New lens or new camera?

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Well he usually has some good information -- along with alot of opinions...
But thanks for letting me know not to take it all too seriously

LoveMyNikon said:

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Well he usually has some good information -- along with alot of
opinions...
But thanks for letting me know not to take it all too seriously

Click to expand...

I see no problem at all with any of your equipment being your limitation.

Have you ever taken any courses on photography? If so, where and from whom? Have you checked your local college, community recreation centers, and local professionals?

Have you read any books about photography and understanding lighting?? If so, what were their titles? Have you checked out any of the best selling photography books at Amazon.com?

I would recommend that you first focus on upgrading your knowledge of photography, before worrying about your hardware. Your mind is by far your most powerful photographic tool. Invest some money into it first.

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Well, I have read the manuals and all the literature tht came with my stuff. I also have the Dummies guide for photography (which is quite a good book) and I have some good friends who are knowledgable about photography.

I also work in the field - image processing along a sensor pipeline -- and I wrote a simple pipeline myself from the Bayer to the final bmp (lens antishading, dispersion, white balance, demosaicing, sharpening, gamma and contrast) and it produces nice results. I also developed an algorithm on denoising CMOS images that preserves textures and edges. We also develoip stuff at work dealing with extended-depth-of-focus algorithms.

However, with this all, I am still honest enough to realize that I have quite a bit to learn about "practical" things. I respect opinions and since I participate in this group, am very willing to take advise and learn from others.

I really appreciate your comments and I happen to agree with you.

Probaly neither will really improve your results. My take on that is that shooting technique and PP'ing skills are more relevant than any gear at this level. The D40x is a great camera, and the kit lenses are pretty good as well.

Have you seen alexring and ian bramham images around here? Both used to have D40 and D50 with kit lenses and got amazing results.

OTOH: a good lens is something nice to hold and use. I'd say the 16-85 is a great choice, more versatile than the 18-55. But don't expect the images to come better because of that.

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Renato.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhlpedrosa/
OnExposure member
http://www.onexposure.net/

Good shooting and good luck
(after Ed Murrow)