Just bought A300 and a first time DSLR user.. The feeling is shiok.. now practising a lot..most of the time using M mode.. . may i ask the following;
- How often do we disloge our lense or simply attached them together????
- How often do we clean it using the menu , under cleaning mode?
- For taking night landscape the bigger the F and the longer the timing , is better?
- Though i read the thread on reverse macro, i dun really understand??:think:, have anyone use this or can we use it?
- Anyone try stiching photos?
Appreciate any reply ... :bsmilie:
Hello... have fun with your camera... shoot more, and experiment more till you understand the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO...
Now for your questions (in order as you asked)
- I usually unmount the lens if I am keeping the camera in the dry box. Otherwise in the field, I always have a lens mounted. Some people prefer to carry the camera without mounting the lens cos they can carry more in the same bag... I prefer to have the camera ready to shoot... it's up to you. Repeated mounting and unmounting the lens is ok. That's what the metal lens mounts on the camera and lenses are for - to take the wear and tear.
- You use the cleaning mode only if the sensor is dirty. Since your camera is new, the sensor should be clean. Mine is full of junk but I really don't care cos it can't be seen on the pictures taken. But I'll be sending in for a major cleaning soon.
- For night scapes, you need a tripod to prevent camera shake. The larger the f-stop (the f number), the smaller the aperture (the hole made by the lens blades that allow light into the sensor) and hence more time is required for a correct exposure (therefore your shutter speed becomes slower). If you want a larger depth of field (i.e. both foreground and background of the image to be sharp), then you need to stop down (i.e. select a larger f-number). Generally for landscapes, you use large f-numbers like f/8 and higher.
- Reverse macro involves buying an adaptor that allows you to screw on a lens in reverse on the camera lens mount. The reverse adaptor attaches to the camera body via the standard Alpha lens mount and the other side screws onto the filter thread of the lens. This allows very large magnification depending on the lens... never used it before... it's a cheap way to get a high magnification cos you can use an exisiting lens and simply buy a reverse adaptor which is way cheaper than a dedicated macro lens. Might be a good way to experiment with macro to see if you like this genre of photography... no need to suffer capital when you buy a dedicated macro lens and then decide you don't like macro and sell off the lens.
- I stitch a lot of panos... one of my favorite but I'm not very good at it... you could use Photoshop CS4. It has a function called Photomerge. I use a little shareware utility called Autostitch which is excellent (though a little arcane). The CS4 edition is very good. For panos, you need to shoot with a constant exposure throughout the entire span that you want to take. It's best to use a lens that has minimal distortion. I usually shot portrait mode as the top and bottom of the merged picture has to be heavily cropped to remove the significant barrel distortion that accompanies the wide-angle lenses I like to use. There are good tutorials on the net... I can't remember them now but google for them. You can check out my panos in the "Show Your SONY Photos" thread. All are stitched together using Autostitch.
