I was simply refering to the average photographer as one who
has a simple point and shoot and takes photos of their grandchildren and shots of their friends outdoors, and do not
have the SLR's that you and I use, and whichh we do more serious types of photography.
mountainman

I have been using light meters for the last 20 or more years,
but mainly for still close ups of mother nature or portraits.
I also have the Sekonic Model L-358 digital light meter which
I now use., but for the average photographer this model of
light meter at a price of over $300 is not worth it, unless you
do a lot of work using a light meter to double check your camera settings.
mountainman

Just remember from another Pennsylvania mountainman, and
that being always, ALWAYS, when you buy anything that has to
do with camera equipment, look up at least 20 or more reviews
on the product before you think about buying the item., and only buy from reliable trusted dealers that have been recommended by other of our UGLEY HEDGEHOG viewers. After
fifty years of photography, I've had to learn this lesson the hard
way a couple of times.
The Mountain Man

If this worries you, then buy lens cases for each one. To me this is a joke, as to which way the lens whould be carried, and
in fifty years I haven't found any difference, as lond as you have a lens cap on both the top and the bottom of the lens.
Mountain Man

There are quite a number of batteries now on the market that
will hold their charges up to a year, although I have over 30 of these batteries, and have yet to see any of them hold a full charge for over 7 months, if even that. You may want to change over to the new METAL ZINC AA BATTERIES, as they carry a full charge of 1.6 v, instead of the 1.2 v that most of the other AA batteries carrry and they come 2500 mWh peak
carge, and really put out the power needed. You need to buy a
different charger than the one you use to recharge the Mah batteries, but the charger is less that $30.00, so give these powerful batteries a try, and you won't be sorry.
Mountain Man

If you have ever watched the tv show (HOW IT IS MADE), then
you will see the workmanship that goes into a fine but more expensive lens. Cheap plastic lens with not quality glass just can
not match the quality all metal lens with high quality lens . A couple of years a go i purchased a 100 f 2.8 Macro
zoom lens at what I thought was a bargan price of around $600
and the quality of the photos was poor. I then spent a little of over$1.000.00 on the same lens made out of quality components, and the photos were brilliant. I'm not making up
this story, as I have been photographing for over 50 years with everything from Leica's on down, and have simply found out that quality lens can't be beat. You may pay more for them, but years from now you will be glad you did, plus if you diside
to sell the camera and lens you will get more out of it. My sharpest lens I've used is a 50 mm f 1.2, and I also have the
50 mm lens in f 1.4 and f 1.8, and and they all were worth the mony. The 50 f 1.2 lens which costs me around $1600 dollars
is great at picking up photos in very low light. It all comes down to how much money you can afford.
The mounatain man

I have both the Canon 1.8 and their 1.4 lens, and both have performed well in two of my Canon SLR cameras.
mountainman

If you are new at the game of buying batteries, then you must
check what the output of the batteries are storing. They can be as low as 800 mAh too 3000 mAh. Buy the hightest output batteries, even though they may cost more, but can give you
as much as 4 times the usage as a lesser 800 mAh battery. I
have 3 SLR Canon and Nikon Cameras, plus a number of smaller ones, and have learned this lesson. You did not mention
if you are using rechargeable batteries or alkaline ones. Swith
to the rechargable ones with the higher storage that I mentioned above. I hope this helps you.
mountainman

I don't use it on my expensive cameras, but being 77 years old and my better half being 79, I have something like the camnera body armor on both of our cell phones, as she has dropped hers
three times and myself twice, and once from about three feet onto the concrete, with no ill effects. I don't use the camera body armor as I always use a neck camera strap on the camera when using it.
Mountainman

I have six SD cards for my three Canon SLR cameras, and if you look on the front of the SD card it will tell the manufacturing
name, the type of card like SDXC or other, the number of GB like 16, 32 , 64, and the speed of the card which you are looking for, which will be a little small 3/4 circle with a number in side of it like 2, 4, 6, 10. The higher the numer the faster the
transfer speed. I use all Lexar professional 32 GB number 10
cards, as I also use these cards in my video cameras and they
recemend the higher speed number 10 card.
Mountainman

I have three Canon SLR cameras, and they like the Nikon are
equiped to take the Battery grips. I have all three cameras equiped with the battery grips, which each take two batteries,and take countless number of photos. One of them
has a digital read out on it, and you can set the same functions
as you want the camera to shoot especially off of a tripod. My friend who can afford it bought two battery grips for his Canon
cameras and simply tore them apart and every part was exactly
the same from top to bottom, except for the name of Canon on the one, but the price was over $100.00 cheaper on the no
brand name, so it pays to shop, and ask other Ugly Hedgehog members who have also bought the no name brands. Also the
same goes for the batteries, as there are many brands out there that are cheaper by almost as half, as I have a total of
twelve batteries for mine. Make sure you get the hightest power
batteries for the grip. They all take two batteries, and save you a lot of time changing batteries.
Mountainman

Go on the web and look up CALENDAR CREATER SOFTWARE . I've had differnent versions of software
that makes about any calendar that you want over the last
eight years, and the software is quite cheap and simple
to use, and you will enjoy using it.
Mountainman

I send out a lot of Christmas cards, and I simply bought
the greeting card software from Hallmark called CARD
STUDIO 2011. It is a very cheap software, and there isn't
anything that you can't do with it, by adding your own
photos to anywhere in the card, and it has 6,700 +Hallmark
cards to choose from, and I print all my cards from this
software on photo paper, and it allows you to leave any
personal message anywhere in it. Really a great buy, and
so very simple for a beginner to use.
Mountainman

I have on different occassions had to use a watermark on
some of my photos over the last 50 years, and my latest
software The ADOBE PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM 4.1 has four sections or pages on watermarking. I'm not refering to the computer software only, but THE COMPLETE GUIDE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS BY MATIN EVENING, and if you have
this software in your computer there are four sections on
applying WATERMARKS to your work, on pages 515-417,
page 442, and page 575 under copyright 7 status. The Martin Evening guide book (680) pages in length, costs less
than $30.00 and is well worth it., and LIGHTROOM 4 NOW
COST WELL UNDER $200.00 AND IS WELL WORTH IT. (JUST ASK ANY UHH MEMBER WHO HAS LIGHTROOM 4.1,
AND THEY WILL SAY THE SAME GOOD COMENTS ABOUT IT.
I also have Paintshop Pro X5 ULTIMATE, And AfterShot Pro, plus others that I very seldom use, but most of the time I
refer to LIGHTROOM 4.1. I also use another reference book
called Photoshop Lightroom (from snapshots to Great Shots) by JEFF REVELL, which is 180 pages long but under the $30.00 mark and again well worth it for a beginnner., and has two pages devoted to protecting your images with a watermark (page 145 and page 146.When one has a decent camera and lens, and they will find it worth the less
than $200. for the software and large info manuals.
I'm no pro, and do not intend to be, but not that this type
of software and info books are available, it sure pays to use them. You can ask any of the other UHH members about this, and don't under any circumstances take only my
word on it. Please excuse any of my mispelling as I am 76
years old, and at that age make a few mistakes.
Thank You
The Mounain Man

With ten of thousands of packages now going throught the
mail, and some of the careless methods that they are handled, it is a wonder that half of the items come through
in decent shape. I have ordered from around four major
Companies for the last ten or more years, and have on ocassion had some thrown on my porch here by UPS or
USPS, or other carriers, and had some visable damage done
to them. Only on one ocasion had an item for one of my
four SLR cameras come in a quite damaged condition. It
was left as usual by the carrier on the porch, and upon opening it, I found the badly damaged merchandise in side
of it. This was from Amazon, from which I started ordering
around two years ago, with no problems from them in all this time. Being this attachment for my camera cost me a little over the $400.00 mark, I made one phone call, and
talked to a Rep. who gave me a return authorization number, and seven days after returning the itme to them,
Amazon credited my banking account for the full amount
of over $400.00 plus the shipping.
No matter what whith all of the tens of thousands of packages comining and going in the mail now through the
internet, there is bound to get a few with some damage to
them. The simplist way to avoid this is to know your Companies that you are dealing with, and check on the
reviews, especially the pros and cons on the products and the businesses that you are ordering from, and it will save
you a lot of trouble in the long run, and one of the best ways is through the UHH membership, and make sure you also check through the web on the follow up reviews of the
items that you are ordering.
Please excuse any mispelling that occur in my e-mails but
I'm over 76 years old, and my eyesight is not that great.
Of the five major companies that I have dealth with over
the last 50 years, some now out of business, I have probably only had to return about a dozen items, which most were replaced, or I was given credit for.
Hope this helps you in some way.
The Mountainman