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Hi All,

Have recently bought a D90 after having a D40x for two years, my girlfriend who is coming along for the trip has bought a D3000.

I could do with soem advice.....the lenses we have are..

50mm / 70-300 vr / 2x 18-55 vr and non vr / 55-200 vr and a cheap fish eye.

my questions are.....which lenses to use where (we are taking the 3 bodies)car / camp

Good settings for landscapes / close ups / night shots etc.

Hope you can help

john n kate

That's fairly easy....

The two best bodies with the longest lenses, so the 70-300 and the 55-200.
That means that if the lenses are too short you still have pixels enough to crop a bit.

For the landscapes use the 18-55, if it's nice and sunny the sunny f16 rule will probably work, so 1/100 at f/16. Depends a bit on the available light of course, and the rule is for ISO 100. The f/16 stays though, the shutterspeed may be a little higher. (On a Canon you can only do 1/125, might be on a Nikon too.)

Close-ups want no background at all, so you open the lens as far as it will go (f/4? Depends on the lens.) That also gives you a very high shutterspeed, freezing the subject so you'll be able to count hairs.

Night asks for tripod(s). You are going to have shuttertimes long enough to down a beer in. Lens (almost) fully open again, it's nonsense to block light under those conditions.

All of course assume that you have no UV filter attached, but have the lenshood on the lens.

The 50 mm will be quite... Well, not useless, but on a crop digital body it's simply not wide enough anymore.
With the fisheye you can have fun!

Hi john n poppy, .
Nice kit you have there, I have a D90 plus a D80, and the one item I would add is the battery power pack. Extremely useful in the bush and can shoot away without too many worries of changing batteries.
I'd say use the 70-300 VR on you D90.

A great start...many thanks

Im adding them to my little black book which i will take in July.

Remember...if my photos are poor..its your fault

thanks again

john

Hi John,
Ready to take all the blame!!
Have a look here, both taken yesterday with my D90!

Also with any nature photography, remeber the golden hours.

Up to two hours after sunrise and the last two hours of the day.

The early morning photographer may also get a good shot in the best light of the early bird searching for the worm .

I myself own a D90, out of your group of lenses, you could probably leave the 50mm, I only use my 50mm for Portrait Photography. Have a look at my TR in my signature, all taken with the D90 and mostly a Sigma 150 - 500mm

Nope john, then it's your own fault for using Nikon....

With Canon you can!

Do you have a tripod? In that case you may want to have a look at using your widest and sharpest lens in the night, and do some startrails...

Thanks all, even thoose with a Canon!!

Sorry to ask but is having a UV filter on at night a bad thing, would like to get ok night pics but dont have an extra flash?

Is it worth taking a tripod? I did take one a couple of years ago but didnt use it apart from keeping the vervet monkeys at bay

thanks again

and rumruti...super pics....how and what did you use with your D90?

john

Hi John,
I always have my tripod and monopod with me, makes a big difference when you use an 80-400 mm with 2x converter on it!!

My pics were taken with a new Nikon 105 mm Micro lens, super lens!

UV filter..... Bad?


Now that may have been an idea with film cameras, however your digital doesn't even see it! An infrared filter could be usefull, but is incorporated in your sensor.

So what do you need an UV filter for?
To degrade the image quality.
To create lensflare.

Not to protect your lens, that's what you have your lenscap and lenshood for.

Hint: Grab your UV filter, put it in its box, and try to sell it. If it's a 77 mm one you can use it as a (not very well working) beermat...

Great advice,

I like the idea of a filter in place as it prevents damage to the front lens, could you recommend an alternative to a UV filter DuQues.

thanks
john

Yep! The lenshood.

That saved my camera and lens when the combination camera and 100-400 went for a excursion, 3 meters straight down.
The result?
1 lenshood which now has quite a few bits of silver on it (Duct tape), a temporarily very high pulse, followed by an inmense feeling of relief.