Photography - equipment, help hints

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Your depth of field will be greatly reduced at the low f-stops. If the bokeh is good, then you have to work with it a bit to get the desired DOF and effect. If you want your depth of field larger, you need to increase the f-stop.
 
Well...after 5 years and 30,000 photos, I figured it might be time to start looking for a replacement for my Pentax K100D

After great deliberation, I decided on the Pentax K-5 purchased from Adorama (for a few dollars more, it came with an 18-55 "kit" lens)

So now I have to settle in and learn this thing...it appears that all the features that I am used to accessing from the K100D's menu are now accessible from the multitude of buttons on the exterior of the K-5.

I've taken it out a few times so far, but oh Lawdy I need to get in some familiarization with this thing!

I did notice things right away, such as the shutter/mirror up is alot quieter and faster, it has a broader range of ISO and now uses a specific battery instead of (4) AA batteries. It also can shoot video, which is a useless feature for a photo camera, in my opinion (if you want to shoot video, get a video camera) and is switchable between HD and standard RAW/JPG...I was never a fan of HD photos, to me, it looks like the image has been contrasted out of proportion.

I'll give it a complete workout once I get it figured out and check back soon with a report
 
Cool, Dave. Always fun to get a new piece of gear. 30,000 isn't too bad, just broken in.

My D80 shutter count as of this morning is 88,143. I just looked and it is now at 5 years too! I upgraded to the D80 from the D50 after the D50 hit about 30k shutter activations too. It still works, and still has better metering than the D80. Having 2 bodies is nice, you don't have to change lenses in the field. 8)
 
ok here's some questions from a complete duffer !

i'd like to use the manual settings more on my Fujifilm s1000fd

so when i put it in manual mode i can change shutterspeed aperture, it reads F6.4 and will go as low as F2.8 what does that mean and what do the changing values do ?
also next to that is another number that at its highest is 2000 and goes down to 8", same question what do they mean and what will changing them do ?

in the top right hand corner of the screen is 10M N 0 and iso 100 ?

when would i use all these settings ?

thanks

Karl
 
The F is the f/stop. What that mean is how open the aperture of the lens is. The lower the number, the larger the opening to let light in. So in lower light conditions, you can go at a faster shutter speed. But it does come at a cost. Lower aperture speeds will give you a narrow depth of field (DOF). There are some great articles online that discuss that stuff way better than I could. One of them is here:

HowStuffWorks "How to Know What F-Stop to Use"

It also has links to ISO and shutter speed.
 
And Karl, the higher the number on your shutter speed,(ie. 8" to 1/2000) the less light you will get also. This number dictates how long your shutter will be open. 8" being eight minutes I believe and the 1/2000 being one two thousandth of a second. I usually set my F/stop to underexpose, meaning the photo will be just a little on the dark side, and fine tune it with the shutter speed. Now, if I am shooting aircraft in the air and they are prop driven, I usually shoot with my shutter speed on 1/125. For me, this gives excellent prop blur and sense of motion it the craft is low enough to the ground to be able to get building or trees in the back ground. Your camera should have a shutter priority and a appature priority. Eric shoots I think in Appature Priority which lets the camera set the F/stop and you set the shutter speed. This is what I used at the last airshow and it worked great. Just get out and play with it when you have some free time cause it doesn't cost anything but time. Each camera is different so we may be able to get you in the ball park but you'll have to do the fine tuning. Hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions.
 
If I can add to Aaron and evanglider. When I used to use a film camera, I would some times take 3 or 4 pictures of the same subject at different settings, called bracketing. I also had a note book with the settings jotted down and when the pictures came back from the developer, I could match the best picture to the notes and use that as a future reference. Quite expensive with film but with digital, you can blast away and the settings are stored with the image.

Geo
 
the ISO is the "film speed" setting, which emulates the old ASA film types. The lower the ISO, the less "noise", or granular color, to your image.

In other words, shooting a still shot or landscape would see a lower ISO setting (I shoot my landscapes at ISO200) but at an airshow or soccer game for example, you would want a higher ISO, say 800.

The lower the f-stop, the wider the aperature is...so a f/5.6 would allow more light in while a f/22 would be much smaller and require a longer shutter speed. An evening landscape shot with a setting sun, clouds, etc. would be best shot from a tripod at f/19, 1/750 second shutter and ISO200 (typically) while an airshow demonstration would see you holding the camera, your settings being (roughly) f/8.0, 1/1500 second shutter and ISO800...this is an example...there are considerations like is it bright out or overcast, where is the sun in relation to your subject and so on...

Hopefully the examples and tutorials we've posted here for you might be of some help

By the way, I shoot in manual mode with my Pentax...meaning I adjust the Aperature and shutter speed on the fly
 
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Experimentation will probably teach you more than reading, Karl. At least for me, I learn more by doing. ISO will vary by camera and by sensor ("film") as far as how much "grain" or noise you get. Nikon has high ISO noise reduction, which can make dramatic differences in low light. Some cameras have really noisy sensors, so at ISO 1600, it could be an interesting look, and may or may not be usable. While some like to shoot higher ISO at air shows, I shoot moving airplanes at ISO 100, believe it or not. But then again, I normally shoot in broad daylight.

One thing you might find useful is to download opanda software IExif 2.3. That allows you to look at the exif data on the digital image and will tell you what all the setting are on the camera so you don;t have to write it down or remember it.

Exif viewer : Opanda IExif - Professional EXIF Viewer Editor in Windows / IE / Firefox
 
the main reason i ask is i have realy struggled just to take pics indoors of my finished models, even having the camera in the same place and rotating the subject the pictures vary a lot in shade and colour.

but i would like to use my camera's capabilities a lot more !
 
Yes, using automatic settings leaves a lot to be desired as you never quite know what the sensor and electronics will set for you. Chances are you are taking close-in photos of a finished model, so a narrow DOF may not be what you are looking for. You may want to up your f/stop to expand your depth of field and use a tripod. The beauty of doing it digitally is that you can experiment away and the only thing you are out is a little time. But the knowledge you gain is worth it.
 
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