Mark goes at it again... just bought a PL700/II!

[D-500 Flogger]

You'd be surprised at how many photos I take with a stupid little iPhone camera. A good portion of my video clips are also with that stoopid little thing! Surprising that it can focus that close!

The best clue I can give you is LIGHT! Your subject MUST be well illuminated. Turn off as many of the automatic features on your camera as the camera will allow- manual f/stops, shutter speeds, and sensitivity. If your camera has "live view," use it, connect some sort of HD monitor to the video output and judge your focus and exposure with that instead of the viewfinder.

I use a Nikon D7500, but still have some lenses from my old F3, and I've learned how to use the old manual lenses with the digital camera. The advantages are that the max aperture can be as wide as f/1.4, so I get a lot of light through to the image sensor. Again, use a lot of light, and know about depth of field- a smaller aperture gives greater depth from foreground to back, but MOST lenses are sharpest at the midpoint of the aperture scale. Another advantage with those manual lenses is that I can use extension tubes or an extension bellows for extreme closeups. Yeah, lots of fiddling there, but the result is worthwhile. Closeup lenses don't give as good a result, but for a lot of things, are more than adequate.

So, there really isn't any great hidden secret to it other than use lots of light and turn all the automatic crap off!

Mark,

What you said is *exactly* what I hoped you were going to say. My first digital camera was back at the turn of the century -- a Sony Mavica (a whole ONE megapixel sensor) and it literally put the photos down on a small floppy diskette. (~ 10 photos per diskette, IIRC :0) Then, while my daughters were in college I got by on a Nikon coolpix...then a 3100. Finally, I went from buying to 'investing' in a D7000...and to be honest, I'm *still* trying to get as much out of it as possible before moving up again.

Sounds like we are in violent agreement. I am quite satisfied with the D7000 (it's like driving a car that has a bigger performance envelope than I do :0) ...but my current focus is investing in 'forever' lenses. (I've attached a photo of my pride-n-joy.)



Then again, I can pick this same photo apart easily because of the lighting I took it with. (And I took 5 photos of it, some w/flash, some without, etc.)

****

Why all the blah blah blah? Well, you've already covered the instructional video side. And your photos you took during your troubleshooting session told me that you have that nailed as well.

My goal? Invest in a light box. And also quit limping along on the built-in flash & get a large outboard flash with a good diffuser. And work on my macro chops. Why? Because the breadcrumbs that I hope to leave behind will be some of the best close-up macro shots I can take while documenting my D500 restore-a-thon. :0)

NOTE: I also want to leave behind some nice audio recordings of what the 'grunge' sounds like while I'm nulling an 'amp under test' to my known-good reference. (So that people can hear what Bob Carver was hearing when he delivered on the promise at the Stereophile challenge.)

As well as what this chart below actually sounds like when actively nulling the difference between a Class A amp vs. a Class B amp while it is exhibiting it's characteristic notch distortion:


(chart credit: Nelson Pass)

I don't know. I guess if I had to describe myself, I'm a classically-trained analytical troubleshooter who just wants to bridge the gap between what we measure vs. what we hear. And I can't think of a better jumping off point than a WOPL'd D500. (Or maybe that sweet little 400 S2 WOPL'd to within an inch of it's chassis? :0)

We'll see. And hopefully after I fix my lighting deficit & work on my macro chops, it will be just that much easier to see what I'm trying to convey via photos... + actual audio files. (!) Be sure to watch this space for further developments...

As Thomas Dolby used to say, " Science!" :0)

Nice photos!

Cheers -

 

[D-500 Flogger]

I have to add:

FILL YOUR IMAGE FIELD WITH YOUR SUBJECT! If you're photographing an entire 12" x 18" circuit board but the problem is a toasted resistor in the upper far right of the image, how does that show anything to anybody? GET TIGHT on your subject as you possibly can!

This applies to your family snapshots as well- DON'T put faces in dead center of the viewfinder, but include some context to the image. Too much "airspace" above your subject and cutting them off in mid- thigh looks dumb.

Further tirade:

"Vertical videos" made from cellphone cameras! People move laterally- action goes left and right- limiting view in a vertical format restricts the "stage of action" and also looks dumb, like looking through a keyhole...

EXCELLENT comments all!

FWIW, I now carry this Nikon D7000 Field Guide with me anytime I've got the camera out...for all the reasons you enumerated in your previous post. (ie: take the camera off automatic/cruise control in order to get that 'better than average' shot.) Maybe even be able to take a technically-oriented Beauty Shot & turn it into a Money Shot for folks like Nav...who enjoy that kind of senseless beauty? :0)

Again, thanks for sharing your tips. When I'm troubleshooting anything, I always like to get a 2nd opinion before wandering down the garden path...

Cheers --

(edit) Some years ago, after tears of frustration earlier in a cross-country trip due to problems with cheaping out on a inferior camera tripod, the day finally arrived where I was going to a Bucket List destination -- the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB. And I already *knew* from the website that with the 'mood lighting' inside meant I would leave with no decent photos...unless I wanted to be satisfied with a 'paper-thin' depth of field.

...So that morning in the motel I looked for a decent camera shop between where I was & the museum itself. One web site in particular stood out to me, and it wasn't even a 10-minute detour from my flight plan, so I went there & bought invested in a robust tripod.

And, maybe a 1/2 hour later, I took the photo I attached to this message.

It was a portrait shot of the B-2 Stealth bomber.

Nikon 3100
Tamron f/2.8 70-200mm zoom
ISO 100
f/11 (for good depth of field)

And I let the camera figure out the exposure duration.

I initiated the self-timer mode...and after a ~10.1 second exposure, I got the portrait that I wanted.

****

I've since given all that equipment to my sister (except the tripod, still got that :0) ...when I bought the D7000 & Nikkor lenses. No regrets.

The moral of the story? I *am* willing to cheat in order to win. :0)

Enjoy --

 

[J!m]

I'm a Canon guy (or was, when I was a photographer). Still have a Pelican case full of expensive stuff rotting...

I started out with an AE-1 Program in high school, and later got one of my own from a pawn shop. Graduated to a "New" F-1 (to avoid confusion, Canon went from F-1 to F-1n, to "new" F-1, so, the last generation of the F-1) a few years later. I think I went through eight or 10 New F-1's. I usually had two bodies in my bag, and a spare at home. The the task of finding and collecting the FD-L lenses I needed...

Anyway, later I got (and still have) an EOS-1v, which is the film body. Finally ending with the EOS-1d digital body.

My subjects were often moving (cars and trucks) and I always had to rely on available light. I was not happy to realize exactly zero of my FD-L lenses would work on the new EF Canon lens format. BUT, I came to appreciate the engineers did this to allow a larger final lens element diameter, thereby allowing more light. (Some of you may remember the EF 50:1.0L lens) Light gathering and sharpness "at the corners" is not much of a problem.

I slowly sold off my FD-L lenses and replaced them with EF-L lenses (except the fisheye).

Anyway, where was I... Oh, yeah. I always, since the film days, run about 1 stop of over-exposure, and let the camera decide on aperture (usually) in my case. I set shutter speed based on speed of my subject and security of myself holding the thing. I have a nice monopod I used on occasion (and a tripod of course, but rarely used that), but usually I was relying on whatever I could find- rocks, trees, other people (not ideal) vehicles... And bracketing every shot. the EOS does it via a setting and the shutter speed is so high (with enough light) there is no apparent change from frame one to frame three. The space of the bracketing and number of frames are both selectable I think. Pretty sure I ran + and - 1 stop all the time, so my -1 would be "correct" exposure.

All those parameters are set ahead of time, but it s a powerful tool.

Another neat one is you can lock focus on say a slow moving freight train coming up the line, and the camera will adjust focus constantly to keep the same feature you have highlighted in focus as it moves. Then you can concentrate on your composition, and trip the shutter with impunity.

Another one, which I used for a published photo, is the automatic depth of field option. Yes, I can sit down and figure it out long hand, but it's easier to focus on the furthest, and closest, item you want in focus in your composition, and then fire away. The camera will automatically set f-stop and shutter speed to keep everything between those two points in focus.

Fun toy. Magazine decided it wasn't going to pay me any longer for no apparent reason, so that ended that.

 

[D-500 Flogger]

I'm a Canon guy (or was, when I was a photographer). Still have a Pelican case full of expensive stuff rotting...

I started out with an AE-1 Program in high school, and later got one of my own from a pawn shop. .

J!m, I took 2 years of photography in High School. Exposed film in a fully uncomputerized Pentax K1000. (Well, hypothetically *I* was the computer. :0)
Some days OK. Others not so good. But that's how we used to learn...

Then into the darkroom to expose the B&W film. (I feel so fortunate to have gotten the chance to do all that.)

****

Too bad my 3 hobbies always starved each other. But I can say truthfully that the pecking order was always: 1) Audio, 2) Photography, & 3) Cars.

Drove a whole series of what I euphemistically referred to as "1 car payment" cars. (But I was able to take care of hobby #3 by helping all my buddies spend their money on their toys. Best of both worlds -- They ended up with plenty to play with...and I got to keep my hands under the hood for free... :0)

Good memories, all.

 

[MarkWComer]

@J!m @The Powerful Difference
I worked the summer of 1972 on a snowball truck to save up for a Minolta SRT 100. First camera, I was 14 years old. That was the beginning of the bug! I’ve had Pentax and Olympus before finally settling on Nikon, stayed with Nikon since 1984.

The Minolta was a great camera, easy to use, the controls were easy to access.

The Pentax was a dog, stop- down metering and screw mount lenses. Forgot the model, but it was a forgettable camera anyway.

The Olympus was a return to quality, nice and easy to use. I had both the OM-1 and the OM-2 and a motor drive. The Olympus was the first for which I bought additional lenses.

I started the Nikon trek with the F3, bought even more lenses, and then a FE2 and FM bodies. Found a nice Nikkor fisheye at a bargain, too! The collection grew to extension tubes, the PB-6 extension bellows, various flash units, and a 300mm mirror lens.

Stop me now before I go into the 16mm cine equipment…

 

[D-500 Flogger]

I'm a Canon guy (or was, when I was a photographer). Still have a Pelican case full of expensive stuff rotting...

... (Some of you may remember the EF 50:1.0L lens) Light gathering and sharpness "at the corners" is not much of a problem. ...

As a matter of fact, yes I do! I remember reading (drooling) over that lens when it was reviewed back in the day. (Modern Photography ?)
Check this out, Ken Rockwell takes some great photos using that lens & writes a review - he thought it more than held it own again newer lenses: https://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/50mm-f1.htm

Another one, which I used for a published photo, is the automatic depth of field option. Yes, I can sit down and figure it out long hand, but it's easier to focus on the furthest, and closest, item you want in focus in your composition, and then fire away. The camera will automatically set f-stop and shutter speed to keep everything between those two points in focus.

That sounds very cool. When I'm taking a beauty shot of a car I usually have a definite field of view in mind. You know, where to start the Bokeh in order to draw the viewer's eye to where you want. Sounds like a feature I'd have in heavy rotation if I had access to it. (!)

You know, it's funny how people that are into audio/music also seem to share similar hobbies as well. Thanks for sharing your reminisces!

 

[J!m]

With the FD system I had all prime lenses- no “zoom” lenses (up to 800/2.8!!!)

I quickly learned the EF-L zoom lenses are as good, if not better, than the FD-L prime lenses. Lenses are bigger and heavier, but I have fewer of them. The 24-70/2.8L is key. On the camera 99% of the time. Gasketed at the body too- I got shots out in the pouring rain while everyone else huddled in cars dealing with fogged glass.

The last lens I bought was the 135/2L. Awesome portrait lens. I had the FD version before and had to replace it.

 

[mlucitt]

So is the Chemtronics Soder-Wick. Both excellent for solder removal.

For the WOA Control and Backplane Boards, which Soder-Wick do you use/recommend? The have #2, #3, and #4. I think this refers to the width in millimeters. Also, it comes in 5', 10' and 25' rolls. I think the 10' roll would last me a lifetime...

 

[J!m]

You can make it by stripping and splaying copper stranded wire. Done that a few times in a pinch.

 

[Gepetto]

For the WOA Control and Backplane Boards, which Soder-Wick do you use/recommend? The have #2, #3, and #4. I think this refers to the width in millimeters. Also, it comes in 5', 10' and 25' rolls. I think the 10' roll would last me a lifetime...

I have rolls of 1, 2, 3 and 4. I find the #4 the best all around Soder-Wick. I have the #1 for tiny SMD stuff but do not use it very often. I have gone through many 5' rolls in a couple years so you may be surprised. Whenever I see a bargain on it, I pick up more. I have barely touched the #2 and #3 rolls.

 

[mlucitt]

I have rolls of 1, 2, 3 and 4. I find the #4 the best all around Soder-Wick. I have the #1 for tiny SMD stuff but do not use it very often. I have gone through many 5' rolls in a couple years so you may be surprised. Whenever I see a bargain on it, I pick up more. I have barely touched the #2 and #3 rolls.

I bought the 10' length of #3 and I will probably get another 10' of #4. Thanks for your insights, as always.

 

[wattsabundant]

has anybody tried the generic stuff on Amazon? Since I bought a Hakko desolder gun I don't used much wick any more.

 

[George S.]

I've been using NTE wick lately, works well. But of course my Hakko 470's do 99% of my desoldering. Still, would be lost without wick.