Category: Photography

Went out locally looking at tripods today and I have discovered one thing that they all have in common… they SUCK! I looked at and fondled several tripods. The only one I found that was stable enough for my purpose was a Dynex 65” tripod. The head was very stable and the weight was good, a very sturdy tripod. I was going to get it, but then discovered that the head only goes up, down and around, it does not flip to the side at all. I found that I love the way Dynex does their sliding heads. With the clip on heads, I am always worried that I wont get the mount secure when I latch it, or that I won’t get the mount seated properly and in either situation, the camera would be likely to fall off of the tripod, which would be very bad. I find myself unwilling to give up that basic feature of being able to rotate the camera to the side on a tripod that is $150. If the $60 tripod I looked at would have been more stable, but had that limitation (it didn’t, it would flip to the side), I would have been willing to settle for it.

In addition to looking at tripods, I also looked at camera bags after finding that I have more accessories than I know what to do with. I looked at them at Best Buy, but only found on that I really liked, it was a Lowepro Slingshot bag, but at $105, I decided I would prefer to keep looking for a bit before selecting a bag. Opteka makes a bag that is similar that I want to check out before going with a Lowepro bag. I would love to get a Nikon bag, but I have seen only negative feedback about them, and also Nikon is not making any decent sized bags anymore, they are all for the average consumer with their single lens DSLR, or perhaps a nice bridge camera (looks like those of us on a DSLR who have more than one lens or a super compact camera are pretty much screwed, even worse for those of us with one of each we would like to stick in our camera bag).  

I am hoping to go out early next week to Wolf Camera to see if they have a better selection of tripods or bags. I would really like to handle a low-end ball-head tripod (sorry pro-photography purists, if I have a spare $500 I am going to buy a new lens, not buy a tripod). I want a tripod that if I am on a mountain and I have to decide between sacrificing the tripod or myself, I want to be able to confidently choose it.

So this leaves me with a thought that I intend to answer next week.. which is better, a mid-to-high end standard tripod or a low-end ballhead?

I am pretty good at knowing what I want most of the time, at least materially speaking (relationships are harder). My search for the perfect tripod is not going that way. I have decided I need a new heavy tripod because in certain conditions my tripod has too much play with the D60. I have looked at Amazon, Adorama and 47th Street Photo and there are way too many options (Amazon alone has 428 options). The specifications of the tripods do not tell me anything and the pictures tell me even less. The customer reviews of each product seem to be helpful, but not enough to be able to narrow down to my specific case. I believe I am going to have to go out into the world and fondle some expensive tripods.

I know I want a heavy tripod, something at least 10 lbs (I have my light tripods for hiking and travel), and I also want the ability to rotate to all sides, move up and down, as well as flip the camera to the side for portrait pictures. I have considered some of the ball head models, but I’m not sure that any of the ball head models will be the quality I am looking for in the price range I am looking for them in.

The issue I am trying to fight against is a slight vibration in the head of the D60s current tripod when I use heavier lenses, such as the 55-200mm or especially the 500mm reflector. I need more stability than the current tripod offers.

If anyone has a stable tripod they would like to recommend, I am open to suggestions, since I really do not have a clue as to what I am doing and could really use some advice.

Here is a shot of the moon I took tonight using the new 500mm reflector lens. The new lens is interesting. It puts a haze over everything that I photo except objects that emit their own light or have a substantial glow about them. This shot is a little blurry, but that is a result of not using the most stable tripod for the photo. My other lenses are lighter and also have their own stabilizers, this one is more basic and heavier, so it needs something more stable at the shutter speeds I am using it at. I love the lens, it is good at being what it is, a simple, straight forward manual focus lens (I like being all primal with the most modern technology sometimes). The above image is uncropped, the moon appears as it does in the image sensor, filling about 1/10 of the sensor.

One of my favorite things to do on my Fujifilm S5200 was take macro pictures. I have found that so far on the Nikon D60, it isn’t exactly the same process. Switching between the two cameras has not exactly been like moving between horses, they are two completely different beasts. The natural tendency for the D60 is to have a shallow depth of field, which causes problems with macro because of the already shortened field involved because of the closeness of the object. Additionally, my adapter lens that worked so wonderfully on the 5200 is almost too short of a field (focus is affected by 1-2mm distance change) on my D60’s 18-55mm lens (parked at 35mm), and is almost unusable on the 55-200mm (anywhere on the tube). 

Yesterday, I was attempting to do some macro shots, and really was not in the mood to switch off the 55-200 to use the 18-55 for it, especially since I wanted the ability to zoom, so that I would not shadow myself. I found that the close-up adapters that I had disregarded as “useless” on the S5200 actually work quite well on the D60’s lenses. Another thing I am finding that I can do with the D60 that could not easily do on the S5200 is do macro shots while hand-holding the camera. The flash is ample that it makes the shots possible and once diffused, creates a very warm feel to the images that would otherwise come out as a very yellow, sick feeling to the color of the images without flash (incandescent and CF lighting causes it). The VR functions of the lenses are also quite nice for that type of thing. I am so looking forward to summer, so that I may give these things a thorough test and really compare the D60 to the S5200.

I am still relearning all that I had learned on the S5200 on the D60, as well as integrating some of the D60’s unique functionality into my technique.

I don’t know that any shipment that has arrived for me recently has made me as excited as a little envelope I received today from Adorama. I received a neat little device called a “52mm to 55mm Step-Up Adapter Ring”.

Such a tiny and inexpensive piece of happy. This little guy will let me use all of my current filters and special adaptation lenses on my new Nikon D60.

DSCF6510

Originally uploaded by Curtis M. Kularski

I’ve uploaded some new macro photos that were done yesterday morning to my Flickr stream. The set is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kularski/sets/72157606338961327/

I kept looking back and forth between these cameras trying to figure out what made them different from each other, to be able to justify the additional cost of the D80, I guess the answer is 1.25 million extra pixels, that I likely wouldn’t notice being without except for shots in RAW in "difficult lighting situations".