Fogey

Nice grab shot.

Puts me in mind of The Hobbit, when they left the Shires.

Great shot and well spotted.

Well done, Polly.  It had POTW all over it.

Some adjustments from clicker.

............Sort of.

This lockdown is providing a lot of ideas for idle hands.
A means of advertising the site while we are out and about....................a sort of business card,  provided as a PDF that can be downloaded, with a page that has multiple business cards, based on the image below, that can be printed out at each members leisure and handed out to those that show an interest.

Thoughts? 

A very telling post, Polly - thank you.

Reading that has made me angrier at my brother than I was.  He is one on those conspiracy theorists who believe Coronavirus  is no more than a common flu caused by the 5G roll out and all the reported Covid deaths are no more than fake news.

A more selfish, ungrateful person I have yet to meet, as he really does take the biscuit.

Your post has restored a sense of balance and I too, am counting my blessings - I just want to get back to normal, while I still have the wherewithal to enjoy normality. 

Well done Ryebear, a well deserved winner.

I can't begin to say how impressed I am at your talent Fooj.
Your description about silverpoint was a real blast from the past, and took me back 50 years to when I studied fine art.

Credit to you, Sir.

Well done, Polly.  The shot had winner written all over it.

Yes I understand that, Ryewolf.  It's just how the 1.6, (or in my case, 1.5), transposed visually on the screen that grabbed my attention.
So where I was taking 4-6 shots as a panorama to encompass a scene, the full frame will do it in one, maybe two shots.

I've yet to see how well this 20-300mm lens deals with distortion at 20mm but the manual tells me there is a lens correction that can be done in camera in 5 degree increments, which can be saved to the second SD card - and that's just scratching the surface.  I can't wait to really get stuck in to how this camera works.

There is one thing that really smacked me in the face and that is how much more there is in the frame.......should make a world of difference when shooting landscapes.

Ummm!  It took me about 2 hours to get the damned strap on, but other than that it's fine.

I set the ISO to Auto and with the f stop at f/22 took a shot of the kitchen in Aperture Priority.  The ISO recorded ISO 6400 and when fully zoomed in, the noise was less than my 1.5 crop camera at ISO 1000, so I'm well pleased.

I was also pleased to see that there was a feature in the menu that allowed the format to be changed to DX, so I can use all my lenses without any degradation of the images.  I have yet to get to grips with the layout of the body as it's got more than one control wheel, some levers and a lot of buttons .  

There is a whole parcel of questions I have to look up the answers to, so I shall be busy for the next couple of days.

Ordered the camera and lens from different suppliers in Japan.  Both items were picked up by DHL on the 17th Feb - one was express delivery, the other standard.  Both arrived in the same delivery at 5pm today, 19th Feb.

Well pleased with the service, now all I have to do is discover how the camera works

I'm currently using a Nikon D5300, which has the same pixel count as the D610.  I've looked long and hard at the relative performance issues and the crop factor sensors all fall off in performance in low light.

All the budget cameras, as I understand it, use the Cmos (Complementary Metal oxide Semiconductor), processor which has a limit with turning the photons of light into electrons on a smaller sensor area - hence the noise, than it does on a larger sensor area.  This is common with all crop sensor cameras.

The I-phones use an upgraded cmos sensor, I believe, giving an outstanding performance, as do the Nikon and Canon top of the range DSLRs - but as I don't have thousands of £££'s to throw away, I guess I'll stick with my lowly choice.

Look at the Lecia site on the matter - it makes very interesting reading.

Much, much less noise at high ISO.  Also with a full frame it's possible to keep the camera in aperture priority and increase the shutter speed by raising the ISO to the point where 1/4000th sec can be achieved with hardly any noise at all.

I got that little gem from a professional wildlife photographer.

I couldn't get a 18-300mm in FX format anywhere.  A plethora of DX lenses, so I have had to settle for a 20-300mm FX lens from Japan.

Should have it within the week.

Can't wait to start experimenting.

A Nikon D610.  Now I'm looking at a Nikon 18-300mm lens to try to save some money

Well, I've ordered my new second hand camera.  Lol
Should be getting it by the end of February.

Well done, Paul.

The Nikon D600 is a no no due to the problems they had with oil flicking onto the sensor.  Nikon's answer to that was the D610, which incorporated the same shutter release mechanism of the D750, I believe.  It is still reckoned to be the lightest FF in the Nikon range.
I have been looking at all the whistles and bells that are available and I have to say I am impressed.  Now all I need is to find a used camera with a low shutter count.

Seriously looking at going full frame.  Have seen a number of used Nikon D610 that look interesting.  Might have to get an 18-300mm zoom lens to go with it.  My Tamron 90mm macro and 150-600mm zoom should fit the body OK, so I will have all that I need for the time being.
I have chosen the D610 as it is the lightest full frame in the Nikon range, I believe.

Beautiful monotone and a worthy winner.

Great choice Gareth.

Just installed an update for Affinity Photo and I noticed there was a new feature for astrophotography stacking.  If it's to the same standard as focus merging and panorama stitching then it's going to be something special.

Well done, Paul.  Up to your usual standard.

Wow!  Thank you all very much - this is a surprise in the face of the superb images we have seen this week.