A big thank you to all

Carpy2001

Carpy2001

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Name
Andrew
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As the title says, I would just like to say a big thank you to all for the help and advice that I have received over the last 3 years, but now is the time to end my journey in photography.
I have enjoyed the the 3 years I have had taking photo's, some good most blah, and quite a few wtf happened there lol.
Unfortunately I have not had the finances to further my journey, or to try what i feel i would like to have tried, the frustration of not getting the results I would like is now too much, and starting to cause friction at home, so the time has come.
Once again a big thank you for all the support.
Andy
 
Well, it's up to you Andrew but if money was an issue for me I'd be happy enough with an old Panasonic G1 and 14mm f2.5 or 20mm f1.7 or a couple of MF film era lenses or even although I'm not really a zoom guy just a standard zoom. All this all depends on what sort of pictures you want too I suppose as if you want wide or long lenses the prices will go up.

I've seen picture from you taken with a 4-150mm and I think you've mentioned a standard range zoom too, if you don't mind me asking, what is it that's pushing the cost up?
 
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Don’t look at it as a end of your journey just a pause along the way , finances change regularly over the years one day your skint the next your flush with money at getting on for 81 years on the planet I know that’s a fact not a dream
 
woof woof said:
Well, it's up to you Andrew but if money was an issue for me I'd be happy enough with an old Panasonic G1 and 14mm f2.5 or 20mm f1.7 or a couple of MF film era lenses or even although I'm not really a zoom guy just a standard zoom. All this all depends on what sort of pictures you want too I suppose as if you want wide or long lenses the prices will go up.

I've seen picture from you taken with a 4-150 and I think you've mentioned a standard range zoom too, if you don't mind me asking, what is it that's pushing the cost up?
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Just me, I keep tying to get good close up shots with what I have, and to be fair some of them are half decent, but just not enough magnification, and the Oly 60 macro is way out of my price range. Same with the birds in the garden, for 3 years i have tried moving the bird feeder closer to the house, but the small bird are not willing to move away from the safety of the tree at the bottom of the garden, this may be down to the numbers of magpies in the area, I don't know ?.
As for the standard zoom, it is the Olympus 14-42 EZ, which I don't use very often, I am not keen on the electronic zoom plus I have had to replace it once, due to the internal ribbon breaking, which is a common issue from what I understand, and now I don't trust it lol.
My Olympus EM10 ii screen has now also started to flicker on and off when I move the camera about, again I believe it is the ribbon that connects the internal electronics to the screen that is dying, this repair would also be beyond my means.
I think when I look at things as a whole, if I cannot afford even a basic lens, such as a used Oly 14-42 R which you can get cheaply (in photography terms), then I have to ask myself how am I going to fix any issues or replace equipment.
My thinking is maybe best to quit when I can maybe accept it, rather than be forced to quit due to equipment failure or some other external influence.
Just the way my brain works lol, but then dementia is starting to set in lol.
 
the black fox said:
Don’t look at it as a end of your journey just a pause along the way , finances change regularly over the years one day your skint the next your flush with money at getting on for 81 years on the planet I know that’s a fact not a dream
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Thanks for the encouragement I appreciate it.
 
Carpy2001 said:
Just me, I keep tying to get good close up shots with what I have, and to be fair some of them are half decent, but just not enough magnification, and the Oly 60 macro is way out of my price range.
Click to expand...

Have you thought of getting some close up filters? You can get a set for £12 or some used ones for £7.99. I've had a set for years and they're cheaper now than when I got mine. If you're shooting static stuff like flowers or watches or whatever or even some creepy crawlies that aren't too flighty you might get some good results with a set of cheap screw on filters. My most used is a No.4. If you do look at a set get a set with a relatively wide filter thread so you're ok using them on different lenses with different sized filter threads and use step up rings for smaller filter thread lenses. My close up filters are 67mm and my most used lenses are 49mm thread and up.

Carpy2001 said:
Same with the birds in the garden, for 3 years i have tried moving the bird feeder closer to the house, but the small bird are not willing to move away from the safety of the tree at the bottom of the garden, this may be down to the numbers of magpies in the area, I don't know ?.
As for the standard zoom, it is the Olympus 14-42 EZ, which I don't use very often, I am not keen on the electronic zoom plus I have had to replace it once, due to the internal ribbon breaking, which is a common issue from what I understand, and now I don't trust it lol.
My Olympus EM10 ii screen has now also started to flicker on and off when I move the camera about, again I believe it is the ribbon that connects the internal electronics to the screen that is dying, this repair would also be beyond my means.
I think when I look at things as a whole, if I cannot afford even a basic lens, such as a used Oly 14-42 R which you can get cheaply (in photography terms), then I have to ask myself how am I going to fix any issues or replace equipment.
My thinking is maybe best to quit when I can maybe accept it, rather than be forced to quit due to equipment failure or some other external influence.
Just the way my brain works lol, but then dementia is starting to set in lol.
Click to expand...

Birding is difficult as even with that 40-150mm a bird is going to be small in the frame at something like 5 yards which is pretty close for a bird. On standard range zooms, I don't know the Oly range but I know that you can get the original Panasonic 14-42mm from £40 odd. The IMO very good and tiny 14-42mm G Vario is a little more expensive at £60 odd.

On the faulty screen. if it's not worth fixing get a Panasonic G1 for £40 and a lens for £40 and be happy.

It's up to you (and the Mrs) if this carries on or not. All I know is that photography means a lot to me and I'd be really upset to stop. Ultimate IQ doesn't matter, IMO, what matters is that you enjoy it and get a decent shot once in a while.

I hope you carry on but whatever decision you make, good luck moving forward.
 
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woof woof said:
Have you thought of getting some close up filters? You can get a set for £12 or some used ones for £7.99. I've had a set for years and they're cheaper now than when I got mine. If you're shooting static stuff like flowers or watches or whatever or even some creepy crawlies that aren't too flighty you might get some good results with a set of cheap screw on filters. My most used is a No.4. If you do look at a set get a set with a relatively wide filter thread so you're ok using them on different lenses with different sized filter threads and use step up rings for smaller filter thread lenses. My close up filters are 67mm and my most used lenses are 49mm thread and up.
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I have extension tubes and a Raynox 150,
This was using both tubes and the Raynox, taken at 105mm on the 40-150, ok shot just not enough magnification. Whereas the 2nd shot was taken by a member on another with the Olympus 60mm macro lens, and shows the difference between what I am able to do, and what I would like to do.

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P2440965.jpeg
 
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I'm very much with you. I've always been very reluctant to spend big money on gear, probably due to struggling financially in the early days. A lot of people have the opposite approach and spend enormous amounts, no problem with that, but not for me.

A statement (or suggestion) of the obvious - why not try a different type of photography that doesn't require more expense?
Photography can be, but doesn't need to be, limited by personal circumstances.
 
Thanks Garry, The biggest problem for me at least , is the fact that I don't go out, I very rarely leave the house. So the garden is almost like my safe space lol.
The down side of not going out is the lack of photo opportunities, hence my interest in macro, it seems there is always something tiny in the garden lol.
 
There are some compact cameras with ridiculous zooms that might be worth looking at. Think my old sony one was 30x optical zoom. They might not be that expensive used either. There's also SLR body type ones as well. Panasonic used to make nice ones. For the bird feeder at a distance type of photos they should work quite well. Proper lens for proper slr or mirrorless with that kind of magnification are going to be silly money.
 
It's a big shame the situation you are in :(

If you feel you can't leave the house for different genre of photography and you haven't quite got the gear for garden photography then maybe quitting and finding something else to do with your time might be the best option.
 
I wonder if cameraless photography would engage your interest?

www.ilfordphoto.com

Becoming the Camera - Thoughts on Photograms

With a photogram - you expose your paper to light (sunlight for photograms), with an object on top, and the area underneath the object remains unexposed,
www.ilfordphoto.com www.ilfordphoto.com

A garden would seemingly provide lots of subject matter to create the photograms. As well as the situation to expose them.

Of course to share them would need a scanner or possibly just a smartphone to photograph them.
 
To be fair i am on the same journey.
I have to slim down my Olympus system this year and decide what i keep and so far its just the body and the 18mm (35mm) making the cut with a few extras
 
OK, a long rambling and personal post of 408 words, make of it what you will.

I’ve just come back from clay pigeon shooting, which was my sport for many years, I used to be pretty good at it, I was a decent competition shooter in the English Sporting Clays discipline.

But age and health have got to me; my reactions are much slower than they used to be, and I now have a shoulder injury that isn’t going to get better, this has slowed me down, affected my ability a lot and now I’m just a very average shooter, middle of the road club standard, not competition standard now.

I adapted by changing my type of gun to make it easier to carry on, I then had to change to lighter cartridges because I could no longer cope with the recoil from the normal cartridges, and less lead means fewer hits.

And I’m now preparing to stop shooting my 12-bore shotgun, I’ll soon be limited to a tiny .410 shotgun and with that, I’ll need to be 120% better just to get the same score.

Time to give up shooting? No, I just have to accept my limitations, and as long as I can still get out and do it the score won’t matter to me, the score is subjective not objective, I’ll judge my performance by what I can realistically achieve, not by what other, younger people can achieve. I’ll be 81 next week, still being able to shoot at all is a win situation for me.

I hit 36 out of a possible 50 today, I was beaten by a guy who I started to teach to shoot less than 2 years ago, he hit 38, I view that as my success.
card.jpg

I think that you can apply this to your photography. As others have said, image quality really isn’t the issue here, judge your results by what YOU can achieve, with your limited equipment, not by what others with better equipment can achieve, it’s subjective not objective.

And/or do something different, such as photographing birds in your garden. So what if you don’t have long enough lenses? Just crop the images as needed and see what you can achieve with the gear you already have; you’ll be able to get better image quality if you spend another £5000, and another £10000 would bring about even better image quality – but does that really matter?
 
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A very cheap way into MFT macro is the 12-50 lens it has macro focus ability and is quite good value . There’s also plenty of film era macro lenses around that only require cheap conversion adaptors , search evil bay for canon or Nikon macro lenses or better still M42 thread macro lenses they will all be MF but that’s no problem . ,
Just had a quick browse for Nikon f mount fit macro quiet a few on there various brands and types all circa £20-£40 you then need a blind adaptor I.e no contacts . Nikon f to MFT … personally I wouldn’t throw the towel in for the sake of a £50 max outlay
 
i think we've all been there at one point or another i know i have i completely sold up a few years ago because i had fallen out of love with photography but you soon get the itch again

i have an old minolta 50mm Macro AF lens that has been doing nothing for years if you can put it to use it's yours.
maybe there is a sony alpha mount to olympus mount that shouldn't be too expensive or maybe somebody might have an old sony alpha dslr they are willing to let go of or is that asking too much

dunno talk amongst yourselves and lets see if something can be worked out :)
 
Well I have just been forbidden, under any circumstances, from getting rid of any of my gear (which is not a lot), and have been discussing the costs of bodies and lenses with "she who must be obeyed"
.
The problem now is what to do lol, I have a (what I believe is a dying) Olympus EM10ii and 2 kit lenses (12-42EZ, 40-150 f4-5.6) and an old EM1 mki that turns on when it feels like it.
Do I stay with Olympus, go to Panasonic, or move away from mft altogether?.

The issue for me is I have no experience (for what little I have) of any other system, how does Canon or Nikon compare (apsc not ff) in size weight and IQ? does using another system cost more etc etc.

I have looked into local photography clubs, but nothing around where I live (I don't drive), so no one to talk to or to compare gear with.
There are also no photography shops in my town any more, so no chance to pick up and feel a camera, just a Canon R 50 in our local Curry's, and that felt tiny lol.
I am just a novice who enjoys taking pictures, likes to shoot Bee's and bugs etc, but also likes shooting Blue tits etc from 10-20mtr away.
Brain scrambled now, to much info on the net, and not enough experience to understand it lol.
 
cosmicma said:
i think we've all been there at one point or another i know i have i completely sold up a few years ago because i had fallen out of love with photography but you soon get the itch again

i have an old minolta 50mm Macro AF lens that has been doing nothing for years if you can put it to use it's yours.
maybe there is a sony alpha mount to olympus mount that shouldn't be too expensive or maybe somebody might have an old sony alpha dslr they are willing to let go of or is that asking too much

dunno talk amongst yourselves and lets see if something can be worked out :)
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Thank you so much for the offer, but as of yet I am unsure which way to go, or what to do lol.
 
How do I say this politely?

I won't bother, I'll just do what I usually do and say what I think . . .

We don't know you, we don't even know where you live. Your boss must know you better than anyone, and my guess is that she knows the effect that giving up will have on you - so do as you're told and, as Churchill famously said, keep buggering on!

I'll tell you what I do know. The vast majority of TP members are great, and will do everything they can to help other members, the kind offer by @cosmicma is evidence of this.

So, you don't drive, you aren't very mobile and you don't know a lot about photography. I think it's possible (it's happened many times before) that if you tell us which area you live in, someone may offer to meet up with you and provide practical help
 
Thanks Garry, no need for politeness, I am a "spade is a spade" type of guy, I prefer people to be open and honest rather than tell someone what they think they want to hear.

I live in Low Moor, Bradford, my mobility is ok, it is just things that have happened that tend to keep me indoors.

We have a park about 1/4 mile away, with a decent size lake in it that we take the dog around. I used to go taking pictures in there, until I was confronted ( and threatened) by people on 3 occasions for wandering around with a camera, this is due I believe to the fact that there is a children's play area in the park, and people assumed I was taking images of kids. What really got to me is, if I had been taking pictures with a mobile phone, no one would have said anything. So that sort of stopped me from going over there, and made me question using a "proper camera" in public, hence just sticking to the garden.

The "Boss" asked if I could get a camera and lenses for £1000 - £1500 ??, which I am sure I could, but what ??.
A lens for macro, a lens for birds/squirrels etc, a general walk about lens, but which lol, moving away from kit lenses and suddenly the price jumps a lot.

But it gives me something to thing about and look into, which will keep me occupied for hours and hours, and possibly give me a massive headache as well lol.

PS I am still reading your book, I keep going to it for info, maybe one day something will sink in my old skull.
 
Well, there you go . . .

I live in Baildon, very close to you. I know nothing about photographing birds, bugs or anything similar, but am fairly experienced in photography. I have a Nikon D7200 that may be ideal for your needs, I'll be happy to visit you so that you can play with it and see whether it suits. I can do that the week after next.
 
Carpy2001 said:
Well I have just been forbidden, under any circumstances, from getting rid of any of my gear (which is not a lot), and have been discussing the costs of bodies and lenses with "she who must be obeyed"
.
Click to expand...
Sometimes it is ones nearest & dearest who are best placed to give us a kick up the posterior;)
Carpy2001 said:
The problem now is what to do lol, I have a (what I believe is a dying) Olympus EM10ii and 2 kit lenses (12-42EZ, 40-150 f4-5.6) and an old EM1 mki that turns on when it feels like it.
Do I stay with Olympus, go to Panasonic, or move away from mft altogether?.
Click to expand...
If you are used to the mFT ecosystem then perhaps look for a used E-M1 MK3 or maybe an OM1 but note the menu systems are different.

Carpy2001 said:
The issue for me is I have no experience (for what little I have) of any other system, how does Canon or Nikon compare (apsc not ff) in size weight and IQ? does using another system cost more etc etc.

I have looked into local photography clubs, but nothing around where I live (I don't drive), so no one to talk to or to compare gear with.
Click to expand...
Well. TP has lots of members and many are willing to aid the 'club' akin involvement to help and encourage you. Maybe one or two live in your neck of the woods who might be willing to meet up with you for some 121 time???
Carpy2001 said:
There are also no photography shops in my town any more, so no chance to pick up and feel a camera, just a Canon R 50 in our local Curry's, and that felt tiny lol.
I am just a novice who enjoys taking pictures, likes to shoot Bee's and bugs etc, but also likes shooting Blue tits etc from 10-20mtr away.
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Your 40-150mm f4 gets praise as very decent lens and it's 150mm end is FL equivalent to 300mm which for some subjects might be a little short for smaller birds at 20m away. Though setting up something in your garden that allows you to be closer to the subject would likely work your favour.
Carpy2001 said:
Brain scrambled now, to much info on the net, and not enough experience to understand it lol.
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Keep asking to keep learning:)
 
@Carpy2001

Andrew.

Camera clubs can be a mixed bag but having read the history of the Bradford Camera Club it comes across that their ethos is good.

According to their information they meet in Wilsden and I would make a surmise that they might even have members in or near Low Moor.......but wherever their members live it cannot hurt to contact the club and ask whether anyone could or would help out with a lift there & back for the monthly meetings?
 
Garry Edwards said:
Well, there you go . . .

I live in Baildon, very close to you. I know nothing about photographing birds, bugs or anything similar, but am fairly experienced in photography. I have a Nikon D7200 that may be ideal for your needs, I'll be happy to visit you so that you can play with it and see whether it suits. I can do that the week after next.
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Let you know shortly Gary, many thanks, just had a problem arise at home. So not being ignorant, just got to sort this out.
cheers Andy
 
If I was in your position, Andrew, I'd take advantage of Garry's offer of a meet-up and steal some of his photographic knowledge!
 
Garry Edwards said:
Well, there you go . . .

I live in Baildon, very close to you. I know nothing about photographing birds, bugs or anything similar, but am fairly experienced in photography. I have a Nikon D7200 that may be ideal for your needs, I'll be happy to visit you so that you can play with it and see whether it suits. I can do that the week after next.
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I would love to take you up on the offer of a meet up Gary, if it is still available?. Hopefully we can work something out that is suitable for you.
Cheers Andy.
 
No problem, I'm tied up this week and next, but will be available after that, i.e. week commencing 10th August. Just send me a PM with your contact details and we'll sort something out.

I'm a bit of a specialist, my experience is limited and I know very little about cameras etc., so if there's anyone else who can also help, please do.
 
I don’t know whether my visit helped or not, I hope that it did.

I have zero experience of Andy’s camera, I looked it up and it seems to me to be perfectly capable. The camera that I took along was my Nikon D7200, a fairly basic and quite old DSLR, which I think is easier to use, but they should be roughly comparable in terms of image quality.

His long zoom isn’t as long as it appears to be, what is said to be a max FL of 300mm is in fact 145mm, Photoshop says that it is “35mm equivalent to 290mm” and that’s a bit of a disappointment.
Screenshot birdbath olympus_red.jpg

olympus birdbath_red.jpg
To illustrate this, here's a shot with my camera, 200mm lens so 35mm equivalent is 300mm
nikon birdbath f_5.6_red.jpg

Also, the front elements of these lenses aren’t recessed, they’re pretty much flush, and a lens hood is absolutely essential, but not supplied, so I strongly suggested that he get a cheap rubber lens hood to get around this problem. He also needs a better tripod. In my view, that’s the only money that needs to be spent.

In terms of technique, all sensor sizes have their limitations, with these micro 2/3rd cameras the limitation is that the small sensor size stops the lens from being stopped down very far, optimum image quality, avoiding diffraction limitation, is probably achieved at f/5.6. That’s the largest aperture that a lot of variable f/stop zoom lenses can be used at, with decent image quality, and also the smallest that totally avoids the general loss of sharpness created by diffraction limitation. Having said that, Andy took shots at f/5.6 and f/22 for comparison, and the loss of quality at f/22 was less than I expected.

My general advice?

Forget, for now, about taking photos of butterflies, bugs and birds, too difficult and with too many variables of distance, speed, depth of field and so on. Concentrate on the basics and learn the physics, and do this by photographing subjects that don’t and can’t move, i.e. subjects found in the home. That’s how we learn – or at least that’s how I learn – because when a subject keeps absolutely still, it’s much easier to nail the other variables such as camera height, light angles, choice of aperture, exposure and so on.

I also made the point that there is nothing basically wrong with his photos, he just needs to change his approach, concentrating on the physics-based element to ensure correct choices of aperture, shutter speed etc., which will leave his mind free of technical considerations, allowing him to concentrate on the artistic elements. Most of us would benefit from that approach. And none of us should compare our results, almost straight out of camera with just very minor tweaks to curves etc., to many of the examples we see online, which often owe far more to extensive post-processing than to the actual photography.
 
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