibly a lapel mic (wired or wireless). Thoughts?

No experience with the Rode but Sennheiser are generally top notch in my opinion for recording audio.

The 416 is pretty much the daddy but a bit rapha - i.e. pricey (but nice, and worth it)
So I'd certainly go with the 400.

I wouldn't bother with a lapel mic - wired or wireless.

Wireless are so prone to ballsing up. I've had countless interviews where they've gone wrong, either wrong frequency, batteries died, whatever - pain in the arse. And only really of use if the interviewee is either moving or standing up in a longish shot and you don't want to see wires.

Wired... meh. They can provide nice sound but if set up incorrectly can be more trouble than they're worth - rustling shirts are an absolute bastard.

If you had the budget to spend on a lapel mic as an optional extra as well as a top mic for your GH2, I'd invest in a good quality top mic. I'm not familiar with the GH2 - are there any direct audio inputs?

If not, then perhaps scrap the top mic altogether... I personally think the Zoom H4N is the greatest audo tool EVER.

It comes with two good quality condenser mics built in, not to mention the fact that it's a versatile 4 track recorder with two phantom power XLR inputs... (so you can either record good quality sound (perhaps not good enough for broadcast interviews unless you balance it just out of shot and are quite tight on framing but i'd say it was fine for web) OR you can use it as a recorder and plug in a hired 416 into it (10 quid a day from any number of hire houses in London) and get audio as good as you're likely to get.

Around 180/200 quid.

https://www.google.com/search?q=zoom+h4n&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&biw=1280&bih=670&tbm=shop

TLDR

A good shotgun mic is probably the most versatile tool you'll find for recording audio. But you need something to record it onto (presuming the GH2 doesnt have XLR slots?) in which case, the zoom on its own, or the zoom with hired mic.

+1 for the zoom. Great little things.

I've also got a 10.5mm fisheye which needs a good home £350 boxed.

Could you please send me the details for this? I think I'm still interested but I'm pretty short of cash so want to do some reading around etc.

+1 for the zoom. Great little things.

+3.. indestructible too.

Cool - thanks. I also want to use Nikon D & G lenses on this M4/3 body. Is the Novoflex adapter worth the premium over the eBay cheapies?

I'm going to Focus tomorrow, what can I expect?

I imagine loads of guys with £4k cocks/lenses draped over themselves and disappointing freebies?

Excactly. I abandoned it after a circuit and headed to Brum Art Gallery. Much better use of time.

Excactly. I abandoned it after a circuit and headed to Brum Art Gallery. Much better use of time.

Just got back, dull. I found the demonstrations using a model particularly hard to stomach too. Andy Rouse did a pretty good speech for Nikon if you could get past him flogging the 28-300 zoom.

meh

Is it worth me paying the extra for the GX1 or would a secondhand GF1 be equally good?

It's not equally good, but a GF1 with the 20mm is probably one of the best options there is when it comes to bang for bucks.

The GX1 though is nicer to handle, a fair bit smaller and better at low light. If it's worth the extra money though, I don't know. If you have it to spend, why not, if not, the GF1 is a fantastic camera

lightroom 4 is out, anyone tried it? any need to upgrade?

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

As i gather, some nearly useless geotagging faff, rudimentary video clip editing, some new presets, a couple of whitebalance and general develop tweaks, and a bunch of bug fixes...

I'll give it a few weeks

May sound like a noob, but recently invested in an Olympus e500, and want some advice om purchasing additional lenses and wether its worthwhile investing in a lens hood? I'm thinking of maybe buying a fisheye lens but not sure which ones would fit my camera body.
Many thanks
Poppa

Hi-Drive are offering 5GB free online storage, and teamed with their smartphone app it's a pretty good service.

Have a look here.

I just realised why I got accompanied to the X100, it's almost exactly the same size as my old Pentax SLR;

Love this

http://forum.mflenses.com/diy-1939-zeiss-tessar-8cm-f-2-8-modified-for-dslr-use-t36593.html

A few friends of mine and I have a bi-weekly theme to encourage us to go out and take some pictures and experiment with new things. It's just a bit of fun and we're mere hobbyists (at best) but it's fun learning new techniques and trying to find our artistic eye (which doesn't come naturally in my case).

Anyway I was pretty chuffed with this week's effort. The theme was "Coffee break" and I've never tried any form of splash photography before.

So...Canon G1X - anyone got any thoughts or opinions?

£700 brand new?

looks like a decent bit of kit. Apparently it's a bit bigger than the old version, which would put it close to the GX1 in terms of size?

If that's true, i'd go gx1+20mm for £600 instead

Couple from yesterday with my friend's kids: