Photography question

I think knowing how to take a good well composed picture is an important skill. My wife majored in photography and prefers film (medium and large format no less) and knowing how to take a good shot really counts when you have to develop and print it. Her pictures are also generally better than mine.

Save the cheese and get the black magic pocket cam. 1000 clams and you will dominate any dlr in that price range.

http://philipbloom.net/2013/09/03/pocketvideos/

I'd like to also second mrEduck. Long before I could afford all the digital goodies i bought a cannon ae-1. Great camera. Can still find em refurbed for around 300. Used for even less. It's a film slr that will digitally read light for you so it's kinda Noobie proof while at the same time teaches you alot about framing, aperture, setting exposure, what film to use (which translates to what ISO setting in digital)

Just owning an old film camera is fun if anything. The anticipation of getting film developed from something awesome. The pics mean so much when you get them.

Put it this way. The first event I ever shot with my digital slr I shot over 4000 pictures in one night. Maybe 40 keepers. The first 3 rolls of film I ever shot on my film camera I had prolly 50 keepers. I even just took some weird pics of shadows and because I took all the time to compose it just right and set the depth of field and frame it all out and thought it all through the pics came out amazing. On the other hand I've also taken some of the most amazing spur of the moment photos with my digital. Stuff I would never be able to capture on film. And all my garden pics too lol wouldn't wanna get all my pics of the ladies developed at Walgreens lol!

Black magic pocket is a must have if you want to take amazing photos cheap. You can do it with others but it seems like what you described. It takes super HDR images and shit. Black magic cameras are a whole breed themselves. Il be purchasing the cinema if not the production model in the next 6 months or so. The pocket il prolly get in the next month. They really are cool if you can have an open mind about the definition of "camera"

I'd say shooting like its film with a dslr is the way to learn. Film gets expensive fast.

Started back in 1996 taking snap shots of my baby.. this lead to taking snap shots for family members.. which lead to weddings and portraits photography for about 5 years..
started with a kodak dc290 had a massive 2mp

this camera broke after about 3 years.. then I moved on to the Olympus 700-UZ

a 2.1 mp but it had 10 x zoom (one of the few back then that had higher then 3x zoom) used this camera to win an award

with this pic for a online contest I entered back in 2000.. won $250 (had no idea there was a prize involved when I entered)



used that money to purchase my 1st DSLR after selling the 700-uz to buy the Rebel 300 DSLR with the 18-55 lens..



Used this to start to shoot weddings and portraits which meant I needed better lenses that lead to an entire setup of photography gear flashes battery packs for the camera and flash.. flash brackets more lenses.. then upgraded to the T3I and then health issues decided it was time to stop.. sold all the gear slowly and kept the T3I+ camera battery grip and one 18-55 lens..


1st camera price was $100.00
I am afraid to add up what I have spent on gear since then...

Hey duck and gioua. What are your guys thoughts on the black magic pocket? 13 stops of juicy color! It's the closests I've seen to the canon 5d mk II color wise but its got a thicker feel to it. All the video I've watched on it feels like it came from a c100 or above.

HGK420 said:

Hey duck and gioua. What are your guys thoughts on the black magic pocket? 13 stops of juicy color! It's the closests I've seen to the canon 5d mk II color wise but its got a thicker feel to it. All the video I've watched on it feels like it came from a c100 or above.

Click to expand...

I'd try it before hand.. I hate shutterlag (the time between you pressing the shutter and the time it takes to capture the image) I wont own a point and shoot again for that reason.. the lenes on this are gonna be cheaply made.. your better off with a canon 5d

I have larger hands and using a small camera is not gonna work for me.. I added the battery grip to mine due to the added size.. and battery life

you can use any micro 4/3 lens and its not "Small" by any means. just bigger then an Iphone, wayy bigger then other pocket offerings. as far as ive read the only shutter lag comes if your trying too take too many pics in a row to quickly it gets a little choppy.

have you see the new black magic cinema or production camera? the cinema shoots 2.7k for $2000 and the production shoots 4k for $4000.

the black magic crew are revolutionizing cameras with there new take on them. they just basically took the same idea as the super fast motion cameras and adjusted settings. instead of a billion low res images a second it shoots 60 super high res images. its basically a computer with a light sensor and lens mount. all touch screen too.

for people like us that use DSLR or SLR and are used to the old style it is a bit of a learning curve at first just simply cause it feels so different. no more smashing your face into the eyepeice. no more worrying about color too. thats kinda weird ive heard. you do all your color adjustments in post with the black magic stuff. i mean you can mess with it before you shoot but something about how the black magic shoots allows you to adjust it alot. its like a handheld HDR video camera. you can literly film with it and pull any single frame out and you got a beautiful picture. not quite as amazing of a picture as say a "red" when filming but it still will give you amazing single frame action.

battery life ive heard leaves a little to be desired. if your working a shoot and really pounding away it would prolly be beneficial to have it plugged in AC style. i find alot of the new cameras are this way tho unless you got a battery grip or upgraded batteries.

the 13 stops of color is just what keeps blowing me away with it. the canon 5d mk ii is the most amazing camera for the money on the market right now if you can find a good used/refurbed one for cheap. some places still ask almosty $2000 (nearly original tag) thats unheard of!!! the 5d had 11.9 stops of dynamic range. a canon tech put it like this. "its not about how many stops of color but "Which" stops of color you have" i read that the black magic looked to emulate and then improve upon the 5d mark ii's color. ive watched 5d mark 3 (new $4000 model) vs the pocket cam and the pocket cam holds its own wonderfully. it really looks about even.

i shoot alot of video so to me it seems like a must have. if you just a still person then id look into the d800 or d600 maybe? didnt canon just drop a low cost 25mp or so body? 660 maybe? its their competitor to the d5100 middle range category. might even wanna wait til the next gen comes out. we got 41mp cell phones out now and i see that translating to some serious cameras for cheap in 2014.

im back. been off since last harvest. finally got my camera and i did a slight upgrade to my first choices. nikon d5200. it was 550 brand new. checked out amazon and looked at the used section. apparently if you arent an official retailer youre not allowed to sell new items as new. saved 250 bucks. so ive been taking a few shots and my current thing is HDR. i know many arent into it, but i am haha. so my question is sharpening my images. i have the standard 18-55 lens. i noticed that the clarity is okay when its close range. longer distance they tend to soften a bit. and im still learning about the exposure triangle.