Thread: Simple tips

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.

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

Originally Posted by dullbird

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..



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) .

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.

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

Originally Posted by dm_td5

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.

Originally Posted by 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

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

Originally Posted by rmp

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

Originally Posted by 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

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.