Q. I am planing a couple trips in the next year. First trip is to go up to Alaska or Canada and I want to try and get some nice Polar Bear and Musk Oxen shots. Then I am going to be going out to Yellowstone to try and photograph wolves and finally I will be taking a trip to Australia and New Zealand and am hoping to get some great landscape and animal shots. But now I have to figure out what is going to be the best camera for me to get. I have a budget of around $3500.
Right now I am looking at the Nikon D 7100, Nikon D 7000, Cannon EOS 7 D, and Sony Alpha SLT-A77.
I am also then figureing on getting either a 300mm or 400mm lens then buying a 2X teleconverter. I'm trying to do all this for $3500 or less I know its going to be tough. Obviously I can not afford the real nice lenses in the 300mm zoom so how much is this going to affect my quality if I get a little bit cheaper lens? My goal is I want to have nice enough pictures to where I could blow them up and hang them up around my house with out the image getting grainy or fuzzy. I'm looking at blowing them up to 24 x 36 and maybe bigger for landscape shots.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much for your time.
Right now I am looking at the Nikon D 7100, Nikon D 7000, Cannon EOS 7 D, and Sony Alpha SLT-A77.
I am also then figureing on getting either a 300mm or 400mm lens then buying a 2X teleconverter. I'm trying to do all this for $3500 or less I know its going to be tough. Obviously I can not afford the real nice lenses in the 300mm zoom so how much is this going to affect my quality if I get a little bit cheaper lens? My goal is I want to have nice enough pictures to where I could blow them up and hang them up around my house with out the image getting grainy or fuzzy. I'm looking at blowing them up to 24 x 36 and maybe bigger for landscape shots.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much for your time.
A. You might get to see these animals, but don't get your hopes up too high. The Nikon D7100 with 18-105mm could be a good choice of camera for most of your shots. A super duper great telephoto to get the kind of shots you are dreaming of will blow your budget. For less ambitious but pretty good shots you could get the Nikon 70-300mm AF-S VR (the good 70-300, not the cheapo). Forget about a 2X teleconverter. The 70-300mm lacks a tripod collar, and it will be front heavy. You will want to bring a tripod. You need to think about what day pack you will carry it in, as the tripod must fit. There are some decent travel tripods. However, the light duty ballhead on some of these may be barely adequate with the 70-300mm. You need to assemble something with a good medium duty 3 way pan head, like maybe the Manfrotto 804RC2 or the Induro PHT2. BTW, if you want to point a panhead higher than about 30 degrees, the trick is to put the quick release plate on backwards.
Which brings us to, when do you expect to do this?
Winter, aurora watching?
You will need serious clothes.
http://www.martingrumet.com/yellowknife01-30-2013-02-2000.jpg
Carry your camera in a padded case with several handwarmer packs. Have an extra charged battery in your pocket. Two layers of glove liners with handwarmer packs inside can probably give you adequate dexterity without freezing your fingers.
Also have a clean, dry cotton handkerchief in the bag to wipe off condensation.
Getting focused in the dark could be a problem. You might be able to lock on autofocus on a distant street light, and switch to manual. Or you could spend more money on an older style AF-D prime lens like a 20mm or 24mm, and be able to dial to infinity in the dark.
For aurora shots set white balance to daylight. Practice with your equipment at home before you go on your trip. Maybe ISO is 800. More gets noisy. Exposure time maybe 20 seconds. More shows star trails. Also the aurora is dynamic, and more exposure makes it look blob like.
http://www.martingrumet.com/yellowknife02-05-2013-01-2000.jpg
http://www.martingrumet.com/yellowknife02-05-2013-02-2000.jpg
About midnight to 2am is often best activity, although not always.
Which brings us to, when do you expect to do this?
Winter, aurora watching?
You will need serious clothes.
http://www.martingrumet.com/yellowknife01-30-2013-02-2000.jpg
Carry your camera in a padded case with several handwarmer packs. Have an extra charged battery in your pocket. Two layers of glove liners with handwarmer packs inside can probably give you adequate dexterity without freezing your fingers.
Also have a clean, dry cotton handkerchief in the bag to wipe off condensation.
Getting focused in the dark could be a problem. You might be able to lock on autofocus on a distant street light, and switch to manual. Or you could spend more money on an older style AF-D prime lens like a 20mm or 24mm, and be able to dial to infinity in the dark.
For aurora shots set white balance to daylight. Practice with your equipment at home before you go on your trip. Maybe ISO is 800. More gets noisy. Exposure time maybe 20 seconds. More shows star trails. Also the aurora is dynamic, and more exposure makes it look blob like.
http://www.martingrumet.com/yellowknife02-05-2013-01-2000.jpg
http://www.martingrumet.com/yellowknife02-05-2013-02-2000.jpg
About midnight to 2am is often best activity, although not always.
How would I go about filming a documentary on my senior year?
Q. I'm about to enter my senior year of High School and I'd like to film the senior year of my friends and I from the last weeks of summer of 2013 till the day before we all leave for our respective universities. I've had this idea for quite some time but im not quite sure how to go about it like should i film in school? or could i even film in school? What aspects should i capture? If one of us mistakenly or purposely does something illegal could we get in trouble if it is on film?
I plan to show the film probably for our five year class reunion
Also, which would be the ideal camera for filming and what editing programs should I use. Any and all input is greatly appreciated!
I plan to show the film probably for our five year class reunion
Also, which would be the ideal camera for filming and what editing programs should I use. Any and all input is greatly appreciated!
A. If you really want to know how its done then just go out their and do it. That is really the best way to learn.
1:
It might cost you some money but if you go to Radio Shak (or shop around on the net) you could see about getting some sort of little camera that you can conceal like in your hat or something. I would suggest using two cameras at all times film your documentary, one that is concealed and one is a small handheld.
2:
When filming just be casual and relaxed don't act nervious or suspicous because this will draw unwanted attention to yourself. Just act normal, you are not really doing anything wrong anyway.
3:
The first thing you should think about is that you don't need to make a spectacle of the fact that you are making a documentary, the less people who know the less oppisition you will have from anyone.
4:
You don't even have to tell people right away (around or after graduation) because it will be more of a surprise to everyone when you show it for reunion.
5:
Your filming should focus on all of the fun things including your friends and teachers who are close to you. Don't forget to included yourself if you also want to be in your documentary, maybe have someone else take turns filming for you.
6:
Try and make people feel special and capture the special moments even for the social outcasts, just generailly try and make people feel good about themselves.
7:
Stay away from contraversial issues. don't film anything that would hurt anyone because this will just turn something good into something bad.
8:
You should film all the major events like dances, homecoming etc etc.
9:
When filming try and be within a reasonable range so that you get really good sound and picture quality.
10:
Be really mindful of the fact if you are moving around a lot, up and down etc. etc. then the video is going to be very shaky and no one likes watching shaky, bouncy, bad quality video.
Try and use a tripod whenever possible probably at like events.
11:
whatever footage you get you should upload it to your computer daily that way in case someone does attempt to keep you from filming a documentary you will still have some footage. YOU SHOULD SAVE AND UPLOAD THE FOOTAGE YOU GET ON A DAILY BASIS.
INDIEGOGO .COM is a very popular crowdfunding website among independent /short film producers, this might prove to be an invaluable resource to you as well.
It would probably help for you to read this list of books
1: The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent Producers
by Thomas A. Crowell (Paperback)
2: All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger
by Lloyd Kaufman (Paperback)
Any of the books by Lloyd Kaufman, he is somewhat of an authority on independent filmmaking.
3: Motion Picture and Video Lighting
by Blain Brown (Paperback)
4: The Filmmaker's Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition
by Gustavo Mercado (Paperback)
5: The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age
by Edward Pincus (Paperback)
1:
It might cost you some money but if you go to Radio Shak (or shop around on the net) you could see about getting some sort of little camera that you can conceal like in your hat or something. I would suggest using two cameras at all times film your documentary, one that is concealed and one is a small handheld.
2:
When filming just be casual and relaxed don't act nervious or suspicous because this will draw unwanted attention to yourself. Just act normal, you are not really doing anything wrong anyway.
3:
The first thing you should think about is that you don't need to make a spectacle of the fact that you are making a documentary, the less people who know the less oppisition you will have from anyone.
4:
You don't even have to tell people right away (around or after graduation) because it will be more of a surprise to everyone when you show it for reunion.
5:
Your filming should focus on all of the fun things including your friends and teachers who are close to you. Don't forget to included yourself if you also want to be in your documentary, maybe have someone else take turns filming for you.
6:
Try and make people feel special and capture the special moments even for the social outcasts, just generailly try and make people feel good about themselves.
7:
Stay away from contraversial issues. don't film anything that would hurt anyone because this will just turn something good into something bad.
8:
You should film all the major events like dances, homecoming etc etc.
9:
When filming try and be within a reasonable range so that you get really good sound and picture quality.
10:
Be really mindful of the fact if you are moving around a lot, up and down etc. etc. then the video is going to be very shaky and no one likes watching shaky, bouncy, bad quality video.
Try and use a tripod whenever possible probably at like events.
11:
whatever footage you get you should upload it to your computer daily that way in case someone does attempt to keep you from filming a documentary you will still have some footage. YOU SHOULD SAVE AND UPLOAD THE FOOTAGE YOU GET ON A DAILY BASIS.
INDIEGOGO .COM is a very popular crowdfunding website among independent /short film producers, this might prove to be an invaluable resource to you as well.
It would probably help for you to read this list of books
1: The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent Producers
by Thomas A. Crowell (Paperback)
2: All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger
by Lloyd Kaufman (Paperback)
Any of the books by Lloyd Kaufman, he is somewhat of an authority on independent filmmaking.
3: Motion Picture and Video Lighting
by Blain Brown (Paperback)
4: The Filmmaker's Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition
by Gustavo Mercado (Paperback)
5: The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age
by Edward Pincus (Paperback)
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