Pictures from today on Sammamish

Looks like the digital noise issues are gone after resetting my default settings. Here are some pic's from todays session on Lake Sammamish. The lighting was horrible but here's what I got.

Cliff





Cliff's New Rig



Jeff



Mike





Me

Killer pics !
What kind of camera are you using ?

Nikon Cool Pic's 5700

Is that at full zoom ?

nice pics as usual hahn. Thanks again for the pull cliff.

I'm shopping for a camera and the 5700 is on my short list.

not even close to full zoom

So how do you like the 5700 ? And lets see a few more pics.

i used it today, in fact the pics of hahn were mine. that camera is really nice. Best that i have used, not that i have used a bunch. i have used enough though.

The 5700 has an 8X optical zoom with an added 4X digital zoom. Here are a few more pic's:

I had some digital noise issues in cold temps. Then again I was at 8000 feet. Here are a few from my travels last summer.

I've taken in excess of 3000+ shots and got a handle on the functions and settings. With the ability to have complete control of both aperture and shutter speed, I had to play around to achieve the results I was looking for. With a lot of help from Bill Jamison and Mike Isler, I'm finally getting what I was looking for.

The only draw back is the learning curve. It has so many options. But worth every penny!

I just ordered the 5700 and I found it for 491.00 !!!

That pisses me off!

Take a look http://www.dbuys.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=dby.proPage&product_id=1383

I take it you payed more ????

Yup, but I also picked up a 1 gig card, telephoto lens, wide angle lens. Extra battery. Total was around $1500.00.

Just the camera itself was around $700.00

Oh, and I did get the rebate after like 3 months.

Nice pics, Hahn.

Do you even need the Telephoto lens for wake shots ?

No need for the telephoto for just wake shots. Good for stationary land shots.

Thanks for the invite guys! Oh well, I went out to the golf course instead. Mike, how did you like the new Cobe board?

Steven, Do you have any advice for shooting wake pics with the Nikon ?

Gotta go manual and shoot with a shutter speed around 2000. Also play around with the F stops and take a few test shots for different lighting situations. When you get some pic's post them. I'd like to check them out. Auto mode sucks!

In Manual Mode you can set your shutter speed around 2000 and play with the F Stops for a sharper picture.

Walt, those shots look great. The disadvantage of using auto mode is that it can get confused by the water or other bright objects. You'll get much more consistent results once you learn to use manual mode but if you just want to shoot pics and not think about it then use auto.

I'm going to start fooling around with manual mode soon. I'm just trying to figure every thing out now.

where would be a good place to start with the f stops for a bright day ?
And is it possible to make the back ground out of focus so the rider pops out of the photo better ?

Steven, My apologies for high jacking your thread
And thanks for your help !

No sweat, keep the pic's coming.

Walt,

There are a couple of good ways I've found to set up the exposure:

1. Go to shutter-priority mode and make the shutter as fast as it will go until you're at your maximum aperture. Then, switch over to full manual mode so those settings stay put instead of the camera trying to figure them out for every shot.

2. In full manual mode, set the aperture as wide as it will go. Then, speed up the shutter until you're getting a good exposure. I'm not sure if your camera has a real-time histogram feature. If so, that's the nicest way to determine the exposure. If not, there must be some sort of meter.

While you're at it, use the manual focus as well so you don't have to worry about getting the focus right on the rider for every shot.

Regarding the blurring of the background: You'll get the shortest depth of field (most background blurring) with the largest aperture and longest focal length. Luckily, this is exactly how you shoot wakeboarding because you are far away and want the fastest shutter speed. Unfortunately, these non-SLR digital cameras aren't too good for blurring the background. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that the smaller image sensors on these cameras are to blame. An SLR at the same zoom and aperture setting will have a much shorter depth of field and blur the background more. The best you can do is just open the aperture as wide as you can and shoot from as far away (with as much zoom) as you can.

Thanks Salmon I will give it a try tomorrow.

You can get a fairly accurate exposure reading by pointing the camera at the palm of your hand, or a nice green field of grass (of course the sun has to be shining on them for it to work). Once you have the exposure setting take a couple of pics and then review them and make any changes necessary based on how they look. It also helps if you know how to read a histogram since that will indicate if the shot is under or over exposed.

Here are a few I took today. It looks like I'm going to need a lot more practice to get the most out of this camera.

Keep them coming Walt.

We have only had a crew of three lately so it's a little tough to take pics and be a safe flag person. I tried a few with maximum aperture and a fast shutter speed but they were underexposed so I think I need to back off on the shutter speed ?
I will have more time to play with the camera when We have four people in the boat.
Thanks for the help !

Actually you want maximum shutter speed and minimum aperature - wide open. That will give you the least depth of field and freeze the action.

In bright sunlight I shoot at 1/2000 @ f4 ISO 100.

In everything I've read on the subject, maximum aperture means just that: the biggest aperture, wide open, fastest lens, etc. Of course, that also means the minimum f-stop number.

Sorry for the confusion if that was the problem, Walt. If it was though, I'd suggest reading your camera's manual cover-to-cover. It should cover all the basic stuff like this.

My 12 year old Son took this one.

Hey Steven, Are you using a UV filter ?