I purchased this lens few months back because I wanted something light while travelling.
I normally used to travel with the Nikkor 17-55 and the Nikkor 80-200. The problem with this setup is:
a) I lose the focal range from 55 to 80mm
b) The combined weight of both these pro-grade lenses is more than what I lift in the gym during my daily workout.
In this respect, the 18-200 is the perfect travel lens. You get all the range that you would need in a small and light package, and you don't have to worry about changing lenses. The VR (Vibration Reduction) technology works as expected allowing hand-held shots at low shutter speeds of upto 1/15th of a second (a bit lower if you use proper technique).
It has it's disadvantages obviously. It a pretty slow lens with max aperture ranging from f3.5 to f5.6. This means, that when the lens is extended to it's full 200mm, the max aperture is f5.6 which makes it difficult to focus - plus the fact that you need good lighting to get useful pictures.
But even with it's limitations, this is the lens I will be packing for all my future travels.
Until I upgrade to a FX format camera body.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
Gulf Run 2008
The Gulf Run is an event organized by young Kuwaitis who want to practice car racing in a professional and secure environment.
The event is organized at the Bahrain International F1 track and is held annually. This year, k.theKuwait, one of the key organizers of the event, and is also a well-known Kuwaiti blogger gave me an invitation to join them in Bahrain for the event.
To begin with...
a. I've never been to Bahrain.
b. I have no idea why I have never been to Bahrain as it is just 30 minutes flight from Kuwait.
c. I always wanted to visit Bahrain.
So I had no hesitation to jump at the opportunity. k arranged a press pass for me, which means I will have some great vantage points during the actual race.
But before travelling to Bahrain, all the participating cars are prepped up in Kuwait and put on a display. This year, the cars were displayed at the Marina Crescent. I visited Marina today and had a fun time shooting many of the cars on display.
You can see them here
I am looking forward to my trip to Bahrain and hope to get some good shots of the actual race.
The event is organized at the Bahrain International F1 track and is held annually. This year, k.theKuwait, one of the key organizers of the event, and is also a well-known Kuwaiti blogger gave me an invitation to join them in Bahrain for the event.
To begin with...
a. I've never been to Bahrain.
b. I have no idea why I have never been to Bahrain as it is just 30 minutes flight from Kuwait.
c. I always wanted to visit Bahrain.
So I had no hesitation to jump at the opportunity. k arranged a press pass for me, which means I will have some great vantage points during the actual race.
But before travelling to Bahrain, all the participating cars are prepped up in Kuwait and put on a display. This year, the cars were displayed at the Marina Crescent. I visited Marina today and had a fun time shooting many of the cars on display.
You can see them here
I am looking forward to my trip to Bahrain and hope to get some good shots of the actual race.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Photographing Smoke
I've been seeing a lot of interesting pictures of smoke on Flickr lately. In fact, there's a group called "artsmoke" that has an amazing collection of images dedicated to smoke.
Because smoke is so dynamic, the possibilities are literally infinite. You can never get the same image twice.
The process of capturing images of smoke is very nicely documented in this how-to guide.
There's also this hands-on kind of guide that I found on the artsmoke flickr group, which is also pretty good.
My first attempt at this form of photography looks passable enough.
Next, I need to do this in a room with absolutely no ventilation.
Because smoke is so dynamic, the possibilities are literally infinite. You can never get the same image twice.
The process of capturing images of smoke is very nicely documented in this how-to guide.
There's also this hands-on kind of guide that I found on the artsmoke flickr group, which is also pretty good.
My first attempt at this form of photography looks passable enough.
Next, I need to do this in a room with absolutely no ventilation.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Nikon F100 - First results
I finally got around to developing the film that I shot with the Nikon F100. The place where I got it developed also gave me a CD of all the developed pictures, which is pretty cool. It's almost like shooting digital.
The thing that I love about the F100 is that my lenses give true focal length as opposed to the D200, which has a small sensor resulting in a 1.5x crop factor. In other words, when I mount a 50mm lens on the F100, it appears as 50mm, while on the D200, the same lens appears as 75mm (50x1.5 crop factor).
This makes ultra-wide angle shooting a bit of a problem on the D200. Take for example the Sigma 12-24mm lens that I own. On the D200, it appears as 18-36mm. That's pretty wide...but when I mount the same lens on the F100, it is actually 12-24mm!!. That super wide.
The crop factor problem has now been solved by Nikon with the newer "FX" format cameras (D3 and D700 are the only 2 cameras from Nikon that currently have a FX sensor). I will eventually upgrade to these camera bodies but not just yet - as the D200 that I own is good enough for the time being.
This picture of the Sharq marina was taken with the Sigma at it's widest focal length of 12mm. It is so wide, that the entire marina can be captured on film. Of course, there is serious perspective distortion but that expected when shooting at such wide focal range.
I was not happy with the colors but I believe that has more to do with the film selection than with the camera itself. I am looking to see if I can get hold of some pro-grade film to do more experiments with film.
The thing that I love about the F100 is that my lenses give true focal length as opposed to the D200, which has a small sensor resulting in a 1.5x crop factor. In other words, when I mount a 50mm lens on the F100, it appears as 50mm, while on the D200, the same lens appears as 75mm (50x1.5 crop factor).
This makes ultra-wide angle shooting a bit of a problem on the D200. Take for example the Sigma 12-24mm lens that I own. On the D200, it appears as 18-36mm. That's pretty wide...but when I mount the same lens on the F100, it is actually 12-24mm!!. That super wide.
The crop factor problem has now been solved by Nikon with the newer "FX" format cameras (D3 and D700 are the only 2 cameras from Nikon that currently have a FX sensor). I will eventually upgrade to these camera bodies but not just yet - as the D200 that I own is good enough for the time being.
This picture of the Sharq marina was taken with the Sigma at it's widest focal length of 12mm. It is so wide, that the entire marina can be captured on film. Of course, there is serious perspective distortion but that expected when shooting at such wide focal range.
I was not happy with the colors but I believe that has more to do with the film selection than with the camera itself. I am looking to see if I can get hold of some pro-grade film to do more experiments with film.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Reflections
I was trying to figure out a way to shoot still objects with some nice reflections. Not 100% reflections using a mirror - just a hint of the object's reflection.
The solution that I came up with is pretty simple (and cheap).
1. Take a kitchen cutting board (I used a white plastic one, but I guess any board will do; even some hard cardboard should be fine)
2. Tape some white A4 paper over it.
3. Wrap it in some plastic; preferably the self-adhesive plastic roll that you find in the bookstores to wrap school books.
The plastic over the white A4 paper gives a nice shiny reflections to your objects.
To take this picture, I placed my DIY reflective board inside a lightbox and had some fun taking pictures of various objects that I found around the house.
The solution that I came up with is pretty simple (and cheap).
1. Take a kitchen cutting board (I used a white plastic one, but I guess any board will do; even some hard cardboard should be fine)
2. Tape some white A4 paper over it.
3. Wrap it in some plastic; preferably the self-adhesive plastic roll that you find in the bookstores to wrap school books.
The plastic over the white A4 paper gives a nice shiny reflections to your objects.
To take this picture, I placed my DIY reflective board inside a lightbox and had some fun taking pictures of various objects that I found around the house.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Going back to basics with the Nikon F100.
I thought I'll try a little bit of film photography. Back in the good old days (before switching to digital), I used to own Minolta Dynax 300si. It took some pretty good pictures but lacked the functionality that I have now become accustomed to.
I've always had my eye on the Nikon FM2 (a fully manual camera) and this one, the Nikon F100. After I recently signed up for Paypal & eBay, I thought I'll give it a try to see if I could pick up one at a decent price.
I initially started bidding on a FM2 but quickly discovered that I can get a F100 for almost the same price. I located some mint-condition F100's and started bidding. This was my first experience in eBay bidding and I finally won this item for $274, which is a pretty decent deal.
The item was quickly shipped to my US mailing address and I finally received it 2 days back. The camera itself is in excellent condition and looks almost new. Handling wise, it feels exactly like my D200 and I am looking forward to trying out my Nikkor lens collection on this bad boy. The great thing is that because this is a SLR camera, I do not have to worry about crop factors. The ultra-wide Sigma 12-24 that I have will actually be really ultra-wide. It should be fun trying it out.
I've always had my eye on the Nikon FM2 (a fully manual camera) and this one, the Nikon F100. After I recently signed up for Paypal & eBay, I thought I'll give it a try to see if I could pick up one at a decent price.
I initially started bidding on a FM2 but quickly discovered that I can get a F100 for almost the same price. I located some mint-condition F100's and started bidding. This was my first experience in eBay bidding and I finally won this item for $274, which is a pretty decent deal.
The item was quickly shipped to my US mailing address and I finally received it 2 days back. The camera itself is in excellent condition and looks almost new. Handling wise, it feels exactly like my D200 and I am looking forward to trying out my Nikkor lens collection on this bad boy. The great thing is that because this is a SLR camera, I do not have to worry about crop factors. The ultra-wide Sigma 12-24 that I have will actually be really ultra-wide. It should be fun trying it out.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The 18% Grey Card
With my recent obsession with macro and stock-type photography, I found it a necessity to get hold of a 18% grey card.
What's a 18% grey card, you ask?
Our modern cameras have sophisticated meters that determine what is the "right" amount of light that should be allowed inside the camera's sensor to record an image that is neither under-exposed or over-exposed.
The exposure is determined by 2 elements:
1. Shutter speed.
2. Lens Aperture.
The shutter speed in measured in fractions of a second. Thus, if you see 250 in your view finder, it means that the camera's shutter will be opened 250th of a second (that's very fast, btw).
The lens aperture is the amount of the len's diaphragm that is opened to allow more or less light to enter the camera's chamber. Lens aperture is measured in f stops, and a higher f number indicates a smaller diapghragm (meaning less light is allowed) and a lower f number (meaning the diaphragm is opened more) will allow more light inside. I know it sounds messy - but that's a photographer's life.
So how does the camera determine how much aperture to open and what shutter speed to use?
That's where the camera meter comes in. It is designed to analyze the existing light and select an appropriate aperture/shutter combination that will result in an ideal image.
But the camera's meter is actually a very basic piece of electronics. It simply assumes that the scene being recorded is made of 18% grey and computes the aperture/shutter speed combination based on that assumption.
But why 18% grey?, you may ask...
Good question. When camera manufacturers were designing light meters, they determined that generally, an "average" scene consists of 18% grey. They arrived at this conclusion by shooting wide variety of shots under different lighting combinations.
Of course, not every scene is 18% grey - which is where the camera meter gets fooled. For example, take a picture of a person in front of a white wall, and chances are that the wall will appear grey, instead of white. Now take the same person and place him in front of a black wall and the black wall will not look black at all. In fact, it will appear greyish.
And therein lies the problem. The camera meter wants everything to be grey; but our world is much more complex than that.
Take this picture that I took of a diamond necklace. It was placed on a pristine white A4 paper.
Notice how the background looks greyish. That's because the camera's meter got overwhelmed by the amount of white in the image (while it was expecting an 18% grey).
In normal shooting situations, you can use the EV compensation and rely on your camera's histogram to ensure a reasonably accurate exposure.
But when you are shooting stock-type photography (like the vegetables here), you must get the exact exposure and the whites must look like white.
To do this:
1. Arrange your camera, lights, and subject till you are satisfied with the arrangement.
2. Now place a 18% grey card in front of the subject and take a meter
reading directly off the grey card. Let's assume you are using aperture priority. In this case, the camera's meter will tell you the correct shutter speed to use. If you have seen professional phtographers shooting models, they usually first ask the model to hold a grey card in front of them. Once they are satisfied with the reading, they will remove the grey card and continue with the shooting.
3. You can now remove the grey card and set your camera to manual exposure and set the same f stop that you used in step #2, and enter the shutter speed recommended by the camera.
You can now be sure that your exposures will be perfect.
Enjoy.
What's a 18% grey card, you ask?
Our modern cameras have sophisticated meters that determine what is the "right" amount of light that should be allowed inside the camera's sensor to record an image that is neither under-exposed or over-exposed.
The exposure is determined by 2 elements:
1. Shutter speed.
2. Lens Aperture.
The shutter speed in measured in fractions of a second. Thus, if you see 250 in your view finder, it means that the camera's shutter will be opened 250th of a second (that's very fast, btw).
The lens aperture is the amount of the len's diaphragm that is opened to allow more or less light to enter the camera's chamber. Lens aperture is measured in f stops, and a higher f number indicates a smaller diapghragm (meaning less light is allowed) and a lower f number (meaning the diaphragm is opened more) will allow more light inside. I know it sounds messy - but that's a photographer's life.
So how does the camera determine how much aperture to open and what shutter speed to use?
That's where the camera meter comes in. It is designed to analyze the existing light and select an appropriate aperture/shutter combination that will result in an ideal image.
But the camera's meter is actually a very basic piece of electronics. It simply assumes that the scene being recorded is made of 18% grey and computes the aperture/shutter speed combination based on that assumption.
But why 18% grey?, you may ask...
Good question. When camera manufacturers were designing light meters, they determined that generally, an "average" scene consists of 18% grey. They arrived at this conclusion by shooting wide variety of shots under different lighting combinations.
Of course, not every scene is 18% grey - which is where the camera meter gets fooled. For example, take a picture of a person in front of a white wall, and chances are that the wall will appear grey, instead of white. Now take the same person and place him in front of a black wall and the black wall will not look black at all. In fact, it will appear greyish.
And therein lies the problem. The camera meter wants everything to be grey; but our world is much more complex than that.
Take this picture that I took of a diamond necklace. It was placed on a pristine white A4 paper.
Notice how the background looks greyish. That's because the camera's meter got overwhelmed by the amount of white in the image (while it was expecting an 18% grey).
In normal shooting situations, you can use the EV compensation and rely on your camera's histogram to ensure a reasonably accurate exposure.
But when you are shooting stock-type photography (like the vegetables here), you must get the exact exposure and the whites must look like white.
To do this:
1. Arrange your camera, lights, and subject till you are satisfied with the arrangement.
2. Now place a 18% grey card in front of the subject and take a meter
reading directly off the grey card. Let's assume you are using aperture priority. In this case, the camera's meter will tell you the correct shutter speed to use. If you have seen professional phtographers shooting models, they usually first ask the model to hold a grey card in front of them. Once they are satisfied with the reading, they will remove the grey card and continue with the shooting.
3. You can now remove the grey card and set your camera to manual exposure and set the same f stop that you used in step #2, and enter the shutter speed recommended by the camera.
You can now be sure that your exposures will be perfect.
Enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
