D-SLR's Capturing light !

Binoy..

Must say You have wonderful eyes to capture things...

I specially liked the Spider pic.....

Yaar... you are openingup slowly....what else do you know...EK bar bata do.......

Satish thanks for the kind word of appreciation- i dont do much else-not because i dont want to but because i dont get the time to.

I thought i would add some info into the world of D-SLR's and clear some myths about them.

Here is what i have got:

Its the Nikon D60 with the 18-105mm VR nikkor lens.

Invested in a tripod with a video head as i wanted to use the same with different situations.

This is the Velbon C600 with the PH386 Fluid pan head.

Myth -I

D-SLR's are expensive!

-no they are not, most compact cameras(with 10+MP's) come at around 12K price range(the Canon IXUS/Sony W series and the Nikon Coolpix line).

-the superzooms like the Canon S5IS/Nikon P80/Sony H15 come at 20K price range.

A entry level d-SLR like the Nikon D40 or the Canon XT rebel come below the 20K mark-around 18K.

Myth-II

One needs a lot of experience to take good pictures with d-SLR's !

-my only previous experience in digital photography was with a Sony S60(4 MP camera) with which i took about 8000 pictures.(i did play with a Canon Film camera that my dad owned,which has since breathed its last to a fungal infection!).

-so this myth is also not true.

Caveats to the above two:

1)The Nikon D3 retails for about 5.5lacs and the Canon 1D Mark III for about 3.5 lacs of ruppees!

2)technical aspects of d-SLR photography, especially strobe and night modes are pretty complicated and needs a lot of experiance.

The second aspect of digital photography was the software angle.

Current photo editors are so powerful that almost any photo can be made to look exactly like the way you want no matter how the initial shooting conditions.

Some thing that really interests me now is Panorama's-ie taking two or three(or even more) shots and stiching them together to create a seemless single image with a wide angle of view.

Here is one of such attempts. Three photos were taken at 7PM in the evening outside one of my relatives houses and the three of them were joined together in the photo editor.

Photo-1

Photo-2

Photo-3

All three stiched together

Wat a plaesure to the eye.Really.Binoy.

Plz everyone eep fiiling in the tips & suggestions.plz.

I am very bad in capturing with my new Canon IXUS.

I started with orkut albums.. As my relatives in Saudi complained of orkut ban there, I started uploading to Picassa.

Then for getting prints, I uploaded to zoomin. After buying the DSLR, started a flickr account also. I am in a dilemma on choosing the right album. Each has its own merits and dismerits..

I have a slightly different opinion here.. 

Comparing the price of entry level DSLR with high end point and shoot will not be right.

One may get a better result from P&S compared to the entry level DSLRs.

The advantage of DSLR is its versatality. Sadly that depends on the gears you possess, like lenses, tripods, filters, flash etc.. That makes photography as a hobby with DSLRs much more expensive. Again after one starts using DSLR it is easy to find the limitations of the kit lens and other accessories as per the requirements in various situations.

In my case I realised the need for tripod and macro lens as per my taste. Even a high end tripod costs more than camera body. In the case of lenses the cost vary from thousands to lakhs. But the advantage is that you can use a lens worth 5 lakhs with your cheap entry level DSLR camera body.( I got an old tripod but yet to upgrade the lens)

Again experts in photography say that ( what I gathered from net and magazines) with in one year you will feel like upgrading your camera body also. Luckily I haven't felt the same yet.

I agree with Binoy on his other comments.  I had little experience in digital photography except with my N73 before buying DSLR. But you have to spend a lot of time both to learn different techniques and also to capture moments in a beautiful way.

Finally as every one say, what really matters is the person behind the cam rather than the equipment.  This can easily be verified if you browse through flickr albums where amazing photos are taken using inexpensive p & S compared to worst composition using expensive DSLRs..

@kartik-thank you for the kind words-as you would know my schedule i dont get time to take more time for creative aspects of personal life!

Do post some of the pictures that you have taken with your cam also.

@Feroz-good point there, but i guess there is a bit of grey between were we are heading. I was only talking about P&S(majorly superzooms) that cost 12K and upwards and not at the entry level (like the Sony S930) P&S ,market.

Also the comparison is not on Image Quaility(IQ) but that of the equipment itself. Even the best Superzoom wont come near an entry level d-SLR(like the D40/EOS XT) in IQ at low light(high ISO) photos simply because the sensor is so much bigger in the d-SLR's.

Talking about the costs, the break down in my case is

Nikon D60 body + 18-105mm VR lens = Rs.28,000/-

the cam and lens were bought in the US and brought down to India by my sister. The same combo here would cost Rs,41,000/- in the grey market and Rs.55,000/- with bill and warranty.

The velbon C600 tripod was brought from trivandrum itself for 3000/-

What i plan to acquire over the next two years are-

Nissin i662 speedlite flash - Rs.6000/-

Battery grip -Rs.2000/-

Nikkor 35mm/f1.8 prime lens - Rs.9000/-

As feroz has noted there are a lot of options and pursuing this on a serious amature level would lead to the investment being a money pit.

I have a max budget of 50,000/- over these 3 years ans will re-evaluate after the end of the same on whether i want to continue onwards with the same or call it quits!!

Feroz please do give the breakup of the gear that you have and your short term plan on moving forward.

I guess canon does have macro lenses for under 15K(or there are many options with Sigma/Tamaron for 3rd party lenses).

@Muthu: Awesome compilation. Lots of photographers here. Hope there are more ppl under the wraps.

@Binoy:

@Feroz: Fill your flickr page also dude.

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For me DSLR is a nightmare. I get very scared looking at it alone . First I guess I'll have to learn the basics in P&S and in superzooms. The main roadblock for me is the ISO settings and related grains.

I just tried this (first time) with my Mobile Camera...

My room:

The 3 cars I own