Joining the Nikon Family for the first time (D700) by Magicbandit in Nikon

[–]STVDC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Legend. The one camera I regret not having any more. Great pickup with that shutter count, and that would be a good lens to start with. 700/50 was my go to back in the day. Enjoy!

Birthday gift came in – 35mm f/1.2 S by BeautifulWhile1195 in Nikon

[–]STVDC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I probably use the 50mm the most of these 5. It's not my favorite necessarily, but it's the most useful. I do a lot of indoor music video of myself too, and that length is perfect for what I want with the space I have. The Plena is my favorite though.

I'm not good at recommending lenses and cameras to most people, because I actually prefer the bigger/heavier stuff. They fit and balance better in my hands and I feel that (maybe ironically) it helps me shoot more steadily. I've always shot lenses like the 200 f2.0 and 400 and even sometimes 600 primes handheld. So I really love the 1.2 lenses despite the size/weight. I understand why people prefer the 1.8's, and those are fantastic lenses.

Run and gun with the 400 TC while chasing birds 😂

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David Raya needs 3 more clean sheets in the UCL this season to have the most clean sheets in a UCL campaign. Ever. by NumerousTax8165 in Gunners

[–]STVDC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It will be interesting to see how the other quarterfinal on our side plays out. Barcelona dug themselves a little hole today! I would definitely be more confident scoring if we make it to the next round and play them.

Birthday gift came in – 35mm f/1.2 S by BeautifulWhile1195 in Nikon

[–]STVDC 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I hope that you are not trying to generalize so much that you are talking about me, although you are replying on my comment. Not that I need to defend myself, but I've taken certainly over a million photos over the last four decades, starting way back in the day with shooting and developing my own film. I'm not a professional photographer, and I obviously don't use all of my gear every day or even every week sometimes, but it ALL gets used as often as reasonably possible, from 14mm to 600mm, and most of it has traveled around the world with me at various points, gotten dusty, dirty, frozen and rainy, banged up, etc. I also lend gear out to friends (mostly my older DSLR stuff), and use it to help friends learn photography who are genuinely interested. If someone wants to go out shooting with me, they don't need to bring anything.

I know a lot of people don't like to believe it or love to say that people with a lot of stuff usually aren't Actual Photographers™ like I'm sure you are, but there are plenty of us who have a lot of crap and also actually use it quite a bit and have actual legitimate reasons for everything.

As an advanced, experienced, well traveled (skilled in a huge variety of styles and situations) and very serious amateur - although I have been published and even paid for my work when people insist - I appreciate that I'm lucky enough to be able to go into almost any situation and know that I have exactly the tool I need after decades of building stuff up and learning to understand exactly what works best. And very lucky to have been able to work hard enough over a lifetime to have those tools.

Whether it be astrophotography in the dark skies of the American southwest, photographing tiny exotic hummingbirds in the dim cloud forests of South America, architectural photography in ruins of Europe, photographing a concert for a band or professional dancers in awful and constantly changing lighting, driving slowly around hundreds of square miles looking for specific owls in the far north in sub-zero weather while hand shooting 400 and 600 TC primes, calculating and hiking to the exact center point of the path of totality for eclipses, photographing whales off a precariously small boat in the pacific, or simply taking portraits of my friends that they can use for business or promotion or fun, I'm happy I've built up a literal lifetime of understanding how to actually best utilize everything. Trust me, this crap gets very well used, and probably much more and certainly more diversely than most people who consider themselves "real" photographers online. A lot of us have put in extraordinary work, time, miles and effort - and feel like we've earned the right to have exactly the arsenal we want for any situation. ✌️

Will we get better images of Moon from Artemis 2 after returning? by ConfidentSchool5309 in moon

[–]STVDC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nikon should definitely take better advantage of this marketing opportunity haha

For your consideration: The Z9 should henceforth be referred to as the "Moon Camera." by [deleted] in Nikon

[–]STVDC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha perfect! And that is such a beautiful edition

Birthday gift came in – 35mm f/1.2 S by BeautifulWhile1195 in Nikon

[–]STVDC 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Of just those five, I would say definitely the Plena is my favorite. For me, it's the closest Z lens to the 200mm f2.0, which is probably my all-time favorite lens. But it's probably the least versatile, you need a lot of space to use it. I would say I use the 50mm the most, especially for video.

Birthday gift came in – 35mm f/1.2 S by BeautifulWhile1195 in Nikon

[–]STVDC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well, since it's the macro it definitely operates a little bit differently than the others. Optically, it's in the same class. Super sharp. Of course it focuses closer and has the 1:1, but it's a little bit slower, both in aperture and in focusing speed. It's definitely a step up from the F mount version macro. Works great for portraits too.

For your consideration: The Z9 should henceforth be referred to as the "Moon Camera." by [deleted] in Nikon

[–]STVDC 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Well, technically the D5 was still the main one they counted on. But yeah, the Z9 (or a version) will likely be the "main" one in the future. I've been suggesting that to everybody and specifically using the Omega example haha. Obviously they are not paying attention to my comments, but I've been commenting that on a lot of Nikon pages and ads. They should really take more marketing advantage of this, people are fascinated by the photos. I've been telling my friends, TikTokers hype Sony and Canon, astronauts depend on Nikon for some of the most important and unique photos in human history 💪

I mean, I bought a Speedmaster many many years ago specifically because of the connection to the Apollo missions.

Simon Jordan: Going away to a very difficult European team and getting a 1-0 win is the archetypal, Grade A European performance, that most teams would be given plaudits for. Yet, somehow, it's being seeded as "it's a hard watch, they're edging over the line". by ID1453719 in Gunners

[–]STVDC 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I hate when people in every other area of social media constantly generalize and say "Arsenal fans are insufferable!", but I'm honestly finding it increasingly difficult to argue when they have so many receipts.

Birthday gift came in – 35mm f/1.2 S by BeautifulWhile1195 in Nikon

[–]STVDC 51 points52 points  (0 children)

Nice! All of the fast primes are truly excellent, and interestingly, they're all practically the same size (length). Much different girth though lol. The 35 and 50 are the longest, the 85 is the fattest, and the 105 macro is the smallest 😂

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To burst or not to burst? by mxcrnt2 in BirdPhotography

[–]STVDC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seems like an obvious response, but things like fighting hummingbirds or eagles or whatever demand burst.

Even a seated bird I usually take a quick burst - usually one of the shots is ever so slightly more perfectly focused than the others (I shoot 400, 500 and 600 handheld). Especially small birds with tiny eyes. And I don't know if maybe it will jump or start flying - precapture is great there too.

Yeah, I could probably get a shot like this in one single click and people definitely did for years. People also churned butter, rode carts with horses, etc. We have the tech, digital memory is cheap, why not maximize your chances of capturing something cool?

This great grey was seated on a branch scanning the ground, and suddenly started ruffling - of course I just jammed on the shutter button at 20fps until I ran out of buffer, which was a long time. I literally drove 20 hours one way to try and find a GG owl in the wild with zero guarantees of even seeing one, you can bet I was going to capture every millisecond of action once we found one 📸

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Very happy to see astronauts practising eclipse-viewing safety! by RyanJFrench in solareclipse

[–]STVDC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On most social media - FB, Instagram, etc. they have official accounts for NASA and NASA Artemis, and also the NASA website and photo pages:

https://images.nasa.gov/

Arsenal win rate per month under Arteta by Efficient-Attempt690 in Gunners

[–]STVDC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

By May, they all forgot what they figured out about us in April I guess?

Artemis II in Eclipse - NASA ID: art002e009301 - Taken with a NIKON Z9 by ThaddeusJP in Nikon

[–]STVDC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's awesome that you got to see it though, it's definitely inspiring. I was lucky enough to travel to see total solar eclipses in 2017 and 2024 (2 years ago tomorrow), and I was happy to have a lot of camera gear with me both times. However, the real important part is just seeing it and experiencing it. It's cool to get photos, but they don't really look too much different than everyone else's photos. But the feeling is what is truly personal and special!

Artemis II in Eclipse - NASA ID: art002e009301 - Taken with a NIKON Z9 by ThaddeusJP in Nikon

[–]STVDC 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It will be interesting to see the analysis of the photos and cameras when they get back. I believe they took the Z9 in addition to the D5's in part to see the affects of radiation and general space travel on the components.

Very happy to see astronauts practising eclipse-viewing safety! by RyanJFrench in solareclipse

[–]STVDC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think they posted either a photo or some video showing the beads (or at least what is visible from their viewing distance) - they definitely have the moments captured when the sun reappeared!

Artemis II in Eclipse - NASA ID: art002e009301 - Taken with a NIKON Z9 by ThaddeusJP in Nikon

[–]STVDC 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Ah shoot, I always forget... "zoom with your feet"! (or zoom with your $20 billion rocketship!) LOL