[byteme]

Pro shooter Don Gale was in town last weekend at Mike Crivello's (local camera shop) for a photography workshop.  It was pretty interesting and I got some decent tips and to try a lot of equipment.

I picked up the Tamron 90mm macro because I couldn't pass it up, they have a $90 rebate until the end of Aug, the workshop added an addl. $40, $20 coupon and they then ponied up another $20 if you bought during the workshop so I got $170 off the lens.  I took a couple shots in London with it (had to go for work immediately after the workshop) but didn't do any macro work with it yet.

I also picked up an expodisc.  I've read about them but didn't think it would be worth the hassle or the cost.  I was wrong, it couldn't be easier to use.  They cut me a break on it too.  Following are some of the shots using each.

I was shooting at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park and these guys thought I was a pro so they asked me to take their picture.  I've never seen anyone this happy to get their picture taken by a stranger! 

[byteme]

It was Sunday and all discussion going on was Muslim vs. Christianity.  This guy had a HUGE crowd.  Using both 90mm and expodisc at dusk in the rain...

[byteme]

NO idea what this guy was up to but I love how the red eye from the flash made him look!

[byteme]

Not the greatest shot but shows what the expodisc can do as a light meter and WB setter.  This was taken in quite dark conditions and turned out spot on color wise and exposure wise.  Tough to hand hold though from as far away as I was.

[byteme]

For reference this was taken only 20 minutes later than the one above and I didn't use the Expodisc.  This was with the 18-55 kit lens at 1/2 second exposure, hand held.

[JohnR]

Cool. With the expodisc you shoot with it over the lens, and then use that shot to set the white balance?

[byteme]

Cool. With the expodisc you shoot with it over the lens, and then use that shot to set the white balance?

Basically yes.  There is a slightly different process for Canon vs Nikon.  The method you're describing above is more the Canon method where you actually take a shot through the disc.  Nikon has a custom WB setting where once in that mode you take a "shot" that isn't saved to memory at all then the camera tells you if it got the setting or not.  It'll use that custom setting until you change it.

You can also use the disc as a light meter by putting it in program mode, aiming the lens w/ disc over the end at the light source and auto focusing the camera.  Settings displayed should be proper light reading.  I've not used it for this yet, only to set WB so I'm not 100% sure on this last process.  There haven't been a ton of times where I feel the WB was REALLY off on pictures but they lowered the price on it to $90 and it's so damn easy to use I figured why not.  There are times I'm sure that I'll still use some auto settings to get a desired effect but this works really well.