First shots

[Mark43]

Hi all

Well i purchased my Nikon D50 and had been waiting for my Tamron 200-500 to arrive which it duly did on Friday.Had a good read of all the manuals then had a play on Friday evening and tonight with it in the garden.

The Sparrow was taken in P mode and the rest Aperture Priority,Spot metering,AF-S with a bit of +/_ bracketing thrown in so i could see the differences.

All hand held and cropped in Photoshop 7.....i haven't a clue how to do anything else.

Your thoughts please.....good or bad.

[Jonny]

Thats bad, very bad................Now you are going to be putting up better shots than me.
No I am pleased for you, I bet your a chuffed man..............Jon

[glsammy]

They look basically fine to me. The first Thrush is great, sharp, no camera movement..sorted!
For your first shots, I'd be very pleased with them. What shutter speeds / aperture were you getting?
My initial shots with my bigma were...how should I put it...rubbish!! Movement, out of focus..yuk!!

[Ollie]

Hi Mark, for first shots I would say you have done extremely well, especially for being hand held. I find it difficult to hand hold my Bigma (Sigma 50-500mm). I generaly use a monopod or tripod. Look forward to seeing more from you in the Gallery
Ollie

[Mark43]

Originally Posted by glsammy

They look basically fine to me. The first Thrush is great, sharp, no camera movement..sorted!
For your first shots, I'd be very pleased with them. What shutter speeds / aperture were you getting?
My initial shots with my bigma were...how should I put it...rubbish!! Movement, out of focus..yuk!!

Pigeon f7.1 1/200
Thrush 1 f6.3 1/400
Thrush 2 f8 1/160
Sparrow f6.3 1/400

I did take about 40 shots all in of which about 20 were binned and the rest were adequate.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Mark43

Pigeon f7.1 1/200
Thrush 1 f6.3 1/400
Thrush 2 f8 1/160
Sparrow f6.3 1/400

I did take about 40 shots all in of which about 20 were binned and the rest were adequate.

Is there the very slightest hint of movement in the second thrush shot? It doesn't appear to be quite as sharp as the first, or is it the size confusing me?
Anyway, considering you were shooting at 1/160 I'm amazed there isn't more! Can't wait to see further shots you get.
I've definitely improved with time with my big lens, at first I was very disappointed.

[Mark43]

Originally Posted by glsammy

Is there the very slightest hint of movement in the second thrush shot? It doesn't appear to be quite as sharp as the first, or is it the size confusing me?
Anyway, considering you were shooting at 1/160 I'm amazed there isn't more! Can't wait to see further shots you get.
I've definitely improved with time with my big lens, at first I was very disappointed.

I think i would agree with you on that one.

I thought the Sparrows head looked a little soft also.

[Alan]

Mark, these are great shots for you first tryout with the new camera and lens. The exposure is great on all of them. One thing I would say is that they are very slightly soft but you can see this is not down to focus, but probably camera shake. As a general rule, for hand-held shots, try to keep your shutter speed at least the same as the focal length of the lens you are using. So with a lens of say 500mm + the crop factor of the camera - usually around 1.5, which would make 750mm (1.5 x 500 = 750), so you should be at a shutter speed of 1/750 with your 500mm lens on. Do a few experiments hand-holding the camera and on a tripod (or just place the camera on a table or similar if you haven't one) and compare the results. This will give you a good idea of the limits when hand-holding. Hope this helps, and I look foreward to seeing some more shots.

[Mark43]

Originally Posted by Alan

Mark, these are great shots for you first tryout with the new camera and lens. The exposure is great on all of them. One thing I would say is that they are very slightly soft but you can see this is not down to focus, but probably camera shake. As a general rule, for hand-held shots, try to keep your shutter speed at least the same as the focal length of the lens you are using. So with a lens of say 500mm + the crop factor of the camera - usually around 1.5, which would make 750mm (1.5 x 500 = 750), so you should be at a shutter speed of 1/750 with your 500mm lens on. Do a few experiments hand-holding the camera and on a tripod (or just place the camera on a table or similar if you haven't one) and compare the results. This will give you a good idea of the limits when hand-holding. Hope this helps, and I look foreward to seeing some more shots.

Thanks to all for your input.........it's appreciated.

I know i am not going to become a great photographer overnight though.

Alan i had trouble getting the shutter speed over 1/500 sec.I didn't want to take the aperture over f8 as i know this is supposed to be the lenses sweetspot but i take onboard what you are saying.

There wasn't a great deal of light to be had this evening so it was purely just to see what i could achieve but hopefully i will get me some more light and i will have some sharper pics.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Mark43

Thanks to all for your input.........it's appreciated.

I know i am not going to become a great photographer overnight though.

Alan i had trouble getting the shutter speed over 1/500 sec.I didn't want to take the aperture over f8 as i know this is supposed to be the lenses sweetspot but i take onboard what you are saying.

There wasn't a great deal of light to be had this evening so it was purely just to see what i could achieve but hopefully i will get me some more light and i will have some sharper pics.

This is why it's best to use some kind of support like a monopod, tripod or beanbag. This is the trouble with big lenses, it magnifies any slight shake. You could try upping the ISO setting to say 400 or even 800. Take a look at my Grey Squirrel pic in the Gallery, this was at ISO 1600! Be careful though, you don't want to get too much digital noise in the shot. Please do lots of experiments though, and not just the ISO. Do things like check depth of field at different F-Stops by photographing a ruler at 45 degrees. It's all good fun