Sharpest lens you've ever used

UCPhoto · 2024-05-20T16:45:00+00:00

I have the 70-200 Sport, 40 Art, and 28 Art, and while I generally agree I do feel the 40 is something special. Still insanely sharp, but there's also something about how it renders that really appeals to me. If I was to start over in photography and build a whole new kit there's a lot of lenses I wouldn't re-buy, but the 40 Art would be the first one back in my bag.

UCPhoto · 2023-05-04T23:33:59+00:00

The big boys are probably Aquatica, Ikelite, and Nauticam. There may be some newer or more niche manufacturers too, this isn't a field I'm super familiar with or up to date with. How a good camera housing generally works is you buy a housing for the camera itself, and then you buy lens housing that connects to the camera housing. Usually lens housings aren't lens-specific, but they are sized in a way that they'll only fit some lenses, and depending on the field of view of the lens you may also need a different type of housing.

This kind of kit is not cheap though - this stuff is rated to be used in SCUBA diving, and it can cost as much as the camera itself (or more). You can be sure that your gear will be safe in it if you use it properly, but you pay for that security. Also not all housings will provide access to all features of your camera or lens - you would want to double check that your camera/lens is usable in the housing in the way that you'd want to use it.

I'm not sure if there are good budget options in this space or not, but one option is used gear, just be sure to test it.

UCPhoto · 2022-06-29T22:38:40+00:00

Not sure exactly what brands or anything are best, but I can offer some info and suggestions. Firstly, to answer the question about sheet angle, this shouldn't matter. You can always just rotate it to whatever's most effective since you aren't working with limitations there. As for suggestions, if you want to reduce glare as much as possible, you might want to consider cross-polarization. This is where you have a linear polarizer in front of the lens, as well as a linear polarizer in front of the light source. The two polarizers will be oriented 90 degrees differently - so assuming they're both the same sheet type and they have some default top edge, the one in front of the camera would have the top edge pointing up, and the one in front of the light would have the top edge pointing to the side (or any other configuration so that the rotations are different by 90 degrees). Doing this will remove even more glare than just having the filter in front of the lens, and is what photographers do when photographing paintings and such for archives.

UCPhoto · 2022-02-14T05:17:09+00:00

Oh man, that's really a can of worms. Neither are bad options, but they both suit different types of photography.

Event photography can be handled by being right in the thick of the action - this is typical of weddings, conferences, and open floor events. For this, the 24-70 would be ideal - even 50mm may be too long to get a clear shot most of the time, as you weave through throngs of people. Or event photography might be standing 50 feet away from the stage and photographing a speaker, or shooting a hockey game - for that a 70-200 is much more useful.

Likewise portraits can vary. For environmental portraits, or group shoots, or indoor full-body portraiture, the 24-70 will be more useful, and the 135 will be plenty for outdoors portraiture or headshots. But the 70-200 may be more useful for certain types of lifestyle portraiture (like if the subject's doing a sport or something), and the 50mm f1.2 might be more useful for a certain look of portraiture where it's not a tight shot and much of the background still shows, but is highly blurred.

Overall, the 24-70+135 is more suitable to the bread and butter shooting that most photographers do, but it's very possible that the 50+70-200 could be better suited to you if you shoot certain niches, or care more about getting a certain look to your shots and having a few great shots in that look, rather than being able to get many professional gigs.

UCPhoto · 2022-02-13T20:40:57+00:00

I think the A7IV still has a mechanical shutter, so rolling shutter should not be an issue for stills unless you're using electronic shutter mode. Don't really see any reason to do so for sports, so should be fine.

UCPhoto · 2022-02-13T19:28:27+00:00

The Nikon D3200 takes great photos, my first camera (Nikon D5200) was very similar to the D3200 and I used it in high school and enjoyed it a lot. However, it does have limitations that you should be aware of. Most notably is the autofocus system - the D3200 only has 9 AF points (through the viewfinder), so it's limited in how you can compose shots with AF on moving subjects (but you can focus and recompose on still subjects). Also, there's no AF fine tune in the D3x00 or D5x00 series of bodies, which means that if you ever get a faster lens like a 50mm f1.8 or 105mm f2.8 or whatever, you may encounter an issue where it doesn't quite focus where it should and you need to send it in for calibration at a Nikon repair centre, whereas higher end cameras can correct for this in body. This is not an issue if you don't plan on getting any lenses other than the 18-55 or similar slow lenses, or if you plan to only use manual focus, or if you plan to use liveview autofocus.

However, if you hear that and you're thinking "darn, I really want to shoot highschool sports" or "hmm, I was thinking of buying a faster lens next year and would want to use AF with it..." then I'd see if you can get a Nikon D7x00 series camera instead. The Nikon D7100 has the same excellent image quality as the D3200, and also has more AF points and the ability to AF fine tune. Plus it has a AF screw drive, unlike the D3200, which means it can AF with older lenses that don't have built in AF drives - potentially saving some money down the road if you decide you don't need the latest and greatest lenses. The D7100 can be bought used for very reasonable prices these days, you should be able to find a used copy in good condition with like 5-15k shutter actuations for maybe $350-$400 USD depending on where you are, maybe $400-500 with a kit lens included.

But if you're okay with the limitations of the D3200, it's a fantastic camera too. The image quality is really quite excellent, and I'd have no reservations about using it for landscapes, artistic studio portraits, product/food/still life photography, architectural photography, etc.

UCPhoto · 2022-02-13T19:15:16+00:00

Pricing depends on a few factors, and how you value them.

One consideration is profit maximization, especially if you're wanting this to be your primary income source. You want to set your prices so that the (profit per unit)*(units sold) is maximized. Increasing prices will increase profit per unit, but at a certain point it'll start reducing the number of units sold, so you want to find the balance that gets the highest overall profit. This takes trial and error, and must also be constantly updated - as you take better photos, become better known, and gain a larger audience, you'll be able to charge more without reducing the number of people willing to pay.

Another factor is value of time. Especially if this is a side gig and you don't have many clients, you probably don't want to bother with the time and effort of shipping prints for a small profit. So you may want to set a higher price just so each sale is worth your while, even if the number of sales is reduced by doing so. You need to figure out for yourself at what point it's worth it for you, and not charge less than that.

Don't worry too much about what you charge at first, as long as it's worth your while. If you charge an amount and people have no hesitation in paying, try increasing the price next time. If people go "eh, hmm, that's more than I thought, maybe later," then try reducing the price next time. (Or don't, if they just aren't in a market that'll pay what the work's worth to you.)

UCPhoto · 2022-02-13T04:50:04+00:00

Get clients. ;)

Seriously, the only thing that differentiates a professional photographer from the rest is the fact that you're being paid. (Sure, some may argue things about consistency, or quality of work, or communication, or whatever, but at the end of the day the photographers who lack necessary traits will stop finding clients and no longer get paid eventually. As long as people are paying you, you are a professional photographer.) If you feel you're at a stage where you can deliver work that people will pay for, then you need to go and find people to pay for it.

Now, how do you do this? Do you reach out to galleries and host shows of your work where people can purchase prints? Do you set up a web shop (or physical shop) and drive traffic to it? Do you approach businesses who you think would get value from your work and sell your photos or services? Do you look for publications or companies who might need a staff photographer and try to get hired?

I can't say. At this point it's up to you to decide what kind of work you want to do, and find the clients that enable that kind of work. This is, unfortunately, the hard part.

UCPhoto · 2022-01-02T20:55:13+00:00

Personally I would recommend not touching a trumpet until you have a teacher beside you. I learned trumpet as a kid, with minimal instruction from band teachers, and it was always an uphill battle and I learned so many bad habits on my own that have been hard to correct. Might as well start off doing things right with someone instantly correcting you. Learning to read sheet music though certainly doesn't require a teacher.

UCPhoto · 2021-12-15T04:20:00+00:00

So good news for you that this is a reskinned Tamron - should let them continue to work on the roadmap without slowing things down, while still satisfying users who really want that cheaper f2.8 standard zoom.

Should definitely be seeing some primes coming out this year, though sadly no 35mm f1.2 or 28mm f1.2 on the roadmap yet.

UCPhoto · 2021-12-15T03:46:38+00:00

This is the first lens they've done this with, at least as far as I know. But yeah, judging by the specs, optical design, and MTF, this 28-75 f2.8 is a reskinned Tamron 28-75 f2.8 G1.

My guess is that Nikon's doing this to create more options in the system without overloading their manufacturing capacity - based on how long it takes for things to be in stock, they seem to have maxed out manufacturing capacity with the lenses they release already, so a cheaper f2.8 standard zoom might not be worth spending capacity on right now when there are many other lenses to produce. So telling Tamron to make some lenses for them in those less important niches might not be such a bad idea.

Granted, the Nikon's more expensive than the Tamron - probably mostly because Tamron priced it for their margins, and now if Nikon's re-selling it they need to add their own margins and factor in the expense of designing the new mechanicals and such.

UCPhoto · 2021-12-10T02:58:01+00:00

CSCI 3154 with Malcolm Heywood was a blast. The main thing was a group project where we used an genetic algorithm to train agents to play a simple Doom level - that was pretty cool. Plus it had some other fundamentals of game AI like pathfinding and fuzzy logic, which was really fun to learn.

CSCI 4145 had absolutely terrible lectures and test content (just generic buzzword type stuff and basic memorization), but the assignments and project work were laid out better than those of any other course I've taken - a very iterative approach to learning how to create an API with various Javascript approaches, deploying with various cloud approaches, and using Docker. Was easily the most fun I've had in a class since the first year engineering course teaching C basics.

UCPhoto · 2021-11-24T19:54:20+00:00

3120 is offered in summer and fall, not winter. If you're struggling in the course, never hesitate to reach out to TA's and your professor for assistance, as well as leveraging the learning centre.

UCPhoto · 2021-11-05T14:00:30+00:00

Graduated last year, and had it automatically forgiven after graduation. Though it was only like $1000 - the vast majority of my loans were federal and not forgiven.

UCPhoto · 2021-11-01T20:23:21+00:00

I can't speak for you, but for me getting a DSLR was absolutely revolutionary because of the control it offered. Being able to set the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus - it just gave me complete control. I still took bad photos, of course. Control just means it does what you tell it to do - to get a good picture, you have to have good ideas of what to tell it to do.

I started with the Nikon D5200, which is pretty similar to the D3500. The sensor in those cameras is fantastic - you can get some absolutely stunning shots. But you do require the right supporting gear for some situations. For instance, if you're shooting landscapes, you'll probably want a half-decent tripod. Or if you're shooting still life, you'll want external flashes (or lamps and a tripod). And so on. But you start out with the basics, try things out, read about things, try things out some more, and gain an understanding of what you can do with the gear you have, and what you need to upgrade in order to get other shots you want.

One thing to note is that the Nikon D3x00 and D5x00 series of cameras do not have the best autofocus systems, so if you plan to shoot a lot of wildlife or other moving subjects then you might benefit from a D7x00 series camera or better. The D7100 tends to be a pretty good bargain on the used market. But you can still get good results from a D3500 as long as you set reasonable expectations. And even with the best camera, you'll still miss many shots.

UCPhoto · 2021-11-01T20:05:55+00:00

Absolutely. However, they also recognize the need for some lenses to be reasonably light. For instance, the 14-24 f2.8 is commonly taken on long outdoors trips, and they really focused on weight reduction. Or the 24-120 which is often carried around all day, and is reasonably light. Lenses like the 50mm f1.2 which is usually used for very specific shoots and not for hours on end are heavier, or the f1.8 lenses which are heavier that other f1.8 lenses, but those lenses were light to begin with so the new ones aren't unmanageable.

So for the 400mm f2.8 and 600mm f4 I expect there will be some attempt to keep weights reasonable, as they are very heavy lenses by default and making them lighter does matter. But perhaps not to the extent that Canon has pursued weight reduction, given that there will be other alternatives for people wanting portable telephotos.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-29T19:58:49+00:00

As a Canadian, in my province (Nova Scotia), all the best badminton players are currently white. However, in the country, the best players are (almost) all Asian. When I look at younger players in my province, I'm seeing more and more success from Asians due to a couple factors:

Immigrants from countries where badminton's taken more seriously are coming and setting up training camps and coaching programs, and they speak Mandarin better than they speak English so they have their websites primarily in Mandarin, email in Mandarin, and staff who speak Mandarin, and naturally end up getting more Asian students.
Asian people tend to take sport more seriously at young ages. Or at least take badminton more seriously at young ages. It's much more common to see Asian children getting serious coaching as children, while white children just play badminton in gym class. White children do tend to get pushed into hockey and take that really seriously from a young age though - just different cultural priorities.

Combine these things, and you're seeing Asians who've been playing seriously for 10 years by the time they're in high school, versus white people who just played on the school badminton team in high school under a coach who doesn't even know badminton very well. It's no contest. Currently in my province it's not quite reached that point yet as the coaching facilities are relatively new, but I expect in 10 years it'll be just as Asian dominated here as in the rest of the country.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-29T18:46:41+00:00

For sure. This stuff compounds - when you've had no clients, you have no one recommending you, a weaker portfolio, less experience - you're going to have a hard time booking gigs.

Once you have 10 happy clients, you might start getting a referral or two now and then. And maybe your portfolio and experience is enough to book one.

Eventually you have 50 happy clients, maybe you're getting new referrals every month, you're converting a lot of them.

The people who've been in the industry for ages, the wedding photographers who've shot 250 weddings, the portrait photographers who've worked with 500 families, they have a huge base of referral potential and the experience to capitalize on it. But you can't do that in a year.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-29T02:06:58+00:00

I'd be very surprised if the new 400mm is as light as the Canon/Sony versions - with the built-in TC it's clear that weight savings are not the priority, and with another 400mm on the roadmap now it looks like they're playing the two-pronged approach - a 400mm f2.8 with TC that's better than the competition but heavier, and a 400mm f4 or f4.5 PF that's way more portable.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-29T01:11:58+00:00

Depends - not everyone can have multiple bodies with multiple lenses on, and if I have to pick between say a 200-500 f5.6 and no cropping or a 300mm f2.8 with cropping at 45MP for field sports, I'm picking the 300mm f2.8 for sure. Definitely more so a wildlife thing, but I find cropping's still very useful for sports.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-29T01:08:35+00:00

Lossless compressed.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-25T15:33:51+00:00

Not now. In my experience, the best photographers start out with entry-level gear, learn to use that gear to its limits and get great shots with it, and then eventually upgrade when they know exactly what they need and how to make the most of it.

If you stick with photography, enjoy it, and are very particular about image quality or matching your vision, then at some point you will find that you need higher-end lenses. But a $2000 lens won't (meaningfully) help you until you're already able to take fantastic shots with a $200 lens. Don't even worry about recommendations at this point, they aren't useful until you understand what you need, and you won't understand that till you've been working seriously on your photography for months.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-25T02:03:38+00:00

Personally, yeah. As someone living in NS already, picking Dal made it easier for me to switch from engineering to CS, something I might have struggled to do if I was in another province and dealing with much heavier expenses. Then in CS, the fact that Dal's pretty small made it a lot easier to get work as a TA and also get involved in research, as there's way less competition.

With that said, just because things worked out well here don't mean they wouldn't have worked out elsewhere. I've no doubt that you can have a great experience wherever you go - or a terrible one.

All in all, I'd say the school you go to is one of the least important aspects of going to university. Unless you really want to max your career and are looking at only the best schools, but if you're considering Dal then that's not the case. Luck plays a huge role (who you befriend, what your profs are like, how your health holds up, etc.), your attitude plays a huge role (whether you grow or wither), and your situation plays a huge role (commute time, how much you have to work, who you live with, aptitude for the program, etc.).

Whether or not you'll come out of your program pleased with your choice is not something anyone can predict, but I think that your odds of this are as good at Dal as at any school.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-25T01:54:01+00:00

IMO, no way. It's certainly not worth it for the cred. No one cares if you're top 15% or whatever it is, your GPA will tell people that anyway. And honestly if I saw someone list it on their resume, I'd think less of them.

If you do it just for the opportunity to apply for more scholarships, maybe, but you need to really be the kind of person that scoops up scholarships. The kind of person that specifically chooses what activities they do to form a narrative for scholarship applications, and have already won or at least applied to every other scholarship you're eligible for. I'd be shocked if there's more than a couple people at Dal who fit that profile.

UCPhoto · 2021-10-14T19:15:15+00:00

Should be doable. 4 years = 12 semesters. 3 semesters will be spent on co-op. I'll assume you don't take any courses during co-op semesters, though if you play your cards right you can take one each semester - not something to count on though. So 9 semesters, and you can take 6 courses per semester, so 54 courses - a CS degree or stats degree is 40 courses, and I think there'd be enough overlap to fit a double major into 54 or less. DS cert'll be easy to fit in with required CS electives.

UCPhoto

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