Thanks for all of your thoughts & kind words, Larry... Boy, would I love to embrace the power of "And"! But, I could start with that 77/1.8 & probably be pretty happy about it. That's one I've thought about for a while... decided to go with the 50-135 at the time, and have never regretted it, not for a single minute, but... maybe someday. Never really felt that way about the bigma, though, it would provide an even better workout than the 645D...
:) -c On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Jan 10, 2011, at 6:46 AM, Christine Nielsen wrote: > >> So... yesterday, my daughter competed in her first gymnastics meet. >> And (please pardon the bragging..), she did very well. Well enough, >> that I think there just might be many more meets in our future. Which >> is all well & good, but photographically speaking, it's like shooting >> soccer in a cave.. and the cave-dwellers forbid flash. > > I can empathize entirely. A lot of my photography (dancing, aikido) faces > very similar challenges. > >> >> With my k-7 & 50-135, the results were reasonable, for what they are, >> shot at 3200iso, f2.8, 1/125 sec. (I put some snaps up here: >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/23028...@n04/sets/72157625788531640/with/5341649434/) > > That's a great set. You did an excellent job of it. > >> But, I could do with less noise. And even higher iso (or wider >> apertures) could get me faster shutter speed, which would also improve >> matters. > > Although, sometimes a little motion blur is a good thing. > >> >> So, I'm trying to decide where to focus my longing... >> 1) a k-5? (for all the obvious reasons) > > This will give you another stop or two of ISO on all of your lenses. I think > that this would eventually be a good thing to do. The question is whether to > do it now when you might get more money for the K-7, or wait a few months for > the price to drop. > >> 2) faster lens? (most shots are within the 50-85mm range) > > My 77/1.8 is my favorite lens. I agonized over buying it for a while, but > when I saw one for a good price, I got one and didn't regret it for a moment. > Looking through the viewfinder with that lens on my camera can be enough to > make me smile. However, that extra stop and a half also means less depth of > field, and the need for your focus to be that much more accurate. > Photographing Aikido, where people are moving all over the mat, has helped me > to appreciate zoom lenses. > >> 3) noise reduction software? (I only have what's available in >> ACR/cs4... open to suggestions, thoughts on this) > > This might be the most cost effective solution, because it'll improve any > shot that you've taken so far. However, it's also something that you can do > at any time and go back and fix photos later. >> >> What do you think? > > Embrace the power of "And", get all three. > > Seriously though, I didn't see anything to complain about with the shots that > you posted. But that might be because you're good at editing out everything > that isn't excellent and we didn't see the 1200 frames with missed focus, bad > noise, too much motion blur and so forth. It seems that this is a case where > the more you spend, the more you get. > > Do you use a monopod? I found that using one made a huge difference in my > low light keeper ratio. Then again, my definition of low light is ISO 6400 > and under 1/15 Sec shutter speed. I found a benro carbon fiber monopod > that'll fit in my fastpack 350 (without head) on a hong kong based website > for $85. > > New software ($250?): Will improve all of the photos that you've taken, > maybe by as much as a stop in the noise. But you can also get it and go back > and reprocess any photos that you take between now and then. > > New lens ($700-1000): It'll give you a stop or two of speed, but you'll lose > depth of field. > > K-5 ($1500, $800 if you sell the K-7): It'll give you more speed and better > noise without losing depth of field. It should also give you better > metering, faster auto focus, brighter teeth and fresher breath. > > What I think you should do is start looking around for a good deal on the > 77/1.8. It's an amazing lens that you'll absolutely love. Buy one and shoot > with it for a while. The extra stop and a half will help, and by the time > that you realize that you really do need the convenience of a zoom, and that > you often lose as much in cropping as you get in shutter speed, the price of > the K-5 should have dropped by a few hundred dollars, which will partially > finance the cost of the 77. Since the laws of physics only allow us to do > so much, pushing the ISO harder, even with a better sensor, will still leave > you with noise to deal with, around the time that CS6 comes out, you'll get > around to upgrading the software, but that'll be perfectly timed for you to > go back and use it to process all the best photos from this event on, and > make a photo book of gymnastics photos to give to all of the grandparents. > > Or, you could try shooting a few more meets with the gear that you've got, > and as you gain practice photographing gymnastics and your skills improve, > you may find that what you've got works perfectly well. > >> >> FWIW, I've considered asking her to switch sports. But it wouldn't >> help much -- she also plays hockey... :) > > Sounds like you need a K-5 and a bigma. > > > -- > Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est > > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
