Camera recommendations?

tinman said:
yes skill based in terms of using the camera and learning how to take good pics .. just like reefing taking pics also have certain elements you have to play with aka lighting, focus, shutterspeed, aperture and last but not the least ISO .. all of these combined will give a good picture ..

difference between a point and shoot and a dslr is that you get to play with all these factor hence being able to control the output ( the picture quality). learning about these and practice itself takes sometime once you get your hands on an slr ..

comming to photomanipulation software .. DSLRs gift of being able to choose all the above aspects is its bane too .. meaning you never, ever get a perfect picture out of camera and almost always have to post process be it a reef pic or a picture of some outside world .. Camera does some work and presents you a nice picture but if you want it as perfect as possible you have to edit.

Post processing of reef pics is relatively easy provided you know what you are doing .. all i do these days is set my lights to 20k ( radions will let you choose the color temperature) take the picture put it in photoshop and change the temp to 20k and done.

here is more ..
here is a pic straight out of camera .. does it look like this to my eye in the tank .. no

VFCtkMi.jpg


after processing .. some might call it hyping but this is how it looks to my eye in the tank .. and i would want to present it this way ..
wHLxbgt.jpg


thats with a normal lens (50mmF1.8 prime lens)

if a similar pic is taken with a macro lens it looks something like this .. more detailed view like you are looking at it under a magnifying glass ..
35_zpshkbgs1zs.jpg


phewwww long post :) hope it helps
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Very helpful, thanks!
 
Cubano32 said:
so this might be a dumb question but when you guys are taking pics are you doing a top down view or through the front of glass..i can never seem to get a good pic with my cannon
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They (corals) seem to look best when shot and viewed top-down; it makes sense that they would put their "best face" up towards the light
 
They used to sell acrylic boxes that float on water that allow you to shoot downward. I haven't used one of those, but they look interesting.
 
I think this will add to this thread,

So I've got a Canon EOS M, with 22mm lense, nice camera, but as you can imagine with this lense, close ups, no good. What do you guys do, could you take decent pics with this model? New lense?
 
Mjl714 said:
I think this will add to this thread,

So I've got a Canon EOS M, with 22mm lense, nice camera, but as you can imagine with this lense, close ups, no good. What do you guys do, could you take decent pics with this model? New lense?
Click to expand...

Zoom lense? Get extension tubes. $20 and your camera will function similar to a macro.
 
I use an old Canon dslr with a zoom lens. My tank is big and I can't get close enough to take good shots of corals that are two feet away from the front pane. I also noticed it's better for photographing fish because I can stand back six feet and focus in on them without scaring them and causing unnatural behavior.
 
markitekt said:
I use an old Canon dslr with a zoom lens. My tank is big and I can't get close enough to take good shots of corals that are two feet away from the front pane. I also noticed it's better for photographing fish because I can stand back six feet and focus in on them without scaring them and causing unnatural behavior.
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Sounds like you need extendion tubes too. Seriously, they're $20 and will change your photography game.
 
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Mjl714 said:
I think this will add to this thread,

So I've got a Canon EOS M, with 22mm lense, nice camera, but as you can imagine with this lense, close ups, no good. What do you guys do, could you take decent pics with this model? New lense?
Click to expand...

markitekt said:
I use an old Canon dslr with a zoom lens. My tank is big and I can't get close enough to take good shots of corals that are two feet away from the front pane. I also noticed it's better for photographing fish because I can stand back six feet and focus in on them without scaring them and causing unnatural behavior.
Click to expand...

With extension you can closeup the the coral but not focus subject more than 12 inches. I am not sure but will test tonight. I got few different extension.
 
markitekt said:
I just ordered some extension tubes. Will post before and after pics.
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They aren't perfect, but you can get decent macros without spending $500+ on a lense. It takes some trial and error to get decent pics, but I like playing around with them. It surely beats using your zoom lens from across the room.
 
Sawdonkey said:
They aren't perfect, but you can get decent macros without spending $500+ on a lense. It takes some trial and error to get decent pics, but I like playing around with them. It surely beats using your zoom lens from across the room.
Click to expand...

I tried a macro lens before. You need to get up close to the object in order for a macro lens to make sense. It makes more sense to use one to take top down pics of frags.
 
Mjl714 said:
I think this will add to this thread,

So I've got a Canon EOS M, with 22mm lense, nice camera, but as you can imagine with this lense, close ups, no good. What do you guys do, could you take decent pics with this model? New lense?
Click to expand...

Here I read over DPREVIEW site

Some one ask about the Canon M with 20mm lens.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51830675

Extension tubes allow a lens to focus at closer distances. The lens will not focus to infinity with extensions attached. The longer the extension tube(s), the closer the lens will focus.
 
True 'macro lenses' have a couple different functions....flat field, higher depth of field, and smaller minimum focus distances. They are made in different amounts of magnification relative to "life size", with the traditional definition/expectation of being able to capture life size. You'll find 50mm, 100mm, 180mm, etc versions of macro lenses, but the magnification relative to life size is from that combined with the minimum focus distance. The Canon MP-E 65 can do 5x life size!

Extension tubes moves the lens further away from the focal plane, reducing your minimum focus distance. So this helps quite a bit with the magnification relative to life size, but it doesn't do anything for flat field or depth of field. Note, the depth of field becomes more important the more the image is magnified/compressed. Some software now have functionality to stich together mulitple images taken with different focal points to "manufacture" a full focus image.

Photography is simple/hard hobby like reefing :)
 
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