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Snotty said:
Really these days the image quality difference between a good compact and a low/medium DSLR is minimal. A DSLR will however give you far more control - the catch is that it is much much easier to mess things up.
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Not my Olympus, lol, I tend to find it hard to focus on the right spots with macro and super macro shots.
I bought myself a tripod to remove the unsteadiness of my hand, but I still find it very often focuses on the wrong part, lol

There are 3 focus modes, Auto focus, Auto face tracking & spot focus. I take a lot of pictures of plants and flowers that I grow, and cant get any of those focus modes to work for me lol. So I plan to give the camera to my mum when I upgrade as she loves it and thinks its the Bees-Knees, haha
So I still have my heart set on a DSLR, Canon or Nikon as recommended by you guys ;)
 
reptileKev81 said:
Not my Olympus, lol, I tend to find it hard to focus on the right spots with macro and super macro shots.
I bought myself a tripod to remove the unsteadiness of my hand, but I still find it very often focuses on the wrong part, lol

There are 3 focus modes, Auto focus, Auto face tracking & spot focus. I take a lot of pictures of plants and flowers that I grow, and cant get any of those focus modes to work for me lol. So I plan to give the camera to my mum when I upgrade as she loves it and thinks its the Bees-Knees, haha
So I still have my heart set on a DSLR, Canon or Nikon as recommended by you guys ;)
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With your PNS and even DSLR's..
Natural light can help your camera focus, very low light can be a challenge with AF, either focusing very slowly or not at all and not where you want it to. If there is enough light available to get good contrast you will find it focuses faster. Check if your camera allows you to set a manual focus point, likely, you will need to turn your mode dial from "full automatic", as this mode will automatically choose a point of high contrast as the subject to focus on. When herping at night automatic mode can be ok, if you use the torch to light the point you want in focus - but having the choice of using manual settings will give you greater creative control.
 
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Just on lenses.

I had a bit of everything for my D90. Mostly nikon gear, good but very heavy. I sold most of them and now have just 3 which I am very happy with.

Tamron 28-300 (very sharp throughout range)
DSC_0235_edited-1.jpg
, Sigma 10-20 (superb wide angle lens)
DSC_0088_edited-1.jpg
and a Tamron 90 1:1 macro AF.
DSC_0135_edited-1.jpg

These three cover all my needs. The Tamrons have great optics in a lightweight plastic lens and can be used AF or MF.

I set Darlyn up with a Nikon D3100 with a nikon 18-55 and a Tamron 70-300 (macro from 220-300 which means you can shoot macro from a distance without disturbing the subject).

And I have an Olympus 800 Tough (point and shoot) for underwater to 10 meters.
 
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SteveNT said:
I set Darlyn up with a Nikon D3100 with a nikon 18-55 and a Tamron 70-300 (macro from 220-300 which means you can shoot macro from a distance without disturbing the subject).
.
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im looking at getting that set up from eglobal, am i better getting that or the d3100 with the tamron 18-200?
thanks :)
 
Just remember with the d3100 the lens must have its own AF motor. A lot of lenses dont. (it is worth going one step further for the Tamron 28-300- the extra 100mm gives you much better shots from a distance i.e birds)

You can see the results of Darlyn's first outing with the D3100 on my thread "a few days on Coroboree"- they are the last group of photos (mostly crocs) but all shot with the Tamron 70-300.
 
perhaps I should get the cannon 1100d with the 50mm f1.8 prime and the cannon 75-300mm USM lens :? that comes to $597 delivered I dont want to spend any more than that. ideas anyone?
 
omg_a_gecko said:
With your PNS and even DSLR's..Natural light can help your camera focus, very low light can be a challenge with AF, either focusing very slowly or not at all and not where you want it to. If there is enough light available to get good contrast you will find it focuses faster. l.
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This is a good point to remember , I know when I first started using my cannon 50D I was having trouble taking shots , some times it would take a pic no problem then other times it would just flash all these numbers at me through the view finder thing it annoyed the hell out of me because sometimes i would have a really nice shot and the camera wouldnt take a pic I didn't have a clue what was going on until a family friend came to our place and told me it was because I had it set on automatic focus and the lighting wasn't right for the other settings , now I've got it set on manual focus and it works a lot better except I have to pay a lot more attention to what I'm doing
 
OK, i took Wicket, my 3yo female beardie into the front yard to take some shots with the Olympus fe4030.
Even choosing manual focus, I couldn't get a good shot. I usually give the button a half press, and when it focuses I'll get a Little Green square around the area that has focused, and I can press the button fully down to take the shot.

But whenever I zoom in Macro Mode, I can never ever get the green square with autofocus or manual focus.
****** me off, lol, I get a red square and if I continue the shot I get a blurry out of focus shot.
I can get some decent shots though in SuperMacro mode, but all settings like flash and zoom are disabled, so the camera needs to be right up in front of the object I'm photographing.

I know that more light helps as well as a steady camera, which is why I try to take most of my shots outdoors and with a tripod (a little hard to use the tripod in supermacro mode lol but oh wells).

But zoomed macro shots really suck on this camera lol, if anyone knows how to get good macro shots with the fe4030 please let me know, lol. The thing that really annoys me is when I half press the button and it trys to focus, I can see it going back and forth, and RIGHT PAST A VERY CLEAR IMAGE!!!! gah!

Heres the best pic I took this arvo with it.
SuperMacro (no zooming or flash)
Unfortunately the sun was gone from the area and we were in a shady spot.
If only I could zoom-macro shots like these and closer I wouldnt even feel the need for a DSLR :(, but this camera really sucks lol, i paid about $160 a while ago, I guess you get what you pay for.
I also forgot I must've had it on a lower quality as all my pics were only 3mb, when im used to 8mb pics. Anyways, I like this picture, when i have more time i'll fix it up as my avatar ;)
2012-09-23 17.33.22.jpg


Anyways, back to DSLR. I was going to buy this one, although when I looks at specs and lens I don't understand the terminology and lingo, lol, the only things i understand is the price, lol

Can some kind soul tell me if this is a good package to get? I know I'll need to get a set of Macro Lens, what else will I need if I buy this package? Or would you recommend a better one?
Canon EOS 600D kit with 18-55mm IS II Lens...

I just listed my Keyboard on ebay and am aiming for $350-$400 which will go towards my camera purchase :)
 
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its a canon 600d and the pics are with the 18-55mm lenses. I got it from bing lee for 799 with memory chip and lots of accesories,
Amazing camera on newbie settings!!Highly reccomend
 
Think I'm about to drop some money on a new dslr. The D800 looks nice!
 
eddie123 said:
its a canon 600d and the pics are with the 18-55mm lenses. I got it from bing lee for 799 with memory chip and lots of accesories,
Amazing camera on newbie settings!!Highly reccomend
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, how far was the camera on those photos? Were they zoomed in? Or was the camera up close?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
i paid 1300$ for my camera two years ago... it now sells for 800$ in shops... shop around, the longer you wait the cheaper and better the bottom range models will get. rememebr that it's the lense that takes the amazing image not always the body. also, using the right settings will make a HUGE change too (obviously) . . . but it all turns down to the photographer. my 500D is capable of taking some amazing shots it's just the fact that i havent really had enough time to sit down and work on it for weeks at a time.

good luck and hope you have fun with this :) . . . new is always a good way to go, incase you have any problems in my opinion.
 
What lens would you recommend for getting good macro shots of my critters and flowers?
I've had a look at a couple macro lenses and it seems they are quite expensive :(

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
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