D90 lens advice.

[OreoCookie]

I never really started shooting RAW (NEF) so far. Would you generally recommend it or just in situations where you know you're going to hate yourself afterwards if you don't?

The first thing to learn is how to use the camera properly. It's true that you can `rescue' more shots if you shoot RAW, but using RAW as an image format requires you to `develop' each picture. You cannot share RAW files with your friends, because they will probably not have a converter installed. So I would start bit by bit, increasing complexity one step at a time.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about CAs, in most cases, the importance of flaws of lenses is exaggerated (unless you're a professional, of course).

 

[sileo]

you're definitely right about taking it step by step. it's just that i'm planning ahead since i am looking for a somewhat sustainable bargain.
btw: i used capture nx2 to process NEF-Files when i tested RAW shooting.

 

[Westside guy]

I don't think "developing" RAW files is particularly onerous. It's pretty much brain dead fast (and simple) if you're using anything resembling a modern workflow (even iPhoto).

 

[sileo]

oh, well, thank you!
i was really gloating over that achievement of mine!

 

[Westside guy]

oh, well, thank you!
i was really gloating over that achievement of mine!

Oh, hehe. I didn't mean it that way. I was interpreting the conversation as "shooting RAW is a real pain, you have to consider all the work that goes into it before deciding to shoot RAW" - so that was why I responded as I did. No disparagement was intended.

 

[sileo]

never mind. i was just kidding anyway.

so how about yourself? are you shooting in RAW all the time with your precious D700? Or just in specific situations?

 

[Westside guy]

so how about yourself? are you shooting in RAW all the time with your precious D700? Or just in specific situations?

I pretty much always shoot RAW. That's also what I did with my previous camera, which was a D70. I'd only shoot JPEG if for some reason I needed to fire off shots faster than my camera could shoot RAW (I'm mainly thinking of the D70 in this case - with the D700 it's pretty much a non-issue). But I should admit I'm rarely shooting in that sort of mode, so my advice is colored by that.

Of course with the D90 you might run into the issue I had at first with the D700 - a brand new camera, so there's limited software RAW support for it at first. That's a complicating factor for the first month or two.

 

[OreoCookie]

What I meant was two things:
(1) If you shoot RAW, you cannot just connect cameras and transfer pics to your friend's computer.
(2) If you simply let iPhoto or some other app automatically develop pictures, you don't really use the fact that you have RAW files. You could have shot in jpg format right away.

To really be able to leverage the power of RAW files, you need time and other resources. I almost exclusively shoot RAW now, but I know when it is and isn't important. Generally, the more difficult the situation (high ISO, low light, strange lighting), you may benefit from shooting RAW. In normal lighting, if you expose properly, you won't see a difference.

 

[Westside guy]

What I meant was two things:
(1) If you shoot RAW, you cannot just connect cameras and transfer pics to your friend's computer.
(2) If you simply let iPhoto or some other app automatically develop pictures, you don't really use the fact that you have RAW files. You could have shot in jpg format right away.

(1) Very true.
(2) Are you not doing any post-processing on JPEGs at all? Unless you're using them as-is straight out of the camera, I'm not understanding the point you're trying to make. If you ARE doing any post-processing, then the RAW workflow and the JPEG workflow is pretty much the same in a program like iPhoto.

 

[OreoCookie]

(2) Are you not doing any post-processing on JPEGs at all?

Very, very little. I may tweak the contrast, the exposure or so. I'm not big on photoshopping my images, I guess that's because I learned to take pictures on film

I use RAW now, because I'm too lazy to switch back and forth all the time. I find that it helps in difficult situations to recover highlights or reduce noise better. I tried switching back and forth, but I found it distracting and I ended up using the `wrong' format for a lot of photos.

Unless you're using them as-is straight out of the camera, I'm not understanding the point you're trying to make. If you ARE doing any post-processing, then the RAW workflow and the JPEG workflow is pretty much the same in a program like iPhoto.

It adds up. I use Aperture, so my workflow is (naturally) more complicated (although it feels natural to me). Since I started shooting RAWs, my computer chokes a lot more on projects, I needed to learn new tweaks (e. g. to stay in Preview mode while importing RAW files), etc.

I'm not really arguing against shooting RAW, I just think it's a more advanced function and completely superfluous for some. Even if you do some tweaks (e. g. white balance), you will get more than decent results with jpg. (I had to photograph the money shots of a friend's wedding in jpg, because otherwise, the buffer would fill up too quickly and I might run out of space during the ceremony.) The difference in quality is, if the image is correctly exposed and all, not so large. And iPhoto itself doesn't offer so many options to actually process RAW, does it? (I have never used iPhoto 08 with RAW files.) For people who in 99 % of the cases use the standard settings, I don't see any benefits of shooting RAW for them.

So my argument is more that people should get to know their camera, learn how to expose correctly and start easy first. Keep it as simple as possible, but not simpler

 

[sileo]

ok, guys! thanks again for the advice!
guess i'm on the verge of turning from JPEG to RAW shooting.

anyway, i'd like to turn the focus back on the actual thread topic: D90 lens advice.

currently i call a sigma 17-80mm - i got it along with my first DSLR - my own. a macro lens?!
i'm not exactly familiar with the implications of this lens having the term macro in it's name. from a focal length point of view it would be pretty much a standard zoom, right? so my original guess was, that it's named macro since the closest focusing distance is pretty low. now, after i saw the results i suspect that there's other peculiarities to a macro lens i didn't take into account, as well: in a lot of pictures i've taken lately where there's a building line vertical lines fall more and more rearwards along the building line the farther away they are. is that a specific macro-lens-used-to-shoot-architecture issue or is there something else to it?

more d90 related: does anyone have any experience in D-Movie compatible lenses? how about an AF-D 80-200mm f/2.8 (2 ring edition) and capabilities on a d90 (D-Movie / still photography)?

cheers

 

[OreoCookie]

more d90 related: does anyone have any experience in D-Movie compatible lenses? how about an AF-D 80-200mm f/2.8 (2 ring edition) and capabilities on a d90 (D-Movie / still photography)?

Why shouldn't that lens work?
But you need to keep in mind that you need to focus manually and the depth of field of such a lens is in the range of a few cm!

Concerning macro lenses, usually a lens is called a macro lens if it allows you to focus so closely that the size of the object on the sensor is the size of the object in reality, i. e. 1:1. Third-party lens manufacturers (Sigma and Tamron) have added `macro' also to lenses that focus more closely than others, but they aren't `real' macro lenses.

Macro lenses are more specialized than other lenses: because you need to focus very closely, the focus path is much longer (otherwise it wouldn't focus accurately close distance) and they have a decent focus ring. Thus, they tend focus slower than `normal' lenses. Also, their optics is optimized in a different way.

 

[sileo]

Why shouldn't that lens work?

Because - as i learned on http://www.dvxuser.com - there's a rather tedious procedure to go through in order to get a clean image. From what i know the most important thing is to use a lens with manual aperture control. but maybe i missed something.

But you need to keep in mind that you need to focus manually and the depth of field of such a lens is in the range of a few cm!

Alright, thanks for the hint! so in other words it would be more advisable to use more of an wide-angle lens, right. what would you suggest? sticking to a fixed lens? would you agree when i say that zooming during recording (D-Movie) often messes up the footage - especially with the current D90 D-Movie situation (hardly controllable aperture, shutter speed and iso speed)?

 

[OreoCookie]

Because - as i learned on http://www.dvxuser.com - there's a rather tedious procedure to go through in order to get a clean image. From what i know the most important thing is to use a lens with manual aperture control. but maybe i missed something.

I haven't heard that. As far as I know all compatible lenses will just work. And I think you misunderstood the comment about manual aperture control: it is meant that you can control the aperture manually, an aperture ring is not necessary (on the contrary, I think). The kit lens doesn't have an aperture ring either.

Alright, thanks for the hint! so in other words it would be more advisable to use more of an wide-angle lens, right.

Yes, it's easier to focus.

what would you suggest? sticking to a fixed lens? would you agree when i say that zooming during recording (D-Movie) often messes up the footage - especially with the current D90 D-Movie situation (hardly controllable aperture, shutter speed and iso speed)?

Zooming usually makes a movie boring and makes people who watch it nauseous.

In any case, the D90 is primarily a camera, not a camcorder. Keep that in mind while you use it

 

[sileo]

I haven't heard that. As far as I know all compatible lenses will just work. And I think you misunderstood the comment about manual aperture control: it is meant that you can control the aperture manually, an aperture ring is not necessary (on the contrary, I think). The kit lens doesn't have an aperture ring either.

You do have a D90, right? Do you use D-Movie-Mode at all? there really are some issues with this (side, i give you that one) feature since the camera controls iso, aperture and shutter speed in a hasty and unfavourable way. Some guys over at http://www.dvxuser.com found a viable approach to work around that camera behaviour which involves a lens that allows for manual aperture control. that's where i'm coming from..

Zooming usually makes a movie boring and makes people who watch it nauseous.

that's exactly what i think.

 

[OreoCookie]

You do have a D90, right?

Nope, I have a D80 and haven't put my fingers on a D80 yet.