My family spent part of the day at Torrey Pines State Reserve. We walked the beach on a day where the temperature reached 21 degrees Celsius. Oh joy!
![](https://joewilcox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/Pebbles-in-the-Sand.jpg)
My family spent part of the day at Torrey Pines State Reserve. We walked the beach on a day where the temperature reached 21 degrees Celsius. Oh joy!
Penn Camera called today to say that the Canon EOS 40D had arrived. I was No. 38 on a waiting list that wasn’t to be fulfilled until October. Unexpectedly, days after I sold all my […]
Today, marked an important test for the Nikon AF NIKKOR 80-200mm 1:2.8D ED lens, whether or not I would keep it. I got the lens as part of a trade for use with my new Nikon D200. Field test was dramatic: Kensington, Md.’s annual Labor Day parade. The newer model 80-200mm lens costs about $1,000, while I got this older 80-200mm for a fraction of the price. I don’t mind a used, older lens—as long as it performs.
I wasn’t disappointed, but I also wasn’t overly impressed, either. Maybe having used a Canon 135mm Prime lens had spoiled me, raising my expectations about clarity and sharpness. More likely, from looking at the photos, I needed a lens hood. More time with the D200 (I hadn’t used one for almost a year) would have helped.
This afternoon, I completed a 180-degree turn with respect to photo gear. I completely abandoned Canon and moved to Nikon. I had made a kind of switch before; this one is permanent. All my Canon equipment is gone. Timing is strange, because I passed up opportunity to buy new dSLR models from both companies.
I have used the Canon EOS 20D since 2004—with a break in-between with the Nikon D200. I eventually switched back to Canon, because of my daughter’s ice skating. A good friend had my old Canon f/2.8 L lenses, and he was willing to trade my Nikon gear. With the 20D’s lower noise at higher ISO and the amount of light captured by the f/2 and f/2.8, I got better pics from the ice rink than with the D200; I had f/3.5-5.6 lenses, and the Nikon camera produces more noise at higher ISOs.
Here, my wife and daughter ride the water at Sea World. We spent most of the day there yesterday.
My daughter looks out towards the Children’s Pool in San Diego.
I started photographing bugs; snapped this baby praying mantis through bushes. Bad angle, bad lighting. I’m shooting with Canon EOS 20D dSLR and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens. My main lens is the EF 135mm f/2L USM. Right now, these are my only lenses, as I transition from zoom to prime lenses. In the meantime, my Nokia N95 cell phone covers any close-to-subject shots.
Yesterday, my daughter, her friend, and I went into downtown Washington, making the most of the deflowered cherry blossom season. Weather reaching 26 degrees Celsius on April 2 plummeted to 5 degrees by Saturday. The […]
On Sunday, my daughter took out her Canon Digital Rebel, put it on a tripod and started snapping self-portraits with a friend. She purposely didn’t use flash, which meant the girls had to be extra […]
As I walked by the Ritz camera at White Flint Mall this afternoon, I saw a Nikon D80 box on display in the window. So I checked inside, because I thought the camera wasn’t going […]
This morning, Kensington, Md., held its annual Labor Day parade, which was my first real-world test of the Nikon D200. I love the camera, but some kinks remain.
I snapped 380 pictures, on 4GB and 2GB memory cards. I chucked 110 pictures; many images were blurry. I’m finding that Program mode consistently favors ISO over shutter speed, even when set to Auto ISO. The best shots came later in the parade, when the sun shone and I switched to Shutter Priority at 1/500 sec.
Back in February I praised photo-sharing site SmugMug. I sporadically and half-heartedly uploaded photos there, as I pondered Flickr. I was strongly attracted to Flickr’s community—everybody seems to hang-out there—appeal. Last month, Thomas Hawk joined Zooomr, which created another quandary. Thomas’ Zooomr support simply couldn’t be ignored.
After weighing Flickr’s community and Zooomr’s Thomas endorsement,, I’ve decided to stick with SmugMug and really start using it. I spent part of the last two days adding new photos to my SmugMug site. The decision comes with angst, because Flickr and Zooomr also appeal to me, for different reasons.