What Camera do you guys use

[samksy]

Fastuno, great shot, is the camera hard to use? I might actually consider it..lolz.

[ May 01, 2005, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: samksy ]

 

[ShaunW]

Wow, nice pictures Fastuno. Your side view shot is my favorite, really nice!

This thread is great! I've always wondered why not so many pictures are displayed here on MR by the members. It is certainly not because people don't have beautiful reef tanks in the NYC area! On RC it seems that everybody is posting pictures and such. Really one of the only reasons I go to RC is to look at peoples pictures of their corals/fish/tanks. It is/would be nice to see the trend come to MR.

[ May 01, 2005, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: solbby ]

 

[jhale]

close ups with a canon sd500

 

[FastUno]

Well, I guess I give people the wrong impression when I complain about things. Really, the problem that I had is with my T5's. I have a 6 bulb 54W setup & it appears that it's TOOOOO much light for the corals that I am keeping. So I had to cut back to 4 bulbs & still other corals told me it was too much. Then I resorted to shading. I think if I had gone with a 4 bulb 39W setup then everything would have been fine. The corals that are doing well, & have some amazing color.

Spykes, that brain I gave you. I placed the shading in the week before I gave you the brain. I was going to get rid of my other ones, but it seems that after the shading that they are doing fine. So I think I will keep the rest. I couldn't understand things before & now they are becoming clearer.

Last fish pic is an Arc-eye Hawkfish (aka Spotted Hawkfish, Cirrhitichthys aprinus).

The 10D is not so great for a point & shoot auto mode. You need to develop some skills to use it & to be able to take full advantage of it. First & foremost you have to know how shutter speed & aperture work in relation to each other & the rest become perks. Biggest pluses with this camera is that it's FAST & that you can interchange the lenses to suite your mood/needs.

[ May 01, 2005, 01:21 PM: Message edited by: FastUno ]

 

[marrone]

Fastuno

I had the same problem with my T5's just to much light for the softies or LPS.

The first picture is that a Frogspawn green with purple tips?

Michael

 

[FastUno]

I think that was part of the problem, everyone was posting that they were using more bulbs, better reflectors, & overdriving them. No one mentioned anything about it being too much light for the aforementioned corals. That is what puzzled me for a long time. I thought I was doing something else wrong.

BTW, I think a pic thread/section would be awesome, I personally love to see them. Better yet to get opinions from locals on how they are doing things. Just be ready for the bandwidth consumption. I will post some more pics later.

Frogspawn tips are beige/tan in color.

[ May 01, 2005, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: FastUno ]

 

[Reef Guy]

How do you overdrive them? If I can overdrive 24 watt t5s that would be great I would just need 4 of them rather than getting 4 54 watts

 

[marrone]

If you overdrive T5, using Icecap ballset, they will produce about 105 watts instead of the 24 watt bulb. You do need to use the reflectors with the T5. Keep in mind T5's are very bright and from some of the results that people have had they seems to be to strong for soft and LPS corals.

 

[Reef Guy]

really? You think I can use 2 24 watt t5s on my 75 gal tank? Its a mix between a few sps but mainly lps and softies. Current usa sells 24 watt t5s with built in reflectors, you think I can just run 2 of those on a icecap ballset?

 

[marrone]

I would got with the 4 bulb Tek system setup. You can mix the bulbs to get a good color look and some bulbs are better than other for growth. Also the 4 bulbs set up has 2 seperate switches so you can run either 2 or 4 bulbs. Do some research on RC about T5, there is alot out there.

 

[House of Laughter]

I borrowed a friends digital camera (he is a producer for MTV - here is my first attempt at a real camera

Enjoy

House

 

[jhale]

looks good, nice shot of the clam.

 

[Reef Guy]

anyone ever find a perl in thier clam?

 

[joseney21]

reefguy answering your earlier question "what's important when buying a camera" you mentioned megapixels.to my understanding after speaking to some "on the side photographers" at work and my cousin, who has worked in Comp Usa and Circuit City,their general opinion was that megapixels aren't really the most important thing when buying a camera.i'll ask to get more details as to what's more important...

My supervisor at work actually suggested the NIKON Cool Pix 8800 and said it would be the only camera i'll need for a long time.i'm still saving for it, lol.

 

[jhale]

megapixels will determine how large you can print the photos.
the chip it uses, the lens, and the internal software all need to be considered as well. it's much harder than choosing an old film camera.
I like http://www.dpreview.com/ they have the best camera reviews and info for what's happening in the industry. also for quick reviews cnet.com is great.

[ May 03, 2005, 08:45 AM: Message edited by: jhale ]

 

[aaron]

I have had Nikon coolpix5000 for three years and i still love it.
The clown spawn pictures i posted on the other thread were taken with a 5000. In many situations - low, or difficult light, my camera will take the shot where other cameras can not. And the slightly newer version (the 5400) is currently on sale for $300 once you have got the $200 rebate.
You cant beat that!

[ May 03, 2005, 10:06 AM: Message edited by: aaron ]

 

[FastUno]

You want a cool 7MP cam, get this sony. It has an IR that it shoots out that will allow you to auto focus in complete darkness. One of the best PNS cams I found to be the Sony's.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscw7.asp


or its cheaper cousin the 5MP Sony.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscw5.asp

[ May 03, 2005, 04:41 PM: Message edited by: FastUno ]

 

[FastUno]

BTW, MP does count. I have seen tests with the same size printouts of 2-5MP & what a BIG difference. I think after the 5MP mark, then it starts to make less of a difference & more of how big you want the printout.

This can all be seen with a higher resolution printer (ex 2400x2400 dpi).

 

[alrha]

that is almost the same price as the DSC-T7 ($500) only the T7 is MUCH MUCH smaller which is nice.

 

[FastUno]

The T7 looks nice, but I doubt that they managed to pack the same punch as the W5 or W7. Anything is possible though? I have seen these 2 in action, so I can vouch for them. I have seen complete amateurs take better pics than with my $3000 rig, which completely PO'ed me. Especially after I helped them pick the cam out!
There seems to be something magical about Sony's processing &/or Carl Zeiss lens. When you compare it to even higher price SLR lenses, you realize this.

Hey, but don't take my word for it. Camera selection/preference is a VERY subjective matter. I would check out www.dpreview.com before making any purchase. I have held/tested about 12 cams so far & none of them really satisfy me. The one that really would is out of my league...Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II.

Another good cam review site, http://www.steves-digicams.com/ (althoug not as good as dpreview).

If I had to buy a camera today that fell in my price range, I would get the following:
-Sony DSC-V3
-Canon 20D
-or Olympus E-300 (Captures phenomenal colors, especially reds & browns, although it has been reported to be a little on the soft side).
Judge for yourself:
http://www.pbase.com/purduealum91/e300_misc&page=all
http://www.pbase.com/whitewolf/honolulu_zoo&page=2
http://www.pbase.com/brambos/artis