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  #701  
Old Posted Apr 29, 2010, 3:03 AM
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Originally Posted by Doady View Post
I'm have no idea why there would "unknown source." I have never experienced such a thing.
It represents situations where they cannot find out what the source was. Most of it is just people directly linking to something (like from their bookmarks or typing it in), or if they view it from an instant messenger (I know that links clicked in msn will show up under unknown source) or an email client. It's basically a catch all for things that aren't websites. It's simply unusual for a photo to have almost all of its hits from an unknown source, and for those hits to average 15 a day every day.

I'm not sure when stats was released but I think it was only a couple years ago. If you download the stats in a csv file, it only goes back to the summer of 2008.
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  #702  
Old Posted Apr 30, 2010, 5:29 PM
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CS5 has been released. You can download a demo here:
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

First one with a workable crack for the Mac version gets a cookie.
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  #703  
Old Posted Apr 30, 2010, 11:27 PM
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hmmm... i wonder how better it is than the old cs4.

anyone have any ideas?
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  #704  
Old Posted May 2, 2010, 1:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Aleks View Post
hmmm... i wonder how better it is than the old cs4.

anyone have any ideas?
There's no shortage of reviews on the internet. I've noticed that it's a lot faster and the content aware fill, while not perfect, is pretty freakin' cool.

In the picture below, I used CAF to fill in the edges that were blank after creating the pano. I also reduced the pile of rubble on the left, removed a mobile crane just right of the bridge and removed 4 construction cranes from 2 buildings. I pretty much rushed through it and could have done a better job if I knew WTF I was doing and did a better job on my initial selections.

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  #705  
Old Posted May 2, 2010, 11:37 AM
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Ive been off Flickr for a month now and I feel great....
........views ,comments,favs,stats,uploads,etc are gone
out of my system
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  #706  
Old Posted May 2, 2010, 6:39 PM
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I plan to take 4 month hiatus from my photography hobby as well (work for the summer). But I do plan to save up money for major photography equipment for September. I plan to spend $2000 CAD for either: Olympus E-P2 + lenses + accessories, or an Epson 3880 printer + supplies... What do you think?

Currently I am leaning towards the new camera, as it would be my first interchangeable lens camera, and my current camera is over 5 years old and I can't change lenses (fixed 27mm-110mm F2.8-F4.8 lens). But the camera still works so maybe it is not worth replacing for the sake of replacing. And of course, I could simply choose not to spend any money at all...

This would be my first major photography-related purchase since 2004 when I bought my first camera for $740. In 2005, I traded up to my current camera for $150, and bought a tripod and a flash for approximately $250 each in 2008. But otherwise I never really spent much money on photo equipment, so I don't think $2000 is excessive. Or is it?
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  #707  
Old Posted May 3, 2010, 3:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doady View Post
I plan to take 4 month hiatus from my photography hobby as well (work for the summer). But I do plan to save up money for major photography equipment for September. I plan to spend $2000 CAD for either: Olympus E-P2 + lenses + accessories, or an Epson 3880 printer + supplies... What do you think?

Currently I am leaning towards the new camera, as it would be my first interchangeable lens camera, and my current camera is over 5 years old and I can't change lenses (fixed 27mm-110mm F2.8-F4.8 lens). But the camera still works so maybe it is not worth replacing for the sake of replacing. And of course, I could simply choose not to spend any money at all...

This would be my first major photography-related purchase since 2004 when I bought my first camera for $740. In 2005, I traded up to my current camera for $150, and bought a tripod and a flash for approximately $250 each in 2008. But otherwise I never really spent much money on photo equipment, so I don't think $2000 is excessive. Or is it?
I would get a new camera. Camera technology keeps advancing, you'll find a huge difference compared to your 6 year old camera. I'm very impressed with the Nikon D90 I purchased a few weeks ago compared to the D50 (circa 2006) I used for the last several years. I got the D90 and three lenses (16-85mm VR, 35mm f/1.8, and 55-200mm VR) for less than $2000 including taxes and shipping. Here are my shots from the past week using the new gear: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...wpost&t=181367
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  #708  
Old Posted May 3, 2010, 3:10 AM
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I'm thinking of getting an Epson printer as well, but they certainly aren't cheap.
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  #709  
Old Posted May 3, 2010, 10:27 PM
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my hp photosmart c5250 All-in-one printer was only 100 bucks and it prints just fine. i got the expensive photopaper from my school, but the printer works perfectly. it even works better than the ones in my school (and they have those big fat printers the size of a dog! and theyre not even 2 years old!).

of course you can still see some lines if you look really closely but it's fine for my taste.

btw Lightroom 3 Beta 2 came out a couple days ago. They added the Luminance Noise Reducer Slide which works perfectly. It had some issues with blurring out details and bricks, but it works good. I just wonder how it would work on an extremely noisy picture that also had bricks (and or detail). They end up being too smooth at 40+ noise reduction level.
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  #710  
Old Posted May 3, 2010, 10:40 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by toyota74 View Post
Ive been off Flickr for a month now and I feel great....
........views ,comments,favs,stats,uploads,etc are gone
out of my system
Was wondering what happened to you. Hadnt seen anything from you in a bit it seems.
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  #711  
Old Posted May 3, 2010, 11:41 PM
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I'm downloading GIMP. Not that I dislike Lightroom (I love it, and it will remain my primary post-processing program), but I just want to try it.
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  #712  
Old Posted May 3, 2010, 11:56 PM
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I've used GIMP for many years. New users are often frustrated by the interface, but once you get the hang of it, it works well. It's also highly customizable. I have it set up so I can easily access the tools I use the most and process a lot of images quickly.

I've also found that the instructions from Photoshop books and tutorials can be applied to the GIMP, even the complicated layer stuff. I generally only use curves, perspective, crop, colour balance, lens distortion correction, clone and unsharp mask, but sometimes more advanced stuff is useful. There are tons of downloadable plugins too, but I haven't found much need for them personally.
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  #713  
Old Posted May 4, 2010, 1:09 AM
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Now that I've had a chance to use some of my new camera equipment, I'll give brief reviews.

Nikon D90 camera: Very nice, perfect size. The sensor is waaaaay better than that on the D50. Great resolution and you can get clean images at ISO 1600 but the shot can't be underexposed or the grain shows. ISO 800 and under give nice noiseless shots almost always. The settings, menus and controls are just right for me. Plus it has DOF preview, top screen lights up, customizable controls, shutter delay with mirror up for night shots and lots of other conveniences. The LCD screen is big and very detailed. Auto white balance gives pretty good results on jpegs most of the time. I avoid the active D lighting feature, you're better off using curves in post processing.

Nikon 16-85 f/3.5-5.6 VR lens: I'm very happy with this. Compared to all the 18-XX lenses out there, the extra 2mm on the wide end is very useful. It is much more than taking a few steps back, 16mm actually starts to show a noticeable wide angle perspective. But it's so much more convenient than a wide angle lens because it zooms to 85 mm. It's slow with a max aperture of 3.5-5.6, but it's perfectly fine for outdoors. The VR functions extremely well, I've gotten clear shots down to about 1/8 second. Focuses very fast and manual focus is always available for fine tuning. It's really sharp, very noticeably sharper than the Nikon 18-55 I was using. It seems to produce more contrast and deeper colours as well. Combined with the D90, I find the images barely need any processing. My only complaint is the focus ring is closer to the camera than the zoom ring.








Nikon 35mm f/1.8:
I find 50mm too tight most of the time so I got this lens. Very sharp images (as you'd expect from a prime) with good colour and contrast. Focuses quickly. The purpose of this lens is for indoor shots and other situations where a fast lens is needed. 35mm on a DX format camera gives the perspective of a normal lens (like what the eye sees) and I'm finding this focal length can be useful in many situations. My only complaint is it has noticeable barrel distortion, but this is no big deal for people shots and most of the other situations I intend to use this lens for.









Nikon 55-200 f/4-5.6 VR: I traded my 55-200 non VR and a few bucks for a used one. I figured it would be about the same as the older non-VR model, but I think it is slightly sharper, focuses a bit faster and maybe has better bokeh. Definitely of lesser quality than the 16-85 and 35mm, but still excellent and a worthy upgrade from the non-VR model. The VR is not nearly as good as the VR on the 16-85, but it still helps. This is a good value and much, much smaller and lighter than the more expensive telephoto zooms.



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  #714  
Old Posted May 4, 2010, 2:35 AM
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Maybe I can live without Smart Sharpen, but the lack of 16-bit mode is still huge limitation for GIMP for editing photos, especially black and white photos. But it is a great program otherwise (certainly better than Paintshop Pro, which imo is garbage). I plan to get PS CS5 because I can get a discount from my school.

Quote:
Originally Posted by flar View Post
I would get a new camera. Camera technology keeps advancing, you'll find a huge difference compared to your 6 year old camera. I'm very impressed with the Nikon D90 I purchased a few weeks ago compared to the D50 (circa 2006) I used for the last several years. I got the D90 and three lenses (16-85mm VR, 35mm f/1.8, and 55-200mm VR) for less than $2000 including taxes and shipping. Here are my shots from the past week using the new gear: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...wpost&t=181367
Yes my camera is only 7 megapixel, while new cameras have around 12 megapixels. And of course high ISO quality is much better as you mention. The thing that won't be improved much, if at all, by buying a new camera is dynamic range, which is probably most important.

I have considered to get an SLR like you, and like everyone else for that matter, but I decide on a mirrorless camera instead, for compactness and to attract less attention/fear/outrage. I prefer something like my current camera which has a rangefinder shape. It is for practical reason, and it looks cooler too (personal opinion only).
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  #715  
Old Posted May 4, 2010, 2:38 AM
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nice, thanks for the review. i had wondered about the 35mm and the 16-85 as well. i'm glad to see some actual photos on reviews too (i'm too lazy when it comes to reviewing something).

were all those jpegs?

ps. although i like the 55-200 vr, i think the 70-300 vr would be a better option. longer zoom, metal mount instead of plastic, better build (it feels amazing in my hands, too bad i wasn't able to get it ), sharp, fast, and an overall good lens.

ps (squared). i'm glad you like the d90. it is an amazing camera, and i love the body too. the customization also makes it better than my old d40x
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  #716  
Old Posted May 4, 2010, 3:23 AM
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^^The 70-300 VR is probably a better lens, but I don't use the telephoto that much and I wanted something very small that I could carry around easily.

Those examples are all jpegs except the moon. I shoot jpegs most of the time, but RAW for all night images, any situation where I will need to adjust white balance or for what I think might be a "serious" photo. I shoot RAW more often lately than I used to, but I like the convenience of jpeg for most of my snapshots.


Doady: I can see your point about wanting a smaller camera, but I think you will find the modern sensors have better dynamic range than the old ones.
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  #717  
Old Posted May 4, 2010, 3:26 AM
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glad you're enjoying the D90. i've had mine about 11 months now.

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  #718  
Old Posted May 4, 2010, 8:18 PM
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So I have an opporatunity to shoot at a fashion show tonite. I'll be at the very end of the runway in a 'papparazzi pit'. I have no clue what the lighting is going to be like, or anything else so it will be interesting. I was going to just use my 35mm and 50mm primes as well as an SB-600 speedlight.

Anyone shot at an event like this? Any tips?
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  #719  
Old Posted May 7, 2010, 2:15 PM
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From the General Photography, looks like you did just fine.

I have a couple of interesting panos sitting on my camera I want to upload soon. I like this pano option quite a bit!
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  #720  
Old Posted May 7, 2010, 8:08 PM
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Thanks hammersklavier, surprised myself really
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