Reptile & Amphibian Forums

interested. You can be the man version of me, Brian

Congrats on deciding to get the D80. A friend of ours just got it (early Christmas present) and he loves it. I have not had the opportunity to try it myself although if I know Nikon, I'm sure it's a great piece of equipment!

I use the Nikon D200 with a Nikon 60mm Micro Nikkor lens, a Nikon SB-800 speedlight and the Lightsphere II diffuser. Now I have taken my lens, flash, and diffuser and used them on a Nikon D50 body in the past and got very good, similar results as when I use my D200.

So, my suggestion would be the equipment I listed above. I almost use the 60mm lens exclusively for all of my snake photos. It does a fantastic job for baby snakes from colubrids to ball pythons. With older snakes, it can be a bit more difficult because it is a fixed focal length lens so you are unable to zoom in or out. I can use it comfortably for most juvenile boas and ball pythons but have difficulty with adult ball pythons and larger.

I am still able to do use it very satisfactorily if I stand on a step ladder and adjust the settings to compensate for the distance. There are three lenses in the Micro Nikkor series - the 60mm, the 105mm, and the 200mm. All three are incredibly sharp, good lenses. The 105mm and the 200mm are fantastic for photographs in the feild where you need to keep your distance but they just aren't practical for reptile photography. The 60mm is perfect though.

I do have a zoom lens that came with my camera at the time of purchase because I was only able to get the D200 in a kit at the time due to high demand. It is the Nikon 18-70mm AFS Nikkor lens. I was going to sell the lens on eBay but after trying it out, I really liked it and decided to keep it. I think it is a great "walking around" lens and also works very well for my larger snakes.

Here's the link to the diffuser too if you are interested in ordering it. It is WELL worth the $50...

http://www.garyfong.com/newsplash.html

I hope this helps!

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Celia Chien
Celia Chien Photography

www.ExoticsByNature.com

www.BoaConstrictorMorphs.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

I'm hoping to get a Nikon D50 after the beginning of the year and this information was VERY helpful. I'm completely camera illiterate and I was hoping you or someone else could explain what the camera diffuser is used for. Thanks again for this information.

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Jason Gonzalez
PreMeditated Morphs
www.PreMeditatedMorphs.com
Jason@PreMeditatedMorphs.com

Nevermind on the diffuser. I found the information on the link you provided.
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Jason Gonzalez
PreMeditated Morphs

Celia:

Thanks for the information and for having a great sense of humor.

We all appreciate the dedication you have to the animals we love so much.

Best to you and your husband.

Brian

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Brian Gundy

www.for-goodness-snakes.com

n to the fellow with the new nikon. You too Celia! I've run this by you briefly before.

White Balance!

My top reccomendation to anyone getting a new Nikon digital SLR is

a. Get Nikon Capture. It's $100 and processes RAW files (what I shoot with and reccomend exclusively) excellent. It's also the only program that will recognize the in camera settings when viewing a raw file (think of a raw file as a digital negative.. the settings are applied via the computer long after the shot). Capture is also great for all the general processing that needs to be done (resizing, sharpening, cropping, etc).

and

b. Get a white balance card (I got mine from whibal.com). I cant tell you what a difference applying perfect white balance to each shot makes. In many many instances it changes a totally unusuable picture into an excellent one. If you're unfamiliar with what white balance is exactly, just look at most any picture youve taken inside in low light... the color will generally always be inaccurate. Sometimes its subtle...sometimes its incredibly obvious. Alot of times I will look at a picture and think it looks fine, then I apply the white balance and realize for the first time how off it really was.

As far as cost effectiveness goes, I can safely say the $40 white balance card and the $100 Nikon program wins by a long shot for me. Highly reccomended.

Here's some random examples of what Ive done with my D50. Most are just snapshots, dont have the real nice backdrop setups like Celia.

These shots were taken with the available light... they would have been WAY off without the white balance card and totally unusable.

Random other shots, someoutside in sun... some with SB-800 flash (almost always bounced from the ceiling).

(notice how soft the lighting is when the flash is bounced from the ceiling, very evident in this shot, I HIGHLY reccomend the sb-800 flash)

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Take Care,

-Ryan Homsey

www.topnotchboas.com

breeding this year?

Looks like some pre-ov swelling going on too. He's in with an arabesque het albino het stripe - we could see some arab striped albinos.
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Take Care,

-Ryan Homsey

www.topnotchboas.com

put me down for any wackos!

.
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1.1 Columbian common boas (Zeus, Athena)
0.1 BCI 50% het albino salmon (Aprodite)
1.1 Corn snakes (Appolo, Boreas)
0.1 King snake tri striped cal morph (Helios)

the Snow in that picture matured? It looks to be holding color well in that picture. If you don't mind my asking, who did you get it from?