Sean Jones
Well-Known Member
Kevin, I watched your video as well. Way cool!
So I need a camera!!
- Thread starter C Craft
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Andre Grobler
Well-Known Member
I am also a pentax guy, and if you are serious about getting started i would say go canon or nikon... The variety of accessories are remarkable and they have more specialised lenses... Mega pixels are a fad though... i would happily buy an older 6-12mp camera and get it over with, i think my k5ii has 17mp... i think... it just shows up my crappier lenses... and fills up my hdd and takes a fancier computer to process the images... hell opening 20Mb images in quick succession - hint you'll be taking lots... is a drain on most computers... good tripod good lenses and just a body that doesn't frustrate you is how i would spend money... although the weatherproofing on the dearer models are nice to have... My ancient k100D took probably 70000 fieldwork and life images during its 10 years as my only camera, much in fog and dust and rain... none of my family who swears on better point and shoots have ever remotely done as much and they continuously upgrade...
Having said all of this... for instagratification or facepalm... a mini-photostudio, controlled light and some backdrops and an icrap will very quickly take decent enough images... but put them on a print or a big screen and the limitations show...
Having said all of this... for instagratification or facepalm... a mini-photostudio, controlled light and some backdrops and an icrap will very quickly take decent enough images... but put them on a print or a big screen and the limitations show...
John Wilson
Well-Known Member
I completely agree with Andre. There is not a single DSLR camera made in the last 15 years thst isn’t good enough. If all your pictures are destined for the web anyway, megapixels are a moot point and anything over 7MP is working against you. Andre made a great point here. A great lens makes way more difference than a better camera.
The single greatest improvement anyone can make in photography is to use a tripod and a remote release ( or the camera’s self timer).
Then add lights. Learn to use lights. And in today’s world, it also means learning to use photo editing software.
If i was starting all over and wanted a new camera, I’d buy any DSLR with a display screen that swings out and tilts and swivels.
The single greatest improvement anyone can make in photography is to use a tripod and a remote release ( or the camera’s self timer).
Then add lights. Learn to use lights. And in today’s world, it also means learning to use photo editing software.
If i was starting all over and wanted a new camera, I’d buy any DSLR with a display screen that swings out and tilts and swivels.
Smallshop
KNIFE MAKER
bingo.
...and there you have it.
This is exactly where I am at...learning lighting...and some new software...with my old DSLR...lol
Daniel Macina
Well-Known Member
Kinda off topic but funny. Maybe 10 years ago maybe a little less I was real big into photography (I was a Nikon guy myself.) and had what I would consider a decent eye for photography and one morning I woke up and a simply didn’t have an eye for photography. Now I suck at taking pictures.
John Wilson
Well-Known Member
I can relate. it is a perishable skill, just like shooting. In photography, it seems like I took a little break and then the fire went out. I lost my passion for it. Serious photography is a lot of work, and truth be told, I never enjoyed the photo editing part of it.
When film died so did my passion. Say what you will, but it’s not the same. I’m a craftsman at heart, I suppose. It was never so much about the image itself for me as much as it was about making it.
Sean Jones
Well-Known Member
I understand this perfectly. I have two Pentaxes, a K1000 and an LX and about six Pentax lenses. Both beautiful film cameras. Also dark room equipment. I'm actually considering setting up my LX again for studio use, photograph my knives, and then convert to digital.
I might not sure about it though. A lot of extra work compared to digital, but digital photography just leaves me cold.
John Wilson
Well-Known Member
So so true. My experience was that if the end product was a digital file, it made no sense to do all of the extra work to get there when the same result could be had with the touch of a button. Scanning film sucks. Seriously sucks.
Like you, I loved the process of film. Watching images come to life in the darkroom was like a kid opening gifts on Christmas morning. With digital it’s so cold. “Eh. (Take it again) Eh... (move a light, take it again). Okay. Keeper.” In many regards digital is a far superior process because you know whether you got the shot. But I feel like a button-pushing monkey. There is no risk of failure. I used to agonize over every shot. It might take hours to shoot 12 frames. I shoot 98 frames in ten minutes now, and 93 of them look exactly the same.
Andre Grobler
Well-Known Member
BTW any new pentax body will work with your old k-mount lenses... and there are adapters available for the m42 mount lenses... but beware the extra megapixels make most of the entry level old zooms feel pedestrian, the old prime lenses are still great though... if you can manual focus... which is not that hard, but focus indicators make it easier. BUT if you really want to get into photography again swop to canon or more likely nikon, nikon feels more like pentax... don't just go pentax because you have some cheap pentax lenses... if you have some Limited or high end pentax lenses, sure... get a body to use them...
I also let my photography collapse into a heap of rather bad baby and family photos... but i am slowly working my way up to better photography again... once i can find my charger...
Gary Miller
Well-Known Member
very good video, and some real good ideas i will have to try a few of them.
Gary Miller
Well-Known Member
yes, i was a land surveyor for 35 years and i have no time for bad optics. zeiss is the king but nikkor is not bad. and i had a hard time coming around to digital cameras. but they are good enough for what i need.
Andre Grobler
Well-Known Member
Well two of these are with an icrap, and two are with a 17Mp DSLR all reduced to 1000x1000 max size for the web... those savvy enough can figure it out which is which without looking at the images, those who aren't... well i followed my rules of photographing with a smartphone piece of rubbish quite closely and it paid off... then i edited it afterwards to not be so caricaturely auto image processed and it looks OK... but if you know what you are doing... the dslr definitely does better and is more flexible... let the record show that i probably don't know what i am doing...
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they do a good job at photos
Randy Lucius
Well-Known Member
Smallshop
KNIFE MAKER
amazingly good!
Bruce McLeish
Well-Known Member
Geez, if ya only had something worth photographing !
There you go again, bragging about your knives and now bragging about your photography.... and boy do you have ever right to brag with knives and photos like you have. Good job on both knife and photo Randy.
Randy Lucius
Well-Known Member
Thanks KenH. Appreciate it very much. Just trying to point out you don’t need thousands of dollars in photography equipment (which I have) to take some decent pictures. If you look up my picture thread all of those photos were taken with an IPhone. Thanks agaiin!
REK Knives
Well-Known Member
Randy is spot on... Although I think a dslr can be beneficial if you put in the time to learn it (esp with video). This was done with lights and a light box (and black velvet), shot on my pixel and edited.
Ya'll are right, a light box similar to this one does wonders for knife photography: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CX9S8A