Quote (Chock @ Dec 21 2014 12:06am)
I got a camera a few weeks ago on a trade and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them. Like what things can it do and is it worth keeping? its a nikon d800 with 80-200mm lens and a smaller lens.
Pretty much know nothing about them. I did try and take some pictures of some mountains but only part of the mountain was focused and the rest of the mountain was kind of blurry. anyway to get everything in the picture focused?
The D800 is one of the best Nikon cameras available currently. The lens you listed could be one of a few lenses... you'd have to be more specific. Is it the Nikon 80-200 f2.8 AF-D ED lens?
You have a lot of learning to do.
To answer your question about focus:
You likely were shooting at too fast of an aperture (ie, f2.8). If you are shooting at a quick aperture, you will get that blur effect. What that means is that only a very small part of the picture is actually in crisp focus (it's called a small depth of field). You want to increase your depth of field (have more in focus) by shooting at a smaller aperture (smaller aperture = bigger f-number). So, on a lens that can shoot at f2.8, that is the largest aperture. If you are taking a shot of a mountain, you might want to shoot in the range of f7.1 and on. You could be pretty sure that at f16 almost everything will be in focus.
You also need to make sure that you select the correct focusing mode. I usually suggest AF-S (Autofocus single-servo), and single-point focus. This means that your camera will focus once, when you activate the focus. It will try to focus specifically on the single point.
With those two tips in mind, you should be able to get the shot you want. There's a lot more to know though... if you are shooting at night, your camera could hunt for focus and misfocus. Another example of a problem is that you could have to calibrate your lens to your camera, since the lens could be off a little bit. There's a ton of factors that go into just focus alone.
You also will want to learn about ISO, and shutter speed. Those two things are really important. And finally, know what RAW is, and use Adobe Lightroom to edit your photos... if you shoot in JPeg, you're basically using 10% of what your camera can do for you, if that.
DSLR cameras can be used in auto mode, but if you don't learn what you need to, and if you don't shoot in RAW, it's sort-of like buying a really awesome gaming PC with amazing speakers and an insane screen, only to check your emails.
If you are up to the task, get researching, watching YouTube tutorials, get reading, and learn. If you feel overwhelmed, depending on where you live, there might be photography tutorial sessions at camera shops for in-person help.
This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Dec 21 2014 06:07am