kja

Is your third prime the 24?

huga - the 85 1.4 is sweet! The question of if you need it is one of those questions :) I'd say yes, coz I love to have options and having another focal length can make one try different things. On the other hand, you may find it's just a bit meh or too much of a compromise in composition since you love your 50 and 105 and are totally making them work in the varied conditions you're shooting in. It does slot in there nicely, though - just a matter of working it with your style which I don't think would be hard, but maybe something that you don't need and the cash could go to something that would open things up for you more? All too hard to decide which is why I just buy stuff :D Just the Boof-meister again today.

+1 for what huga said, too! I knew I forgot some things :)

snook - love these new ones Especially the bee and the second one in post #203! The minah is great, too. tlc - yay on the newly ordered toy!!

He's a cutie! A couple of things that might or might not help: 1 - get higher 2 - try black & white, especially for shots with distracting colours. If a colour isn't helping the image, it's a good time to mono it 3 - the colours look a little off to me, too yellowyish, I think 4 - try upping the exposure. Babies almost always look better a bit brighter, these feel a little underexposed, dark/dull to me 5 - white blankets are your friend. I just had a bub that was in one of those ugly things, too, but a white blanket under and over it worked a treat.

dogs look like they're having fun on the pier!! cc - what a pretty bird! cute, huga! Week 34

I'm totally serious! Might even paint a wall in my living room just for it :)

Adore!! I would print this and put this on my wall - WANT!

Yes, they are all instructions on what needs to be done to get the thing printed :) It was pretty cool - sometimes they'd project a big image up on the wall and the editors/togs/printers etc would get their markers out and mark it all out with their notes. Then off it'd go to the printer. And if it wasn't quite right, they'd do it again. Extremely time consuming, expensive and frustrating. The people who did this stuff well were amazing.

Saw this today and thought of this thread. Can't tell you how happy I am not to have to work exclusively in a chemical based darkroom :)

Sorry I wasn't clear! Canon 100 if you need some working distance. 100 coz I needed to give them room to move Canon 60 if you're sure you can get close enough. This isn't a great option for flying insects, for example. 60 coz he was pretty much sitting on this plant Both are awesome lenses

Ratio. True macros will give you 1:1 reproduction; your 50mm will not.

tlc - 100 if you want working distance. 60 if you can get within cms of your subjects. Both rock. Oh, and Canon over the Tamron. Remember there are two versions of the Canon 100 - the new and the old. The old is a cracker and can't be faulted - the new is even better :) Only you can decide if it's worth the extra cash for the new version - I haven't updated, but it will probably be on my list eventually if I start experimenting with a couple of things on my mind for underwater work...

Have fun with the new toys!!

Adore the last bee shot, CC!! A quickie of the Til-meister

I'm glad I saw the photo before you made it a link - I very rarely click links and would have missed it. I think the photo was strong and thought provoking on a variety of levels, things that good photographs are. The subject matter might be disturbing but it certainly wasn't over any lines, imho. It's good to view images that aren't the norm. The world is not all happy unicorns farting rainbows :)

Have fun - that project is super time consuming but often brings back lots of good memories (at least for me!) :D

+1 for hard drives. I have some really old stuff on disks but I've pretty much stopped doing that. If you do go the disk route, remember to still have another copy as disks can die and do need to be checked once in a while. Everything I know I wouldn't want to lose is backed up in at least two separate drives and essential stuff is on three. Every now and then I wander through old externals to eliminate stuff I don't need and to double check the drive is still working.

Had the 50mm 1.4 on the 1DIII yesterday when I saw Til sitting in some beams of sun

Shoots faster? What does that mean? There's no lag time with a dslr. Does he mean frames per second? I think, from memory they're pretty close in the 5.2/5.3 per second range? I think the Canon edges out the Pentax in number of RAWs before the buffer fills, but the Pentax gets a few more with jpeg. There should be a bunch of online places to look for the tech specs, I'd think. There's a lot less support from real world users with Pentax which can be a consideration. But from what I hear - never laid hands on one or done too much research - it's not a bad entry option & has some nice pros, though you're committed down the track a bit depending what they release next and your friend's needs.

That's awesome then! I haven't used it but know it can be an issue with some macro lenses - sometimes more detail just isn't what you want LOL

I'm not 100% about the Nikon 105 macro, but just be aware that when using it for portraits of women in particular that it can be too sharp, even wide open. The Canon 60mm is like this - a fabulous lens for portraits sometimes but you have to be oh so careful - and to a lesser extent the Canon 100mm can be, too. Very few women want to know every minute detail of their faces LOL

@gap - lovely! Week 33 - first squid of the day

Frankly, any of the entry level cameras by Nikon or Canon will do just fine. Go by what feels good to you (if you can lay hands on some models) and what appeals to your price point. If you're going to be shooting mostly in daylight, you should be fine with the kit lenses to start with. Canon sometimes offers the 24-135 in their kits and it's a great lens. There are tons of other options, too. I am fond of the 18-200 range lenses as they are extremely versatile, light and pretty quick - their drawback is for low light shooting or for those who demand very wide apertures. On the whole, the trade off is worth it for day to day stuff, I think. In the end, it's not going to be the camera so much as the person behind it ;)

Cute pup! Yay for new toys!