Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Ian Young's Bulb Log - Feedback Forum => Topic started by: David Nicholson on December 12, 2007, 08:39:20 PM
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Congratulations Ian it's still a great resource and absolutely vital for many of us.
By the way I am available and am an excellent bag carrier (or in your case camera carrier!). ;D
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Ian who is 50?
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It's Log 50 ! ;D
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Ian great shots with the new camera glad you have the macro lens as I wondered how you were doing such good close ups with the standard lens. You mentioned reflecting the built in flash with a sheet of paper - can you give a little more detail how you work this as I have been tempted at tiimes in buying a ring flash which can be costly and will try anything to save money.
By the way most of my crocuses and also many narcissus suffered from the April warm and dry period or some of my incompetence. I hope to reverse this this year but I am still learning with bulbs and with most things sound experience comes at a high price.
Please keep the bulb log going it gives me great encouragement particularly when things are not going to plan
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Ian, could I ask you to keep us appraised of how the life of the camera's battery is between charges. Most rechargeables do not seem to last long and perhaps this one is different. Many thanks, Len.
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Ian
The problem with using the built in flash for close up photographs is that the subject is often so close to the lens that a shhadow is cast over all or part of the subject.
I use two basic methods:-
1) Hold a sheet of white paper or other reflective type material, tin foil can be good, so it wraps over the top of and faces back onto the subject. This should reflect enough of the flash light back onto the subject.
2) Place a piece of white card or paper in front of the flash to direct all the light upwards onto another sheet of paper held as in 1) to reflect it back again.
Both methods are basic and you will need to experiment a bit until you find out the best angles but are much cheaper than the ring flash. I have always wanted a ring flash as well.
Len, I will report on battery life along with any other pros and cons I find as I get used to my new camera.
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I used to have an Olympus ring flash for my OM4 but, as usual, built in obsolescence meant it no longer fitted the new Olympus digital cameras so I sold it on Ebay. At least I got more than I paid for it. :-\
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Ian, could I ask you to keep us appraised of how the life of the camera's battery is between charges. Most rechargeables do not seem to last long and perhaps this one is different. Many thanks, Len.
Different brands of battery go more or less time between charges. You can get higher capacity batteries. Also depends how much you use the camera's screen.
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Ian - Interesting to read your comments about white balance, and the yellow colour cast. I purchased an Olympus E410 recently (no flip up screen) first lot of pictures posted on Harlow Carr posts. http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=561.30
Interesting to note Mark's comments about the yellow of 'Cedric Morris'.
Len I purchased a spare battery from the internet, about a quarter of the price of olympus replacement. Will comment on battery life later. Not much chance of doing any photography for me at the moment. Only weekends and they've been rotten lately.
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Thanks for your tips Ian I will experiment as you suggest. Anyway maybe I will write to Santa and see if he can drop in a ring flash if all else fails
With regard to battery life I think SLR batteries are much more substancial than compacts my Nikon D70 battery will do over 1000 shots including the odd flash (the camera that is ) and spare batteries which I bought at much lower cost than Nikon work almost as well.
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Thanks for your tips Ian I will experiment as you suggest. Anyway maybe I will write to Santa and see if he can drop in a ring flash if all else fails
With regard to battery life I think SLR batteries are much more substancial than compacts my Nikon D70 battery will do over 1000 shots including the odd flash (the camera that is ) and spare batteries which I bought at much lower cost than Nikon work almost as well.
Glad you clarified the flash Ian :o
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David other flashing does not give any trouble with the camera batteries ::) :P :o
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David other flashing does not give any trouble with the camera batteries ::) :P :o
;D ;D
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Glad you clarified the flash Ian
Well David in this weather I would probably have to leap out and describe myself anyway ;D ;D
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Putting the (ahem!) humor aside, the subject of photography and cameras seems to create a lot of interest. Might it not be worth having a dedicated photography section to trade ideas in and pull them all the photo threads together?
Len
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Len, Such threads already exist in various forms:
Which digital camera ;
photoshop problem;
Picture problems
digital versus 35mm lectures
handy photographic gadget
digital camcorders, etc etc
I could merge all these together in one thread and although that would still leave a lot of searching for specific subjects, it may be worth it.
I have searched the forum for other camera related snippets and they are just that in the main... snippets.. "what camera do you use?" "A Bloggs SX40" etc... that sort of thing. Since these are contained in posts with other matters/subjects, it is not feasible to collate these together.
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See here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=54.0 for new pages of all pre-existing photographic question pages pulled together. Hope this helps!
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Ian,
Must say I am also very pleased with the SLR battery which amazes me with its long life. My previous camera used 4 standard AA but they didn't last long enough at all.
Paddy