PossumCorner

You can get a used body in the $300-400 range, but they usually sell word of mouth and don't need to get advertised, it is a good model. One sold locally recently for $750 but the buyer hadn't done his pricing homework. (Even a D70 body you can get for $300-500, and that was the 'next model up' - both now superseded). It would be a pity to sell a D50 though, then regret it. Is there any way he could wait just a bit longer to get the D300, and keep the D50 as a back-up/spare?

One system worked beautifully for us at the previous house, as we were intending to sell and needed to keep the value up - keep it looking good. We fenced off a garden section, one corner of the back yard completely, a good looking fence (not just star pickets and chook wire) with a pretty picket gate. Behind the fence was the garden, a couple of fruit trees, the rabbit hutch and the rotary clothes line. It had a great effect, sort of like a private secret garden, and all safe from doggy attention including the washing on the lines. The dogs then still had the lawn area and other fence-line garden beds to play on or in. The overall look was great, a good feature instead of some bitty garden beds with scrappy-looking barricades here and there, if that makes sense. Depends on your design and slope etc - it could look great at the "end" of a raised decking path. Or - fence off both sides of the path (garden bridge railing to lean on), and let the path lead to the open lawn play area. We are putting in some decking paths at the moment and the designs (and cost) keep growing so need to modify the plan. And the dogs and pony supervise every step of progress: pony thinks the paths are for his benefit at this stage. Agapanthus is a great tough plant for borders if it is acceptable in your area, always looks good.

What did you end up with - new lens or new camera or neither? I'd mentioned the Sigma 150mm Macro. This is a kooka with this lens. Not 'enlarged' just the ends cropped off to square the shot. Just to show that Sigma lenses can be as sharp as, and manual focus with the D40 is not an issue.

Thanks Jakodai. Rest in Peace Sandy. Occy, look after youself, so sorry to hear this.

I am so "off" dpreview. Reviews are good, but there are also plenty of brand-bashers, trolls, know-alls and nasties. And yes some great helpful people, but you do have to sift everything not just accept it at face value, it's part of the culture there. GayleK mentioned second-hand: I suppose always a risk. But there are Nikon D50s on ebay that are around $400 with "extras" and they are a fine camera which outclass some new cameras at 3-4 times the price. There are good discounts around of the Canon 400 since it was superseded, worth doing some price comparisons there. Don't let them buy at a photography chain store til they compare prices at Photobuff and the like, or Hong Kong or New York while our dollar is strong. People have mentioned the Nikon D40x, D60. Probably they are the best value new DSLR, they do only take a limited range of lenses for auto-focus but more than enough for most purposes (and no limit at all for manual focus) - more important they are very user-friendly.

Good grief, they don't want much do they! If it something about the similarity and related closeness and continuance of curve lines and sameness etc, (all that crap, sorry, meaningful stuff) I racked my brain(s) and all I can come up with as a good subject suggestion is a nice herd of sheep in a yard. So you have a captive grouping with enough separateness and similarity to satisfy them. Or am I on the wrong track? Something else comes back to me about shelled peas and peas in their pods: think I prefer the sheep idea.

Fish shop tanks not "easy" with so many variables. A good idea is to arrange two shoots: one for "practice" in a sense, it's more to do test shots of light and exposure. Then one to fine-tune any problems the light has caused. You're right reflection is a major problem. Do not use your in-camera flash: if possible use flash off camera away from camera on a lead, and above the tank. If you can only use that unit on-camera, - yes point it up to a white reflector well above the tank, just get a helper to hold up a large white card - maybe the back of a large fish poster they have would be light enough. Use a tripod where you can. If possible put a black background cloth up behind you and the flash, so that the flash does not reflect stuff behind your back onto the tank. If possible do try to borrow or buy a circular polarising filter, that will help cut through some of the muck on the inside of the fish tank glass and in the water, which even if you can't see it, it is there. Shutter speed around 125th/sec, that will stop a fair bit of fish movement and be okay using flash. ISO up just a bit, say 400, and do some test shots also at 800. Shoot Raw rather than jpg so that you have more scope in photoshop to adjust white balance etc. (That link kja put up here, about four posts earlier than this, on "Understanding Exposure" had some neat info on Raw on it that is relevant). Monitor the fish and be sure the owners are present, too much flash around some fish is a disaster if they go into shock. Are you in a camera club? Maybe you can borrow a light stand from them and use a fixed daylight flood-light above the tank instead of flash, they generate a lot of heat but the fish might be better with that than flash. On the first shoot, some with and without the CPL will show you the difference it gives. Also do some of the test shots with manual focus, if you are shooting small aperture the depth of focus is minimal and you won't know til you get home whether focus is on the fish or whether it has grabbed onto the plants at the back of the tank. Nice project.

Tks for that. We're still looking at them so will add these to the list of what and where. Edit just to add love the look of the yellow Passport Drive, don't need one but looks good.

Just buying in: I didn't reply cos I have only one of the lenses you list, the cheaper 70-330mm. Would not/not recommend it as way soft at each end and a bit slow focussing. It's a sort of you get what you pay for thing: not always, but usually. I would like the two $2000-plus lenses you list, out of my range just now. I love the D40 but sure, but it's not convenient being restricted to AF-S lenses (unless we wish to manual focus only: sometimes is fine, but not always). So just as often as I pick it up, I pick up one of the other Nikon bodies so I have more lens options. The lenses I use on the D40 are not expensive ones, but I've been happy with some of the results, though a bit cheesed off with slow focussing and a bit of softness at each end. Two are older "kit lenses" from older Nikon DSLRs and would be under $300 each, they are: 18-70mm 3.5-4.5 and 18-55mm 4.5 One I bought with it is not strictly speaking a kit lens, but it is only a cheapie, and I like it. The AF-S 55-200mm 4.5-5.6 Yes it does focus a bit slow sometimes (hunts) and is of course soft at the ends. But working within that, takes quite sharp action shots and good portraits. f4.5 is only that: so in very low light you need to up the ISO a bit, and maybe process through Noise Ninja. For pin-sharp shots a prime or one focal length lens gives much better results: the Nikon 85mm 1.8 is brill for low light portraits and action shots. Anyway back to Sigma: Sigma are excellent lenses and good value for money. As with Nikon, they do not all have motor in-lens (AF-S) so you should check with the store that they are compatible with the D40, try out in-store on the same camera, good stores will be happy for you to do that. I think only the Sigma HSM lenses have motor drive, and they likely cost even more than middle-price Nikons. My 150mm Macro is Sigma, couldn't be happier with it. I use that one on the D40 as you don't auto focus with macro in any case so manual focus is 'normal'. It's worth a look a DP Review forums, I think they keep a list of D40 lenses, and update it with new releases.

I agree with this - I am pretty much welded to the monopod, don't leave home without it. And not just for heavy lenses, any lens. Prefer a tripod for like Nat said, longer exposure, but agree with kja, they are a pain to always be fussing with. Would love Chezzyr's steady hands but I aint got em, so love my monopod. Not just for the actual shooting, it's good to have something to take the weight of the camera especially if you have another camera or camera bag on your shoulder and are carrying the lot all day. And yes wheat bags or such work well, but if you are going to carry one around, might as well carry the monopod instead. I'd probably leave the 50 1.8 home too: then I'd kick myself every time I wanted a nice street scene or people-shot in low light. There seems to be a move back to using the standard 50 prime lens more, people find it challenging to have to work harder at good composition and make their feet do the zooming, seen some very nice results lately. Anyway, I'm putting in an order for an absolutely smashing shot of Greyfriar's Bobby please, because I missed out getting one and can't afford to go back. Oh and if you are in Scotland for the Bridge of Allan Highland Games there are great subjects there to work with. Edi to add: Bridge of Allan is near Stirling, Stirling Castle also a good visit, lots of incredible silver, not sure about photography permission.

Noooooo - but I have a Pentax SLR which I love, and Pentax lenses are very good, like excellent, and you can get the beautiful older ones at a good price on ebay which will work fine on a new DSLR. If your savings are good from this friend, don't go below the 10D, lovely camera. As to having two DSLR's - the question isn't why would you want two, - it is why wouldn't you?? When you are shooting and would like to be able for example to use a sharp prime for a portrait, then zoom for action across the arena, so much quicker to take up the other camera around your neck than to change lenses, and much less chance of dust getting in as it can with too much lens changing. And if you are not going to change the lens (some people don't bother) what ever is the point of having a DSLR instead of a good point-and-shoot with 10x zoom? (Plus it is just good sense to have a back-up of all equipment in case something goes wrong in the middle of the day when you're two hours from home).

Good to hear a hands-on recommendation. We were just given the "i-store" supplier details by someone at Camera Club. They are still a bit cheaper than SanDisk, though of courese not as good as the overseas price you mentioned. I've had two SanDisks fail. We like Toshiba, find they are positively faster and (touchwood) totally reliable. But I will get a couple of Transcends now, from this local supplier, and 'see how they go'. The 4g is On Special for $35 that'll do me, and said to rate better than the Ultra II. Looks like i-store also has a good range of hard drives. They have order-on-line, plus stores in Nunawading (Melb) and Sydney. Their website for stock and prices: www.i-store.com.au I have never been 'game' to use a 4g or 8g card, the all-in-one-basket fear. Prefer 2s, and back them up regularly to an Epson on the day. Good luck Cordy: I got a few shots back on a 2g Sandisk that went bad, but not all of them (and strangely also some were recovered from about five shoots earlier, although card had been re-formatted and re-used several times). Took it to a fellow who charged $50. I could have tried the software but didn't want to risk making a bad situation worse so used pro services that time.

Wouldn't it be good if a simple red-eye-removal feature on the computer worked with animals' eyes as well as humans. But it doesn't. The only way to fix it with animals is a longer process in Photoshop or the like. Maybe turn off the flash and increase the ISO for daylight shots.

And she is still alive? Why is this?

Sorry too late to see this one Ripley. One way out is to up the ISO to 800 to get a result without camera shake - decent shutter speed. Try keeping around f8. Then invest in a good thing called Noise Ninja. You can download it a pay on line. It will do a much much better job than PhotoShop of taking noise out. I think their website is picturecode.com - and yes definitely in Raw. And tell him don't forget the extra shots, - shoes, head-pieces, bouquet. Edit to add: Noise Ninja is about $85 and worth it. Let's know how he goes with the night, could turn out a lot better than he expects.

We back everything onto two separate hard drives, and then also onto dvd if taking off the computers' drives. How cheap are people calling cheap? I guess one person's cheap is another ones' expensive. Last two I bought were $2-300 each, and are not fire-wire either. Believe JB HiFi now have a fire-wire hard drive the same price as (for example) Office Works normal speed drives.

Haven't been in, but heard some great positives about it, so I'm glad it is in our neighbourhood.

Make of camera doesn't much matter. If shooting Nikon and wanting Nikon glass, the 60mm 2.8 is fine, just over $500. The 105mm 2.8 is around $1000 - lovely lens but that's getting expensive. With third-party lenses, I'm very very happy with my Sigma 135mm 3.5 prime macro. Think it was about $850-ish. (Would of course also be made for Canon etc). And people who have the Tamron 90mm macro 2.8 do rave about it - Photobuff has it for about $600 I think. With the 50 or 60 you need to be closer to the subject. When shooting spiders or other bities, there is a case for going for the 90 or 100 or 135 as you can fill the view from further back and feel more comfortable (if that is an issue). But they cost more. Whatever you decide to look at, do some comparison priceing it is worth the time.

That's not something the Committee should keep to themselves when Club funds purchased the equipment. Maybe you could table a question for the AGM, either on the Agenda or from the floor. Could be a very good reason, like no instructor qualified or confident to teach, but people should know what's happening. Maybe one or two of your instructors could arrange to visit a Club that teaches flyball to get an idea of how to start teaching the basics.

We use card readers plugged into the Mac (or PC, whichever) and would never ever plug a camera direct into a computer or TV. Only because I totally respect advice of the pros who have told me never under any circs to do either, and explained how a camera can be wrecked if things go wrong. Not worth the risk to me. A card reader is cheap enough and easy to use.

Same one: but you only need the two recommendations based on your portfolio from two members if it is full membership you are applying for. The recommendations are not required for Affiliate Membership, and the benefits seem worthwhile. Affiliate is pro rata $270 if joining in May, about $350 for a full year. I didn't join, think I was gearing up with archery stuff when I was thinking about it last year, and couldn't afford both. Is on my short list, but it's a very long short list.

I used to get them from Woofers. www.wooferwares.com.au - and they were under 'finishing off' on the old website, probably hasn't changed. They are in Vic but supply by mail and had the pawprint bows, ribbons etc.

Bet it's good to be home and feet up. It was fun to catch up (thanks the kind words) it was a great day, bit of a kaleidescope!! Here are two pups and the team: will get the very few other shots onto website in a day or two.

Well, not everyone. Yes agree DA is good to visit, but like Red Bubble it is geared more to the arty stuff than standing as a photography platform. And those pop-ups drive me nuts, no I do not want to win whatever scammy thing is being flashed at me, click to be rich, go away. (Smugmug's D-grin takes beating as a support forum).