Nikon Camp Chime In Please!

Thanks guys!

Carmykle, how do you like the 82mm?

DV those shots with the SD790IS are great. Thanks for the comparison. If I wasn't going to use the DSLR for other uses I'd pick up it up. May do it anyway since it can be had relatively cheap now.

I got some good use out of the D70S, until it fell over on a tripod. Not much sense to fix an outdated body.
I sold the lenses because my SD790IS works so well for macro--mostly what I shoot.

thanks for recognizing my uhhh...talent?
Coins are easier than twitchy critters. This guy is only 3mm across.

Thanks DV, I'm going to have nightmares lol.

Rmpsrpms, I've been looking at the D7000 as well. Just trying to talk myself out of the d700. I've fallen in love with full frame sensors, especially after using my friend's d700 to help shoot a wedding.

Superdave: I'd look into that, but I'm afraid the sun on the hot shoe would wash out all my images.

Had a lot of fun with the d300 while I was working at ritz. We used it along with the 600mm to take picture of the fires we had a few years back in California. Absolutely stunning pictures, if I can dig them up, ill post them. I really should've taken advantage of the employee pricing program especially before nikon raised prices across the board.

Ham1947, it's called a pseudoscorpion. It's in the same family as scorpions, but without a stinger.
It's very small--3mm across. I found it under a rock on a beach near Monterey, CA.

I understand now how you've been beating my bandwidth like a rented mule with your image postings.

The sheer size and clarity of what that combination accomplishes obliterates the similar Canon/18-55 kit. Your lens must have the ability to focus much more closely than the Canon 18-55. Which is the cause of your lighting problems - with lighting, distance from the subject is everything.

If you can shoot for, say, a cropped diameter of around 1200px for a Morgan dollar by backing the camera away from the coin, I think you'll buy enough distance to make lighting much easier. You have to be bare inches away from the coin for the huge images you're getting.

With that said - and this is kinda counterintuitive - adding a second light will go a long way towards solving the problem too. It'll force a much faster exposure, allow you to stop down for more depth of field, and allow the lowest-possible ISO for the greatest dynamic range (and therefore contrast). You can trade exposure length for the other two as long as you're not handholding - from a secure mount and with a timed shutter, look for f/8 and ISO100 at around 1/20 with the kit you're shooting. If you have enough light to do that, postprocessing will easily finish the job.

I apologize for not getting back to on the 82mm lens. It's OK. I actually believe that my old Pentax K1000 with a bayonet mount and any of the old 100mm+ (you screwed the bayonet fitting on to the filter ring and reversed the lens) lenses took better pictures (oh, completely manual photography BTW). I also prefer my microscope.