Martyn

Yay, the guy from the shop just turned up with my battery, he was again very apologetic! The problem has been raised by the shop manager as a non conformance, I am told there will be a lot of stern emails flying around the Wilkinsons company tomorrow! Battery now on charge!

Not yet, still waiting! I've got a BBQ for one of my Granson's birthdays tomorrow. I'm dancing at a music festival on Sunday and I'm dancing with two different groups on Monday. Hopefully there will be loads of pics; if the battery turns up!

I rang the shop today to check the price on the web, the manager was not aware of the reduction but said he was ok to honour it. I called into the shop on the way home from work and picked up the Nikon D5100 and 18 - 105 kit. Got home only to discover there is no battery in the kit. Rang the shop and told them, they're sending a member of staff out with a battery. I'm sat here twiddling my thumbs!!!!!

The shop was one in the Wilkinson chain. The D5100 with the 18 - 105 was a penny short of £450. I suppose there's no harm in waiting 'till next Friday or even visiting another branch (probably best to ring first and check stock). May still even ring the shop in Lancaster again and tell them to get me one in. Today didn't start well when I went into Superdrug for a pack of Mach3 razor blades. I picked a pack off the shelf and queued up to pay for what seemed like an eternity, when I got to the till they told me they had sold out and all the boxes were dummies. Anyway, at least I get a cooling off period before I make my final purchase. I'm off out Appalachian style clog dancing now so I'll see you guys tomorrow! :jig: :jig:

I've been scrimping and saving for a camera for a while now and finally have enough money to start seriously looking. I went into a local camera shop and looked at the Canon 1100d and the Nikon D3100, I really liked the feel of the Nikon with it's nicer grip and the thumb scroll wheel. The salesman said that it was worth looking at the Nikon D5100 which was on special offer, a bit dearer but worth it for the impressive image quality, tilty flippy hi res screen and extra shooting modes; I looked and I liked. The the salesman said this weeks managers special offer was the D5100 with an upgraded lens, 18 - 105 as opposed to the 18-55 which comes in the kit; I looked and I liked. This would mean using the credit card or saving up a little longer! The words I keep telling my wife came into my head, "buy it now instead of going home and wishing you'd bought it, then finding it's gone when you finally go to buy it (shoes and tops usually)" So I plumped for the Nikon D5100 with the 18 - 105 lens. "Sorry sir we don't have one in stock". But I've got it in my hand! "Sorry, the body is part of a kit and the lens is part of another kit, we can get you one for next Friday." Ok, what about the D5100 with the 18 - 55 lens? "Sorry we don't have one of those either, but we can get one for next Friday." What about the D3100 then? "Yes we have those in stock right now, would you like it?" Er, no! You've just spent the last half hour talking me out of buying it and now it's all you have. I'll come back next Friday if I can't get one somewhere else!

I have to admit that this was my second choice of forum, I originally signed up to the one where people "talk photography". I asked a question and by the following morning it was lost under two pages of posts. I did eventually get a reply but it didn't answer my question. Then I found this forum and asked the same question where I got a good answer straight away. I love the friendliness on this forum and as my membership status says, I seem to be "getting comfy". The thing I appreciate most is the constructive criticism and advice i receive when I post pictures. As a beginner I feel very encouraged by all my new friends here!

Thanks for the answers! As you've probably guessed by my questions on this forum I'm not happy to just know that things work; I need to know the how and why!

If I had a DSLR camera set to full manual and use the exposure compensation dial or the automated exposure bracketing setting, what changes? I have set the ISO, the aperture and the shutter speed; am I correct in assuming that the camera will only adjust the gain (volume or boost whatever it's called) on the image sensor to record images with an adjusted exposure?

Hi Nanny, I don't mind at all! It's a pity you weren't trying to copy me 'cos I would have been flattered. It's good to see pics of music and dance because that's what floats my boat as they say. Anyway, where's the pics of those cloggers? Now I'm worried!

William, thank you for taking the time to post such a comprehensive answer. Very helpful indeed and much for me to think about and absorb!

Gap

I'm still thinking about what camera to buy, so I took my cheap point & shoot down to the pub (any excuse) to take the sort of pics I would like to take. I set the ISO to 400 which is the fastest it will go. Thanks to modern technology the details of the camera setting are attached to the image file, this was f2.8 at 1/53 sec and represents pretty much what I saw with my eyes. This shot was ISO400, f2.8 at 1/9 sec. This shot looks much lighter than it looked at the time. I'm happy with the blurred movement of the hands but Hugh's head could be sharper if I could have chosen a faster shutter speed. Getting darker now, this is 1/6 sec and there is blur due to movement. This shot was with the camera resting on the back of a chair at 1 sec. This picture appears much lighter than it appeared at the time. These pics raise a few questions for me: 1. Although the evening got darker as it went along, the pics appear to get lighter. Am I correct in assuming that the camera metering system is trying to produce an "average" exposure and is setting the shutter speed slower and overcompensating? 2. Is this because it is a cheap camera or would the same effect be seen on a quality camera? 3. Towards the end of the evening the shutter speed went to 2.5 seconds. (The pics were totally unusable but I continued in order to gather data) From this is it possible to calculate the specifications I need in a camera? ie, ISO 400, f 2.8 at 2.5 seconds on this camera, can I juggle the figures and get ISO 3200, f 1.4 at 1/125 needed on a new camera? (not sure about the maths but I think you get the idea) 4. Then there is also questions about how do I set up a camera to make the shots appear dark as it really was, are these shots over exposed? Or maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree altogether? Thanks for taking the time to read this far! :-)

Drive

Hips

Knicker

Marmalade

Thermostat

Elizabeth

Just giving this a try Yay, it worked!

dog

Ragtime

Are we still on B?

mud

tank

Night