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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Price of Snapping

So life with my new camera has been great so far, photos are better and it's more fun taking pictures. however, I have experienced a few limitations that I need to overcome to get even more breathtaking shots. The biggest limitation I am facing is the lack of zoom capability with the 18-55 mm lens that came with the camera. This makes it difficult for me to get that spot on closeup shot without having to go up close. This especially hinders me when I want to take photos of wild life, because unlike people, animals and insects are not to keen on stopping to take a pose for the camera.


So I have started my saving once again to get myself a zoom lens for my new DSLR. I have my eyes on the Nikon 55-200 mm vibration reduction lens, but the over US$200 price tag is really a huge setback, but with saving and continued price scouting I hopefully will get the zoom lens soon. It would have been great for me to get the zoom lens for the Carnival road march later this month, but that does not seem like a reality and only a vague dream. So I will have to just settle with what I have and do my best in the road match.



Next on my list, is a speedlight, or in other words, an additional flash for my camera. this external flash will allow me more flexibility to experiment with lighting and get better photos. This will be especially helpful when i am taking portraits and still life photos. But that is still some way in the future as the one I want to get, the Nikon SB-600, is also a US$200 price tag. If anyone says photography is expensive, that is an understatement, it's damn expensive!
In the mean time, I have bought myself a UV filter to protect my lens as I can't afford my very expensive lens from being damaged. I also got myself a lens pen to clean my lens as i have seen one or two spots on it already. I ordered these through Amazon and got them both at a decent price for under US$50.

Photography is an expensive hobby...correction: very expensive, but what's the point of working hard if you can't at least enjoy some on the fruits of ones labour? I am a whole lot happier taking photos with this camera than my original point and shoot Kodak Z650. I have also recently joined Flikr and joined the Jamaica West Indies group along with other accomplished photographers, including Taylor and emerging photographer Jamaipanese. Sir Jdid too has jumped into the DLSR world too and I am anticipating great photos form him too on his blog. My photography is improving so far, and I hope it will get better as time goes on, and maybe I'll even make some money from it, if even to just support my photography. To see my photos you can visit my photoblog as usual or on Flikr.

13 commented:

I love my current cam. Its not a DSLR but it has many advanced features and with 15 times optical zoom and double that digitally with a tripod I can catch almost everything. I need to go out more though so get more practice. Hoping to get a dslr later this year and one of the first extra lens I am purchasing is...you guessed it..a super zoom :D

Owen..Lol...but I understand one suffering for one's art, so onward and upward in a flash....get it:) Corny but good:)

what? those prices aren't so bad.

A word of advise though.. don't buy cheap lenses, you get what you pay for.

continue to save a bit more and get like a Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 vr instead.

@Anonymous Jamaipanese: I need to go out more too. That's why I wanted to go on the group trip to take some good pics. If you love your point and shoot, you will love the DSLR!

@Owen: I'm already hooked!

@Emanicipated?: We have to indulge in some of our passions. makes life enjoyable and help us keep our sanity.

@Adrian: Well, they are when you are broke. No I am not buying a cheap lens, straight Nikon/Nikkor lens for me! I will have to work with the 55-200mm vr for now, the 70-200 mm vr is way too much money! I will buy the 55-200mm when I start making some serious doe from my photography.

@Stunner
Be VERY careful when changing lens on any DSLR, as dust may get on the sensor. You will not see it through the viewfinder.
To prevent/minimize dust getting on the sensor, read this.
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/dslr/Dust.html

Walk Good

yea boy must have the big lens for carnival!!

if you want to spend more money get a sigma lens, that is the toppa toppa but they probably cost about 4 times a d60 lol :-)
and yes filters are a must have for all your lenses. they seem to recommend the hoyle ones.

I will start a photoblog when I get past the automatic stage that i'm stuck at lol. just started reading the manual and i love that unlike my old point and click i can now take pictures with movement. yipee!

was actually looking at tripods yesterday. i'm telling everyone i want camera stuff or gift cards to the camera store for christmas.

@Morpheus: thanks for the link. I took every precaution when I was putting on the lens after I bought the camera, didn't want any dust in there. lol The link will be helpful.

@Jdid: Man I doubt I will get the lens in time for Carnival I would have to find someone coming down from the US as customs would charge me half the price for the lens if I ship it.

I definitely will not be buying a lens more expensive than $300 unless I'm making some good money from the photographs.

I already have a tripod that I bought a good while now and it works perfectly for the d60. You do need one especially for the longer exposures. I shelled out a little extra for a multi-coated UV filter as the cheaper non-coated ones causes bad reflections.

Dude, just use the Kodak Z650 if the DSLR doesn't have the range.

This is carnival we are talking about, beautiful women, skimpily clad gyrating to music. Don't get too artistic with it, just point the camera on the most attractive girls and snap.

I need to get myself a cam, preferably a point & shoot superzoom.

@Reader: I would just use Z650 for the zoom, but like with all point-and-shoot, the time lag between shots and the time the auto focus takes to focus is too long. As in the last Carnival, I missed a lot of good moments due to those lags in the Z650 and got a few blurred shots. The DSLR is faster, much faster than the point and shoot so I think I'll still use the Nikon.

Y'all are serious photographers yes.Stunner your pics are gorgeous so ah guess the price is all worth it:)

so..........anyone wanna donate their point and shoot this way then? :D