You can even replicate the effect in Picasa, but the whole point of an ND Grad is to prevent a bright sky from underexposing the landscape. If you correctly expose the land, chances are you'll blow the highlights (the sky) and lose detail - not something that you can repair without taking multiple exposures and merging them.

So you completely missed the point then! I said it could replace your standard point and shoot compact camera not your DSLR. I also mentioned it wouldn't match up to the likes of Canon Ixus 9series and Fuji 200EXR for example but would save me buying a sub-£200 compact for the odd snapshots. Of course its not going to replace my DSLR or a top compact.

How many other compacts do you know that take pics in RAW, give full SLR like control and can add a flashgun for under £200 by the way?

Couple of reviews here mentioning the camera perfomance.

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,390 ... 760,00.htm

http://stuff.tv/review/Sony-Ericsson-C905/

Nikon D70
Sigma 200mm "Zoom" lens
Nikon 200mm VR Lens (at work, so I can't remember the exact numbers)
Assorted gubbins


I bought the Nikon when it first came out, and to be honest its still all the camera I need ("want" is another matter). Having invested a few hundred squids in glass I'm sticking with Nikon when I upgrade the body. Currently I favour the D300 as I just love the feel of that Magnesium body (ooerr missus etc ).

I live out in the sticks so I take lots of moody landscapes: pictures of clouds over the sea, clods over the hills, clouds... well you get the picture! There is a lot of wildlife so I've got some very pretty plants & flowers and lots of foxes, small mammals, and of course tits of all kinds....

My problem is that although AT LEAST 40% of my shots are really just posh "snaps" and instantly binnable, I just can't do it. Out of 6,000 RAW images and countless JPEGS derived from them I have Gigabytes of dross. How do you guys get rid? Or do you, like me, just squirrel them away?

Me? I'm perfect. I never get one wrong.

I bin anything from a session that's suffering focus or shake. The others I grade according to how it fitted my ideal when trying to capture the shot. I think Mark is trying to do the same as me, in that I try to get the shot right for framing, exposure and focus at the time I press the shutter button.

It takes practice, but at least digital doesn't need to be processed at vast expense! And I like practising.

I squirrel them away and look at them on a different day. No end of times I've come home to look at my photo's and thought nothing of them. A few weeks later I'll take another look and I'll find something I can do something with.

That's the beauty of digital, its virtually free once you've bought the kit, though I rather miss all that messing about in darkrooms with lots of chemicals....

So what you're saying is that I need a bit less ruth?

Nikon d60 + 18-55mm kit lens.

Looking to replace with the Nikon 18-200mm and add the Tokina 11-16mm wideangle (so expensive T_T) Don't even want to think about filters.

I tend to let the photos pile up, especially if i'm back from travelling and there's hundreds to sort through. Now I'm resolving to keep and process what I like and delete the rest.

If you want to improve the overall quality of the images you take, there's a few things you can do.

Subscribe to a couple of podcasts (I've linked to a couple that I listen to in the Hints & Tips section). They're a great way to open your eyes to what you can do with the camera.

Post images somewhere like Flickr. It's free to join, unless you want to upload bazillions of images at a time! If you join the X404 group, then you've got a ready-made critics panel, and will get feedback on your images, such as suggestions to improve the shot and so on. Don't be discouraged by negative feedback - learn from it! I've learned stuff since I joined, and it's great to get compliments on a shot. Nothing like a smoothed ego, I find.

Find a couple of good books on digital photography. I bought "The Digital SLR Handbook" by Michael Freeman, and "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. There are plenty of others, but those two were recommended to me.

Learn all about the knobs and buttons on your camera. Know it inside out, so you can switch it to Manual mode and not panic! Equally, learn to look at the world and see the photographs before you hold the camera to your eye. Change position if it doesn't work, reframe, move about to make the shot more interesting. And learn about the Rule of Thirds, and once you know it by instinct, break that rule.

And best of all, take the camera almost everywhere with you. Don't be afraid to play with it, just take random shots and experiment. Another good tip is to set yourself a theme or project for photographs, like one photo a day on the theme of "blue" or something: every photo must have something blue in it.

Above all, have fun. It's a hobby. If you feel your shoot was a disaster, have a think about what you could have done better and try again another day.

Always learning. That's me.

The features I listed ARE on my point and shoot compact.

So just because it's on yours..............

May I suggest the Magic Lantern series of books? It’s kind of like the missing manual series of books. Worth getting the one which covers your camera if one is available.

I use a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. When I bought my first DSLR (an original 5D which is now the proud owner of an Edd) I went with Canon solely because it was the only affordable FF camera out there. Not until I went on a photo shoot with some mates in Sussex did I become aware of the Nikon/Canon rivalry which gives the Mac/PC stuff a run for its money. Had I waited a year or two before getting my first DSLR there's every chance I may have ended up with a Nikon, but with so much invested in lenses the 5D Mark 2 was the only obvious choice when it came to upgrade. And I'm delighted with it!

You can see all my kit here, if you like that sort of hardware pr0n... :D (EDIT: Have just realised that I haven't included my tripod, which is a Manfrotto 055 XPROB)

While still on 35mm film, I used Pentax, so in that sense, yes, I have changed brands.

How am I getting on? Loving every minute of it, and wishing I had more time to go and take pictures.

And as for the photo comp, well I've only just migrated here from the Dennis forums, so was oblivious to it until very recently. Watch this space...

Oh poo. (8+(

Mark

EOS 300D in black with a battery grip and the standard 18mm-55mm lens.

A 75mm to 300mm Canon lens- a cheap one- F4- F5.6 1.5M distance

Canon Speedlite 430X

A couple of fiters, the favourite being the polarising filter that lives on the lens in sunnier climes.

It's not top notch stuff, but to replace the whole lot with Nikon would work out damned expensive.

Canon EOS 40D, my first DSLR after a decade of shooting with an EOS 100. I bought it just as the 30D was released and nearly waited, but I got the 40D at a good price, which left more room for the 17-55 ƒ2.8 IS lens, which is a beauty and I can easily notice the difference in quality between it and the lens from my EOS 100.

I'm considering a 70-200 ƒ2.8 L IS lens but the price is a little on the rich side, so I may go for the ƒ4 instead.

Other kit at the moment includes my Manfrotto tripod and Lowepro kit bag, my MacBook Pro, Aperture and a LaCie portable hard drive.



No, I flirted with Nikon as a lot of professional snappers I know use it, but then a lot also use Canon. Unlike OS X / Windows, I really don't think there's a clear distinction when it comes to Canon / Nikon. I could happily use either.



Still getting used to digital post-processing and sorting out a manageable workflow that suits the way I work (a lot of travelling away from home base).



Never was a visitor to the old forum, not really a visitor there now.