So, know him or hate him, he was colorful. TucsonCoyote passed away about 6 hours ago. He talked about people here as though he knew them well, and I don't really know if that's true or not... But, I felt I would leave a note. If anyone wants to PM for an address for flowers or something, I'll check back in a day or two. Thanks.

All I can say, I already said: https://www.facebook.com/BadlandZ/posts/10156803401598738?comment_id=10156803978308738&notif_id=1534664535359407&notif_t=feed_comment

Welcome Terry! aka jaxon.

Excited to see more of your shots. Eagles always make great shots. I'm impressed with the capture of a few "rough around the edges" more realistic eagles you have already! I love the realistic, rather than fantasy over-photoshopped shots!

I shoot what I think will give me a good photo. My closet has Canon and Nikon dSLRs, and some old Yeshiva, Zeiss, Contax, and Vivitar glass I know works, and when that I put on Sony E-Mount cheap NEX bodies to get the shot. It's not "Bi" it's "try" and find the camera lens combo that gets a photo in the RAW file the way you want to see it printed. Period. I am more then "bi" in that way, I'm "try..."

Welocme pastorvictor / Victor!!!

Look forward to seeing some of your photos and thoughts!

Well, first off, Thank You jim quist, Mac, photophly, RiverNan, RichardTaylor. Thanks for the welcome! :-)

But... lev29

I did laugh at your catch of my late-night typo. Sure. I mostly do IP law, but law is a second career for me now, so I take any cases at the moment I think I can help with. But only in Arizona right now. Trademark, copyright, that sort of thing in IP are my focus. But I've done will/probate disputes, and some for the "ugly" law that makes people hate lawyers too. So, I'm general practice right now, but leaning hard into Intellectual Property.

The "bi" joke shocks me a bit, because, it's right after what I can see as a bit of an attack at one of the nicest guys I have ever know in my life. What you see as "acrid and hostile" I see as good friendly goating. I've dealt with this guy for decades, not months. And when he pisses me off (and it's sometimes weekly, for decades) I have come to learn, it's because he's my friend, and wants me to justify an action that might be questionable.

He's not insulting anyone, he's just trying to be witty (and sometimes crudely, or offensively) but trying to make you think about your choice. And if you come back with a logical reason, he (almost always, almost) respects your answer.

Think of it like this, if a 16 year old billionaire said he was about to buy a Ferrari and drive his girlfriend up the Pacific Coast Highway... 99% of the people out there would spend their time trying to explain how it was "to much car" for him and how "impressing your girlfriend, on that road, will not be safe." But most kids will not listen. He's the guy that just calls it, and pisses the kid off in a way that can't be ignored, saying "Kid, why don't you do me a favor first, signs your assets over to me in case of your death for the week only, ok?"

So, maybe he isn't Politically Correct. Maybe he's a jerk sometimes. But he's trying to make his point heard. And trust me, I know for a fact, when you are down on your luck, and you need a real helping hand, there isn't a more caring, compassionate, amazing friend to have. Basically, it's this. He KICKS YOU when you are UP, but, he is the FIRST guy to show up and lend a helping hand when you are down. So, that's a friend, and you didn't start off well in my book lev29, by judging ME before you know me, by not understanding my friend, and using it to be prejudice against me.

To the Original shots, to the first poster here... Ok, sorry if it’s harsh, but improvement is what you are after right?

Overall, great vacation shots!

First shot, they are ready to move. But it is a heavy crop photo, obviously, with a long zoom lens. You show it’s4 lions, F5.6, 1/80, ISO 320, 200mm. It should have been closer to f/2.8, shutter at least 1/250 of a second. The bad “blur” is because you shot at a slow shutter speed, below your 200mm.. Don’t go below 1/200th of a second at 200mm.

Second shot, 1 lion, F5.0, 1/80, ISO 360, 135mm, same mistake. Keep your zoom, 135mm, lower than shutter speed. It is a great shot, but if you took it at 1/135 or faster it would be sharper, and be REAL amazing and publication worthy.

Now, the third shot 1 lion, F5.0, 1/80, ISO 360, 135mm, is nice. Great. But if you went with Rule of Thirds, and put that cat up in the top right of the frame, and gave some imagination to what she was looking at, more epic. And then some post-process color edits. That would be amazing.


Now this Bird, F11, 1/100, ISO 800, 190mm. Exposure is great, color is great. Bokeh is great. But consider putting that bird in the top 1/3 of the frame where it’s looking at something, and give something to the imagination. This shot is brilliant, but, leaves nothing to imagine or think about. So, maybe reframe it?

I hope that’s not to harsh. These are cool photos. But, with some tweaks, every one of them would have been so epic.

Overall, before I'd worry about "out of focus" I'd think, shutter speed was to slow, need bigger aperture lens, so you can get a faster shutter. The shutter speeds are too slow, it's not out of focus, it's motion blur from shaky camera, not bad focus.

I agree, GREAT photo of the family. But, a tiny bit of bokeh would have helped. The bricks would be less distracting in the background, and the fire would still "pop." So, I'd step it down to a stop or two and kept the people in focus, and a bit more background blur with a narrower depth of field. Keep the family sharp, less distraction from the background, and a bit more epic.

Thanks Richard! I've been lurking here for a couple months thanks to TucsonCoyote telling me about it. But I'll try to be more active.

I just need to set my notifications, so when someone says "hey Rob" (or whatever works) I know to read, think, and answer.

Hey guys,

I'm Rob, and I've been taking photos since my dad force me to be his "backup" guy at weddings, back in the 1970's.

I mostly shoot Nikon and Sony, but know enough that I still respect my old Olympus OM1 and sometimes shoot film.

One of my paw's (dad's) best friends was this guy you already know as TucsonCoyote. Sometimes (usually) a smart alec. Sometimes a bit to pointed in his opinions. But really TucsonCoyote (aka John, or since he was born in France, Jean-Francois) is a good guy. He tells it like it is, and says things in a sharp, teasing way. I've known this guy since before I was a teen.

Me, well, I know cameras every way to Sunday. I have a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry when "sensors" were arrays of photodiodes. I have worked for companies that had a 144 MP camera out in 2005, long, long stories about how much I know about CCDs and CMOS, and you would be bored reading my resume.

And, I'm a lawyer too, I have a JD, and licensed to practice in Arizona, so I might rant sometimes about "Copyrights" and how your photos are YOURS, and how other people can and can't use them.

But, just wanted to say Howdy! And, between the two of us, we are crazy enough... We are Crazy Coyote Photo.

So, we want to help here where we can, and will respond to questions. And if you want to learn Photography, we just this month started a YouTube channel to help. It's all about helping people get good photos.

So, that's me, that's us, you like the idea, find our channel in my signature (won't advertise here). Just we are here to help.

If the OP didn't know TucsonCoyote was joking around being a harmless smart-ass... well, then they don't know how internet forums work. I don't see it as a big loss.

If you are going to buy a gray market camera, you should do it through Amazon or eBay. And there are a few reasons why.

Anybody can set up a website with an order system, even if they don't have the products. I tried to order a camera from a place like Daxmart this fall, and it didn't work (the order, not the camera). The place I ordered from was troniccity (similar type of website). After about 6 weeks of frustration, and reading about things, I finally made sure the order was canceled and bought something used instead.

First, you order online, and they send you an email. The email doesn't even say what you ordered, it is in no way a confirmation of order, just a message that you need to call them on the phone before they can finish "processing" your order.

Second, on the phone they tell you the gray market lower cost version of the camera isn't "in stock" like the website said, the only version in stock is the full priced (overpriced) USA version. I tried to argue how that camera wasn't even on the same page, and that I had screenshots of how what they advertised was at the lower price, and in stock, but they insisted it wasn't in stock, and had to be shipped from overseas. How long? 8-10 weeks. (nothing takes that long, it was clearly BS).

Then, they said unless I go to Thailand, the warrantee would not be honored (which is part true, US service centers won't even work on some foreign Nikons if you pay them). But I thought I would gamble that, and a lot of time they don't send the country they claim, it could end up being Canada, and that isn't impossible to get serviced. That is the gray market gamble, I knew it going in. But, the point is, I had to listen to that sales pitch to upgrade on the phone for a good 10-15 minutes constantly saying "no, no, no, I don't want the upgrade."

Then comes the hard sell for all the extras that are priced 10x higher than they should be. That's another 5-10 minutes of your life you will never get back.

So, after pushing through a 20-30 minute phone call, they say "ok" and hang up. And about 2-3 weeks later, you realize, you still have not received any form of order confirmation what so ever. And they haven't even charged you anything yet, they are just hanging on to your credit card number, and the charge could pop up randomly at any time because now you have authorized it.

And you start to think about "8-10 weeks" being a long enough time that there are going to be sales, price drops, other things that in 2-3 months there is at least some chance your "great deal" could have been found somewhere else, without the hassle.

So, you call back to insist they at least give you a confirmation of the order. And you run though all the "I see this is not the USA model, do you know..." for another 15 minutes, and then they finally get to your answer. "Oh, we don't send order confirmations. I see here that there has been a delay in shipment since we last talked to you."

Now, I'm not giving the typical gray market cameras are hard to get repaired if something goes wrong warning here. What I am telling you is that if you want to risk a gray market camera, use eBay or Amazon. Because first of all, if the seller doesn't ship right away, you have eBay or Amazon to dispute the transaction with. You are much more likely to actually GET a camera. Second, if you look it over and find something wrong (frequently the serial numbers don't match up, or something is broken "during shipping") at least with eBay and Amazon, there is a solid return policy in place.

So, you've been warned. Proceed at your own risk.

In case you saw something here before, and it looks like it's missing now.... That might be because it sold already.

If it is still listed above, it's still for sale. If not, it's sold.


Sold:
Canon Zoom Lens EF 28-90 1:4-5.6 III $60
Nikon D3200 digital camera (with battery/charger/box) $275
Nikon D70 digital camera (with battery/charger) $100
Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 D lens $120
Promaster AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical for Nikon $40

Buy film... unless I owed a better film camera. I'd buy film and put my best lenses on that body... Doesn't take a lot to get a excellent exposure out of a 35mm! I'd shoot it, put it in my bag as my "digital shots are good, this one is set up perfect" and shoot that in film.... And know it's going to come out better than my best digital shots.

That's what I'd do with a N6006. Keep it in my camera bag and pull it out and stick a lens on it for my "best shot." (unless I have a better film camera, and I want an F6, but only have a N80 to shoot film).

If you think film is dead, you are an idiot. Film is so much richer and detailed than digital, but... HUGE UGLY BUTT... It's going to cost you... At least $0.60 an exposure, minimum. And you better know what you are doing, because you can't come back or bracket that one shot. You "save" those film moments still, and only take them when they are truly brilliant.

Don't be rude. That lens is worth around $50 in good condition. And it did say "OBO." And if the body works, film can pull out over 50MP digitized right (but, yea, body isn't worth a lot).

The point is, the "stuff" that is being sold with an old 35mm film body is worth more than the camera body itself. And just to pick on someone for listing it as "Canon Rebel 35mm" is really not cool. Look at what's there, the price is a bit high, but there are things of value in this ad, we just need more details. What if it's a high end SLIK tripod? Who knows yet?

Several things for sale. If you know what it is, you know these are decent prices. I have upgraded to higher end gear or have more than one of them. US Shipping is $5-20, depending on what it is, will only charge you what I'll pay for USPS rates. I will discount 5-10% if you by more than one item at a the same time (plus you will save on shipping).

Canon EOS Mount Gear:
Canon 10D digital camera (with vertical grip and 2 batteries and chargers) $95
Tamron AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical $50

Nikon AF/AF-S F-Mount Gear:
Nikon N65 35mm film camera $10
Nikon Pronea S APS film camera $30
Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 DX VR II (latest generation, gen4?) lens $150

Sony/Minolta/Konica A-Mount Gear:
Minolta AF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 $30
Minolta AF 35-80mm f/4-5.6 $30

Memory cards NOT included, but if you need one, I can probably find and extra one for $5-10 that will get you started.

I know exactly what this stuff sells for used at used equipment dealers, on craigslist, and on eBay. These are good prices already, and I'm selling to clear out my closet not because I need cash. Don't lowball me on prices unless you can prove to me you can find it cheaper elsewhere, and feel safe what you are getting isn't broken.

But I will knock 5-10% off if you buy several things at once.