Wildlife Photography across the Water: Camera features

Thursday, 9 July 2009

Camera Features

Most days i scan through the forums and one thing that stands out is the amount of whinging by photographers, The latest whinging being over camera features, People are still complaining that their cameras have live view and the latest is obviously a movie feature, Now my car has a cigarette lighter but i don't smoke and don't use it but i don't go on forums complaining about it, My camera has the feature to use all the AF points at the same time but i don't use that either, I see one guy (pro) moaning about having live view on his Canon 1D3 and that it makes his camera a point and shoot and that you have to hold the camera at arms length-wrong-if you are going to whinge then at least know what you are on about,The live view on the 1D3 is manual focus so you cant hold it at arms length,Live view has many uses,The main one i have mentioned before being the use of a live histogram where you can set the exposure without having to take a test shot, I don't see any type of photography where this feature isn't a plus, Now having a movie feature on a camera isn't something that i can see myself use but all camera bodies are getting the feature so i guess my next body will have it-i wont whinge about it i just probably wont use it,but i will see how it works as its good to know ALL the features that you have available just incase you need it-remember the image of Concorde in flames-now what if you had movie mode on your body-you can shoot stills at the same time as taking the movie-that could have earned you an awful lot of money

Dave

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Camera Features-Liveview

When live view first came out as a feature on a Dslr it was poo pooed by many thinking that it was just there for the point and shoot brigade, It isn't and there is more to it than just being able to see what in front of the lens
Firstly its a great benefit to macro shooters as you can frame the shot then zoom in up to 10 times to focus on the important part of the scene-like a bee's eye then you can finely tune the focusing and take the shot knowing its going to be sharp, Here you can see the focus point and compensation dial

If you want yo use the maximum amount of pixels that your camera has then you don't want to have to start cropping to get straight horizons etc so the Nikon D3 has 2 ways of doing this,Firstly you can show a grid and secondly you can see a virtual horizon like on an airoplane -simple and effective

The main benefit i find with the liveview system is to be able to see a live histogram,Its actually easier to use on the Canon and i have only just found out how to set the D3 up to use it, On the canon once its activated in the menu system just click the 'set' button and live view come on but with the Nikon you have to push a button and turn a dial and then press the 'OK' button and then the 'info' button to scroll through,Sounds time consuming but not too bad once you know how,With the histogram showing you can compensate and see the image either darken or lighten and the histogram will move either left or right in real time and you can then adjust the exposure without actually having to take test shots-great if you have easily spooked animals and birds in front of you, Its a function that i used every time with the Canon 1D3 and something that will be very handy to have on the Nikon, In this image you can see a perfect histogram without clipping at either end and that to get it i have dialled in +1 compensation

Another very handy feature of liveview is for Landscape photographers, If you set the liveview and place a ND Graduated filter in front of the lens you can instantly see the effect that the filter has on the image,If you have the histogram set as well you will see what the effect is on the exposure as well,If you still get blinkies in the sky use a stronger filter-simple,Not all landscape photographers use a filter holder and if you just need to use a ND Grad on its own then this is a good way of seeing the image before you take the shot

As you can see the live view system has evolved into a very effective tool for all kinds of photographers-Dont dismiss it

Dave

Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.