Pictures From the Woods

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dbabcock

Hi Tech Redneck
Joined
Nov 5, 2001
Messages
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Location
New Hampshire
I've been into the brandy again tonight, so you'll have to excuse this OT post. When I'm up in the woods cutting and clearing I always bring a camera. Here are some animals I got. They don't like the saws, but if I stop for a while they usually come around out of curiosity. I go out there by myself for days at a time and it seems to do me good.
 
Brandy is always on time, and never late. I'm shopping
for an acceptable dig. camera. Do you have any suggestions?
Is your member pic. a 5 series BMW?
Where were you at for the Moose shot?
Sorry for all the questions, been into the good stuff myself.
How do you like your 2149G?
 
Well, once again I took John out to meet some more of my family, and yep, once again a mistake...he ended up skinning the family pet...a resident Marten that lives in my grandmothers attic...He thought it was part of the hazing to be a British Columbian...man was that Marten mad!!!
 
Scott,
Digital cameras are all over the map as far as resolution, functionality, quality and price. You'll have to let me know your targets for these things. Yes, it's an '01 M5. Moose was in Rangeley, Maine. Haven't got my 2149 G yet, but should arrive soon. Hope the creep isn't using it to hack up Martens.
 
Doug, Those are very nice shots!!

Analog or digital?

I'm thinking of a $1600 D30 Canon to go with my quiver of pro lenses that cost me over $8000. Currently shooting with a EOS 1N 6 fps motor drive. The new 4.1 megapixel Canon is a bit out of my league at $6000.

I'm semi-retired from semi-pro ski photography, looking to get back into it and nature/mt scenery etc. I'm currently trying to shoot lots of tree stuff for my upcoming website, stock and hopefully arbo mags.

Below is moi with cross section of 54" dbh 65 yr old giant atlas cedar we removed for $5700 last yr--VERY technical job!!
 
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rb,
The EOS 1N is an excellent camera. I went the Nikon route several years ago, so as you can imagine the lens investment is substantial enough at this point to think twice about switching brands. Personally, I think that Canon has the leg up with their IS lenses. For image quality, it's a toss up.

Presently, I run a Nikon F5 for film, a Nikon D1 for digital and a Mamiya RB67 medium format 6X7 for stills and landscapes. All three pictures posted are digital from the D1. The Canon D30 is a great choice for digital and proves, once and for all, that a CMOS imaging array can compete with a CCD. You may want to wait a little bit longer for the release of the D60, which promises to raise the bar even further at approximately the same current price (6 MP). Of course, the EOS 1D is the ultimate right now. I passed up the D1X and D1H because I considered them too much "derivative" of the D1. I'm waiting for the D2 (or whatever they call it). Hopefully this will finally have a imaging chip large enough to get around the focal length multiplier (1.5X in the D1).

Yeah, I hear what you're saying about the lens cost, but at least the body cost is coming down. When the D30 came out a year ago, it was $3000. When I bought the D1 2 years ago, it was $5000. Now you can get them on EBay for <$2000. The hummingbird shot was taken with a Nikkor 400mm f/2.8 AFS (600 mm equiv. with the D1). The chipmunk was taken when he came up on my knee to get a peanut (both cheeks) with a Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 micro and SB-28DX flash with SC 17 cord remote, held off to the side at f/32 at dusk.

With the digital I use a dual P4 under XP pro running Photoshop 6.01, Bibble 2.9 and Genuine Fractals 2.5. 35 mm and medium format are scanned with a Nikon 8000.

Here's a medium format at Smalls Falls just south of Rangeley, Maine. Compressed for the web, it'll be lackluster, but I have a 30X40 C print hanging here that is just as crisp as a 3X5.

Ain't this chainsaw stuff great?!
 
Whoa, I guess I got a good answer!!

Thanks doug!!

Yeah, the IS lenses are primo, but no way can
I afford 'em. Current quiver; 28/70, 70/200, 300, all 2.8, 1.4x, 2x, need the 17/35 or new 16/35.

I'm just starting to look at digital, will get to use my customer's D30 tomorrow to shoot the finishing of the big maple removal.
I'll look into the D60 release info and specs. The 1D sounds amazing, but I reckon it will get a pixel boost too. >$6000 a bit much tho, eh?

Do you have a film scanner for your archives? I'm looking at the cheap Acer scanwits, one has Digital Ice. they sound very good, just a bit sloppy mechanically.

How about printers? The cheap canon, under $250, sounds great for 8-10, better on ink than Epsons.

You have a lot of interests, skiing is one of them, is it not?!!

Roger B
 
Rog,
Looks like you've got a few nice lenses there. I wouldn't worry too much about the IS lenses. They work well under some conditions and not so well under others. Two stops, maybe three at best, but like anything else, operation is a compromise between the bandwidth and settling times of the image stabilizer servo loops. For your skiing action shots, they aren't really necessary.

Now one thing you'll have to remember if you go decide to go with a Canon D30 is that because of it's imaging array size, all of your lens's focal lengths will multiply up by 1.6. While this makes your 300/2.8 into an equivalent 480/2.8 which in some cases is good, it will also limit your wide angle capability on the other end. That nice wide 17-35 now becomes a 27-56, so just beware of the compromises. I have a 17-35/2.8 AFS that was made to replace the older 20-35 because of the 1.5X multiplier of the D1. I got so sick of the 20-35 not being wide enough on the D1, compared to what I was used to with the F5, that I went out and got the 17-35. When this wasn't quite there, I had to get the 14mm/2.8 rectilinear also just to get back near the original 20mm end for the digital equivalent of 35mm.

I have a real lens quiver problem myself, only there all Nikons rather than Canons:

14/2.8 AF-D
16/2.8 FE AF-D
17-35/2.8 AFS
28-200/4-5.6 AF-D
28-70/2.8 AFS
50/1.2 AIS
50/1.4 AF-D
85/1.4 AF-D
105/2.8 Micro AF-D
80-200/2.8 AFS
300/2.8 AFS
400/2.8 AFS
600/4 AFS
1.4X TC-14E
2X TC-20E

My scanners are a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi with SCSI and a new Nikon Coolscan 8000 ED with 1394 Firewire. Both of these will handle APS, 35mm, medium format from 6X4.5 through 6X9 as well as 16mm xray transparencies. For regular scanning, I just use an Epson 1640. They make this with a transparency adapter for slides and call it the 1640 photo for maybe $350 or something. It isn't as good as the dedicated scanners above, but it does pretty well. The Minolta is a few years old so it doesn't have any "fixerup" programs in it, but the Nikon has Digital Ice and Digital Gem.

Printers are all Epson: 870, 1270, 2000, 5500. Color and gamma calibration is handled with Monaco EZ Color using IT8 targets for all scanners and printers (which takes a f**k of a long time to do right!). Monitor calibration is facilitated with a MonacoSENSOR Colorimeter that I suction cup to the screen during the process.

I haven't skied in years, although I still have my Ohlin Mark IV's around here someplace. My son snowboards. We snowmobile when there's snow and sometimes when it's not so frozen, like this year.

Why don't you email me if you need any more information. I'd be happy to help you with your decisions if I can.
 
Oh, what the hey... this is what I do in the summer (or winter at Lake Havasu) when I'm not out in the woods:
 
OK...I finally got a scenery picture to post here..

I was on the ferry Thursday night from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, and snapped this back at the mainland....a little photo editing...and it all seems good...
 
Dennis
I like the way you captured the 6 whales in the foreground,it really looks good.
 
Hey Dennis, that moonlit picture is one of your best.
Anyway, I took this one yesterday while contemplateing the ecosystem in Toronto. I think it would make a rather nice avitar.
Gypo
 
Nothing like a good protein filled lunch there, gypo.

A few shots follow from last weekends Tall Ships Festival in Seattle. and the skyline at dusk
 
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