Saturday, December 15, 2012

Camera and Lenses

A number of people were asking this week about what lenses and camera I use for shooting pictures. First off, thank you all for the compliments. Secondly, I thought I would share with you what I use to shoot. The pictures in this post are all, with the exception of the last one, taken at the park yesterday when we had about an hour of sunshine peak out suddenly.

Canon 9578
50mm

Close to a year ago, I bought myself my first DSLR camera. I didn't have the money to go high tech with it, and didn't want to make a huge investment and then find out I didn't like the size of the camera, the hassle of changing lenses, or any thing else like that. (I'll say now, I needn't have worried!) To save some money, I chose to go through a wonderful local store that sells new and used camera equipment, Focal Point Photography in Dallas, Oregon. I would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone in the Willamette Valley area looking for a new camera or equipment.

Canon 9583
50mm

The camera I bought was very basic, a Canon EOS Rebel XT. This camera is old enough to still use a CF card instead of SD. It has a very basic 8 megapixels and its maximum ISO is a very grainy 1600, making low light photography a bit difficult. It has been a great camera to learn on though.

Canon 9576
50mm

I bought the camera with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. This fixed was the lens recommended to me after I described what I wanted to use the camera for most. To this day, the 50mm is my favorite lens. I use it way more than any other. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to take pictures of pets or of dog sports in low light areas like barns if you can't afford to drop a few thousand dollars on a really nice lens. At a price point between 80 and 150 dollars for this lens, it is one of the cheapest you can buy. Both of these factors make it a must have in my book.

Canon 9582
50mm

The other lens I use the most often is my 70-300mm zoom lens. I had an older version of this lens for a long time, but decided to upgrade recently to the Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD. The most obvious difference between this lens and my old tamron zoom is that this one has vibration control (also known as image stabilization). It is also a much nicer lens with better glass. I am still getting used to using it, though, and expect that by next summer's dock diving and lure coursing season, I will be ready to grab some amazing pictures with it.

Canon 9527
70-300mm

The 70-300 is a great range for taking pictures at a large park or of outdoor or well lit dog sports like lure coursing or dock diving. Being able to zoom in and out while staying in one place is really helpful in these situations, as with the 50, I have to move myself to zoom in or out. I think a longer range would be useful in lure coursing, but the price starts increasing a lot over 300mm, so it'll be a while before I get a chance to upgrade.

Canon 9496
70-300mm

The one other lens I own is not one I use very much. I decided over the summer that I wanted a wide angle lens for some tight situations where the 50 simply requires me to be too far away from the subject. I ended up going with what would have been the kit lens for the Rebel XT, the Canon 18-55. I don't use it very often, but it is a relatively cheap lens and can certainly be useful to fill those spaces left on the wide angle side of the lens range.

Canon 4111
18-55mm

If you are ever interested in exactly what lenses and settings were used for the pictures I take, you are welcome to click on the picture. It will take you to Flickr, where you will have the option in the "Actions" drop down menu to select "View EXIF info". If you click that, it will take you to a page that gives a lot of information about the photo, such as the camera, lens, focal length, shutter speed, ISO, and aperture.

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this! I have a Nikon d3100, with an 18-55mm Nikkor lens and I've been looking into getting a 30-700mm lens.
    Nola's Mom

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  2. Hi, following you over from the blog hop. Love your pics! Thanks for sharing your camera lenses :)

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  3. I would recommend, even with owning a 18-55, that you get a 50mm lens. It is very cheap (I'm not sure the exact price for Nikon), and has amazing quality. The quality of a picture taken with a 50mm prime lens is so, so much better than that taken with even a good quality zoom.

    As for the 70-300, there is a rebate right now for it, and Tamron makes lenses to fit both Canon and Nikon. You should be able to find it for your camera.

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  4. Those are the two lens I own too. I love the 50mm.

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  5. That's very, very similar to what I shoot with. I highly recommend this kit for anyone thinking about getting into photography without breaking the bank.

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  6. Woof! Woof! Your photos are great. My mom never tried to use lenses ... she might now. Maybe 2013 will be the year. Golden Thanks for sharing. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

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  7. I too love my prime 50mm f/1.8. My Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 gets a lot of use, and I just recently picked up a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 that has become my main "go-to" lens for everything flyball.

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  8. You take such great photos and now I see why...Sadly I'm just a dedicated snapshot taker...no hope of a great work of art here...but yours are wonderful

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  9. This is so timely for me...I want a good camera in the new year but don't have a lot of budget. Thank you for the tips!!

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  10. Thanks for sharing. My kit isn't too far off from yours; I'm wondering if I need to get off of auto focus more, because I can't quite seem to grab the dogs in motion like this. You have a beautiful eye for focal lengths. Keep posting, we love your photos!

    Cobi + person (Roberta)

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  11. My favorite lens is a 50 mm too and the 18 - 55 next. I usually take that one hiking with us for the versatility. One thing I really like about the 50mm is all of the light it lets in. It makes it easier to get good pictures in low lighting.

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  12. Your photos are awesome! Some day I will have to branch out from iPhone photos:)

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  13. Thanks for the info! I have the 50 also and I LOVE it. I use it for most of our dog photos (and all of our SociaBulls walks). Your colors are so vibrant on yours. I usually set my aperture super low, but maybe if I set it around 4 I can get more of a crisp, vibrant image. Do you do any post-editing at all? I just started experimenting with Lightroom (though sometimes just a bit too much!).

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