Hah this place is pretty pathetic.

D60 - announced recently. IMO, not worth it. I'd rather have the D40 for the price. I'm sure there will be a lot of beginners who buy the D60, and it is a better camera. It has a very nice dust reduction system inside. It has a handy rangefinder for focusing non-AFS lenses, instead of just the little dot that tells you when you're in focus. It's nicer. It's just not THAT much nicer. I'd rather pay the $300 difference between the D50 and D80 (commander flash, 10mp, 3fps, more ISO range, dof preview, etc.) or the $500 difference between the D80 and D200 (metal body, metering with ai and ais lenses, 5fps, etc.) then the $100 difference between the D40X and the D60 (live view, dust reduction, bigger screen, and that's about it...) or the $900 difference between the D200 and D300 (more unneeded AF points, much better noise, faster fps, dust reduction, live view, is that it?!). You get the idea. I opted for the D50 because it was the cheapest usable camera on the market for my needs. I still recommend it.

24mm f/3.5 PC - this is a professional grade perspective control tilt-shift lens. Very cool stuff, but it only fits on the D3 (and the D300).

60mm f/2.8 AF-S - finally D40/X/60 users have a prime option under 100mm. This is a great update to a great lens. It has 1:1 macro for extreme close-up photography, plus nano-crystal coating and a 9-bladed aperture. Cool stuff.

16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR - first of all, from the results I've seen VR works great. But $700?! The 18-200 VR can be found for $550 these days. My 24-120 VR, which is great for FF cameras like the D3 and F6 by the way, sells for $500 new and $300 used, which is how I bought it. I don't think it's worth it, the 18-70 is still a better choice.

That's about all of the new updates. Here are some things you may expect on the horizon:

80-400mm VR update - this has been anticipated for a while. Hopefully the new one will have AF-S (and FAST this time please!), VRII, and nano coating.

70-200 VR update - I don't see why, this is an extraordinary lens. It has some vignetting on the D3, and apparently VR isn't as good as some of the newer lenses. So it could use an update. Still a fine lens.

85mm f/1.4 - VR in the next version? AF-S? No one knows, all rumors over everything so far.

85mm f/2.8 PC and 45mm f/2.8 PC - these are prototypes, Ken Rockwell even has pictures. : P I want to get into these lenses, but unfortunately they're a bit too expensive for my current budget.

That's about it. Peace.

Toughest thing in photography

What is the hardest thing in photography????

i think that lighting is the hardest thing to do in photography, mostly because you cant do much with out a lil bit of lighting equipment. With out at least a speed light you really have not much options..... but i have found a really interesting very affordable way to light up a huge space with complete darkness for just about 30 buck.

This photo was taking at 9:30 at night with a 1 million CP spot light..

what you do is set your camera on a tripod set a  long exposure this one was i think 20 sec at f5.6 and all you do in those twenty sec is almost paint the scene with your spotlight, then check the photo on your screen to see if you need more light in one spot less in another ect.

so go out get a spotlight you can find them at Walmart target any store like that.

and please let me know how it works out for you guys post some pics show me what you have done!!

Are you going to make me write ALL the posts?

LOL...oh well.

I know I have something to say. I don't know what yet. I will write about it later. I'm tired, I haven't used my camera today, and I probably won't tomorrow either. Maybe Friday, definitely Saturday. Weeee.

Let's get this blog rolling!

We've already gotten this off to a good start, we have a few bloggers. Just ahh keep inviting people.

Now. Does anyone like strobes? Does anyone know what strobes are?

Strobes are any off-camera lights that are triggered by your camera. As Nikon users, unless we are professional we generally use speedlights. That means we have a few options: The SB-600 or the Sb-800 (also available is the SU-800 commander and the R1 macro kit, which has two R200 speedlights. Don't worry about those). Basically you can light up a model or whatever you're shooting with these speedlights. There's a huge blog about strobes and even a group. So, with Nikon's CLS system you can sync all of these lights to the exact power you need and have them fire simultaneously. It's very handy and it's a whole other realm of photography that most amateurs have not explored. Anyone have thoughts on it?

Information

just wanted to say that the following link is to the Teens with a Nikon Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikonteens/


=D this blog is going downhill now i have been made a contributer!

So....hi.

If you're reading this, it's probably months after I am writing it, or you have just clicked the one and only link to this blog as of now. If that is the case then send me your email address so I can invite you to come post. Seems fun so far... =]