I am always surprised that pan-tilt tripod heads are not used and recommended more often by photographers. They make a lot more sense than the standard ball head for me. I have one on a cheap tripod I use for an inexpensive, small telescope but have never tried it with my camera. That unit is probably too light for camera work but I just can't imagine a more solid unit not working with my camera.

I've had my Pen & Touch Intous for about three weeks. I like it a lot. It is a lot faster to use than a tablet for most things. However, I agree that it takes some getting use to. It doesn't exactly work like a mouse. For help getting started there are lots of short videos on Youtube. Once you understand the basic differences between the tablet and a mouse it's very easy to get going..

This is sage advice indeed. I've taken pictures for years but only got serious about it in the last year or two. However, no matter how much photographic technology I've learned nothing I have learned is more important than what was stated in this response.

I've modified that approach a bit. On first view of a days worth of photography I throw out anything that is simply unacceptable technically speaking and anything I just simply don't like or is one of the weaker shots in a series of photographs. I use to wait and wait to edit them but I found that by doing that the bad stuff kind of affected my view of the whole day. By that I mean if I looked through 200 shots and most of them didn't make me happy I viewed it as a wasted day and clear proof that I am not very good at photography. If I edit them every time I view them it is not long before all that is left is the good stuff and all of a sudden I feel so much better about the efforts I put into my photography in general and that particular outing in specifically. .

I've also learned to group my photos into stuff that are just basically snapshots of my family, events or other things that I am interested in. I don't judge these much.

If on the other hand if the photo was an attempt to really hit the ball out of the park artistically I decide what's is wrong with it, what I can do better and whether or not I will get a chance at another photo of the same subject as a replacement.

Experts say you should take a lot of pictures and I agree but one other thing I do is I take lots of shots of the same subject on many different occasions and every time I take new set of photos I try and improve on what I've already done.

I hope that some of this helps others.

bdk,

In my opinion This may be one of the best topics I've seen brought up UHH since I joined. I can't wait to see the responses.

For me I suffer all the same issues as you do and have noticed that it often taken a year or more before I begin to see that an image I took in the past may not be as bad as I first thought and is actually pretty good if I do say so myself. That shows you the effect that critiquing can have on your enjoyment of the the photograph itself and the hobby in general. I haven't yet sorted all of this out but I have learned to try and see the photograph for what it is good bout it rather than just what is wrong with it. Hopefully I will get even better at that and become more able to enjoy my photographic efforts for what they are.

I love the A6000 but I have to agree that not having a mic input is incredibly dumb on Sony's part especially when you consider the quality of the video possible with this camera. The fact that the Sony microphone system is not good is even crazier.

The 16-50mm kit lens is unjustly maligned. I think that is because so many kit lenses with other cameras are so bad. The 16-50mm is not.

The Sigma lenses have a great reputation especially at their price point but if you want a basic zoom the 16-70mm and the 18-105mm are very popular.

There is not currently an overwhelming amount of lenses available for the A6000 but there is easily enough to get the job done and I am sure there are lots more of them on the way. The camera is very popular and every lens maker has to be thinking that the way to sell of lot of lenses is to focus on the Sony e-mount cameras.

I think have the same tablet as you I am still learning to use it but I think I am impressed so far. The biggest difficulty is learning that you have to place the stylus at the point on the tablet that correlates to same spot on the monitor.

However I didn't know that you could decrease the "working" area of the tablet. That sounds good to me. Going to have to look tht up.

The Strobist website is incredibly good.

Nice fireworks photo. Can't wait to see the moon shot with your new camera.

As I said when I started this topic I am not the brightest person on the planet when it comes to all of this digital technology. I really appreciate all of the informative responses here. From what I'v read here I was just about to purchase a Wacom tablet when I started thinking that I already have an Lenovo laptop with ta touchscreen so I was wondering if I just about stylus for it could I do the same things with that that I could do with the Wacom tablet with the stylus. I'd love hearing anyone's thoughts along that line before I buy anything.

Thanks in advance.

Well, the only thing left to be decided is whether to buy a small tablet or medium. It also looks like the difference in some of these models is just the software designed for particular uses like drawing or photo editing.

The pen on the pro model is touch sensitive and will draw a heavier line if you press harder. I don't think that will work on the Lightroom or Photoshop software anyway so that may be of no use to any of use. If some one knows for sure I'd like to know.

If anyone as any experience in any of these areas on the Wacom tablets I'd love to hear awhat you have to say. I am pretty close ot jumping in on one of these.

I guess the question is how much do you have to spend on the Wacom tablet to get the most use out of it for photo editing. I keep seeing the $300.00 unit mentioned but I am not sure why.

There was another brand mentioned here also. Does anyone know how that compares with the Wacom?

When I said slow in my first comment on using the mouse I should have stated that I don't mean the mouse operates slowly but in my opinion it takes too long to do anything because is not as precise as it should be.

I have a new Logitech mouse I use with my laptop. It works good in general but it's to slow and imprecise for me to work with in Lightroom and Photoshop. Hopefully someone knows what model would work better than this.