Photography Everything I know

Virtually everything I know about the technical aspects of photography.

 prime lenses are always sharpest, lightest (unless you carry so many around with you)
 invest in lenses not bodies 35mm+ 50mm+ 85mm+ 200mm+
 see what lenses (fish lens / 2.8 super zooms ) can be rented for special needs.
 you will be married to a mounting system, choose wisely or plan specific systems for specific tasks
invest in lenses & crop factor rather than bodies
glass always has a longer value over time.
prices of lenses are easily doubled for just incremental feature (1.8 $100-200 1.4 $500)
invest in light meters if you make space for it in your work flow, especially in studio work/flash work.
 teleconvertors can double but you loose an F stop or more, and focus/vibration issues are added
 Adapters could be use for other systems/mounts but usually loose autofocus and metering
 F1.4 prime-2.8 zooms lenses are aways very expensive and heavy
 DOF F1.4 is very narrow DOF F4+ is wider depth of field
 putting a UV filter will diminish the final image, use sparingly or not at all if you can be careful
 all kit lenses are typically crap 100$ won't be recooped if you try to sell.
 Non Full frame bodies (dx)  multiples the focal length of attached
 DSLR over 20MP is equiltivant to 35mm scans of negatives
 Cameras that have 32MP is greater than the starting level of medium format
 Watch for Actuations on Digital cameras as shutters do wear out
 Evil cameras are much smaller but typically has smaller sensors, and require different lenses that use normal F ranges or very expensive Fast lenses.
Bridge cameras, put better glass (sometimes up to 2.8F fixed) but still use a tiny sensor and suffers from crop factor.
When considering sensor size always based on density of pixels / physical size, there will be a physical limit to the resolving power
Iso noise is more important than megapixels
High end professional cameras are 2-3 better stop in iso performance (500-3k-8k)
{ future understanding of crop factor and focal length }
more blades in the lens the better round out of focus point light

 Nikon DX Crops DX/FX lenses and multiple focal length by F1.4
 BW digital cameras have more resolution that color

 Don't forget minimal focus distances
 Weight will be a hinderance during travel
 taking really good pictures will be the focal point rather than the travel (photographic trips)

 Built in flashes are typically only work with shorter focal length
 the faster the lens (larger the apature) the more expensive it is
 the sharpest is always 2 stops above the lowest settings (unless specially noted to be sharp wide open)
 telephoto > 75 mm        (flattens requires more distance)
 portrait lens is 85 mm  (flattens requires more distance)
 standard 50mm  (equilvant of eyesight)
 lanscape < 28 mm  (distortion requires less distance)
buy one large nurtralizers/circular filter rather than indvidual ones
forcing yourself to be compose an image ala film is much more benificial for the creative process
it's reecommended that you shoot film to hone your craft.
generally the bigger the sensor the shorter the focal length can be reached and the better DOF which will expose the bokah that is covented by many.

Film has far higher resolution given the cost,
 lighting is everything (be it ambient or artificial)
 low light performance is typically very expensive
 think of your target subject matter
 cheap lense have F3.5+
 composition rules all
 night shots are better with smaller devices
 rule of thirds
 don't blame the camera, learn to use to it's limits/strengths.
 Video problems (rolling shutter) is a common problem with SLR that use CMOS, Older Video cameras use CCD (there are fixes but require post processing)
Printing, be aware that eye has a finite limit of resolution based on viewing distance,  the father away you are the lower the resolution of the document
Calibration is required between LCD, printer.
LED typically has a blue tint that has to be adjusted for. CRT are better at color matching. Full Gamut monitors are expensive.