You can get decent deals for used camera bodies and lenses at B and H photo. Really good pictures need decent lenses more so than crazy expensive cameras as others have said. Also a good stand, a remote trigger for the camera and maybe extension tubes if you want to get in really close and always shoot in RAW format if your camera supports it.
Good beginner camera for under $300
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Holy_makerel
Well-Known Member
Congrats! Thats the body i started with and the 35 1.8 is a great little lens. one thing to remember with that body is that you will only have autofocus options with lenses that have a AF-S designation. Not that big of a problem for taking shots in the tank as you will use manual focus most of the time. Another thing you will want is a good tripod.
Have fun!
Jrco226
Active Member
Thanks, I didn't write it but it is a AF-S. What will the tripod do for me?
Holy_makerel
Well-Known Member
Yup. you can use a longer shutterspeed which will allow you to have a smaller aperture. the smaller the aperture the more of the picture is in focus.
Holy_makerel
Well-Known Member
Example of wide open aperture. this was shot at about f2.8. Notice how my dog is in sharp focus but the background is blown out? the fuzzy area is called bokeh.
In macro type shots the focal plane tightens up to almost a razor thin area that is in sharp focus. increasing the f# will close the aperture and give you better depth of focus but also lets less light in to the sensor.
You can compensate 2 ways. slow the shutter speed or increase ISO. increased ISO creates digital noise in your picture so if you want to keep quality up you have a longer exposure time. the problem with longer exposures when trying to hand hold is camera shake. anything longer than about 1/60th a second shutter speed and you will start to notice camera shake in your image. thats why a tripod is good.
Hopefully that wasnt too much. you'll get the hang of it pretty quick if you research a little and shoot in manual mode. also look up something called metering. that camera should do it and that will help a lot with finding the right exposure.
Good luck!!
erk
Valuable Member
Example of wide open aperture. this was shot at about f2.8. Notice how my dog is in sharp focus but the background is blown out? the fuzzy area is called bokeh.
In macro type shots the focal plane tightens up to almost a razor thin area that is in sharp focus. increasing the f# will close the aperture and give you better depth of focus but also lets less light in to the sensor.
You can compensate 2 ways. slow the shutter speed or increase ISO. increased ISO creates digital noise in your picture so if you want to keep quality up you have a longer exposure time. the problem with longer exposures when trying to hand hold is camera shake. anything longer than about 1/60th a second shutter speed and you will start to notice camera shake in your image. thats why a tripod is good.
Hopefully that wasnt too much. you'll get the hang of it pretty quick if you research a little and shoot in manual mode. also look up something called metering. that camera should do it and that will help a lot with finding the right exposure.
Good luck!!
These are all good points. Rule of thumb is minimum shutter speed is 1/focal length of the lens. In the case with a 35mm, you can go down to 1/40 s and still have an image with little to no blur due to camera shake. Get a lens with vibration reduction and you can go even slower on hand held. Also, high ISO shooting isn't too big of a problem these days due to the insane ISO levels you can reach. The D3400 has an ISO range of 100-25600. At the top limit, you will have bad noise, but reduce down to 3200 and you should have a little noise that is easily dealt with in post processing.
For macro imaging in an aquarium, long exposure is an issue. Everything is constantly moving, so long exposure will result in motion blur. You still want the small aperture due to the difficulty of maneuvering and getting everything you want into focus. Therefore, you need high speed to freeze motion and small aperture to get the greatest amount of objects in focus. Shooting at ISO 3200 will help, but I'd consider using off camera flash. A gel filter on the flash with similar color as your aquarium lighting will ensure everything blends nicely and you don't get that harsh flash lighting. Definitely use a tripod because it allows you to hold the object in frame far better than you can. Any small movement when shooting macro can result in the subject leaving the frame or partially in frame.
erk
Valuable Member
BTW, on the D3400, it will auto focus with any lens that has the focus motor in the lens. The D3000 and D5000 series lack a focus motor in the body. So if auto focus is important to you, always verify there is a focus motor in the body of the lens. Typically, DX lenses have the focus motor in the lens since these lenses are marketed towards the entry level DSLR cameras. DX is Nikon's designation for the crop sensor camera. I think Canon calls theirs APS-C. Crop sensors artificially increase the focal length of full frame lenses by 1.5x-1.6x. Nice when using a 90mm full frame macro. Then it "becomes" a 135mm macro at the same aperture.
Holy_makerel
Well-Known Member
Good advice erk. I shoot fairly long exposures in my tank but the flow needs to be turned off or like erk said there will be movement blur in your subject, sometimes there is anyway. i shoot with a d7200 and if i can help it dont go over 400 iso preferably 100.
These were all shot with a 5-7 sec exposure at 100 iso f22 with pumps off. Definitely easier with faster shutter but i don't enjoy post processing as much as taking photos haha
erk
Valuable Member
Olympus, Panasonic, Fuji, and Sony all have great mirrorless cameras. While Canon and Nikon are the leads in DSLR due to their stranglehold on the DSLR market, I think the other manufacturers are great. I'm seriously considering moving from Nikon to a Fuji or Olympus mirrorless camera in the future.
Greybeard
2500 Club Member
We had an Olympus E1 4/3 DSLR. Went to a mirrorless Cannon EOS M3 recently. Love the mirrorless. I looked at the Sony seriously, but never really looked at the Olympus mirrorless.
If you want to learn, use manual settings when possible. When taking photos in the auto mode pay attention to what the camera did and look at what settings it used. To practice duplicate those settings manually, alter the settings ie. F-stops, ISO, shutter speeds,etc... to understand how the image is impacted. This is the nice thing about digital photography, you can see the results instantly. It really helps the learning curve. You can take nice photos with program modes, especially when paying attention to composition. However the results are limited, just changing the depth of field in your photos changes a photo dramatically.
Anyway have fun, that is the most important thing with a hobby!
One other thing take photos of the family and every other thing first. With aquarium lights it can be difficult to reproduce what your eyes actually see.
Anyway have fun, that is the most important thing with a hobby!
One other thing take photos of the family and every other thing first. With aquarium lights it can be difficult to reproduce what your eyes actually see.
Last edited:
Roy 9121
Valuable Member
Like i said, it's really not the camera, it's the lens. Nikor lens are the best, Canon are a close second. All the others are a distant third. That's why i would only use a Nikon or Canon.
Roy 9121
Valuable Member
Tell me about it.hobbies can get out of hand ;)
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