Magnetic lighting stage for Bratcam

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23564
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

Chris S. wrote:I'm used to "flying" around the subject with micrometers, while keeping my eye in the viewfinder to find the best viewpoint. Using the Noga stands to hold the subject required that I take my eye out of the viewfinder to perform adjustments, which is a substantial loss. But it was definitely workable.
I'm intrigued by that part about "take my eye out of the viewfinder...is a substantial loss."

One of the things I like best about live view, using either my Canon T1i or Nikon D5000, is that I get to watch a large conveniently positioned monitor while adjusting the subject.

Why do you prefer looking through the viewfinder?

--Rik

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4042
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Chris S. »

Rik, I haven't really given live view much of a try. My D700 has it, and I tried it once when I first purchased the camera. I recall not liking it, though not the reasons for that impression.

The D200, which I use on the Bratcam, doesn't have live view. I could use the D700, but consider the DX sensor better sized than the FX sensor for the image circle of most of my objectives. Also, I prefer the image quality of the D200 to that of the D700 under studio macro conditions (base ISO, controllable contrast).

I suppose I could pick up a D300 and use live view, but given my early bad impression of it, I hadn't given it a thought. Perhaps I should give it another try on the D700 and see what I think.

Meanwhile, looking down into a right-angle finder--sometimes with the 2X magnification switch on, is a very comfortable way for me to use the instrument. And I snap quite a few test images, which, shooting tethered, do show up instantly on my computer monitor, along with a histogram.

--Chris

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23564
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

Chris S. wrote:Meanwhile, looking down into a right-angle finder--sometimes with the 2X magnification switch on, is a very comfortable way for me to use the instrument.
Thinking more about this, part of your comfort may stem from your subject stage, which provides smooth incremental movement at the twist of several knobs. My own rig does rotation via a ballhead, which requires more attention and coordination. I'm thinking that this makes me appreciate being able to see both the subject stage and the monitor without moving my head. I tried that while using an angle finder, but never really mastered the trick.

--Rik

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4042
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Chris S. »

Rik, I took some time to think about your observation, and believe you're right. Much as we don't look at the steering wheel, brake pedal, or accelerator when driving a car, I don't look at the control knobs for my subject stage when driving an object in front of the viewfinder. And it really does feel much like driving--which perhaps explains my own preference against using live view on separate monitor. It probably wouldn't be hard to learn to drive a car by monitor instead of by looking out the windshield, if the driver were facing forward into a monitor. But if we move the driver or monitor off of the vector of travel, even by a little bit, things would get trickier.

Keeping everything on-axis when I'm positioning a subject may relieve me of a small, but not unnoticeable layer of mental translation, as it would be hard to have a monitor on-axis without longer arms.

--Chris

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic