Iron_Dreamer

Oh, there most certainly is, and I've used it a fair bit in the past.

Well, taking those sorts of pictures, one has to decide between a shot with static stars (as in that one) or star trails. For the stars to look truly static, you need to use a relatively "quick" shutter speed (for nighttime anyway), or they start to look slightly motion blurred. Whereas to get trails, can take minutes, if not hours of exposure, depending on the focal length. I personally find star trail shots a bit gimmicky, not to say I don't make some, but I do generally find static stars to look a bit more natural or genuine. Amazingly, I used only about 3.2lbs worth of tripod and head combined to get that shot. An Induro C-013 tripod and Photoclam PC40 ballhead, which were plenty stable on that mildly breezy evening. I certainly wouldn't want to shoot big telephotos from that setup, but it works quite well for my gripped D700 with up to about 2.5lb lenses.

I have to give Nikon kudos for adding AI lens support and mirror lock-up to the D90 successor in the form of the D7000. It is certainly looking like most versatile non-pro Nikon DSLR yet. Though I have to say the 35 f/1.4 is a more intriguing release, thought the price tag kills it a bit. Here's a shot from a recent backpacking excursion. Miles of isolation from civilization and 11,000ft of elevation do make for nice atmospherics:

Waterton Lake near the U.S./Canada Border Moraine Lake, Alberta Peyto Lake, Alberta

Nice to see it turned out ok! Definitely a motherboard I'd recommend (I use Asus mobos with all-solid capacitors exclusively in my PC builds). Buy me a ticket to Montreal and a nice dinner, and I might just tidy up those wires for ya

Well, after a clusterfuck of a day dealing with multiple annoying systems all choosing to go down simultaneously, I came home to pack up for a two-week roadie up to the Canadian Rockies. Looks like it should be a blast, so see you guys on the other side!

A big ol' chunk of glass:

Jealous make me you do.

Fucking DannyB. Do I look like DannyB?

Maybe that's because the K1000 isn't really a headphone? At any rate, I'm pretty sure the JH3A system should do at least a few things better than a K1000 ever could. I'm sure it won't sound the same, but I doubt you'll have any trouble enjoying it, especially at the ballpark

My shot was f/2.0, 5", ISO3200, to freeze the stars. Used remote release, didn't bother with mirror lock on that long an exposure. Mostly just an excuse to test the 50 1.4G that showed up that day, in one of my primary uses for it. Better corners, even wide open, with far less coma distortion than the 50 1.8, it's a keeper.

Happy Birthday! Cheers Birgir!

The weekend masses recent from the mountains:

Glad you could have a great day out with JP. Happy Birthday man!

Maybe next time you need to pair it with some Frito pie

Wow you guys are doing some serious beer runs these days! Except for Matt whose every day is a serious beer run! I Just bought a few pairs of shoes thanks to 35% Bing Cashback at Endless.com.

I like the first two more than the latter two. Probably because the frame is filled better. I could use a little more DOF on the front slice of cake. The light is a tad harsh in the calzone shot. But I am being quite critical. They are all very tasty looking shots, so I think you accomplished your goal. I would be shocked if the restaurant didn't receive them well. I'm guessing that those AF complaints probably came from owners of the EOS mount version? Because all EOS lenses have to have an AF motor in the lens, and most 3rd party lenses use noisy micro motors. Using the internal screw drive of the D90, it should be any louder than any of your AF-D Nikkors. You're using it on the D90 (DX) right? 36mm full-frame is just starting to become wide-angle, though if you've been stuck at 75mm equiv with your 50 for a long time, I can see how the change could be a bit of a shock to the system.

LOL Ed, wasn't expecting your posts about that place to end up in this thread. Gotta love d-_-b.

Wow, you're down for the count on that one! It'll be interesting to see how they compare for you.

Have a great birthday and BBQ!

Gaw, that's right. The timeline of that whole weekend does all run together a bit, for some reason I was thinking that was Saturday night, but it must have been Friday.

Yeah, I was just being Mr. Analytical. No matter who's behind the eyepiece/screen, there are going to be plenty of worthless to ordinary shots for every great one. Even if that shot isn't technically perfect, I'm sure it still expresses a great feeling for you, which is probably why you posted it. I certainly know that I keep shots I am not pleased with technically, if only because of the moment/subject matter.

The shutter speed on that shot is quite slow for 50mm, either camera motion and/or a bit of front focus (look at the sharpness of the food on the plate vs. her face) kept the shot from being all it could be, sharpness wise. I like the BW conversion.

You must not have seem him drop to the floor, like a sack of potatoes, in KG's room, to be carried off to bed by spritzer

It's big. We're talking 12mm FX equiv. versus 16.5mm. Be forewarned that the wide end of the Sigma, being as wide as it is, can produce some really funky stretching of items near the corners of the frame. It can be challenging to find compositions to suit such a wide angle of view. With its' faster aperture and filter use, the Tokina is probably the more versatile lens, in terms of the different styles of image it can produce (night, indoor, and ND-filter driven long exposures). But there are of course times where you want the widest view possible. So I ended up with both a fast ultrawide (Tokina 20-35 f/2.8 ) and a really wide one (Sigma 12-24). But I am a bit of a wide-angle junkie, so I guess it fits!