[awa355]

It's a good lens, one from this arvo of the neigbours slips

A drought at ground level, and a deluge hovering above.

Supposed to be fairly rough everywhere today/tomorrow. Crap weather about to hit just as I get a 70-200 f2.8 to play with.

[Transit]

Looking a bit rough alright ...the 70/200... what breed is it I'm jealous!

[Class A]

I think you would be covered by the $700 GST free allowance, so that was the thought for me.

Yeah, but you get the $700 allowance when buying the gear in another country as well.

So it really comes down to a NZ price vs overseas price comparison, apparently.

[zkarj]

Yeah, but you get the $700 allowance when buying the gear in another country as well.

So it really comes down to a NZ price vs overseas price comparison, apparently.

It does get around exchange rates. Although admittedly those can work both ways depending on the time and location. It also gets around in-country tax if buying overseas. Some countries make you pay it and claim it back later, which can be a pain.

The convenience of a local site with a good rep and local service (as such) when you return versus having to research and know what you're getting into. I'd be tempted if I was planning on heading offshore and was in the market for something.

[NZ_Ross]

The convenience of a local site with a good rep and local service (as such) when you return versus having to research and know what you're getting into. I'd be tempted if I was planning on heading offshore and was in the market for something.

Which is what I thought, and just wanted to let you all know the service is available.

I am not recommending it, or saying you should use it, or anything else. It is just an option that is available.

For myself, I will be travelling out of NZ 4 or 5 times this year, so I took notice of the option .

[Class A]

Crap weather about to hit just as I get a 70-200 f2.8 to play with.

Let us know how it went.

[awa355]

Let us know how it went.

Looking a bit rough alright ...the 70/200... what breed is it I'm jealous!

'They' are two Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lenses for Nikon mounts. One works okay, the other has given up on auto focus but functions perfectly on manual focus. ( a common problem with these sigmas). Bruce used them for sports photography several years ago but since upgrading, they have just sat around. He sent them over for me to use and decide which one I prefer'd , if either. $200 for the better one, $100 for the other. I told him I would take the $200 one and a good friend would probably be keen on the other. Bruce told me this morning, that 200 will cover both lenses. They owed him nothing.

A really good bloke, and, he doesn't even own a Pentax?? .

Attached Images

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

[richandfleur]

Love the ‘Pentax Colours’ of that cat and bird photo.

[sqrrl]

I like that cat photo a lot.

[awa355]

I like that cat photo a lot.

The cat will be a smoocher one minute and rip your hand to shreds the next. It stalks the dog then leaps onto it's back just like a cheetah bringing down an antelope. The little dog is very wary of it. The cat takes no shit from anyone.

[Kiwi645hauler]

I had a lady offering to buy three images of Tui's in the cherry tree blossom's (where else?) These were for her poor dying mother I sent her the full files, the money never showed up.

Had another three requests for a sons and daughter's pony club/cycling pics. Sent the files, after hours spent sifting through old files, and not so much as an acknowledgement of the photos being received much less a thank you. The pony club family weren't short of a bob, three kids riding and two spare ponies.

That sucks when people do that to you, I now send a tiny image as a preview image, and when the $$$ show i send the full file, and my T&C's are well stated when people approach me to purchase images.

RE: watermarks, i always watermark images, even the 800 pixel max ones that go on social media, i have a large one in a corner, but then also have 2-4 other watermarks in various parts at low opacities in various sizes. It doesn't matter to people stealing images, i found one of Noted kiwi Aviation photographer Gavin Conroys Air to Air images on ebay uk that the seller was putting on pillows, and various other things, they had badly cropped the image to take his watermark off, and claiming it as their own image. Seller got banned by ebay in the end apparently, gavin was posting 1200 pixel wide images to Social Media. I now go smaller, and make sure there is at least 2 visible and 2 not so visible watermarks

[awa355]

I usually post at 900kp but the cat and bird pics above are 640 which is more than enough. Sometimes a bigger copy does give an image a greater impact though. The community fb page where I post some photos has a large group of people, mostly women, who love the images and that is more satisfying than $10 in the mailbox.

The K mount Tamron 28-200 arrived from Aus. I am trying to like it, not easy tho'. The images are not as good as the DA 18-50 or 50-200. It is nice to have that range from 28 to 140ish in one lens. So far it is not a patch on the Tamron 18-200 I have on the Nikon.

[Kiwizinho]

went down the Kaikoura coast...



Q7 crossposted

Nice you found somewhere to stop. There are rather less stopping places now, and I'd say some bits of the road will be single lane for another year.

I went down the coast and back the Inland Kaikoura road. They call it the Kaikoura quake, and apparently it was centred at Culverdon, but after coming back through the inland Kaikoura Road, I wonder if it should have been called the Waiau quake, as it really seems to have born the brunt of it, but of course it's only a small village and Kaikoura is a major tourist destination.

---------- Post added 01-06-18 at 03:10 PM ----------

Belated New Year greetings. I spent a bit over a week without bothering to turn on a computer apart from my phone, so I'm still catching up.
I didn't do a great deal of photography as the weather was not particularly cooperative, and family time isn't always the most conducive to photography.
Before Christmas I did get to do Nativity photos in a controlled environment which was interesting. I've decided that you can never have too many flash units. In the end I used two off-camera flashes and the pop up flash as well.
I also learnt to really check your environment. Someone had lined the manger with a plastic bag that was only visible from one side, but it was very ugly, and someone put the manger back the wrong way around so that it showed and I didn't notice. It would have made a great environmental statement about plastic pollution getting so bad that even God is getting to sleep on plastic litter, but I don't think that was quite the intent.
At least it was possible to photoshop out, made easier by the fact that the camera was on a tripod and apart from people, props in the scene mostly didn't move, so once I'd cloned a layer to hide the plastic, I could copy and paste onto multiple images.
Regardless of what anyone thinks about the story behind Christmas, the Nativity story, I think fits in better with the Kiwi number 8 wire attitude, road trips, and camping than a fat old man in a very well insulated suit. Santa photos seem to be a rite of passage even though they're pretty ridiculous, so doing Nativity photos was quite fun, and fitting for the season.

[MarkJerling]

Nice you found somewhere to stop. There are rather less stopping places now, and I'd say some bits of the road will be single lane for another year.

I went down the coast and back the Inland Kaikoura road. They call it the Kaikoura quake, and apparently it was centred at Culverdon, but after coming back through the inland Kaikoura Road, I wonder if it should have been called the Waiau quake, as it really seems to have born the brunt of it, but of course it's only a small village and Kaikoura is a major tourist destination.

---------- Post added 01-06-18 at 03:10 PM ----------

Belated New Year greetings. I spent a bit over a week without bothering to turn on a computer apart from my phone, so I'm still catching up.
I didn't do a great deal of photography as the weather was not particularly cooperative, and family time isn't always the most conducive to photography.
Before Christmas I did get to do Nativity photos in a controlled environment which was interesting. I've decided that you can never have too many flash units. In the end I used two off-camera flashes and the pop up flash as well.
I also learnt to really check your environment. Someone had lined the manger with a plastic bag that was only visible from one side, but it was very ugly, and someone put the manger back the wrong way around so that it showed and I didn't notice. It would have made a great environmental statement about plastic pollution getting so bad that even God is getting to sleep on plastic litter, but I don't think that was quite the intent.
At least it was possible to photoshop out, made easier by the fact that the camera was on a tripod and apart from people, props in the scene mostly didn't move, so once I'd cloned a layer to hide the plastic, I could copy and paste onto multiple images.
Regardless of what anyone thinks about the story behind Christmas, the Nativity story, I think fits in better with the Kiwi number 8 wire attitude, road trips, and camping than a fat old man in a very well insulated suit. Santa photos seem to be a rite of passage even though they're pretty ridiculous, so doing Nativity photos was quite fun, and fitting for the season.

You're 100% correct. It should have been called the Waiau Quake. Here's the quake location from Geonet overlaid onto Google maps.

[zkarj]

Me? Yeah, nah, I only have a couple of lenses. No LBA on me mate...



And, if you turn all those lenses upside down (with lens caps on!), look what you can see...



Lots of rear caps all looking the same. Compare to what I had before – no two the same!



Turns out I'm doing much better on the front caps in terms of original kit. Only one off-brand!



Thanks to awa355 for the latest addition, nestled at the back there, the M 200.