Hope you don't mind, but as time's progressed I've come up with more specific questions. First I guess I should clarify that 85% of what I want to shoot and shoot well involves landscapes.

Tripod
I know we've talked on this before, and I carry one everywhere I go. I have a lite-tripod I use for hiking with, but I have to admit it's a little disconcerting putting a $1200 camera and lens on a $45 tripod that might blow over in a strong breeze. I've heard round legged tripods are better. Any suggestions on this? I need something really lite weight. Do they sell titanium framed tripods that are affordable. We might do 10-12 mile hikes at times, and the bulky won't cut it.

Filters vs. White Balance
Perhaps this varies from digital to 35mm, as I know Digital does several things 35mm could not. But is there any benefit or real difference to putting a filter on my camera for indoors shoot versus just changing the White Balance settings to something like Tungsten (which makes it remove the yellow glow of the lights). I've tried the various white balance settings out doors as well... shade, flash, bright sun, etc and it's amazing how different they are. Ultimately, Photoshop is what makes the picture great, but the White Balance settings help. I just tend to dislike filters... maybe I'm lazy, LOL.

ISO on a Digital
Does this really matter on a digital camera? I mean, I'm sure some folks would say it does, but does it *really* matter since I don't use film?

Polarizing in a helicopter
The curse of shooting ANY photo in a helicopter is reflections on the glass. Even if you where dark clothing, it still happens and I hate it. The no-doors flight we took last year was awesome... though a tad windy, LOL. Made shooting a breeze. Also made you paranoid as hell if you dropped anything it was gone for good. One guy told me he actually had dropped a lens into the volcano. Ooops. Do you think a polarizing lens would help? If so, we may book a flight next year and try it. Otherwise, I'll stick to doors off only flights, or we'll have to charter a fixed wing (hello $$) for this purpose.

Aperture and f-stop verification
Kind of a duh moment for me recently, but I wanted to verify this. For some reason last year I kept setting my aperture right but didn't always set my shutter speed right. So my photos came out dark in places and too bright in others. Is it safe to assume if I'm shooting a landscape, that literally has stuff miles off in the distance (a seascape for example) that I should probably plop the thing on a tripod, set the aperture as high as I can (32 I think on my Nikon 18-55mm) and then put the shutter speed at around 1-2"? I know that's a really long time to keep the lens open, but I keep finding my shoots get "fuzzy" or "pixilated" as I approach infinity in certain images. Some landscape shots (like waterfalls) make this less noticeable bc they are only a few hundred yards from me. But a lot of my coastal shots are crisp at the front, and fuzzier at the back near the horizon. I'm guess this is bc I was shooting something like 14 f-stop and the auto-shutter speed. Clear and quick, but not clear enough... if you know what I mean.

Thanks for any help.

LMAO...ok ok... I see my name.

Tripod Gitzo or Bogen, the only two names I would trust with either one of my cameras (that is that can be carried into the field) Tiltall used to make good tripods, but I believe the company was sold, dont know the new owners, and dont trust em.
Make sure and get a tripod that will comfortably support the weight of your camera (it the legs are bowing out when you put the camera on, dont get it)

Filters vs. White Balance -
would not worry about filter light balance, if the camera dose it, hey. But you might want some other filters that can help. Warming filters, polarizing,and so on. I have never used the 'artistic' funky filters, but some of the slightly colored ones (my warming is probably most used, just a slight sepia tone that
makes people, the light and all things seem 'warmer'. Polarizing, well we have covered that in the past.


ISO on a Digital - Idont really know. Since your ISO (or ASA) is what determines your camera settings with film its pretty important. I have know idea if the camera transfers the film properties over to the digital.... I.E. ISO 800 or 1600 film (which is quite high speed film) is rather grainy, but if you are shooting sports, night time aerial or something that requires low light...
Honestly I dont know how this transfers to digital. (if they allow you to set a high asa (800-1600) for a grainy effect or if it even will do that?
Sorry not any real help there.

Polarizing in a helicopter -

well like you said yourself, if you have no doors (I.E.no glass), its not necessary (make sure you have a suitable lens hood to eliminate lens flair) but its always good to carry one (a filter that is) just in case.'


Aperture and f-stop verification

Quote:

Kind of a duh moment for me recently, but I wanted to verify this. For some reason last year I kept setting my aperture right but didn't always set my shutter speed right. So my photos came out dark in places and too bright in others. Is it safe to assume if I'm shooting a landscape, that literally has stuff miles off in the distance (a seascape for example) that I should probably plop the thing on a tripod, set the aperture as high as I can (32 I think on my Nikon 18-55mm) and then put the shutter speed at around 1-2"? I know that's a really long time to keep the lens open, but I keep finding my shoots get "fuzzy" or "pixilated" as I approach infinity in certain images. Some landscape shots (like waterfalls) make this less noticeable bc they are only a few hundred yards from me. But a lot of my coastal shots are crisp at the front, and fuzzier at the back near the horizon. I'm guess this is bc I was shooting something like 14 f-stop and the auto-shutter speed. Clear and quick, but not clear enough... if you know what I mean.

hmmm...
Ok let me see if I can dig up some comprehensive literature on this... the the shutter speed and apature work together, if you close one down, the other must be opened up to a like setting. BUT - the camera meter is quite dumb, and learning how to use your meter (not just reading what it says, but how to understand what the dumb thing is trying to do, makes it easier to cheat it, which in turn gets you good photos..) did that make any sense?

Brief- the camera meter wants to turn everything to 18% gray (thats neutral gray, like the gray cards) so knowing this and shooting on an all black scene (like the lava rocks) you would want to actually open up a stop or two to allow more light in. See the dumb little meter sees all that black rock, and thinks your photographing a night scene, so it will open way up to let light in. It cant tell that its black rocks with TONS of light on them... did that just confuse you more...?
(bracketing always a good idea, shoot one shot over, one on, and one under what your meter tells you to do)


I did this pretty fast (pardon the errors) but let me look over this info and see if I can dig up anything that will be of more help.

EDIT-Ok I was reading more into your last part.... thats a good question.
FWIW, and this is JMHO, the fuzzy fall off, I dont know if thats inhearant(SP) to digital or not. cheap lenses have that effect also. But with good film, and a good lens it should be pretty clear. But another thing to keep in mind. Even stopping down to f32 only increases the 'apparent' range of focus. I can tell you what happens to film, hehe. But thats no use, and Im not sure weather the fall of is because of your lenses or if its a property of the digital.. (weather or not the ccd is holding the detail) I would run some test...

Pin a page from your news paper up on the wall -put the camera on a tripod..
Make sure the film plane (or the digital plane) and the wall (your news print) are level and on the same plane (at the exact same angle) and take a shot of the news print (the help wanted are the best, they have type all the way out to the outer edgers, allowing you to follow it out.)
If you do this and notice drop off at the outer edges... well that means its your lens

If its sharp all the way out... well... then its the digital film properties...(ie the distance and the way the camera holds distance details)

I think... (dont hold me to that last one yet, I need to look it up)

Excellent... thanks. I'll give that test a shot this week. My primary concern on this is the D80 now, so once I have it Thurs I'll test that.

I'll also try it with the D50. I think the lens we have is a pretty good one. The sigma is crap and the Nikkor 70-300mm has a horid f-stop, but the 18-55 is really good. I think the 18-200mm Nikkor I'm looking at is also a solid lens.

I think when I was shooting those lava shots in the dark on the lava field, I had everything working against me, LOL. Especially since the moon was nearly full then too. I'm fairly positive I tried to set a low aperture and used a real low shutter speed. Seriously, the shutter must have been open 10-15 seconds (or more) at times. Now I can only wonder how much better those shots would have been had I made the aperture a HIGH number (not low) and left the shutter speed really long. I bet they'd have been crystal clear, versus a blur of light (which I probably got from letting too much light in via the aperture settings).

Looks like NPS might be harder to get into than I thought:
http://www.nikonpro.com/about_nps.php

kanaloa wrote:

Looks like NPS might be harder to get into than I thought: http://www.nikonpro.com/about_nps.php

ya sorry I have let my membership slide or I could 'refer' you. I kept it up for a few years after I quit shooting... (but as you can see they are sticklers about weather or not your shooting, and I havent shot in years.)
Its worth it if you can get in.

I'm not an expert, by any means, John, but ISO on a digital camera does, indeed, have an effect. Adjusting the ISO setting performs much the same task as picking different ISO rating film although, effectively, they are somewhat different. ISO on a digital camera is related to the amount of light needed to produce an image of a certain quality.

The problem with higher ISO settings on digital cameras is the fact that it makes the image more susceptible to 'noise'.

There's a short explantion on Wiki...

Happy Hammer wrote:

I'm not an expert, by any means, John, but ISO on a digital camera does, indeed, have an effect. Adjusting the ISO setting performs much the same task as picking different ISO rating film although, effectively, they are somewhat different. ISO on a digital camera is related to the amount of light needed to produce an image of a certain quality. The problem with higher ISO settings on digital cameras is the fact that it makes the image more susceptible to 'noise'. There's a short explantion on Wiki...

ah noise, that would be the grainy effect you get from actual film. So it works with what Dan is saying, the ISO (ASA) setting basically has the same effect. Higher speed films that are great for sports, low light, etc. etc. are somewhat grainy, so using lower light in a sense gives you an image with less detail.
Thanks Dan.

Quote:

Sensitivity Sensitivity settings on digital cameras are the equivalent of ISO ratings on film. Just about every digital camera will have settings with a sensitivity equivalent to ISO 100 film and ISO 200 film. Many will have an ISO 400 setting, but above that the images from cameras with small sensors gets pretty noisy. The more expensive digital SLRs with much larger sensors have much higher sensitivity settings. At ISO 400 they are virtually noise free and some can go as high as ISO 3200 or even ISO 6400! Very few cameras have ISO setting lower than ISO 100 because noise levels are so low at ISO 100 there would be no real advantage in a slower setting. Quite a few digital cameras have an "auto" ISO setting, where the camera will pick from ISO 100, ISO 200 and sometimes ISO 400, depending on the light level and the mode in which the camera is operating.

here also


EDIT- I checked, and the tripod prices are pretty high, you might check some of the online retailers for some deals on used Gitzo, Bogen tripods.
I bought mine in the early 80's and paid nearly 300 bucks back then (and that was with out the head, the head was another 150 bucks), but look at it this way, your setting 1200+ dollars worth of equipment on it, and counting on it being stable.

PPS- eBay search for 'bogen tripods' and 'gitzo tripods' there are some good ones there, you will see what I mean about the prices. The used Gitzos range from about 300 bucks and up (mostly up), the bogens are around 100 and up. I could never afford a Gitzo, and my bogen still works very well. (but if you can afford it, Gitzo is the better and lighter tripod.)

Thanks guys. I'll read up more on the ISO. From what I'm reading, it looks like I want to keep my ISO number low. Any real issue to letting the camera control that for me?

That's a hefty price for a tripod. I'll check out some of the ones on eBay though. I may have to work on Tash for a tripod of that caliber, LOL.

I've just really started getting into photography myself having finally made the move to a digital SLR from my old Canon AE-1 so I'm benefiting from this thread, too. Thanks, Dave, for the info so far! My interests are more wildlife oriented but I appreciate the landscape tips just as much!

I've also noticed that prices for a good tripod are crazy, some nearly as expensive as my camera, and that's without a head. As Dave said, though, if it's holding up kit that has a substantial dollar value, you're going to want it to work. You do, after all, get what you pay for!

Dave... given I have, typically max, 200mm lens, which of these would you recommend:

eBay Gitzo

I can't figure out what model is best... though I do like the light weight of these guys.

I really have no idea what type of head I'd need for any of these either.

I kind of like this one even though I know it'll get up to near $400. What type of head would I need for this?


And one last question. What do you think of the wireless remotes:
http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-Wireless-Control-Digital-Cameras/dp/B00007EDZG