My First DSLR - "Is 'Dunning-Kruger Effect' a Photoshop plugin?"

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > My First DSLR - "Is 'Dunning-Kruger Effect' a Photoshop plugin?"

Suicide Watch: Sep 8, 2009

Valdara posted:

One of my mothers-in-law has a Canon T1i with the 18-55mm and 55-250mm kit lenses. She keeps it on Auto and only considers the 55-250 a REAL zoom lens. She's adorable. I was playing with her camera tonight, and while it has the exact same buttons and layout and feel as my Xsi, the menu is so much more polished and the ISO performance blows mine out of the water. Then I was talking to another friend with the same set of lenses and a T3i going on about how people are giving him poo poo for having a bottom-of-the-line camera. I gave him some product comparisons and showed him that I can get a decent performance out of my much older/lower spec'd camera, so he should not feel in any way bad about his camera nor is it limiting his photography in any way.

I say all this to say that I am extremely happy that I have an older, somewhat limited camera, because I'm already taking far better pictures with it than I was with my crap super-zoom P&S a year ago and rather better pictures than the two above-mentioned people are, so it's letting me do my tiny, tiny part in showing people even newer than me to photography that gear does not make the photo. I also feel weird being the "photo expert" for some of my friends because I understand the exposure triangle and own Lightroom.

Also, MIL loaned me her 55-250mm lens to play with. So that's awesome.

Yup, I picked up a D50 a few years back so I didn't have to pay for film anymore. I feel there are times I'm missing nice shots because of slow burst rate or low ISO, but I'm still able to produce really nice photographs. In all honesty, an 8 year old DSLR in day time taking portraits, landscape or architecture isn't much worse than a brand new one. Sports, night and indoors may be another story, but that's also largely equated out if you use a flash. In daytime, almost all cameras are equal aside from megapixels.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2013 10:45

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 22:37

Suicide Watch: Sep 8, 2009

404notfound posted:

Yeah, it's nice. I have U1 set for full auto everything, so if I'm taking a group photo with people and need someone to take a picture for me, I flip it to U1, turn on live view, and show them how to zoom, if applicable. The auto setting on the dial doesn't disable my back button focus, which I don't trust random strangers with, so U1 re-enables half shutter focus.

U2 is my "gotta get that shot" setting: shutter priority with auto-ISO, half shutter focus (more convenient than back button focus in a hurry), and AF-C with auto focus point select, so it'll grab a subject and follow it. If I see something happening and don't feel like I can set exposure/focus quickly enough, I snap to U2, point it in the general direction, mash that shutter button, and hope for the best. I suspect it might be good for shooting from the hip for discreet street photography, though I haven't tried that yet.

Speaking of which, the focus options for Nikon are pretty drat confusing. Ken Rockwell actually breaks it down pretty well here, but the takeaways are:

AF-S to focus once and stick there or AF-C to continuously focus as something moves around, or AF-A if you wanna leave it up to the camera

d9, d21, and d39 will silently use the surrounding focus points to help maintain focus on the selected point when in AF-C, which is kinda useless because you have AUTO and 3D

3D will lock onto whatever is under the selected focus point and then keep changing focus points to maintain focus

AUTO is like 3D but will pick its own focus point instead of letting you select

Wow, I'm still manually directing the AF points on my D50 because there's only 5 points so AF-C is pointless. Any modern DSLR must feel insane.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 04:41

Suicide Watch: Sep 8, 2009

Musket posted:

Shockingly not as bad as you think. I had a D50 for a long time as it was the last good Dxx body with an AF-Screw.

I mean, that's why I bought it, and for the $150 I paid, it's gotten me far. But something with modern features like 3D AF or live view...I can't imagine. Life with a 8 year old Dslr I guess. Although an X100 is coming my way soon...

# ¿ Dec 17, 2013 08:42

Suicide Watch: Sep 8, 2009

I currently have a Sigma 30/1.4, Nikon 50/1.8, Tamron 17-50/2.8 and Nikon 70-300/4-5.6. I also have a Fuji X100. I'm thinking of relegating my standard prime duties to the Fuji. Would it be unheard of if I sold my 30mm and 50mm and instead picked up an 85/1.8? I've barely used the 30mm since I bought the X100 and the 50mm since I bought the 17-50. Body is a D50 by the way.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2014 16:16

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