Doubts with my New D90!

[techmaster.mah]

I bought a D-90 after almost a year bragging between canon and nikon as in my state nikon had better options and services........these are sum doubts i got.....

1 i got the 18-105 VR kit lens.....but when i take pictures with slow shutter speeds like between 1sec-1/20 sec i find that with the VR on, the shake caused while holding it doesnt get reduced .....i can see evident shake...............is it a malfunction or just the capability of the lens?......

2 i also got a SB-600 speedlite and happy with it.......But i dunno how to set it off the camera and use it with the commander mode with the pop-up flash?...........

Please Help Me!

Thanks in Advance!

[radityopradipto]

hey mate
welcome to Nikon's world and I believe you won't regret choosing Nikon.

1. which focal length are you shooting at when the shutter speed is 1/20? i reckon you're using the long end tele, aren't you? The longer your focal length, the more obvious the shake is gonna be, so make sure you need faster shutter speed. A rule of thumb for blur free is shooting at [1/(focal length) times 2 or 3 because you're using VR] shutter speed. If you still find out there blurry photos under this rule, probably you should check your lens on the service centre And remember
Shooting for 1s (with VR) is still impossible without any camera shake... Even the good hands would only be hand held steadily around 1/15 without VR, so with VR effectively 1/2. This is really a good steady hand, and really very wide end (like 18mm for example)

2. SB-600 should have like a "Remote" mode I reckon. I use SB-900 and there is an option of Remote mode on the panel.. Then you need to set up your D90 in the commander mode from the flash option. My suggestion is to read all of the instruction manual book

Hope this will help
Cheers mate

[Nicole]

Yeah, you'll have a very hard time shooting with those shutter speeds hand held even with VR. 1/20 might be possible at 18mm if you're steady. But in general I try not to go below 1/60 without a tripod (just because I know my hands get shaky).

And to use your SB-600 off camera, it's pretty easy once you learn how (but it can take a while to figure it out). So, the first thing I did was put the flash modes into my custom menu because once you decide you want to start playing with off camera flash you'll probably want quick access to that. First things first, you'll want to set up your camera so that it's in the right mode. In the flash menu set it to commander mode and then you can set the strength of your pop up flash and the strength of the off camera flash. Now, that's not quite enough to get everything working because you also have to put your flash in the right mode. You need to pay attention to the channel that you set for your flash in the camera menu because that's what you need to set your flash to. Ken Rockwell or not, he provides a good set of instructions for how to turn everything to the right settings here.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by techmaster.mah

1 i got the 18-105 VR kit lens.....but when i take pictures with slow shutter speeds like between 1sec-1/20 sec i find that with the VR on, the shake caused while holding it doesnt get reduced .....i can see evident shake...............is it a malfunction or just the capability of the lens?......

Capability of the lens. Despite marketing claims, I've typically found that IS only helps me up to two stops. A stop is the doubling of the light. So, with an IS lens (the Canon name for VR), my max shutter speed for handholding is around 4(1/focal_length). Which at 105 would be around 1/25s. And I typically can never go lower than 1/20s without seeing some motion blur, no matter how wide my lens is. Without IS, my lower limit is around 1/30s with lenses 50mm and under.

VR/IS is more like a monopod than a tripod: there's a definite limit on how slow you can go.

[Shokinen]

I'm not very successful with handheld shot slower than 1/60. It's not impossible though and some people are very good at this.

As for the wireless flash, you have to configure both your camera and your SB600 to do it.

See D90 Manual page185 and page188 about commander mode.
See SB600 Manual page 62 and 63 to configure your flash.

Happy reading

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by techmaster.mah

1 i got the 18-105 VR kit lens.....but when i take pictures with slow shutter speeds like between 1sec-1/20 sec i find that with the VR on, the shake caused while holding it doesnt get reduced .....i can see evident shake...............is it a malfunction or just the capability of the lens?......

VR works but you are expecting too much from it.

- For the kit lens, VR only offers one or two stops of improvement. Some VR II offers three to four stops.

- D90 is good up to ISO 3200. Set your Auto ISO max to it.

- Your D90 is a light camera (1.6 lbs.). There is less shaking with heavier bodies such as the D3. I can shoot at 1/60 with my D3 + 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 (no VR).

- I don't know any VR (or IS) works up to one second yet (consumer lenses). Maybe a 2.9 lbs. D3 + 6.4 lbs. 200 f/2 VR combo.

[techmaster.mah]

Sorry For the Late Reply
Thank u very much Guys for helpin me so much
Couldnt reply cos i was outta town for my college project.......

@radityopradipto,Nicole,inkista,Shokinen,LoveDSLR: maybe i had more expectations from the VR..........I will be calculatin it ASAP......

@radityopradipto: I took nikon for sum reasons 1st in my country (INDIA ) colours are so vibrant .....i found nikon to handle colours well and 2nd nikon had the best service in my part of the country....

@Nicole:Thanks for the tip and the Link

@Shokinen: That's so kind of u......

@LoveDSLR: Hm.......i am actually thinking to take a telephoto zoom once my kit lens start to limit me ......maybe i will take it with a VRII....

[rawHulk]

-- You could also try to take the support of a pole, wall, tree or any stationary object. That will help you to reduce your handshake too..

-- Also.. always use the ViewFinder to look at the shot and take the picture.. It gives a good posture to make your hands stable.. Use the LiveView only if you need it and there is not other way around it..

-- There was some article posted in these forums regarding good postures to have a steady hand. Search for it.. it might give you some tips..

I am from India tooo.. but currently in Canada.. Nice to meet some Indians in the forums..

[Shokinen]

Originally Posted by rawHulk

-- There was some article posted in these forums regarding good postures to have a steady hand. Search for it.. it might give you some tips..

How to Reduce Camera Shake – 6 Techniques

Enjoy

[techmaster.mah]

@rawHulk : Its nice to meet u
@shoniken: Hey Thanks ......