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Storms and Convective Discussion - 25th June 2019 onwards


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Posted
  • Location: NW London
  • Weather Preferences: Convective Weather and Snow
  • Location: NW London
3 minutes ago, Flash bang flash bang etc said:

Fantastic photos

I went a bit silly and just bought a D5300 to replace my old D60 and a low-light lens.

Love using iPhone to shoot storms but I’ve always envied ppl with a proper digital and who get photos like these. Hopefully tomorrow will provide a lot of practice material to work with

If anyone’s looking for a great secondhand SLR I’m selling the D60 - it’s a really good camera - I just wanted higher resolution and Bluetooth. PM me if interested

What price?

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Posted
  • Location: Godalming
  • Weather Preferences: Plumes and streamers
  • Location: Godalming
30 minutes ago, Lu. said:

Another one from last night.

Looking forward to tommorow, but will radar watch before I leave for anywhere!

DSC_0137.jpg

Stunning!

Love the way it tapers towards the ground

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Posted
  • Location: South Gloucestershire BS35
  • Weather Preferences: Severe weather enthusiast
  • Location: South Gloucestershire BS35

Does anyone know where I can generate a lightning strike animation of, for example, the last 24 hours? Can't seem to find anywhere that lets me download it.

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Posted
  • Location: Godalming
  • Weather Preferences: Plumes and streamers
  • Location: Godalming
4 minutes ago, MetWeather said:

What price?

I’m just trying to find out how much they are

£50 ?

Just the body - with cap for the lens mounting. Also there’s a charger and 1 battery. Comes with strap.

Havent used it for a long time but it’s in mint condition and works well.

Ironically the last storm I used it for was the 2015 summer one over London. Was thinking of visiting the same spot tomo... coincidence? Or something else...  

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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire

Anyone got any tips for focussing your camera in the dark in manual focus? All my pictures came out blurry pretty much. Driving me mad.

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Posted
  • Location: Dorset
  • Weather Preferences: warehamwx.co.uk
  • Location: Dorset
5 minutes ago, Azazel said:

Anyone got any tips for focussing your camera in the dark in manual focus? All my pictures came out blurry pretty much. Driving me mad.

Infinity.

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Posted
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset
  • Weather Preferences: Extreme weather what else!
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset
2 minutes ago, Azazel said:

Anyone got any tips for focussing your camera in the dark in manual focus? All my pictures came out blurry pretty much. Driving me mad.

Do you have live view?

If so, put the lens into manual focus, then when in live view find a distant lights source and focus on it, you should be able to digitally zoom to get a better result.

Works for me

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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
Just now, Mapantz said:

Infinity.

I have a canon 500d I think it is or a variation of the canonD model - I swear I can’t locate the switch/option for it though 

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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
Just now, Christchurch storm nut said:

Do you have live view?

If so, put the lens into manual focus, then when in live view find a distant lights source and focus on it, you should be able to digitally zoom to get a better result.

Works for me

I’ll try that - was an issue last night as there were genuinely no light sources whatsoever where we were.

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Posted
  • Location: Godalming
  • Weather Preferences: Plumes and streamers
  • Location: Godalming
10 minutes ago, Azazel said:

Anyone got any tips for focussing your camera in the dark in manual focus? All my pictures came out blurry pretty much. Driving me mad.

Same

on the phone I aim at the sky and tap the screen to focus as far as the limit on the camera. It usually works but last night I was usually hiding behind the windows and that kept screwing with the focus.

In better conditions I’d try a test-shot to get the desired focus needed and then use the focus lock function on the camera/app.

I had to bin practically all my shots from a storm we had on holiday in Sardinia because the next day I realised the focus had slipped. It’s sometimes good practice to keep checking - as I find focus lock seems to have a habit of turning itself off

Edited by Flash bang flash bang etc
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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire

I heard focusing in auto focus on the distance during daylight hours and then ‘locking that in’ with manual focus is a good idea as basically most of your lightning shots will focus on distance 

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Posted
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset
  • Weather Preferences: Extreme weather what else!
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset
1 minute ago, Azazel said:

I have a canon 500d I think it is or a variation of the canonD model - I swear I can’t locate the switch/option for it though 

I had the 1000d I'd I think that had it, so I would be surprised if the 500D didn't!

Check in the menu as it has an option to turn it off.

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Posted
  • Location: Portsmouth
  • Weather Preferences: Storms/Rain
  • Location: Portsmouth
10 minutes ago, Azazel said:

Anyone got any tips for focussing your camera in the dark in manual focus? All my pictures came out blurry pretty much. Driving me mad.

I do try to get the lense to focus before it gets dark.. Place a bit of tape so you can line it back up.. Doesnt always work tho.

Last night I took my cats laser pen lol - been told they work just to get it to focus on something near you.

 

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Posted
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset
  • Weather Preferences: Extreme weather what else!
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset

What I found out is that the kit lenses are not the best for setting manual focus and keeping it there, but a more expensive Lens has more resistance in the focus ring, so it tends to stay where you set it.

I have just spent a few quid on the sigma 18 - 35 mm lens and it's so nice to use compared to the kit lens that came with the camera.

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Posted
  • Location: Godalming
  • Weather Preferences: Plumes and streamers
  • Location: Godalming
5 minutes ago, Lu. said:

I do try to get the lense to focus before it gets dark.. Place a bit of tape so you can line it back up.. Doesnt always work tho.

Last night I took my cats laser pen lol - been told they work just to get it to focus on something near you.

 

Shine it on a plane and it will work a treat

Edited by Flash bang flash bang etc
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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
5 minutes ago, Lu. said:

I do try to get the lense to focus before it gets dark.. Place a bit of tape so you can line it back up.. Doesnt always work tho.

Last night I took my cats laser pen lol - been told they work just to get it to focus on something near you.

 

Laser pen is a great idea.

 

interestingly I’ve just had a look at the camera. I have a wide angle lens on it, it has two rings - one to zoom in and out and a very thin one which appears to focus and I didn’t even realise was there - that should surely work shouldn’t it?

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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire

It’s a shame because I took shots like this but boy are they ugly/out of focus.

 

also excuse the weird line running down the side of the shot - some dust on my sensor I need to clean off. I can usually get away with it in daylight photography 

7A684149-55AE-43AF-B38C-1DDA975AF2C7.jpeg

A39C0FE0-F3B9-4C43-89AF-05B9138FC7CB.jpeg

09912F8E-B88F-482B-98B4-002BAA31C867.jpeg

9FEAC2D2-00C3-4E55-823C-6A44016484A6.jpeg

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Posted
  • Location: Portsmouth
  • Weather Preferences: Storms/Rain
  • Location: Portsmouth
4 minutes ago, Flash bang flash bang etc said:

Shine it on a plane and it will work a treat

Id have plenty for the camera to focus on then with the amount of blues & twos showing up

 

6 minutes ago, Christchurch storm nut said:

What I found out is that the kit lenses are not the best for setting manual focus and keeping it there, but a more expensive Lens has more resistance in the focus ring, so it tends to stay where you set it.

I have just spent a few quid on the sigma 18 - 35 mm lens and it's so nice to use compared to the kit lens that came with the camera.

See, mine is just kit - but been looking into the Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 Lens. 1 for Astrophotography as the aperture is high, but torn if it will be good enough for lightening?!

Anyway, i keep looking at the chances of a storm tommorow and Portsmouth has a high chance (i know it will change) was looking forward to a drive n all.

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Posted
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset
  • Weather Preferences: Extreme weather what else!
  • Location: Christchurch, Dorset
16 minutes ago, Lu. said:

Id have plenty for the camera to focus on then with the amount of blues & twos showing up

 

See, mine is just kit - but been looking into the Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 Lens. 1 for Astrophotography as the aperture is high, but torn if it will be good enough for lightening?!

Anyway, i keep looking at the chances of a storm tommorow and Portsmouth has a high chance (i know it will change) was looking forward to a drive n all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not knocking kit lenses!

Almost all of my best shots were taken with the Canon 18-55,  but I always felt they would have turned out better with a more expensive Lens,  I found out to may amazement that you can have a  100 megaplex sensor, but put a kit lens in front of it, and you'll be lucky to see the equivalent of maybe 10-20 Megapixels

It makes a huge difference!

Edited by Christchurch storm nut
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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
1 minute ago, Christchurch storm nut said:

Don't get me wrong, I definitely not knocking kit lenses!

Almost all of my best shots were taken with the Canon 18-55,  but I always felt they would have turned out better with a more expensive Lens,  I found out to may amazement that you can have a  100 megaplex sensor, but put a kit lens in front of it, and you'll be lucky to see the equivalent of maybe 10-20 Megapixels if you're lucky, it makes a huge difference!

I agree with this.

i bought a wide angle lens and was a bit concerned by reviews saying it’s not great in low light or for up close shots of stuff.

it absolutely dumps all over my kit lens for both things so god knows how good some really really reallyyyyy expensive lenses are.

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Posted
  • Location: Louth, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Misty Autumn days and foggy nights
  • Location: Louth, Lincolnshire
3 minutes ago, Azazel said:

I agree with this.

i bought a wide angle lens and was a bit concerned by reviews saying it’s not great in low light or for up close shots of stuff.

it absolutely dumps all over my kit lens for both things so god knows how good some really really reallyyyyy expensive lenses are.

I use a Sigma 24mm f1.4 from their 'art' range - primarily for astrophotography but it's also great for storms too.  I tend to use liveview to manually focus but infinity on this lens is pretty good so in a hurry I feel confident going with that.

In terms of tomorrow night, I guess it depends on the cap and whether temps and humidity gets high enough to erode it and when that happens.  I'll be driving over the Wolds around 9pm tomorrow night, so I'll need to remember the tripod and cable release.

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Posted
  • Location: Birmingham, Harborne 160 asl
  • Weather Preferences: Columus Bigus Convectivus
  • Location: Birmingham, Harborne 160 asl
1 hour ago, Flash bang flash bang etc said:

Fantastic photos! 

I went a bit silly and just bought a D5300 to replace my old D60 and a low-light lens.

Love using iPhone to shoot storms but I’ve always envied ppl with a proper digital and who get photos like these. What camera are you using?

Hopefully tomorrow will provide a lot of practice material to work with

If anyone’s looking for a great secondhand SLR I’m selling the D60 - it’s a really good camera - I just wanted higher resolution and Bluetooth.

(PM me if interested )

Canon 40D... flash

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