Thanks Phill. I have been following your pictures here for a long time. I did not want ot bother you directly but I was hopping you would catch this post. Sounds like I may want to wait for a little later in the year then.
In 2012 we went to Huntington Beach Park in South Carolina for the week of 3/19 and saw quite a variety of birds. This year we are thinking of going a little earlier, around 3/2, and we were wondering if that would still be a good time of year? Or if there may be another time frame that would be better as far as bird concentration goes?
How is the quality of your photos when zoomed all the way out to 500mm
I will rate mine as an 8 as well. The lens is capable. Me, sometimes not so much :( But it has become my walk around lens, so that says alot for its capabilities.
There is a 99% chance that the camera is fine but you have to learn how to use it.
I have a D5100 but it might be similar in this regard. When using spot metering a small shift in the metering point can cause a large shift in the exposure the camera creates. What you describe suggests that you are metering on something dark in the shot. Try some of the other metering choices. The auto area metering works quite well on my camera. I use it most of the time.
I also use spot focusing most of the time. The settings for focus and metering are not the same.[/quote]
Thanks for the input. It would not surprise me at all to find out it is me, but I have had pretty good success using these setting with my D7000. I am continuing to experiment.
are you in auto iso mode. also are you shooting raw or jpeg?
I am shooting jpeg, and I was in auto ISO mode when it was selecting the very high ISO settings (1000 and up). When I went to manual mode I set the ISO at 400, and the meter would show all the way to the left even though the shot would come out ok. I should mention also that I tried both spot and center weighted metering with pretty much the same results.
Is anyone having any issues with the Nikon D3200 in camera metering? When I try to use Aperture or Shutter priority in a brightly lit area it sometimes pics a very high ISO and over exposes the subject. If I shoot in Manual mode, the light meter indicates the exposure is way under exposed for what looks like a correctly exposed shot to me. I just got the camera 2 weeks ago and I am wondering if I should return it.
Not to hijack, but hopefully this will be of interest to the OP as well, are there different graphics cards to consider with a mac product like there are for Window's PC's?
The bird feeder "police" showed up just after dinner last night. They come around 2 or 3 times a year to make sure I am not slipping up like I did when I first moved here (13 years ago!)
Hey belwj, that's a good reason, we have them here in Naples also, and some times they are found walking on the beach, they adapt very well. Too bad you have to keep your bird feeders under wraps. But a good shot of a black bear is not to bad either
Wow, never thought they would be found on a beach. Thanks for looking.
Nice shot Will! That is awesome you have all this wild life in your back yard! I think. ;) Who do they send if you don't keep your grass mowed? :shock: Erv
Thanks Erv. Luckily for me, nobody cares if I mow. I'm in the last house on a dead end dirt road :-)