Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, it's been quite a while since I upgraded my system or purchased anything new for my camera so I figured it was about time to treat myself! I have been using a Nikon D100 with a 105mm Micro Nikkor lens for the past three years. When the D2X came out, I REALLY wanted to get one of those but $5,000.00 for a camera body is a lot. Now that the D200 is out, I figured that would be a much more reasonable upgrade.

So...I purchased the D200 but I couldn't get a new camera body without some new lenses and accessories! I decided to pick up the Nikon 70-200 VR lens, a Nikon 60mm Micro Nikkor lens, the R1 Wireless Close-up Speedlight System, a set of Kenko extension tubes, a few Hoya Pro-1 Super HMC filters, and a Tamrac 614 bag too. I figured I might as well go for broke if I'm upgrading!

The 70-200 VR lens has been the first thing to arrive so far and I took the opportunity to play around with it on my D100. I don't know much about photography and what I do know was basically self taught through trial and error and reading photography forums. Anyways, I just wanted to share a few photos I took last night. Compared to pictures taken of the exact same animals using my D100 and the 105mm micro lens, the coloration, sharpness, and overall quality of the photos seems to be much nicer with the 70-200. I can't wait to play around with it some more...especially when my D200 comes in!!

I resized these photos fairly large so you can see the color and detail better. The originals are amazing...but HUGE!

Anyways, thanks for looking. Any and all comments/constructive criticism/etc. would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Celia

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Celia Chien
www.ExoticsByNature.com

2006 Boa Constrictor Morphs Calendar
2006 Ball Python Morphs Calendar

Money well spend.Early Christmas present for yourself? Beautyful pictures and animals.
Andreas

It's kind of a present for myself and a present from the company to me since I use it to take pictures of all our animals LOL!

Thanks,
Celia
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Celia Chien
www.ExoticsByNature.com

2006 Boa Constrictor Morphs Calendar
2006 Ball Python Morphs Calendar

There has been quite a stir about the new d200. Finally a successor to the D100.

I frequent a few photography forums and EVERYONE raves about the 70-200VR. Sharp as a tack and works well with teleconverters. The pictures I have seen using it are amazing. There is the new 18-200VR lens with VR2 (supposed to get ya 4 stops down I believe) but that is a mid-grade lens that is going to be no where near the quality of the 70-200. That lens is on my list but realisticly I will probably be settling for the sigma 70-200 2.8 because I dont have that kind of money . I've also heard excellent things about the 60mm micro... In fact prior to purchasing my D50 I was told that it would be an excellent prime to shoot boas with... said to be one of nikon's sharpest lenses within 10 feet. An excellent portrait lens as well.

I cant wait to see your pictures with the close-up speedlight system. Seems like it will be the ideal boa picture setup.

I'm sure you will love the new D200. I'm sure the new technology / extra megapixels will step up your game a notch or two.

I recently ordered a few additions for myself as well. Nothing of the caliber you are getting but a nice little Bogen monopod and a Domke F2 bag, I'm sick of all my lenses and accesories sitting in individual cases all over my desk.

Congrats! Try not to go crazy waiting for the UPS man, k?

I can't wait to try out the 70-200 with the teleconverters. That and my 60mm should be here tomorrow. I plan on testing it out and doing a bunch of closeup shots tomorrow! The closeup speedlight system is a brand new product that hasn't been released yet so I don't know exactly when I'll get mine. Sooner rather than later hopefully! I think that speedlight with the 60mm will be awesome!

I've heard a lot of good things about 18-200 too so I'm sure that's a great lens as well.

I actually just sold my D100 today to a good friend of mine. He's not going to take it until my D200 arrives so I'll still be able to take photos. I sold the camera body with my flash and my memory card because he wanted a complete system (I ordered him a good "walking around lens" for it too - 28-108mm). So...I'm going to get either the SB-600 or the SB-800 flash to replace my Sunpak that I sold and I'll probably get one of the 4GB memory cards because...well, why not? LOL...

Thanks,
Celia
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Celia Chien
www.ExoticsByNature.com

2006 Boa Constrictor Morphs Calendar
2006 Ball Python Morphs Calendar

Can't wait to see your shots! Im especially anxious to see them with the new D200, that thing has so much hype behind it! http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d200/index.shtml

I've seen some shots at Nikons site with the new speedlight system, should be killer for boa shots.

The 18-200 will be a killer all in one lens im sure but when you have that much range you get distortion, especially at the wide end. The VR2 is killer too im sure but I'm gonna stick with my sigma 18-50 2.8 .

As you may have seen, I just recently got the SB-800 speedlight myself. I researched the distinction between it and the sb-600 quite a bit.

The key advantages to the SB-800 are: More power ... SU4 mode, which allows you to trigger the flash from any other camera flash system wirelessly off camera - that may not be a big factor for you because the D200 will act a commander controlling the sb-600 or sb-800 off camera in iTTL mode, I cant do this with my D50 ... It comes with a diffuser... It can tilt down a few degrees... I think thats about it. The extra power comes into play quite a bit when you are doing bounce flash when the ceilings are high... but theres not that much extra power there. For me, with the D50 and SU4 mode it was a no brainer. Might be a tougher decesion for you.

Ya might want to look at this diffuser too, not sure if you have heard of it:

http://secure.mycart.net/catalogs/catalog.asp?prodid=4684316&showprevnext=1

If you get the sb-600, definitely get a diffuser of some sort for it.

Good luck and congrats again.

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Linda Hedgpeth
lindafh@frontiernet.net
Sierra Serpents

You take some fantastic pics....thanks for showing. Andy

....and pretty nice snakes, too.

Chris O
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New Site Coming Soon.........
www.chrisolsonreptiles.com
Naked I see the camp of those who desire nothing

Not bad, but I'd like to seem some with a different depth of field. Bring the whole snake into focus. Is that a digi you're using?

- Damian

...pick a favorite.

Keep the pics coming they are great!
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
'Ghi Arboreals'

I think I am going to put a picture of each of those morphs in cages and pretend I have them, lol. Those Sharp Sunglows are soo beautiful.

-Chris

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Celia Chien
www.ExoticsByNature.com

2006 Boa Constrictor Morphs Calendar
2006 Ball Python Morphs Calendar

..

I swear you must use super glue to get all those guys in the same position for every shot.

Whenever we try to take shots, you'd think we had the backdrop covered in crisco...

= /

TRUST ME! Especially on that slick melamine surface. Boas are actually very good about it. The boas and ball pythons are great but Corn Snakes...UGH...they drive me CRAZY sometimes. Hondurans and Asian Ratsnakes can also be horrible.

If you have trouble try the "cup trick". Just put them under a cup (not a clear cup) and put something heavy on top of the cup so they can't get out. Just leave them like that for a few minutes and get your camera ready. Have someone pull the cup off after you've given the snake some time to calm down and snap away...FAST! It usually does the trick and has worked extremely well for me on super squirmy boas to high strung colubrids!

Thanks,
Celia
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Celia Chien
www.ExoticsByNature.com

2006 Boa Constrictor Morphs Calendar
2006 Ball Python Morphs Calendar

n/p
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Celia Chien
www.ExoticsByNature.com

2006 Boa Constrictor Morphs Calendar
2006 Ball Python Morphs Calendar