Blue Duck said:

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https://fstoppers.com/gear/sony-announces-fe-200-600mm-f56-63-g-oss-and-600mm-f4-gm-lenses-380828


Go ahead and take my money...

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For the record I'm not buying the $14000 600/f4.

bthotugigem05 said:

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Blue Duck said:

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https://fstoppers.com/gear/sony-announces-fe-200-600mm-f56-63-g-oss-and-600mm-f4-gm-lenses-380828


Go ahead and take my money...

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For the record I'm not buying the $14000 600/f4.

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Did the "some population of suckers who have to have the latest and greatest gear, even if the advantages don't justify the cost" comment turn you off of it?

bthotugigem05 said:

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Blue Duck said:

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https://fstoppers.com/gear/sony-announces-fe-200-600mm-f56-63-g-oss-and-600mm-f4-gm-lenses-380828


Go ahead and take my money...

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For the record I'm not buying the $14000 600/f4.

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.... Yet

Ok Sony users, me and others.

600 mm x 2

I'm not getting one for now but that 200-600 is going to be excellent. I do a good bit of planespotting and that's absolutely perfect for getting a range from the whole plane to seeing what brand of sunglasses the captain is wearing.

That's the one that I'll be ordering, it seem's like it'll be perfect for some wildlife pictures. I've got a 90mm macro supposed to be arriving any day now that I'm excited to put to use.

Blue Duck said:

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That's the one that I'll be ordering, it seem's like it'll be perfect for some wildlife pictures. I've got a 90mm macro supposed to be arriving any day now that I'm excited to put to use.

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The 90 is one of my favorite lenses, up there with the 50 1.4 and 70-200 GM. I use it surprisingly little for macro but it's my main headshot lens.

I'm glad to hear you say that. I don't do many headshots but I plan on using a lot of the macro ability. I like the fact that it can pull double duty and that's why I decided on it.

dubi said:

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Quote:

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Lens shopping is like meth is a terrible habit.

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FIFY

Lens shopping is certainly addictive!

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I'm so glad I got back into golf heavily. So much cheaper than Photography.

Any of you astrophotographers have any good tips for a first timer? I'll be out on a big ranch south of Alpine for a week or so and should have plenty of time to take some star pics. I've downloaded the PhotoPills app and think I've got a decent plan. The moon is a little bright but hopefully I can get some decent shots.

Blue Duck said:

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Any of you astrophotographers have any good tips for a first timer? I'll be out on a big ranch south of Alpine for a week or so and should have plenty of time to take some star pics. I've downloaded the PhotoPills app and think I've got a decent plan. The moon is a little bright but hopefully I can get some decent shots.

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When are you going? Yeah the moon will be a big issue for the next couple of weeks or so if you are wanting star or Milky Way shots. Of course a tripod is pretty much a necessity.

You might try to perfect your focus technique before you go. Focusing in the dark can be tricky for some people. Do not rely on the infinity marker on the lens. Disable autofocus and use manual focus. I use live view and zoom in on a brighter star and manually focus on it. Take a couple of shots, and then check focus by zooming in again. If the moon is out, you could also try focusing on it, which would be easier.

Many people use the "500 Rule" to determine exposure length. Divide 500 by the focal length of your lens to give how many seconds of exposure you need to keep stars from trailing in your photos. For example, using a 50mm lens would give 10 seconds of exposure. A 24mm lens would give 21 seconds, and so on. I often err on the side of caution and subtract a few seconds from those results. Keep in mind that is for a full frame camera. If you are using a crop sensor (APS-C) camera, you will need to decrease your result by a third to half.

Don't be afraid to use a high ISO. Unless you have a really old camera, an ISO of 3200 or 6400 should be okay. The moon could mean using a lower ISO if it is washing out the sky. Just experiment and find the combo you like. If you have a nice foreground, like mountains or an old windmill, the moon could be used to help provide some lighting for it.

Good luck.

I'll be there next week. The moon situation isn't perfect but according to this app right around 9:45 I may have a decent opportunity. I'm not expecting anything exceptional but I do have a couple of windmills and mountains I want to mess around with as foreground. I'm working with a Sony a7iii and a 14/2.8 manual samyang along with a few other lenses. This will be the first trip out with that lens so I'm anxious to see how it goes.

Sadly at 9:45 your main problem isn't the moon but twilight. I personally like shooting the Milky Way with a quarter moon and I've even shot it at big bend with the full moon. It ends up looking like some weird daytime where you can still see stars as the sky is actually visibly blue. Just much fainter.

Everyone and their mother has a new moon milky way shot. Use the full moon as a chance to get something a bit different, IMO.

Good sky app?

In case anyone knows someone looking. Craigslist is not worth the effort anymore.

Nikon F mount, Tamron 150-600 g2

Headed to our place in Alpine this weekend. I'm sure you'll get some great Milky Way shots! I may do the same while I'm down there.

BMo said:

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Good sky app?

In case anyone knows someone looking. Craigslist is not worth the effort anymore.

Nikon F mount, Tamron 150-600 g2

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I always recommend Stellarium for exploring the night sky. It's a pretty powerful program and very customizable. Stellarium can show you as little or as much info as you want.

When I'm using the telescope, I use Sky Portal. It is mainly designed for controlling a computerized Goto telescope, but could still be helpful even without a telescope.

So are you selling off some gear to get the new telephoto lenses announced by Sony?

labmansid said:

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BMo said:

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Good sky app?

In case anyone knows someone looking. Craigslist is not worth the effort anymore.

Nikon F mount, Tamron 150-600 g2

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I always recommend Stellarium for exploring the night sky. It's a pretty powerful program and very customizable. Stellarium can show you as little or as much info as you want.

When I'm using the telescope, I use Sky Portal. It is mainly designed for controlling a computerized Goto telescope, but could still be helpful even without a telescope.

So are you selling off some gear to get the new telephoto lenses announced by Sony?

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Thanks, I'm familiar with Stellarium. I was into telescopes for a while several years ago when living in the woods of Madison Co. I decided camera glass was going to be my focus so I sold the two I had. I still have some Oberwerk 80-200 binos.

I switched from Canon to Sony late spring of last year and didn't have a crop camera body so I bought a used Nikon D500 and this lens. That experiment, while fun, is over and yes I pre-ordered the Sony 200-600 this morning.

Thanks for the info.

Any advice on portrait shooting? Specifically senior portraits? I'm going to try and do my son's this summer at a local park. We've used a guy in the past and if this does not work out I'll use him again but I wanted to give this a shot on my own.

Will use my Z6, 70-200/2.8 and 24-70/4 for the shots. May even try my D7000+50/1.8 combo.

Just looking for a few do's/don'ts (like, don't cut off hands, feet on full length shots, make sure there's no trash lying around) and maybe some pose idea's.

tks

Check background for light poles, power lines, etc.

Even a random tree can be distracting.

Since I upgraded my body from a 30d to an 80d I've been loving the ability to do quick uploads to my phone when I'm out and about shooting. It's nice to do a quick and dirty edit to send out before going home and doing the majority of the work at home in Darktable or Affinity. What apps iOS or Android do y'all use for that? In the past I've used Snapseed but I'm always looking for something better.

Very cool. Where is that?

UpstateAg said:

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Very cool. Where is that?

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That was just west of Abilene yesterday.

Gorgeous photo!

I definitely need to get one of these triggers. Watched an amazing lightning show in Alpine last weekend and didn't have much luck with the camera.

Awesome shot! Looks like a great gadget to have.

My problem with lightning so far this season has been mostly that heavy rain hits before the lightning is readily visible. I have to "break camp" before the good shots become available. That, and not wanting to get out of bed when they hit late at night! Isolated storms would help, rather than these front driven storms we have been having in B/CS. Maybe I can make it back out to Big Bend later this summer.

i haven't done much lightning photography, but i have caught a bolt or two using the motion detection setting in Magic Lantern (3rd party firmware that runs off of the SD card on Canon Cameras).

nice shot!

TexasAggie_02 said:

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i haven't done much lightning photography, but i have caught a bolt or two using the motion detection setting in Magic Lantern (3rd party firmware that runs off of the SD card on Canon Cameras).

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I might have to try that, I've had a little (but limited ) luck with lightning and just repeated photos from a wired remote timer

Or you can be like me and get stranded out in a thunderstorm while trying to take lightning photos.

labmansid said:

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Awesome shot! Looks like a great gadget to have.

My problem with lightning so far this season has been mostly that heavy rain hits before the lightning is readily visible. I have to "break camp" before the good shots become available. That, and not wanting to get out of bed when they hit late at night! Isolated storms would help, rather than these front driven storms we have been having in B/CS. Maybe I can make it back out to Big Bend later this summer.

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Thats definitely an issue with storms when they get here. If its a line then sometimes you get discrete bolts in front but most of the time the main lightning is in the rain. Also, this close to the gulf, storm bases are generally lower due to more moisture in the air (higher dew points) although I have chased a couple of storms south of BCS this year with bases that were pretty high. I got a handful of shots last Sunday from 2 garages on campus of lightning at night, but nothing that I really loved.

Plus out west in places like Big Bend you have a much prettier landscape. The shots I got in town last week have construction and parking lots in the foreground. Not exactly appealing.

MBAR, remind me, you a Canon or Nikon user?

I heard the early MIOPS had issues with the hot shoe slot, trying to figure out if that's been corrected.

So I can make room for the new 100mp Fuji and move my Gfx50s into the backup slot, I need to offload my old Canon gear as it has been sitting around for a year or so. Where has everyone had luck selling their gear?

I went ahead and made a classified post for anyone interested... https://texags.com/forums/50/topics/3042612/replies/54467164