Just had a baby...now I need a camera...

[Kanalua]

Here's an example of the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 @f/2.8, ISO800 on my T2i of my daughter and wife in the NICU (she's a 24 weeker. Today is her 2 month birthday!).

[sixone]

Awww! Great photo.

[Kanalua]

Also, behold the power of RAW (Edited in lightroom):

Link for the settings used.

[Tsaar]

Originally Posted by Kanalua

Also, behold the power of RAW (Edited in lightroom):

Link for the settings used.

Mine will be 2 months old on on the 14th

I am trying to go the cheap (open source) route with post processing. I want to use Digikam but it is crashing on launch.

I am in the middle of finals week for grad school, working full time, raising a baby, AND trying to learn my camera (and maybe a few hours for games here and there)...so give me a few days to get some pics up haha.

I am having fun "guessing" settings and then switching to auto (no flash) and seeing how the computer decides versus me. So far it is a draw.

[gus6464]

Originally Posted by Tsaar

Mine will be 2 months old on on the 14th

I am trying to go the cheap (open source) route with post processing. I want to use Digikam but it is crashing on launch.

I am in the middle of finals week for grad school, working full time, raising a baby, AND trying to learn my camera (and maybe a few hours for games here and there)...so give me a few days to get some pics up haha.

I am having fun "guessing" settings and then switching to auto (no flash) and seeing how the computer decides versus me. So far it is a draw.

Keep on the lookout for Lightroom deals. Around this time you can get for super cheap (~$50).

[twistedlogic]

Originally Posted by Kanalua

Here's an example of the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 @f/2.8, ISO800 on my T2i of my daughter and wife in the NICU (she's a 24 weeker. Today is her 2 month birthday!).

Beautiful girl you got there, I hope she is doing well.

Mine is only 5mths old, I couldn't imagine going through what you are.

[blastingcap]

Congrats! I have that lens too (except in Nikon mount) and was pretty happy with it.

Originally Posted by Kanalua

Here's an example of the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 @f/2.8, ISO800 on my T2i of my daughter and wife in the NICU (she's a 24 weeker. Today is her 2 month birthday!).

[SecurityTheatre]

Originally Posted by Tsaar

Edit: One of my last vacations was a trip to Vegas where I took a ton of night photos (and inside casinos...which might as well be night photos). I would feel too limited by a prime lens in this situation where I would like to have some reach. Most of my pictures are very fast candid shots with no setup.

I am actually kind of worried I cannot land this type of shot anymore unless I want to shell out $1000s on a lens. Any advice...or am I worrying about this too much? I guess for most of these shots a high ISO with some grain would still be much better than my P&S (I haven't played around much with noise reduction yet...maybe there is some magic there).

I suggest you get a fast prime for this situation. A 50mm f/1.8, for example, costs barely over $100 and should give you really great low-light performance (beyond anything else you have likely had).

Just something to consider

[whoiswes]

Originally Posted by SecurityTheatre

I suggest you get a fast prime for this situation. A 50mm f/1.8, for example, costs barely over $100 and should give you really great low-light performance (beyond anything else you have likely had).

Just something to consider

This.

I have a 13 month old at home, and I've found that I have my 35mm F/1.8 on my D90 nearly all the time now (as compared to the 18-105 kit lens). I use my flash (SB-600, never the onboard) about half the time. Having the ability to shoot in crappy light at a moment's notice has proven invaluable.

I'm keeping my eyes open for a 17-55 f/2.8 and something like a 10-20mm wide. It's funny because I used to shoot more wildlife and was always lusting after LONGER lenses. I have the 50-500 Bigma that's sat unused for over a year now.

Get yourself a fast, fairly wide prime and run wide open. You can stop down in better light but I find myself almost always needing the extra stops of exposure. Plus the narrow DOF allows for great subject isolation.

YMMV, but my favorite lens BY FAR is my 35mm f/1.8.

[radhak]

Originally Posted by whoiswes

This.

I have a 13 month old at home, and I've found that I have my 35mm F/1.8 on my D90 nearly all the time now (as compared to the 18-105 kit lens). I use my flash (SB-600, never the onboard) about half the time. Having the ability to shoot in crappy light at a moment's notice has proven invaluable.

I'm keeping my eyes open for a 17-55 f/2.8 and something like a 10-20mm wide. It's funny because I used to shoot more wildlife and was always lusting after LONGER lenses. I have the 50-500 Bigma that's sat unused for over a year now.

Get yourself a fast, fairly wide prime and run wide open. You can stop down in better light but I find myself almost always needing the extra stops of exposure. Plus the narrow DOF allows for great subject isolation.

YMMV, but my favorite lens BY FAR is my 35mm f/1.8.

+1 on every point!

I like my 50mm 1.8, but love my 35mm 1.8; I might even give up the 50mm and look for the f/1.4 version.

I snagged a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 for just $200 on CL, and liked it so much that I got rid of my kit 18-105VR and even the 55-200VR. The only other zoom I use now is the Quantaray (!) 70-300mm for soccer pictures in broad daylight.

I do need to get more comfortable with my SB600 - gotta use it more.

Edit : Kanalua, that's a great pic of a beautiful moment between mom and girl. Love it!

[blastingcap]

I had a 50 and sold it because I had no plans to go full-frame (FX). The reason why old 50s were cheap and plentiful were due to film era. But to get to 50mm equivalent you really want 50/1.5 = 33.33mm. The closest to that is 35mm. So if you are shooting a D90, which is DX format, then 35mm f/1.8 is getting you close to the classic 50mm FX focal length equivalent.

The Tammy 17-50 (non-VC) is very nice and sharp, but I wanted stabilization so I got the Sigma 17-50 OS instead, which is as sharp or almost as sharp, but costs a lot more and weighs more as well. Good lens to have and the constant f/2.8 means that if you are without a portrait lens, you can still get decent portraits by zooming to 50mm/2.8. The bokeh is pretty mediocre though.

Lastly, flash can really help if you are in range, to give you back creative control. So yeah that flash bounced off the ceiling is a great way to not have to crank up ISO or max aperture. If you find that you are losing too much light to the ceiling absorbing light, just crank up flash compensation to tell the camera you want to overexpose, which of course you won't be, because the ceiling is absorbing some of that light.

[Kanalua]

I just purchased a Canon 50mm f/1.4 to try and squeeze more light out of the NICU (I have a 50mm f/1.8, and, although I really like it, the f/1.4 is on sale at Amazon ($299)).

[chillstatus]

Once you realize how great primes are at 1.8, you'll want to go 1.4. Then you'll want to go full frame... lol it never ends (just got a D600 from D90).

[CuriousMike]

Originally Posted by Tsaar

I am in the middle of finals week for grad school,

LR 4 for students has been $30 on amazon.

[gus6464]

Originally Posted by chillstatus

Once you realize how great primes are at 1.8, you'll want to go 1.4. Then you'll want to go full frame... lol it never ends (just got a D600 from D90).

I want a D600 soooooo bad.