Thank you all SO much! I will take a field trip to Providence or Boston, despite my curmudgeonly tendencies to avoid people in real life, to visit an actual camera shop. And I will try the setups you’ve suggested. I’m very grateful for all of your detailed advice.

Ok, here are the lenses I’ve uncovered so far — go easy on the photos, I just took them with my phone in a hurry!

(Download)

When I say “smallest aperture” I mean the actual aperture not the F stop; I may not be making sense with migraine brain. I do at least remember from my teens and later optics and image processing courses (the electrical engineering kind, not the photography kind — more radar, telescope, and medical images than anything else), that small opening means greater depth of field, in general at least. But I have yet to translate my basic knowledge into decent photos. I’m quite certain it’s user error.

I have a basic understanding of aperture, speed, and ISO from the film photography I did when I was younger, but I think I wasn’t using the right lens. At maximum reach I could jusssst get my hand in focus and it got tiring. And I was using a tripod, sitting down outside trying to rest my hand on the deck railing. I used the smallest aperture I could get away with without having to worry about blur from my hand wobbling a little since I was at a full stretch. When I’m out of a dark dark room with a migraine I’ll grab the lenses I have and show them. I tried the D700, haven’t tried the D300 yet.

I should say, with the lenses I tried, they didn’t seem to have the right focal length for me to be able to hold my arm far enough away to be in focus while I looked through the view finder. I’m still unpacking a box of my dad’s stuff. I’ll post pics of the lens collection tomorrow if time and migraine allow.

Hahahaha. I’ve gotten my head out of my *ss a little bit now. Will stay Nikon and consider saving up for a newer body. Camera maybe too. That was a poor attempt at a joke in case it wasn’t obvious.

Ohhh that’s the other thing. I prefer to take my pics outside (sorry, migraine fog) when there’s good light, but then I *really* can’t see a thing in the viewfinder or display, and I have yet to find a lens I can comfortably get my left hand in front of while still looking through the viewfinder. I do have a good tripod, at least.

My husband hid all the camera gear for a play date so when I find it I will list the lenses that my husband hasn’t pilfered for work (he’s a PAO).

Ooh Forrestal has always had a special place in my safety-loving occupational medicine-loving heart.

First thank you all so much. Canon looked better at first glance only superficially because it had that nice flip out display and made me believe it would be easier to transfer images and videos and the settings seemed more intuitive. But again — superficially only. I was dazzled by the newness and the fact that so many bloggers in my “community” use Canons so I figured they couldn’t be too hard to learn at a basic level. The Nikons I have just seen so counterintuitive to me and I can’t see a dang thing at the level of detail I require. I think I just need to get a cable and a monitor so I can view the shots larger since I’m mostly working at a desk or light box, and then I need a few seriously-hand-holding yet short-attention-span tutorials and books.

I’m a brand spanking new digital photography baby. I’m a navy vet, disabled public health doc, electrical/biomedical engineer and aviation enthusiast who now takes photos of stupid things like my hands to get free nail polish, and I occasionally photograph important things like nature, aircraft, ... and my kids. Oh. And the cat. And the devilbird.

In my teens I did some film work with my dad’s Leica and Nikon collections. I’ve inherited my dad’s digital Nikons (d700 and d300 IIRC but they’re all packed up and I have the memory of an amnestic goldfish), and a whole bunch of lenses, but my seat-of-the-pants efforts have resulted in awful pics and I can’t seem to find the right lens to get good hand pics while looking through the damn viewfinder or at the battery sucking tiny screen.

I need to be able to shoot great macros, close up whole hand and product photos & video tutorials, and edit and post them on a budget. While I feel like I should stick w Nikon to use all the expensive lenses my dad collected, Canon is looking so much easier at first glance. I doubt anyone’s still reading but if you are, I’d treasure your advice!

Thanks!!

-Velvet