Tell us about your best non-camera photography gear

janeenadamsmartin said:

To clarify, you pay monthly for a set number of pages. The pages can be all text or all photo.

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I'm sorry but i don't really understand your answer ie... a set number of pages.

I pay, monthly, for excellent photo editing software. Software that has earned me income over the years.

Since your post directly followed my post, I was under the impression you were replying to me, however, I just read thru a bunch of previous posts to finally understand what post your reply was referring to. In future post responses, may I suggest using the "Reply with quote" option to better target what post you're responding to.

If you are ever confused, you can look at the header of the message and see who the reply is meant for.

I personally dislike "reply with quote" lots of unnecessary scrolling, especially if it is an involved discussion!

jan

Definitely in regards to usage and hours I have spent in different places. Started when it was panotools selected points by hand and have just kept updating it as new versions come out...small amount of money for a lot of fun!

Of course to go along with stitching and nodal point rotating around there's been a few panoheads. Presently the nodal ninja Mecha with 8 mm Oly Pro set up is tough to beat.



Good idea for a thread...or maybe it's just the weather turning in the proper direction?!

Dan

janeenadamsmartin said:

If you are ever confused, you can look at the header of the message and see who the reply is meant for.
I personally dislike "reply with quote" lots of unnecessary scrolling, especially if it is an involved discussion!
jan

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You can also change the way the threads are displayed, at the bottom right of the last post per page there is blue text that says either ""Threaded View" or "Flat View" if you want to review a specific thread make sure you're in threaded view so you can see the thread and when others are replying to a specific conversation, this prevets a lot of scrolling.

All my cameras instantly upgraded to the next larger sensor size. Even old cameras I no longer own. Best available detail extraction, lens corrections, and noise reduction, and very little user-intervention required for fantastic results. Leaves Lightroom in the dust as far as basic RAW processing goes. A must-have for low-light event shooters, regardless of camera used. Integrates nicely with Lightroom for an efficient workflow.

I cull in Lightroom, send selects to PhotoLab for basic processing with optical corrections and noise reduction, then return DNGs to Lightroom for further work. PhotoLab's superior lens corrections even improve performance of Merge to Pano in Lightroom.

--
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw
http://jacquescornell.photography
http://happening.photos

Thank you all for your responses - I've learned a lot from this thread! For those of you who find tripods useful - what's your most common use case? Do you use them to support heavy lenses, take high-res shots, operate your camera remotely, or something else? Asking because I shoot wildlife but do not own a tripod (I have a monopod that I usually leave at home).

faunagraphy said:

Thank you all for your responses - I've learned a lot from this thread! For those of you who find tripods useful - what's your most common use case?

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When I shoot macro, I use a tripod and wired shutter release. The lenses are adapted Micro-Nikkor AI-S 105mm f2.8 and 200mm f4 IF. Then there's a 60mm f2.8D.

faunagraphy said:

Do you use them to support heavy lenses, take high-res shots, operate your camera remotely, or something else? Asking because I shoot wildlife but do not own a tripod (I have a monopod that I usually leave at home).

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A monopod is handy out in the woods. I'll stick it in a front pocket when using it.

I also use an UltraPod II resting on my shoulders and chest. It works great with the GX8 and GX7-series tilty EVFs.

My most common uses are long-time or time-lapse exposures and with very long teles when portability isn't an issue. Also group photographs and shooting in studio "back in the day", copy stand work, macro, architecture, video. Tripod hi-res.

Also use one for my spotting scope, because handholding just doesn't cut it.

NB for anybody shopping for their first one: there is no perfect tripod.

Cheers,

Rick

faunagraphy said:

Thank you all for your responses - I've learned a lot from this thread! For those of you who find tripods useful - what's your most common use case? Do you use them to support heavy lenses, take high-res shots, operate your camera remotely, or something else? Asking because I shoot wildlife but do not own a tripod (I have a monopod that I usually leave at home).

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I have an excellent Manfrotto full sized carbon-fiber tripod base with an Acratech Ultimate ballhead that I used a lot with my old Fuji gear. But in the last couple of years it has sat mostly unused. Since returning to MFT in December, I have acquired a Panasonic Macro 30mm f2.8 lens and a Panasonic 100-300mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens and plan on using both when the weather gets slightly warmer and things begin to come to life. I expect to use both of these lenses with my tripod.









--
Bill S.
www.flickr.com/photos/wrs1946
instagram.com@billschaffel
“Sharpness is a bourgeois concept”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson -

jeffharris said:

faunagraphy said:

Thank you all for your responses - I've learned a lot from this thread! For those of you who find tripods useful - what's your most common use case?

Click to expand...

When I shoot macro, I use a tripod and wired shutter release. The lenses are adapted Micro-Nikkor AI-S 105mm f2.8 and 200mm f4 IF. Then there's a 60mm f2.8D.

jeffharris said:

Do you use them to support heavy lenses, take high-res shots, operate your camera remotely, or something else? Asking because I shoot wildlife but do not own a tripod (I have a monopod that I usually leave at home).

Click to expand...

A monopod is handy out in the woods. I'll stick it in a front pocket when using it.

I also use an UltraPod II resting on my shoulders and chest. It works great with the GX8 and GX7-series tilty EVFs.

Click to expand...

I hadn't heard of the Ultrapod II before, so thanks for the tip! I like how the feet slide out. Your idea for using it to stabilize the camera is ingenious! Also the rubber hood, which deals with the problem of the screw-on part of the hood for the Panasonic 100-400.

--
Formerly known as 'anupamkatkar'.

bs1946 said:

faunagraphy said:

Thank you all for your responses - I've learned a lot from this thread! For those of you who find tripods useful - what's your most common use case? Do you use them to support heavy lenses, take high-res shots, operate your camera remotely, or something else? Asking because I shoot wildlife but do not own a tripod (I have a monopod that I usually leave at home).

Click to expand...

I have an excellent Manfrotto full sized carbon-fiber tripod base with an Acratech Ultimate ballhead that I used a lot with my old Fuji gear. But in the last couple of years it has sat mostly unused. Since returning to MFT in December, I have acquired a Panasonic Macro 30mm f2.8 lens and a Panasonic 100-300mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens and plan on using both when the weather gets slightly warmer and things begin to come to life. I expect to use both of these lenses with my tripod.

Click to expand...

I like the aftermarket lens collar for the 100-300! I had seen this on their website years ago but didn't know anyone who uses it.

--
Formerly known as 'anupamkatkar'.

faunagraphy said:

For those of you who find tripods useful - what's your most common use case?

Click to expand...

Often when I'm trying to take a picture of something specific, rather than taking a picture of what's in front of me.

If I'm just out with a camera, I don't often use a tripod. If I go specifically to take a picture of something I'll take the tripod, and set it up so the camera's pointing at what I want to take a picture of. I can then take various different pictures with the same framing. It also makes longer exposures more probable, though often you can improvise a camera support if you don't have a tripod, the tripod is designed to do that.

If I'm doing "studio" work, I'll use a tripod. If I'm taking a particular landscape, or series of landscapes, like a sunrise, or sunset, I'll use a tripod. Sunrise and sunset, you get both the consistent framing and longer exposures.

If I'm doing astrophotography, including comets, I'll use a tripod (and a star drive as well).

If I'm doing macro work, I'll most likely be using a tripod.

faunagraphy said:

Asking because I shoot wildlife but do not own a tripod (I have a monopod that I usually leave at home).

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I never have for wildlife, but there are times it could be useful, like stalking a bird waiting for it to take off.

Knee pads, bean bag, a relatively small Crumpler insert, a really cheap (like $16 on Amazon) super light HikPro backpack (one of the best purchases I've ever made), a really good Fiesol tripod that is really overkill for m43, and I don't recall the brand but a good ball head that is really stable with any of the equipment I own, extra batteries, polarizing filters. I have lots of other stuff, some fairly expensive, but the above are things I use a lot and find really useful.

I don't think that I can point to one piece of my "best non-camera photography gear" as I have lots of things which I need but from purely enjoynment point of view it is definitely my cheap pistol grip.

Fantastic thing for long tele-lenses, especially those manual ones.

faunagraphy said:

jeffharris said:

faunagraphy said:

Thank you all for your responses - I've learned a lot from this thread! For those of you who find tripods useful - what's your most common use case?

Click to expand...

When I shoot macro, I use a tripod and wired shutter release. The lenses are adapted Micro-Nikkor AI-S 105mm f2.8 and 200mm f4 IF. Then there's a 60mm f2.8D.

faunagraphy said:

Do you use them to support heavy lenses, take high-res shots, operate your camera remotely, or something else? Asking because I shoot wildlife but do not own a tripod (I have a monopod that I usually leave at home).

Click to expand...

A monopod is handy out in the woods. I'll stick it in a front pocket when using it.

I also use an UltraPod II resting on my shoulders and chest. It works great with the GX8 and GX7-series tilty EVFs.

Click to expand...

I hadn't heard of the Ultrapod II before, so thanks for the tip! I like how the feet slide out. Your idea for using it to stabilize the camera is ingenious! Also the rubber hood, which deals with the problem of the screw-on part of the hood for the Panasonic 100-400.

Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks.

I was in Costa Rica in the Caribbean coast rainforest and it was pretty dark. the idea sort of popped into my head so I tried it with my GX7 and 100-300mm. Worked great!