# New Camera! woot woot



## oldwhitewood

So I finally got a Nikon D40, I'm really impressed with it guys, I love the viewfinder and the control you have, even though I have no idea what I'm doing I just shot some pictures on Saturday using 'A' mode, i.e setting the aperture but letting the camera take care of everything else. 

See below ...






























I wont bore you with any more but feel free to browse around my flickr page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenbrightly/


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## Graeme Edwards

Nice photos mate, gives a good blue. What memory card are you using? Did you have any filters on at the time, and where are were the pictures taken.
I keep meaning to go into liverpool and chester, my two closest cities and take some urban shots, i love modern architecture.


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## Dave Spencer

Nice one Neil.

I find that mine is siphoning off a lot of my aquascaping funds. I`ve bought a tripod, remote shutter release, SB-600 flash and SC-28 sync cord. 

Now, I am eyeing up the Nikkor AF-S 105mm macro, which certainly isn`t cheap.

Happy snapping.

Dave.


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## Themuleous

Nice pics, especially like the last one.

Sam


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## oldwhitewood

Graeme Edwards said:
			
		

> Nice photos mate, gives a good blue. What memory card are you using? Did you have any filters on at the time, and where are were the pictures taken.
> I keep meaning to go into liverpool and chester, my two closest cities and take some urban shots, i love modern architecture.



Thanks. They were taken at the Imperial War Museum North, Salford Quays. What happened was I had spent the day going round manchester taking pictures, I'd been checking the weather forecast all week as I wanted a bright, sunny day - not overcast which 9/10 it seems to be! Even though at the start of the day it was really cloudy and overcast the clouds went and I got some really good light at about 3:00pm. So I got in the car and drove to Salford Quays because I knew I wanted to capture the museum as it's such a fascinating building. 

I didn't use any filters just the kit lens, the memory card is just a 1 gig one from Jessops.


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## oldwhitewood

Cheers guys also.

BTW Dave can you recommend a good camera bag? I have been carrying it around in a kind of messenger bag which isn't ideal. I've spotted some Nikon type bags on ebay, what do you think of them?

Is it also worth getting a UV filter? I was thinking of a polarising one but not sure about UV.


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## bugs

This one for storage/transporting kit (you WILL end up with "kit"...):
http://www.lowepro.com/Products/Shoulde ... _5_AW.aspx

This one for taking the selected bits of kit out and about:
http://www.lowepro.com/Products/Backpac ... us_AW.aspx

The one to start with is the second one as it will hold your initial equipment (aka: "kit").

Re filters... Skylight is a good one to have. Subtle but worthwhile effect but not at the expense of exposure flexibility and, more importantly, it protects your lens.


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## Graeme Edwards

Flippin eack, some people just seem to be made of money. I could splash out on alot of things, but a measly zoo wages gets me very little (


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## George Farmer

Super shots, Neil.

You'll be giving the other DSLR boys a run for their money, no doubt!

I look forward to seeing some even better aquarium shots soon then...


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull

are those HDR shots Neil? look very like them if not  nice work either way


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## oldwhitewood

Frolicsome_Flora said:
			
		

> are those HDR shots Neil? look very like them if not  nice work either way



I am not sure what HDR is but I have heard it mentioned a few times. Thanks.


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## oldwhitewood

bugs said:
			
		

> This one for storage/transporting kit (you WILL end up with "kit"...):
> http://www.lowepro.com/Products/Shoulde ... _5_AW.aspx
> 
> This one for taking the selected bits of kit out and about:
> http://www.lowepro.com/Products/Backpac ... us_AW.aspx
> 
> The one to start with is the second one as it will hold your initial equipment (aka: "kit").
> 
> Re filters... Skylight is a good one to have. Subtle but worthwhile effect but not at the expense of exposure flexibility and, more importantly, it protects your lens.



Cheers dude, I will have a look at that.

When you are talking about a skylight filter 'protecting' the lens, is this simply physical protection or can lenses get damaged by UV etc?

Cheers George.


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## bugs

The filter just provides physical protection. I've always used one and been grateful! Polarising filters are also a good addition. They cut out some light, therefore, limit the exposure flexibility. However, given that they come in to their own when light is bright/reflected, that tends not to be too much of a problem. 

One other bit of kit you should invest in if you've not already done so is a tripod - just make sure it is light enough not to carry around as it's all too easy to decide to leave it at home. I'd have a tripod over a flash gun any day of the week.


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## oldwhitewood

Thanks bugs and everyone else also. 

I want to get another lens for xmas, one which will enable me to get quite burry portrait type shots so I guess it will need a wide aperture, can you guys recommend a Nikon lens to get?


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## oldwhitewood

Like that.


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## bugs

The blur is caused by adjusting depth of field. Granted the effect becomes more pronounced at different focal lengths, however, it should be straightforward to achieve with fairly standard lenses (which I'm assuming you got with the camera)?


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## oldwhitewood

I think so yes, I mean perhaps it might be better to stay using the kit lens? To get used to what each focal length can achieve with a given aperture?


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## Graeme Edwards

To get blur like that, it doesnt matter what lens you have, all you do is have a large apature ie F4-F7 say. If you want blur plus grain, then up your ISO to over 400, mine goes to 1800. 

Hope that help.


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## ceg4048

oldwhitewood,
                        Further to Graeme's and bugs' comments If you are really dead set on wide apertures then have another look at the f1.4 AF-D 50 mm we talked about earlier if its cheap enough and just take the non-AF penalty. I took a hard look at your sample pic and I struggled to figure out exactly what I was looking at and how it was done. The first thing I noticed was that there is severe vignetting which I'm guessing may have been caused by too small a filter size for that focal length.

If you are pointing up at the sky and are going to use wide open apertures you'll have real issues with overexposure so that means having to use a polarizer as bugs mentioned or a neutral density filter to darken everything. That shot though, unless it was cropped from a wide angle shot, would likely have been done with a telephoto from distance, which also shrink the depth of field. So really as the guys have pointed out there are more than on ways to skin the cat.

You'll find that most of the super fast lenses have a really narrow application such as low light (weddings and so forth) You may want to look at an older Nikkor 35-70 f2.8 D which is only 1 stop slower than that 50 mm and is much more versatile. I think this lens is now sold in an AF-S version which would enable autofocus on your camera but is probably three times the price of the D version.

Remember also that on these Nikon DSLRs the angle of view is 50% narrower, so that when a 50mm lens is mounted, you're actually seeing the view that you would be seeing with a 75mm lens mounted on a film camera. This greatly complicates lens choices.

Cheers,


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## oldwhitewood

This is the kind of thing I would love to try and do also. One thing I have worked out is I need autofocus  as I'm as blind as a bat personally


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## Graeme Edwards

Nice post clive, you lost me on all that a bit.

Neil, that last pic is realy easy to produce, if it was me, its cam on a slight angle of cours, then apature at F4.5-F6 then using a poloriser, and then some editing in photo shop to warm the image up and bend the color curves, bringing more yellow out.
The hardest part is seeing the image in your head before shooting it. Then its shooting it how your mind sees it, which can be a real pain in the ass.
I try not to over complicate things, one filter, one lens, maybe my close up filter, and the cam settings, thats it.


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## oldwhitewood

Is it better to get a circular polarising filter? What kind of effects do they produce other than boosting contrast and cutting down on reflections?


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## Dave Spencer

Circular polarisers are generally recommended for auto focus cameras, as linear filters can affect the AF and metering.

I`m not sure if you are aware, but you can also rotate them through 90 degrees to go from practically zero effect to cutting out reflections on glass and water.

Look for PL CIR when buying, as opposed to just PL which are linear.

Dave.


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