Some pics from my trip out to Marblehead, this will probably mark the retirement of my D40 as I just picked up a new D90 body. All pics were taken with the Nikon D40 and either the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 or the Nikon 50mm f1.4D.
This is probably my favorite pic from the shoot, I took it with the Tokina 11-16mm during “magic hour”. It was cold but worth it.
Three different variations of the above picture: playing with the color processing controls, black & white and the original image out of the camera.
7 Comments
Wow!! Beautiful pictures you have here! Just want to know whether those were purely taken with D40 or you did some editing toward them?
I was confused to choose D40 or D90. D40 coz it’s cheap and if you took these pictures without re-editing them again, in my opinion they were awesome and I think it’s enough for me to buy D40 considering that I’m an amateur here. Hehehe.. D90 coz I think I can already have better SLR when my knowledge about photography has improved. Well, got confused here. Any suggestions?
Hi Lala,
Thanks for checking out the blog and sending your question.
First, I’m an amateur photographer too, there’s plenty left to learn and you won’t be far behind if you start getting into it. Your questions has a couple of parts to it so let me break down my response.
The pictures from Marblehead were all taken with the D40 Nikon body, however you have to understand that an SLR camera is only as good as the lenses you use with them. For these pics I was using the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 (wide angle for landscapes), and the Nikon 50mm f1.4D (more of a portrait lens, used for the close-up shots of flowers and lobster traps. So while the D40 was cheap the Tokina cost me about $570 and the Nikon 50mm cost me about $260. This isn’t to say that the standard lens that comes with the D40 won’t work, but it won’t get you the same results (you’ll find this out once you start shelling out cash for lenses). Also, I did do post processing for all pictures except one of the landscapes – editing in software is necessary to make things look the best but it isn’t super complicated. A free program like Picasa can do about 80%b of what most people need – mainly lightening or darkening the picture and increasing or decreasing saturation levels.
As for which camera you should pick, it’s more up to you and your budget and how interested you are in taking this up as a hobby. The D40 is a great entry level camera and you can get it used super cheap on Craigslist (like $250 for the camera + lens). Having said that, the D90 is an awesome camera and will give you a lot of room to grow so it might save you more money in the long run to spend more upfront on a D90.
One important note is that the D90 has a autofocus motor built into the camera but the D40 does not, this is actually worth thinking about and I’ll explain why… Older (and in some cases less expensive lenses) don’t have autofocus built into them so you need a camera with a motor (like the D90) if you want those lenses to autofocus. You can use these lenses on a D40 but you just won’t have autofocus (and this can be a major pain sometimes). The newer lenses (G series) have motors built into them, this means they will autofocus with any camera including the D40. The problem is that in many cases these lenses are super expensive. Also, third party manufacturers like Tokina, Sigma and Tamron produce their own lenses for Nikon which can sometimes be less expensive and superior to what Nikon offers – the problem is that most of these don’t have a motor built into them either.
The reason I switched to a D90 is because of this, I had a few lenses which were great but could not autofocus. Also, the D90 has 11 autofocus points that make it easier to setup your composition (the D40 only has 3). One more thing (when you get more advanced) the D90 makes it easier to access crucial controls like exposure compensation, white balance and ISO setting – the D40 makes you go through menu’s to reach some of these controls. So if you are going to really get into this and money isn’t too big of a deal it may make sense to get the D90 and just grow with it.
One more thing, check out Canon’s offerings, they make good camera’s and even cheaper Rebels have way more features than the D40. Also, I swear that for whatever reason Canon’s gear always seems less expensive than Nikon’s gear. What I mean by this is two comparative lenses like a 50mm lens, the Nikon one seems to always be 10-25% more expensive.
Finally, Chase Jarvis says that the best camera is the one that you have with you and I agree with this. I got into photography by using a small compact camera that had full manual controls. The pictures I got out of it were amazing and most people think that I was using a fancy SLR with expensive lenses to take them. Great photo’s are not about the camera, they are about you learning how to compose a shot and finding inspiration in the things around you. Seriously, you might want to check out a high-end compact like the Canon G11 or S90 or the Panasonic LX3 before you plunge into the SLR world (and all the expensive accessories that they require).
This may have made think up more questions instead of answering the ones you initially had. In either case I do recommend you purchase a camera and start taking pictures, I’m sure that you’ll have a lot of fun and start surprising yourself with the pics that you are taking. For inspiration you should also check out flickr…. there are photographers out there (amateur photographers) that blow me away and they use all kinds of gear from a D40 to a D3 to take amazing pics. Check out flickr’s galleries by camera the people used – it doesn’t matter what you have in your hand, if you can compose a shot and are creative you can make amazing pictures with anything.
Hey2..thanks a lot for the info. Btw, wanna ask you some more questions. Hehehe..
1. Suppose I wanna buy Canon DSLR, which type that has the features which is almost the same like Nikon D90’s?
2. When I wanna buy a DLSR camera, what should I see on the specs so I can have that camera for a long term, don’t have to change for a better camera since I have a tight budget.
3. I like to capture portrait and candid pics. What lenses should I buy?
I’m not a Canon expert so take my words with a grain of salt… From what I have heard the Canon 40D or Canon 50D (latest model) are probably the closest to the D90 in terms of features. Some people consider these a step above the D90 because they are built with full weatherproofing (more like the D300 and the more expensive pro-level camera’s).
Check out the BH Photo used section, it looks like you can get these for fairly cheap ($649-$799 w/o a lens):
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/SLR-Digital-Cameras/ci/15488/N/4294182649
I could spend a lot of time going through specs but what I would look for are:
1) in-built focus motor – just about every camera except lowest end Nikon’s have these
2) auto-focus points – the more the merrier
3) easy access to key functions – ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, aperture cotrol and shutter control. All DSLR camera’s have these controls, but the difference is how easy it is to get to them. Higher end camera’s usually have dedicated buttons to let you quickly adjust these settings.
4) Low-light performance (ISO performance)- some camera’s are better at taking pictures with little light, usually they are also more expensive.
5) auto-exposure bracketing. There is a type of trick photography called HDR imaging. I have not tried it myself but you can get some wild results and you need this feature to do it well.
6) PC cord inputs (the D90 does not have this) this lets you easily connect flash triggers to the camera when you start getting into lighting. You can buy an attachment later if you don’t have this but it’s nice to have. Note this is even more advanced then where I am at in my photography.
As for what lens to buy… For portrait/candid photography I think a 50mm prime lens is the best. You want to get a large aperture like a f1.4 or f1.8. Both Canon and Nikon make these lenses and they are usually very affordable if you go for a f1.8 (like$100-$150). The problem you will have is that you cannot zoom with these lenses so you’ll have to move a lot to frame your pictures. This is good, it will force you to realize what kinds of pictures you like taking and can help you decide if you should next buy a wide angle lens (because you wish you could get more of the picture in frame), or if you want a telephoto zoom (because you wish you could see further.
I’d recommend that you start reading reviews/blogs/flickr discussions/ amazon.com posts, etc. and build up some knowledge on all these things. There are plenty of sites to read up on, here are some that I think you might like:
http://www.bythom.com/
http://kenrockwell.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/
http://www.cameralabs.com/
here is one that I found yesterday but it’s pretty inspirational. The writer just started getting into photography recently and she started off with a single 50mm lens and learned as much as she could using it.
http://mostlylisa.com/blog/my-photographic-journey/
Also check out Strobist… to be the best photographer you can be you need to learn lighting. This is the wall that I am currently hitting and I need to start doing these things to make myself a better photographer.
http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/
Thanks a lot for giving me the info ^^ I really appreciate that. But few more question if you don’t mind..Suppose I buy D90 kit, it has 18-105mm with it. What kind of pictures will be produced with the lens 18-105mm? What does 18-105mm mean? Is it worth it to buy the kit or it’ll be better to buy BO? Thanks a lot once again for your willingness in answering my questions. Hehehe.. ^^
18-105mm refers to the focal length of the lens, basically how much of the view the lens will see. The smaller number, the wider the angle of the view (but the less distance it sees), the larger the number the further out the lens (at the sacrifice of seeing a larger area of the view).
Think of your normal eyesight as a wide angle lens, you can see nearly 180 degrees of peripheral vision. To see something in detail 400ft away is impossible with eyesight, unless you use binoculars – but then you are not able to see everything else that is outside of the view of the binoculars. Google it online, you’ll find a better explanation with some examples – better than I can probably write.
If you don’t have any lenses it might make sense to buy the kit lens w/ camera to get you started. I bought a D90 w/o the lens because I already had lenses. The first camera I had came with a 18-55mm lens and I was fine with just that for a while. An 18-105mm lens will let you take pictures of people, the interior of a room or zoom out to maybe a 100ft or so away. The benefit of buying body only is that you can buy a better lens than the kit – although if you don’t have much money then it may mean settling on a really good 50mm lens which will not let you zoom.
I’d recommend you look at flickr to see the pictures people are taking with htis lens. Just search for the tags that match the lens you are interested in.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/nikkor18105mm/
Also, here’s a link to the flickr camera finder where you can look at different camera people use and the pictures they are taking
http://www.flickr.com/cameras/
Wokey!! ^^ Thanks a lot! You’ve been very helpful and I really appreciate that ^^ As soon as I have it and take pics with it, I’ll share them to you. Gbu ^^