Digital photography

You could get a D7100, a Tokina 11-16 and a Nikon 18-200 for that money I would have thought. Getting a wide DX prime would be a bit of a faff.

Should get you the fuji x-e2 and some nice lenses?

Canon 1000D / stock lens

Second hand 5d can get you under budget. And second hand lenses too. Why Calumet?

If it will be used by colleague with no knowledge of photography, why such high specced camera?

Surely a decent budget camera with zoom lens is enough for them?

What's the modern version of the Canon 20D?

Canon 70D

Anyone have much experience with wifi SD cards?

Been looking at the eye-fi ones, but can't work out whether the cheaper Mobi versions support selective transfer rather than killing your battery by automatically copying everything.

I bought a lens from someone on here a few months ago but until now I've not really had much of an opportunity to play around with it. However now I'm looking at the pictures it seems that at shallow DoF the pictures are consistently slightly out of focus.

For example here:

Full size here, f1.8, 1/200, ISO 100, Flash.

In this case I used auto focus and a single focusing point directed at the subject's left eye. As you can see however, the eyes are not sharp while the plane of focus is a couple of cms further away from the camera. I haven't yet had an opportunity take photos of a ruler with the camera on a tripod but the same effect seems present whenever I shoot with a shallow DoF, and I've never noticed it with any of my other lenses.

What are the likely sources of this error and what can I do to try and diagnose the problem?

My first suspicion is whether I've simply bought an incompatible lens, the camera body is DX while I believe the lens is FX compatible (Camera: Nikon D7000, lens: Nikon AF NIKKOR 50mm 1.8D). Might this be the problem?

Alternatively, is the fault more likely to lie in the auto-focus mechanism of the camera body or somewhere in the lens and how do I find out?

I should add that I've not yet discussed this with the seller (although they may read this) and I'm not accusing them of selling me a dud (at least not intentionally), but rather I'm just trying to identify whether a problem exists and whether or not it's caused by my own ineptitude.

Hi Ewan. You bought that from me! I never had a problem with that or any fast lens which wasn't user error. At f/1.8 the dof is very thin, so even a small movement in the subject puts the desired in-focus area out just slightly. Of course, you know all this already.

How are you focusing? Do you know the back button focus/ AF-C technique? I stopped using the shutter button to focus years ago as I found it a much more reliable to be in continuous AF using the AF-ON button, using the shutter button only to trip the shutter. On a D7000 I don't think you have a dedicated AF-ON button, but you can configure the AE/AF lock button to act this way. For portraits using a fast lens wide open, that would be my choice of focusing.

As someone else said, there is also a possibility that the lens is slightly front- or back-focussing with your camera body; you can adjust for this, but I think it is much more likely to be your technique (not a criticism!).

How are you focusing? Do you know the back button focus/ AF-C technique? I stopped using the shutter button to focus years ago as I found it a much more reliable to be in continuous AF using the AF-ON button, using the shutter button only to trip the shutter. On a D7000 I don't think you have a dedicated AF-ON button, but you can configure the AE/AF lock button to act this way. For portraits using a fast lens wide open, that would be my choice of focusing.

What is this wizardry??

I tried back button focus for a couple of shoots and with everything going on must have forgot to use it for quite a few shots and ended up with hardly any keepers. Wasn't a disaster but its definitely something you have re-wire your brain to do habitually.
Going to give it another whirl.

Hi Timmy, Yes as you say, user error is by far the most likely factor and I suspect is even more relevant in my case than most! :-)

I tried back button focus too on a previous camera but never really got used to it although I may give it another whirl. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if my focus technique exacerbates the situation but I'm reasonably convinced that it's not the full story. If it was purely an issue of technique I would expect to see a mix of photos with some in focus (by luck) and some where the focus was either short or long (as I waved the camera about wildly mid-focus), however in my case the shift in the focal plain seems to be consistent in both direction and amount.

Lots of useful information over he last couple of pages and I look forward to exploring a bit more deeply - thank you.

What is this wizardry??

Instead of using a half-press of the shutter to autofocus, you use another button. By separating it from the shutter you can recompose between shots without the camera re-focusing every time you take one. Takes a bit of getting used to but becomes second nature after a while. Can do likewise with exposure.

Instead of using a half-press of the shutter to autofocus, you use another button. By separating it from the shutter you can recompose between shots without the camera re-focusing every time you take one. Takes a bit of getting used to but becomes second nature after a while. Can do likewise with exposure.

Yes, or - more useful IMO - using AF-C, you continually track your focus point; the camera makes constant tiny adjustments, so you just need to hit the shutter button when ready.

Ewan, sorry to hear you're having this issue, but I promise you the lens was working perfectly on my D700...

^^Interesting! Will have to read into it :)

Second hand 5d can get you under budget. And second hand lenses too. Why Calumet?

big company, too many layers of crap... has to be an outlet that we have an existing contract or things get extremely complicated...

Considering selling my GXR with 50mm and 28mm equivalent units in order to finance new GR. Bad move?
I'd like something a little smaller/lighter, and have heard good things about it.
I'm happy with the prime lens, and though I would prefer a 35, the crop option still leaves me with 10 megapixels.

...

1 Attachment

Nice picture, like it.
Is that film "look", or actually film?

Getty removes watermarks -

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/5/5475202/getty-images-made-its-pictures-free-to-use

it would be nice if people when posting their own photos stated whether they have been post processed / manipulated
it is nice to know what the camera can do on it's own and what has been corrected

some images just look so unnatural would be nice to know what is real and what isn't

nb this isn't aimed at any specific photos or photographers in the thread just general interest

I concur.

My stuff always goes through Lightroom, sometimes with quite a bit of change, sometimes hardly anything. Tend to just sort out levels, crop, straighten and sharpen, but with bw stuff I usually make sure the focus of the image gets the attention it needs.

Not focus as in sharp, that is

Nice picture, like it.
Is that film "look", or actually film?

I'm almost ashamed to say it's Analog Fx. Wet plate. I'm getting a bit addicted to it. There is no way I would carry a wet plate camera around to get a similar effect though so I'm sold on it.

MrAndyJones, thats a great picture. I quite like the processing, it suits it.