Thanks Steve!
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If I was just starting out in DSLRs I would do one thing over and NOT do another thing, both of which I did
over the past 18 months. I had never owned a DSLR before Jan 2013. My thoughts were that super-
zoom bridge cameras were the best thing for me. But they are NOT. Their sensors are TINY. But DSLRs
are expensive. SO I did two things. I bought USED, which I highly recommend doing. The second thing I did
was the WRONG THING. I bought one of the cheapest, oldest Nikon DSLRs I could get, along with a couple
of used lenses. I bought a Nikon D70 and a Nikon D100. Both VERY CAPABLE CAMERAS, despite their age.
But once I started shooting, I realized I like to shoot in the dark, when the city is asleep and there are
fewer parked cars around. These old cameras can kick ass in the daylight, but struggle at night.
(without flash which I rarely use). So if I had to do it again, I would get the camera that best mixed
low price and night vision, so to speak. For me, that puts everything I am selling this month out of
consideration. I need to regularly shoot at 6400 ISO and get something out of it that I can sell. NOT EASY.

But for most people, they can EASILY get by and learn on yesterday's tech.
If I was in the market for
a DSLR today, with no needs to see in the dark, I would probably skip the D100, D70 and D40 and
select from D50 on up through about D7000. It would HAVE to have a built in focus drive motor, so all
cheap Nikons are out, D3000, 3100, 5000, 5200, 5300, D40....

I would feel VERY comfortable with a D50, very comfortable with a D80, extremely comfy with a D90,
and would love to have a D300. If you need Canon advice, I am not the one to ask.

As to lighting, there are cheap studio lights available for $30-$40, or you can just turn on all the lights,
haha. But I am in the TV business, so I always have some lights on hand. What I meant by improve
the light is to use anything BUT the camera's light or flash. If you have to take the lampshade off of
a lamp and put it on a shelf so that it lights directly and also bounces some light off the ceiling or a wall,
all the better. You want soft, reflected light to showcase your cigar subjects best. If you have to use
a camera's flash unit, I find a few sheets of bathroom tissue taped over the flash softens it up enough.

If you want a Nikon, let me know, I have several capable old models wrapped in bubble wrap and
stacked in a closet. I can supply a camera, starter lens, memory card, computer cables,
battery and charger, all for a nice low price. Or you can think about a Canon from someone here, or use
one of the three or four GOOD used camera sites online to select whatever you like.

I LIKE all the recent offerings in mirror-less compact cameras, but I would never personally go that route.
There is something completely perfect about a DSLR, the feeling of shooting, the look of the shots, the range of
lenses available. And even if mirror-less takes over the world, I can still get a much better price on extremely
capable used DSLR gear for a fraction of the cost of a good mirrorless camera.
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I agree that when an ocean is involved, compact is better. But I do not have any REAL help in choosing,
other than to say that in REAL compacts, I like Canon. In superzooms, I RUN from Canon. In mirrorless/
ILCs, I like Sony or Fuji. I bought a used Nikon P6000 at Ado one day for $39. GREAT BUY for a slightly
beat up model. Works fine. But SONY is really the king of this segment, IMO. You can get a great compact
from any one of the majors. But they are all chasing Sony.
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Thanks Brad....was looking at Sony RX 100 and RX100II....$$$$ though, but might be what I'm looking for
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Fantastic. Let me read the book Shade recommended and take a look at some prices, and I'll come back here.
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Red winged blackbird:

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Female mallard taking a bath and exercising her wings:

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Mute swan teaching the Canada geese who is boss:


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GET OUTTA HERE!!!!

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Nice wild life pics, Ron.
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A young lady sings beautifully in New Orleans

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Nice shot Brad.

Continuing the NoLa theme..

Wedding party on Bourbon Street
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Think that's me ruining your first shot :-)
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I like that closeup, shade....
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Thanks! I could use a longer telephoto lens, though. I missed quite a few because the 210 mm just wasn't quite long enough to pull in anything but a small image.
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hey RON! I have a decent 300mm f/4.5 manual focus Nikkor you can hook up to your D90 with no trouble.
You'll have to focus it, and frankly, you'll have to guess metering and adjust with the LCD, but talk about REACH!
And it is pretty Sharp. I take poopail and you can have it for $120. It has a tripod collar on it and really
works out with the wildlife. Here is a shot at about 90 feet.

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That's really nice.
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Sounds tempting, Brad! I'd have to brush up on my manual setting skills for exposure, unless I could still find an old fashioned hand held light meter somewhere. I always set the ISO at a determined number when I shoot rather than auto ISO, so that shouldn't be a problem. I notice that my older 210 mm does tend to always get set for a much too wide F-stop when I use it, so I just use aperture priority and boost the ISO a bit to get decent shutter speeds with low or no noise. Of course, I was looking at a Tamron that can go to 500mm, but for about 500 bucks (I think, I don't recall) that's still a big chunk of change. I'll let you know; I'm headed to GA next week for some much deserved vacation time. Jekyll Island, Savannah, and maybe Charleston if I feel like the 6 plus hour round trip.
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I just finished the transition from a PC over to a MacBook Pro. Although I hate everything Apple, I must admit, I'm very much loving this laptop. I recently did a calibration of my Windows laptop, which made a world of difference on the color of my pictures on the screen and probably accounts for the dramatic changes I'd seen when uploaded to a website.....ie...facebook or flickr or my own site. When I calibrated the Mac, there was virtually no difference between the uncalibrated version. I hate to admit it, but I was dead wrong about the Apple products. While I'll never own one of their cell phones, I do respect and admire the laptops they produce. The dead on color of the retina display is truly amazing. Now...for more London photos, sorry but you guys will need to suffer through some more of these. :-)
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