Show off your camera gear from ebay ebay 8-), - got some goodies today, can't wait! Options

[Antraman]

Had the day off, decided to trawl through ebay for some toys, stumbled into some goodies for my Nikon D7k....

Twin flash and frame kit - $98 free postage


Wireless Timer Remote with extra wired cable release $38 free postage


1.35x Viewfinder magnifier with rubber eye cup $40 incl postage


I figured the accessories don't need to be the expensive genuine Nikon ones, so the el cheapo's will do for now...give me something to play with.

Got my eye on an awesome Canon 580EX Speedlight imitation for $140 as well...that'll be for next payday...8-)

Anyone got some interesting wins?

This post has been edited by Antraman: May 2 2012, 11:30 PM

[mattyamdfanboi]

yup i won my tamron 17-50mm on ebay... $270.. virtually new lol

here are a couple shots this beast can take






both shots are taken at wide open of f2.8.. lantern at 17mm, cat at 50mm... incredibly sharp lens.. i love it

smashes my 17-55 which is now sold hahah

and the box it came in.. :P



This post has been edited by mattyamdfanboi: May 3 2012, 02:07 PM

[Antraman]

Hey that cat one is really nice, nice colours, nice focus and nice scene. Did you do any post processing to get those colours?

Also, on the lantern pic, I am noticing a fair bit of chromatic aberration especially along the brick edge. You know you can correct that in Lightroom or some other decent photo editing program? Chromatic Aberration is the blue and/or red fuzziness on the edges of objects in the pic, particularly near the outside edges of the frame. Its caused by the various colours within the light spectrum having different wavelengths, and therefore striking the sensor/film at slightly different angles.

This post has been edited by Antraman: May 3 2012, 02:50 PM

[mattyamdfanboi]

i never even noticed it to fix it hahahah i shall process it later on.. and the cat one is as is.. :) she just happened to be sleeping on the outdoor couch hahah i was like PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!! she normally doesnt like posing hahah

but yer.. the CA... pretty bad in that scene... shouldnt be so bad.. especially at wide open.. wonder what happened there.. non of my other pics are like that..

ok i just checked that lantern pic on PS... it was set to remove the CA.. but weirdly enough.. it actually added the CA.. when i use the Lens profile thingy and set CA to 0 (no correction) there is no CA at all.. nothing.. so i dont know wth happened there..

[Antraman]

i never even noticed it to fix it hahahah i shall process it later on.. and the cat one is as is.. :) she just happened to be sleeping on the outdoor couch hahah i was like PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!! she normally doesnt like posing hahah

but yer.. the CA... pretty bad in that scene... shouldnt be so bad.. especially at wide open.. wonder what happened there.. non of my other pics are like that..

ok i just checked that lantern pic on PS... it was set to remove the CA.. but weirdly enough.. it actually added the CA.. when i use the Lens profile thingy and set CA to 0 (no correction) there is no CA at all.. nothing.. so i dont know wth happened there..

Well that's interesting. Can you post the pic now without the added CA. Would be interesting to compare.

I haven't made any lens profiles for my Lightroom installation...I have found that CA seems to be rather intermittent, rather than on every iamge. It seems only to appear in certain focal lengths and when the aperture is wider open...so applying a blanket CA adjustment via a profile I think is actually more detrimental than beneficial. I always zoom in 2x to the edges of the pic and visually check for it. If not evident, then I don't worry about adjustments.

Whats the going rate for one of those SIgmas? If ebay price is a lot lower, I could consider one for myself....8-) Though I got my eye on the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

[mattyamdfanboi]

sure thing. ill do it right now


there we go

This post has been edited by mattyamdfanboi: May 3 2012, 09:08 PM

[Antraman]

Hey man, that looks the same as the first one...dunno whats going on there...I'm looking at the blue on the roof top edge and on the brick edge part right next to the sky...maybe its just defocused and thats the effect it does. The brick work thats in focus looks pretty damn sharp though...

[mattyamdfanboi]

id say its the light bending at the brick.. its nowhere else.. but yer its incredibly sharp.. love this lens hahah

[Antraman]

Got my twin flash ring-frame kit today, and had a bit of a play around with it. I have to say, for a cheap $95 product from Hong Kong, it is pretty damn good. The slave flash units are simple and not real high quality, but the simplicity and flexibility of the ring and extender system is great. Its entirely configurable to how you like to work...flash either side of the lens, one to the side + one on top, or even a 3rd, proper speedlight on top with the 2 slave units in a variety of positions around the lens.

As you can see in the pic below, its a few pieces of aluminium, with screw connectors, one of which screws into your tripod 1/4" thread at the bottom of the camera. The slot in the ring allows you to slide the flash connectors around to get the position you want.


I'd say the flash kit is ideal for both portrait and macro work. The rings fold forward or back to focus the flash on either a close or distant object...

The kit comes with 2 diffusers which can be pulled over the flash heads.

The rings can be pulled straight out to focus the flash forward more...


The screw which connects the frame to the body can be removed, and the whole unit can be screwed onto the top of a tripod as I have above...The thread is a bit short to go right into the camera body thread, so I might have to see if I can get a screw with a longer shank, but since the aluminium extender has a rubber pad you can connect the camera to the tripod reasonably well.

You can remove one of the half rings so you can have only one ring, on either side of the lens, with one on the top hotshoe...


The bottom extension has 2 pieces, you can fit just one to your camera if you use a shorter lens, or the 2nd extension as shwon here if you have a longer lens. This allows you to fit avariety of lenses and get access to the lens focus or zoom rings, for convenience...


The kit comes with 2 hotshoe mounted flash sync terminals, so you can stack them on your camera and run 3 flash units at once.. 3 sync chords are supplied.


I am getting a Speedlight which has proper flash control functions etc so that would sit at the top of the camera, and the slave units to the sides.

I tried a couple of quick and dirty macro shots with the diffusers over the head units...the first is with a 50mm f/1.8 with a 2x macro diopter (hence the bad CA)...


And another with a 1x macro diopter and cleaned up a bit in LR


So overall I think this is a great little accessory, and I think I will have some fun with this...

[michael.jenkin]

Got these to go with my Canon 7D

[Antraman]

that rig is for video right MJ?

[michael.jenkin]

that rig is for video right MJ?

Yes. Something new for me to play with.

[Antraman]

I'm considering one if these things for a video harness...

[michael.jenkin]

I'm considering one if these things for a video harness...

nice !

[Antraman]

Just received my new toy from ebay...a Yongnuo YN565EX Speedlight Flash unit. for a cheap ($150) imitation Chinese copy product, I am quite impressed with the design and build quality. Nothing dodgy or cheap about it at all, and easily the best Chinese imitation product I have ever bought. Its an obvious copy of the Canon 580EX, in fact it even can received wireless slave signal from the Canon, so there is no doubt who Yongnuo was trying to emulate when they designed this. It comes in a Canon and Nikon version, the latter of which I ordered.

I figure that the sensor and the glass are the two most important things in the photography process, so going with genuine Nikon and or expensive 3rd party lenses is the go, and that small accessories need not be the expensive genuine stuff, so I can justify getting non-Nikon for the flash and other items.

Flash photography is something I have not had experience with, so there is a bit of a learning curve facing, and it seems there is quite a lot of functionality that this speedlight can do.

Anyway, here's a few pics.

The unit came boxed with a nice black polyethylene slip case


Back lit LCD with what appears to be a fully featured software. I have yet to compare this with the Nikon Speedlights to see how similar the Yonghuo unit is.


The unit on my D7000...it looks a lot bigger than it really is due to perspectiive, but its still quite a large unit.


The flash married to my macro flash extension ring, there are 2 hotshoe adapters, with PC connectors


Here's some pics taken on my initial test shoot.

[michael.jenkin]

Just received my new toy from ebay...a Yongnuo YN565EX Speedlight Flash unit. for a cheap ($150) imitation Chinese copy product, I am quite impressed with the design and build quality. Nothing dodgy or cheap about it at all, and easily the best Chinese imitation product I have ever bought. Its an obvious copy of the Canon 580EX, in fact it even can received wireless slave signal from the Canon, so there is no doubt who Yongnuo was trying to emulate when they designed this. It comes in a Canon and Nikon version, the latter of which I ordered.

I figure that the sensor and the glass are the two most important things in the photography process, so going with genuine Nikon and or expensive 3rd party lenses is the go, and that small accessories need not be the expensive genuine stuff, so I can justify getting non-Nikon for the flash and other items.

Flash photography is something I have not had experience with, so there is a bit of a learning curve facing, and it seems there is quite a lot of functionality that this speedlight can do.

That flash actually looks like reasonable quality.

[Adicolour]

I got a Nikon reversing ring, got some decent macro shots in.

example

example two

thats with an old pentax 50mm reversed

This post has been edited by Adicolour: Jun 1 2012, 06:57 PM

[Antraman]

Interesting addition to the family...an LED light for video. 2000 lumens,, both lenses switchable, and a 7 level brightness adjustment. Lithium Ion battery, I got an extra high capacity one which gives 110min continuous supply. This pic is with the lights OFF...with both lights on you cannot look into the bulbs its so bright.

From ebay for $93 + $20 for 2nd battery.

More info



This post has been edited by Antraman: Jul 3 2012, 09:46 PM