Simple tips

[Ricey]

This weekend I learnt a ridiculously simple tip from Dullbird.

I never knew that you could reverse attach the hood lense, which is useful for storage in the camera bag & also for when using the flash at night instead of putting it down somewhere & possibly losing it. Thanks Lou!

[Slunnie]

I do that too. Where I get into trouble is when changing lenses a lot and I start stacking the lens hoods in the case.... they all look the same to me. :lol2:

[dullbird]

When Changing lens's always point the Camera body downwards as it helps to avoid dust getting into the body and onto the sensor.

Your never going to completely avoid it but trying not to change the lens in dusty conditions and when changing doing this it helps to keep the dust down

[werdan]

ok thanks...dont have a puffer I have a lens cleaning pen and cloths and that is it. what about a ear bud?

wont it effect the light that is being reflected?

You could give it a go if you are very gentle. If you knock the mirror out of alignment, the ability to focus the camera in manual & auto, will be greatly diminished.

Here's a pic of what the mirror is doing..

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/03/208.jpg

As you can see, the mirror pushes the light from the lens to the view finder so you can see exactly what you are going to shoot (green line). A secondary mirror directs light from the lens to the AF sensors so that it can autofocus (purple line). When you shoot, both mirrors swing up and out of the way so the light goes directly from the lens to the sensor (yellow line) controlled via the shutter and aperture (not shown) .

[dmdigital]

Don't zoom quickly, especially on kit lenses and the push/slide style as this has a slight bellows effect and can eventually force dust in to the camera.


Carry an grey lens cloth (18% grey would be perfect), this will double as a white balance card if required. Of course better still get a White Balance card.

[dullbird]

When ever changing camera settings for night photography or the likes at the end of your play...always make a habit of changing settings back to standard for example returning your ISO to 100

A number of times I have been shooting only to realise that I have been shooting with specific settings for another scenario

[rmp]

Carry an grey lens cloth (18% grey would be perfect), this will double as a white balance card if required. Of course better still get a White Balance card.

or don't bother with any of that, shoot RAW and adjust it during PP.

[werdan]

When ever changing camera settings for night photography or the likes at the end of your play...always make a habit of changing settings back to standard for example returning your ISO to 100

A number of times I have been shooting only to realise that I have been shooting with specific settings for another scenario

I've fallen for that quite a few times. I ended up making up an acronym for a checklist.. 'MICE'

M - Metering
I - ISO
C - Colour balance
E - Exposure compensation

[dmdigital]

or don't bother with any of that, shoot RAW and adjust it during PP.
Which is why it is handy to have a correctly balanced grey card in one shot. PP of RAW then is simply click on the grey and balance it out


When ever changing camera settings for night photography or the likes at the end of your play...always make a habit of changing settings back to standard for example returning your ISO to 100

A number of times I have been shooting only to realise that I have been shooting with specific settings for another scenario
DB, don't know if the D80 has 4 shooting menu banks like the D200. If it does you can then have it set up for different configurations and simply select the one you want to use.

[Ricey]

You will think I am incredibly dumb :D:D
My 17-300mm lens came with the hood reversed. I looked at it and thought it should be the other way but was too afraid to try removing it and turning it around:D:D
I have just done it....it looks like a proper lens now :p:p:p:p:p:p

That is fantastic NM! I'm glad I mentioned what Lou did here so that others can add and learn from each other.
All the best
Pete