Fantastic shot!

Thanks for the tip. After Googling 'Comma or Question Mark Buttefly', I think it is probably a Question Mark Butterfly.

Does anyone know the name of this butterfly? I've not been able to identify it on the web.
Unfortunately my garden soaker hose is unavoidably in the background!
Location: Oklahoma City, flower is a butterfly bush blossom
Shot with my Nikon D7000, 18-105mm VR kit lens

Wings open


Side shot, proboscis curled


Side shot, proboscis in blossom

Looks like a very bright day. You could try a polarizing filter. Or go back during the golden hours.

Oh, and by the way, the field of view as well as the near focus distance would be limited on these lenses, especially the 70-300mm.

So for landscape shots, or something where you're within a few feet of, you'll want another lens in addition. I bought my D7000 with a kit lens, the 18-105mm. That would fill the bill. But a nice basic, prime lens is the Nikkor 50mm f1.8. You can get a used one on eBay for somewhere between $150-200. Also for low light situations, this would be a good lens due to the wider aperture.

But if you're just bringing one lens and you want to be able to do landscape and closer distance shots, it might sway you toward the 55-200mm. As to low light, you'd just have to rely on the D7000 being able to use higher ISO settings with good results.

I also own the D7000 and 70-300mm VR. Love them both. The fast focus is definitely a plus. A side benefit is that I also dabble with SLR film cameras, so the 70-300mm works on those cameras as well. I have Nikon N80 and F4 SLR film cameras. Used SLR film cameras are pretty inexpensive on eBay; lenses are not.

It's not actually free, just prepaid. $10 each roll for developing and scanning plus $4 for mailing. The $4 covers up to 2 rolls of film and is round trip.

I also use TheDarkRoom.com. I think they do a good job and the service is good. They put the scans of the negatives on a website and also return the negatives and a CD to me. Only thing is the web site is kind of slow.

I like that they allow me to prepay on the web, print a voucher, and drop it in the envelope with the film. That way I don't have to write my credit card number on the order form and mail it with the film.

Personally I would (and do) shoot B/W film. I've compared my own photos shot B/W vs shot digital color and converted via PSE using Scott Kelby's technique. I much prefer the results from B/W film. The hard part is finding a lab to develop B/W film.

But that's just my opinion, try it for yourself. If you don't have a film camera, they're cheap to pick up on eBay. And if you're shooting Nikon, your lenses are probably interchangeable, though a DX lens used on a FX camera will result in a cropped photo. Good enough to run the comparison though.

Thanks everyone for your replies. It really makes sense now. The thing that really started to clear things up was the mention of concepts such as 'back focal length', 'forward focal length', and 'subject size'. Again, thanks to all for your help.

Ok, that's helpful. I'm beginning to understand now.

Ok, I begin to see. That makes sense.

That's where I'm having trouble understanding this. On a DX camera, a 300mm FX lens actually has a focal length of 450mm; while of course a 300mm DX lens remains 300mm. Since we're not telling DOFMaster whether the lens is DX or FX, are you saying that the DOF is the same for these 2 scenarios? How about the hyperfocal distance? It just seems like they've *got* to be different.

How do I use the DOFMaster depth of field calculator for a DX camera (Nikon D7000) with a FX lens (e.g., Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5 - 5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR)?

In particular, I'm wondering how to enter the focal length. For example, if I have the FX lens set at 300mm, do I enter 300mm in DOFMaster or 300 x 1.5 = 450mm? My guess would be the latter, but I'm not sure.

I recently used IrfanView to get a shutter count on my Nikon D50.

Steps:
1. Download and install IrfanView (free). Available at www.irfanview.com.
2. Download and install the IrfanView metadata Plugin. Also at www.irfanview.com.
3. Take a shot with the D50, get it onto my PC, and open it in IrfanView. The picture info option reports the photo EXIF data, which includes something called 'Picture Count'. I assume that's roughly equivalent to shutter actuation.