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Topic: Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here? (Read 7179 times) previous topic - next topic
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Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #1
I'd call me a hobby photographer, but more out of curiosity of the techniques than of the art form itself. i.e. I care about aperture, focal lengths, and speed (both shutter and 'film'), and use that information to take pictures of my kids.

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #2
I 'm hobby photographer, when I have real free time. Lots of fun; I like doing landscape, street art and architectural shots the most.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to upgrade my DSLR since graduate school debt repayment really kicked in. At this point buying anything further from Canon looks to be a dead end anyway; they need to slash the price on their low end full-frame model (and improve the CMOS!) or I'll be looking at a Sony mirrorless units with a full frame sensor next time I can afford such a thing.

My brother uses an Olympus, and I like the size of the Panasonic/Olympus units, but the micro4/3 sensor is just too small for my love of low-level naturally lighting.

Too bad Sony demands blood sacrifices for their decent lenses; that Canon 50mm F1.8 II is an absolutely superb lens for $120, other than the horrific plastic build quality.

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #3
I am quite disappointed with Canon, too, but it's hard to do the switch once you have a decent collection of lenses and flashes. Sony is doing a good job with their new gear and I just bought an RX100M3 to have a pocketable camera at parties or when I have to travel light. I am into landscape photography and recently started doing cosplay shots. There is a huge difference shooting stills vs. shooting people. Light, angle, everything is much more important.

The 50mm f/1.8 is a nice lens, superb actually for that price, but you have to be lucky and get a properly QAed one. My first one was just crap, soft from center to the edges at every aperture and the AF was terrible, worked maybe one out of ten times. The replacement lens did well, though. However, price is not important it seems in this regard. I allowed myself to buy the new Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art lens for Christmas and first thing I had to do was to visit the Sigma support center and have the lens adjusted for my 5D since it kept front-focusing and micro-adjusting the AF didn't help enough. At least Sigma's just one hour away from where I live. ^^

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #4
Interesting to hear there's QA issues with the F1.8 II; happily I haven't observed such (yet). That being said, for landscape and non-walking architectural shots, I like to use the 10X magnification function and dial in fine focus by hand most off the time anyway, so perhaps I'm an unwitting victim. Relative to the 35mm F2.0 and the ungainly 75-300mm (III) zoom, the 50/1.8 is a stupidly sharp lens.

How is the Sigma ART lens by the way? I've read nothing but fulsomely effusive praise for the ART lenses so far...

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #5
I do photography as a hobby, and I rarely go anywhere without a camera. I mostly shoot ordinary, everyday subjects. One of my favorite cameras is a toy: Digital Harinezumi. (But I also have a Sony A7 which I like a lot).

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #6
I learnt my ropes and even had a go at the odd paid assignment  for quite a few years, when living in the UK.

Nowadays I go through the occasional street photography spree (alone or with my fiancee in tow, as I am teaching her) as can be seen on my Flickr portfolio.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #7
I've also been a "Canon man" for quite some time - mainly due to their infamous "L" lenses' status - but have gone back to experimenting with film - from a ancient 35mm Minolta rangefinder to a medium-format Yashica TLR. But I must admit good emulsions and decent processing are harder to come by as the years pile on.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #8
I used to be very fond of another "L" brand: Leica! I still like the general form factor and handling of the M rangefinder camera, and lenses like the 50/2 Summicron-M are wonderfully compact but IMO prices these days are as nutty as some of the lore that fans have created for themselves, often about a certain je ne sais quoi about the camera and the photos it produces. Ah well, perhaps the luxury market is the only area where a small specialist manufacturer can still survive.

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #9
You have some very nice shots there includemeout...

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #10
Thank you Audible. I'm glad you liked them.

It would be great seeing you guys' portfolios too - on Flickr or elsewhere.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #11
How is the Sigma ART lens by the way? I've read nothing but fulsomely effusive praise for the ART lenses so far...


If you focus manually or have a lens that harmonizes well with your camera body, it really is excellent. Very sharp from center to the corners, beautiful bokeh, nice build quality (no weather sealing, though).

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #12
I have become an amateur sports photographer since volunteering for a junior sports league over the last few years.  I have been involved in photography since the early 60s but never really moved beyond event and landscape work till about 10 years ago.  I used a Minolta film SLR but when digital reached a level where I could move on, I chose Canon for the lens system and high quality sensors.

Since the most important aspects of photography in my daily shoots happen to be fast, reliable autofocus and either high ISO or flash, I'm still perfectly happy with my current Canon equipment.  I can see why people just coming into digital  or those primarily interested in portraits or landscapes might choose another system, but all the others have significant drawbacks for my use.  It's also a happy coincidence that I do some astrophotography, which the Canon system is well suited for.

Sadly, going onto the photo forums it's easy to see that many photographers have the same issues that the "audiofools" are prone to - the need to spend unjustified money and impress their peers.  Like in some audio forums, it's hard to try and help newcomers without running afoul of those spouting received wisdom.  I duck the subjective discussions and focus on facts as best I can; it helps my blood pressure. 

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #13
At least it's nice to see photographers like the German Benjamin Jaworskyj giving advice not to buy the most expensive gear for good photos and I think he still uses a xxxD Canon regularly with the cheap 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Nichttaub, interesting to see that you own a Canon and are happy with the results since most people I talked to and according to reviews I read on dpreview.com, fast AF (tracking) seems to be something where the Nikon shines compared to Canon.

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #14
Sadly, going onto the photo forums it's easy to see that many photographers have the same issues that the "audiofools" are prone to - the need to spend unjustified money and impress their peers.

Fortunately, unlike with audiophools whose replica usually is: "you don't have my audio equipment, so shut up"; with photographers you can usually easily tell who's been a gear bitch as their photographs are usually utter rubbish.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução

Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #15
Whoop, All apologies for thread resurrection!
Since I've recently thrown a few (lucky) shots up on photobucket, I thought I'd slap them in the thread to belatedly respond to includemeout's request
Loon Lake, high Sierra, 5 AM:


Sunset, Jenner CA:


Amaranth eater, Northern CA:


Feel free to mod these out if it's an issue for the bboard...

Re: Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #16
Hey - another resurrection here. Must be because I'm new here.

I shoot film, on a Canon EOS-3. You can check out my Instagram if you like http://instagram.com/camclare.

:)
Shure SM58 | Sennheiser e865 Condesnor | Sennheiser e935 Dynamic | Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 | Novation Impulse 25

Windows 10 x64 | OSX El Capitan | Linux - Another day, another distro :)

Re: Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #17
I am a beginner in this sphere and I've got my GoPro camera.
smile

Re: Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #18
I love taking photos with my Lumia 930 :)
Lumias are good for taking photos, but my photos would be even better if I learned something more about photography and had better camera, of course ;)
sox -e float -b 32 -V4 -D gain -3 rate -v 48000 norm -1
opusenc --bitrate 128

Re: Any photographers (professional or hobby enthusiast) here?

Reply #19
my photos would be even better if I learned something more about photography and had better camera, of course ;)
The earlier (learning) is much truer than the latter (better camera).

As the old adage preaches, a great photographer (ie, one who's learnt their ropes) can take really great pictures with a crappy camera; a crappy photographer OTOH, will carry on taking crappy photos with any camera, nonetheless.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução