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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

lens and flash combination (1 Viewer)

paul_j_c2000

Well-known member
Hi everyone i have had a 10d for sometime and love it ,using it in daylight hours recently i have found conditions in woods etc to be to dark for satisfactory pictures of fungi etc so have bought a 550 flash .my question is what would be your choice of lens to cover the range of the flash in various situations,sometimes it is nice to get a real close up ,others look better with surrounding detail,the flash can zoom up to 105 mm,does this mean the camera can auto focus with a 100 mm lens?,what happens if i use my 300f4is,i am not worried about the cost i would just like to get the best combination to take out in the evenings any help always appreciated thanks paul
 
Hi Paul
Too true it can be dark in woods making photography difficult, but using the 550 on the camera will give harsh shadows - better to try and bounce the light off a reflector, or better still, not use flash - best use a tripod to allow you to use a slower shutter speed. So step 1 - use ISO 400 (or less), step 2 set an aperture which gives reasonable depth of field (around 5.6 i'd guess - experiment) and step 3 if the shutterspeed is close to or slower than 1/focal length then use a tripod.
The camera will autofocus with any lens with a maximum aperture of 5.6 or bigger (ie lower f no). The flash will work with any length of lens (except ultra wide angle - will still fire but will not cover the whole view). I don't think the 300 f4 is really suitable for fungi - you'll need a fast shutter speed. Better to use something around 50-80mm - the 50 mm f1.8 is pretty good for fungi, or else the 100mm macro.
The very best thing is to practice/experiment and see which results you like best!
Andrew
 
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