There is no need for a tripod with a flash at night but it holds the camera so I can see if the picture was centered & correct it without guessing where to hold for the correction shot. I take certain pictures at night of my ham radio antennas to illuminate the bottom of the elements & it can be too dark to see any detail in the viewer. Since the shot is 55-60' & TTL, it is the longest Strobe time possible & a tripod might help just a little. The camera limits itself to 1/250 with strobe to make sure it gets all the flash without cutting it off. Who knows what the typical TTL times are close & far for a Nikon strobe? The detail is so good I can see nuts & bolts very clearly. During the day it fills in the shadow of the brim of a hat. It sparks up an overcast day lighting for the first 15' or so. I used to shoot overcast day pictures on one roll only & increase developing time to increase the contrast ratio so it would print on F2 paper also as in the Adams Zone System. Or I used what I call local flash on an individual & develop normal. It didn't do anything on scenic shots. I had 6 backs for my Hasselblad & customized B&W exposure. I use a 8x10 Fresnel lens mounted in front of my Nikon or other strobes for up to 80 yd telephoto shots.

I didn't know they were that far away but when everything is maximized such as fast enough shutter, tripod use, high resolution lenses, high pixel rate on & on, surprises do occur. It only takes one deficiency to ruin a picture. To really test a lens shoot a newspaper at night with a flash on a tripod & compare with others in the computer.

Very good observation but there are other reasons over the years I'm beginning to believe Gore was right & time will tell. Sea levels are indeed higher & getting higher regardless where the water is coming from. A mild winter is predicted coming up but time will tell. Building houses & garages 4-5' higher is still a good idea & worth the investment. Flooded basements in SD has been a problem in the past but there have been methods to reduce it. Having a 1000 gal water tank ready to use in California could help save ones house.

1/500 may not have been fast enough. The tree leaves look just a little out of focus. There is not any detail in the rocks to tell you it might not be in total focus! Always blow up pictures big later in the computer, examine for sharpness & resolution. When I take flash pictures at night that are in focus they really impress me for detail.

The Astros obtaining Verlander on a trade minutes before the deadline was the best trade ever made in baseball (other than Ruth to the Yankees). He will probably start game 6 & is still undefeated as an Astro. This WS will go down as one of the best ever--it is now. Every eye of the fans is glued on the players for the longest period of time I've ever seen--including mine. I'm glad the game in Huston didn't have to be played in a swamp due to the flood. Homes & garages need to be built 4-5' over the ground now (you will be glad it was). There are thousands of cars (homes also) now ruined by the flood not elevated at least 4-5' & there will be more. I'm starting to believe Al Gore was right.

When you brag about color you need sunlight particularly in the fall. Take them over in sunlight.

After focusing at F4.5 with a bright image for convenience then using a smaller F stop with 8x10 & 4x5 lenses, focus shift was common at F16 mostly closer fortunately. The added depth of field tended to compensate for the focus shift. The shift was difficult to see on the ground glass as the image was 4F stops dimmer & difficult to pin point focus but often produced a fair picture. I never used F16 for this reason with these lenses as it's difficult to focus on ground glass. F22 was in focus (when previously focused at F4.5) with more depth of field but at a lessor resolution than F5.6 or F8. Some lenses at F16 focused beyond infinity that could be often easily seen on the picture. Some 35mm lenses had strange quirks also.
I was conducting lenses resolutions tests with a Nikon 50mm lens when I noticed a resolution shift at F8 but back on again at F11 & F16. I've not found the infinity stop to be off on all my 35mm lenses but will keep looking for it. When focusing use a pin point source of light to focus on like a small led light. Street lights at night are good focus points.

Here are some more things I've uncovered over the years. G. Bush Sr was head of the CIA at the time. Bush was asked where he was when Kennedy was shot & he said "he doesn't remember." Everyone else in this world does??? I was told a year ago that there is a video showing him standing in front of the Book Store with 5 others in black suits at the time of the shooting. I've since seen it twice & he was there. Oswald didn't shoot him from there. He was in the day room having lunch a book store employee said. He was a patsy as he also stated I heard. The route Kennedy was to take was changed 20 minutes before it started (probably for a reason). Oswald wouldn't have known this to pre-plan bringing his so called 6.5 Assassinater gun there. A Mauser was found up there not the 6.5. Bush & Hoover knew all about the planned k*****g by 22 people in Hunts home in Dallas. They were oil people who Kennedy cut their revenues--a no no. Draining the Swamp is also a very dangerous thing to do! Hoover was at the race track with his live-in-friend that afternoon. There were other shooters. Top rifle men were unable to fire the number of shots accurately in the time period given including Jesse Ventura a Navy Seal. There were holes in the windshield that were quickly patched up also. To show you how well planned it was there were news agencies that fed other country agencies of it also. Strangely it was announced in Australia 10 minutes before it happened, as was 9-ll in England. There have been well over 50 that died suddenly when they let on they knew something about Kennedy's death. It's a list similar to Clinton's death list. Even Obama has one on internet. The most Absurd cover up was when a 6.5mm bullet was found on the his stretcher supposedly next to Kennedy (I've seen it twice in a video) placed by someone as if it just fell out of Kennedy's body--no way. Although it was a full patch pointed military bullet capable of deep penetration (2 people in this case), it showed no defacing marks on it after hitting even bone. The Mauser found in the book store 5th floor was not a 6.5. Nobody has gone to jail yet except Ruby? Nobody has gone to jail yet over 9-11 either? Why? When the Government, Banks or GM does something bad, no body goes to jail??
Dorthy Kilgallen quickly interviewed Ruby in Jail & came back to NY stating "she was going to blow this case wide open--(a very serious thing not to say before you do it). Clinton witnesses have also found this out before they were to testify against them. Dorthy was found dead in her bed the next day full of sleeping pills & other drugs she didn't use (#2 on the death list). Ruby died from a bottle of radium placed under his bed in jail by someone--he knew too much. There is considerable evidence Johnson was one of those behind his death for obvious reasons. He had a history of this over the years. A book I read called "A Texan Looks at Linden" by Everett Haley (Texas most renowned Historian) covered all those who fell by the way side somehow on his way up). There was even a big video on Kennedy's death pointing right at Johnson. His mistress complained the night before about Kennedy & Johnson told her "after tomorrow you won't have to worry about him" she wrote in her book. I really am anxious to see what is being released to see if it is more cover up. Every time there is a shooting it gets twisted all to hell on purpose & the Vegas shooting is another example. We have nothing but "F**e News" & "Chronic Sick Swamp Liars" running a "F**e Government" who have also stolen large sums of Social Security Money never to be replaced. The huge number receiving food stamps don't pay any SS tax to reimburse the fund about to be empty.

In my post here the system sent it before I was finished with it SOMEHOW--its done that before also? Last sentence "When you do that (learn all the Menu procedures) you are re--"eady to buy a more advanced camera & make use of it's additional features." All kinds of things can be done to reduce any Photo Shop work later.

This learning problem points out the need for factory made video's you can watch repetitively enough to fully grasp each procedure & quickly review it when needed without bothering others probably again. I'm 88 now & learning is slower than before. I recently got a highly excessively Menu driven Digital N5500 from Barrow Camera (to learn IR photography with no instruction manual & I had to keep taking pictures until I finally get up to some speed. A video would have saved me a lot of time. Fortunately in Digital photography you can see the results right away but you have to remember them that is not possible with film cameras. Features have been kept to a minimum on film cameras for that reason. I have suggested videos to the Mfgs. but they won't do it until they have to to be competitive. When you really master all your camera features you can do a lot of things quickly to maximize every shot. When you do that you are re

I saw a detailed report where the assassination was planned in an oil mans home in Dallas by the name of Hunt & 22 others I saw the picture of who had his oil revenues severely reduced. Less money benefits always upsets greedy people.

There is a definite learning curve with IR. Get a camera converted by LivePixel but there are 3 differeent conversions you need to know about they assume you know. Study all their web site data very thoroughly a couple times. Note! Your picture isn't sharp. There is a focus shift in IR. For many years lenses had the red marker off set to show the difference from what your eye saw in the viewer or rangefinder gave. The full page of sample IR pictures LivePixel shows is very impressive indeed. I have a specific need for pictures with a Black Sky mostly in B&W & there are 4 great examples there of this there but not info on how to duplicate it. They assume you know. Green leaves & grass turn white & adds to the overall IR look effectively.
I rented a camera converted for IR from Barrow Lens last Jan. That was a mistake as there were no green leaves on the trees or was the grass green in SD in the winter. They never should have rented it to me for that reason. It was wasted money & time. But with 5 different filters they supplied I was still unable to get the really black shy (time of year should make no difference) in color pictures of the camera or set for Monochrome & Borrow Lens couldn't tell me how to do it either. LivePixel as knowledgeable as they are weren't either. They assume you know all the new terms, new rules & their ramifications when they answer questions quickly. There are new terms you have to learn on a par with everything you learned about photography in your life time on conventional photography.
So I rented a camera again recently & I still couldn't get the black sky regardless of the exposures or filters used but got the white leaves & grass. Here is another thing you have to know. There are 3 different conversions of IR they do. One is a Full Spectrum conversion that I was sent twice even after I explained many times what I was mainly after & couldn't get. It is mainly for color although there is a Monochrome setting that didn't do what I wanted although the pictures were OK other wise. I usually used F11 or larger & compensated for the focus shift some but I'd been better of with the correct IR focus. Then LivePixel finally woke up & said "I need the camera they convert for B&W only to get what I want." If you can live without the totally black sky the Full Spectrum probably is the way to go. They claim ? all this is explained in their web site. Barrow Lens only has 4 example pictures shown (very inadequate). One for Full Spectrum & 2 for B&W if I remember right & 1 for yet another another conversion I wasn't interested in. These were very small postage size prints totally inadequate for showing anything on & on. Their IR rental marketing & specific knowledge was totally inadequate for renting IR converted cameras. I'm faced with now renting a B&W Spectrum IR camera for another round of taking many pictures to see if I can get the B&W sky.
I'm 88 & started in photography in 1936. I've taken many of the Polarized Filter pictures at right angles to the sun for max effect & a darkened sky but never really black as one can get in IR--if you can ever find out how to do it. I was in need for a new slant on photography & IR is the way to go even justifying getting another camera just for it & the nuisance of additional luggage. Normal scenery doesn't even interest me now. I just may leave the old style camera at home. I was planning to go to SA in their summer to get out of SD's winter weather & shoot all that new scenery down there I have never seen. That puts Testosterone in your Photography.
I was sent a N5500 Digital I think the number is that is Very Excessively Menu Driven (another learning curve-a total pain in the ass). Nikon needs to supply a detailed video on how to use it that can be reviewed any time & save a lot of learning time). You can't make fast changes often needed of anything you could do before if needed & they have too many features & variations you will never use. Further there was no auto focus either as those cameras need special lenses for it & I was constantly refocusing or forgetting to do it. It was small chip also (making it smaller & lighter-only advantage) but I would want a full chip camera for max resolution as I will be making big enlargements. The Dramatics of IR would justify it & catch the eye of more editors for articles also.
The main idea is to save time & money in any new project like IR is to somehow find out all the things you need to know about IR without the expensive experimental time wasting route. Fortunately you can review each shot for exposure & contrast in the small camera screen fairly well & quickly in great detail in the computer. IR to really get started needed digital methods. I don't know if I will live long enough to find all this out before I assume room temperature. Call me a 605 729 2077.

There is a definite learning curve with IR. Get a camera converted by LivePixel but there are 3 differeent conversions. Study all their web site data very thoroughly. Your picture isn't sharp. There is a focus shift in IR. For many years lenses had the red marker off set to show the difference from what your eye saw in the viewer or rangefinder gave. The full page of sample pictures LivePixel shows is very impressive indeed. I have a need for pictures with a black sky mostly in B&W & there are 4 great example there of this. Green leaves & grass turn white & adds to the overall IR look effectively.
I rented a camera converted for IR from Barrow cameras last Jan. That was a mistake as there were no green leave on the trees or was the grass green in SD in the winter. They never should have rented it to me for that reason. It was wasted money & time. But with 5 different filters they supplied I was still unable to get the really black shy in color pictures of the camera or set for monochrome & Borrow Camera couldn't tell me how to do it either. LivePixel as knowledgeable as they are they weren't either. They assume you know all the new terms, new rules & their ramifications when they answer questions. There are new terms you have to learn on a par with everything you learned about photography in your life time on conventional photography.
So I rented a camera again recently I still couldn't get the black sky regardless of the exposures or filters used. Here is another thing you have to know. There are 3 different conversions of IR they make. One is a Full Spectrum conversion camera that I was sent twice even after I explained many times what I was mainly after. It is mainly for color although there is a monochrome setting that didn't do what I wanted although the pictures were OK other wise. I usually used F11 or larger & compensated for the focus shift some but I'd been better of with the correct IR focus. Then LivePixel finally woke up & said "I need the camera they convert for B&W only to get what I want. If you can live without the totally black sky the Full Spectrum is the way to go. They claim all this is explained in their web site. Bsrrow Camera only has 4 example pictures shown. One for Full Spectrum & 2 for B&W if I remember right & 1 for yet another another conversion I wasn't interested. These were postage size prints totally inadequate for showing anything on & on. Their IR rental marketing was totally inadequate for renting IR converted cameras.


After many phone calls I finally got through to LivePixel what I wanted & they pointed

wonkytripod: Thanks for the floodlight info. One suggested tri-x that was most likely use. But I didn't see any grain. Do you have any info on the speed of flash bulbs vs the speed of strobe?

I made a super flash extender using a 8x10 Fresnel lens mounted in front of my Nikon Flash. I could get great 80 yard telephoto shots at night. It was not mounted on the flash but on a shaft connected to the camera.