Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

4 Reasons Why Everyone Should Have a 50mm Lens

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Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G

When we buy our DSLRs, chances are that we mostly shoot and grow with using just the kit lens provided for us by the manufacturerers. What some of us DSLR users don’t realize until we’ve grown enough is just how wondrous and useful a good 50mm lens with a wide aperture is. I’ve blogged before about learning on different lenses, but the 50mm is the one lens every photographer should have in their bag. If you havent’ got a 50mm lens or if you have one and don’t seem to cherish it that much, here are reasons why everyone should go out and shoot with just your little 50mm gem. [Read more…]

 

Nikon 70-200mm VR II and 18-200mm VR II Announced

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Nikon 70-200mm VR II

Nikon has refreshed two of its most popular lenses.  The AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II lens gets an upgrade in optics and moves up to the VR II image stabilization.

The new AF-S 18-200mm VR II lens gets a zoom lock switch to prevent the lens from creeping out while hanging from your neck.  Additionally, the new superzoom lens gets Super Integrated Coating to help reducing ghosting and lens flare.

Nikon 18-200mm VR II

The AF-S 18-200mm VR II should be available in September 2009 at an initial retail price of $849.95. Check availability on Amazon.com.

The AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II should be available in November 2009 at an initial retail price of $2399.95. Check availability on Amazon.com.

More details in the press release below. [Read more…]

The Best Lenses To Help You Learn

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Many photographers start out timid and not wanting to do what they have to in order to unleash their true creativity. Once you start shooting though, and you start to become braver, bolder and more confident in your craft. Your lenses are really what teach you to do your job. Even when you become advanced, semi-pro and pro there are always certain lenses that you can go back to in order to learn more about what you can do with your creativity and vision: and they’re not always 50mm’s either!

For that, here are some of the best lenses to learn with no matter what experience you have: [Read more…]

Micro Four Thirds Cameras Can Now be an Entire System

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olympus-ep1-thumb-500x358-89993

The Olympus EP-1 has become an exceedingly popular camera. Besides the mass amounts of media coverage that one sees/reads, they’re very hard to get your hands on as the units move very fast. But besides being able to take pictures, this camera and its relative the Panasonic GH1 shoot video: good quality video too. One of the criticisms of the system is not having lots of lenses available for the system. That criticism is very, very untrue. [Read more…]

Turn Off Autofocus – Do it Yourself!

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Light and Beer

Recently, I’ve been shooting all my shots without autofocusing and only relying on the manual focus wheel on my Olympus E-510. What I’ve discovered is that it’s making me think more about my shots, framing, and forcing me to concentrate more on achieving the perfect photo that I have set in my mind already.

In contrast, the world of commercial and event shooting has called for the “spray and pray” method of shooting. On top of this, your camera’s autofocusing may not always be up to par with your expectations and standards; especially in low light as is the case with the above photo. It was achieved with manual focus. [Read more…]

Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II and TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lenses

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Canon has announced two new tilt-shift lenses for landscape and architectural photographers, the TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II and TS-E 17mm f/4L. The TS-E 24mm lens is priced at $2199. The TS-E 17mm lens is priced at $2499.  Check availability for each:

TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II

TS-E 17mm f/4L

Get more details in the press release below. [Read more…]