Add me as #6, please.

Thanks.

J-One is the place I can get cheapest deal for Nikon stuff.

Not true.
Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Micro lens has VR.
It is a prime lens.

Whether or not the lens has VR has nothing to do with the wide aperture.

Normally the shorter the focal length, the less likely you will need a VR.

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Added on July 12, 2010, 2:42 pmJ-One is still the cheapest place I can get all my camera stuff, especially it is nearer than Pudu, Sungai-Wang to where I live.

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Added on July 12, 2010, 2:49 pmNever shoot micro using this lens with f/2.8, unless you are shooting portraiture with this lens.
Shooting so close to a small subject, the depth of field is so narrow that a breath you take while holding the camera, it will be out of focus.
When shooting Micro, make sure use aperture f/8.0 and above, plus f/8 is the "sweet-spot" of this lens where the focusing is the sharpest.

If using f/2.8 is still not bring enough, then invest in a SB900/600, else boost up your ISO to 400 or 640.

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Added on July 12, 2010, 2:56 pmShoot the pictures (mostly landscape) with your D90 with bracketing, strongly recommending fix your D90 on a stable tripod.

Bring home your pictures, download GIMP application. It's free.
This Image Manipulation software can help you to overlap the pictures taken using bracketing. It has the similar feel and look as the expensive Photoshop, assuming you would buy original. ;-)

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Added on July 12, 2010, 3:21 pmI guess you used Auto WB for all those model shots.
This was an indoor and full of flourescent light sources.

Your pic gonna look a bit bluish....the model's skin tone does not look natural.

Here's what you can do with your D90:
- Use SB900 to illuminate the models.
- Use Custom WB = 5500K, this will restore back the skin tone, if not, then will make it fairer, rather than bluish (like a Na'vi).

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Added on July 12, 2010, 4:00 pmBuy only good UV filter like HOYA.

For me, I only put UV filter on when there is a risk of kids playing around, touching your camera stuff.
Other times, I just remove it, to get better optical quality.
Don't shoot into the light source or sun. Apply lens hood.

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Added on July 12, 2010, 4:38 pmMost shop owners won't let you snap a few shots with the brand-new camera body taken from the shelf.
Because the value of the camera drops if the shutter count is not zero anymore.

They can let you hold it and feel it, without the batteries.

This post has been edited by DenKhoo: Jul 12 2010, 04:38 PM

I use M all the time, and there are ways to get the right exposure settings rightaway, within just 1 shot.
I have never used P, A or S anymore.

If you do want to semi-auto mode, use S mode instead, try not to use A-mode more often.
I can tell you why if you are curious.

Fill flash is to fill up the unnecessary shadow on the portrait. Can be on the hotshoe or off-camera.
Adjusting the shutter speed won't help in this. Shutter speed will only control how much of ambient light is captured in the photo.

I usually set Manual 1/32 to my pop-up flash or SB900 on hotshoe. This is sufficient.
Also, if depends on the distance between you and the subject/model.

For D90, the fastest shutter-speed if used with flash = 1/200.

However, if you turn on the FP sync speed in the menu, you can set the shutter-speed faster than 1/200.

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Added on July 30, 2010, 11:15 amYou can configure your pop-up flash power only from the menu.
There's no quicker way.

On my D90, my pop-up flash is always set to the lowest 1/64, because I just need it to trigger my external SB900 remotely.

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Added on July 30, 2010, 11:36 amHere's the long story, be patient to read it all.

I assume you already know what the semi-auto is, A and S mode.
If in Aperture mode, camera controls the Shutter-speed for you and still can get good exposure.
If in Shutter-speed mode, camera controls the Aperture for you and still can get good exposure.

The slowest shutter-speed you should use while you are hand-holding it, without tripod is 1/30.
Any shutted-speed slower than 1/30, your camera will capture blur picture due to your hands shaking, even for those professional photographers.

Say, if you always use A-mode, your camera will choose the shutter-speed for you.
Under a normal outdoor sunny day, if you choose Aperture f/22 or f/32 to get very sharp picture, you camera may choose 1/15 or 1/10 for you, which is slower than 1/30. This will result in blur picture due to camera movement.

Therefore, I will advice you use S mode more often instead.

Also, for other models like D40x, D50, D60, D80, which have only 1 dial on the body.
In semi-auto S-mode, you just turn the dial to control shutter-speed. But in A-mode, you will need to press and hold down a button, and turn the dial to control the Aperture. Nikon engineers purposely designed this to "force" you to use S-mode more often.

This post has been edited by DenKhoo: Jul 30 2010, 11:36 AM

Most beginners D-SLR users who start using semi-auto mode tend[U] to overlook the exposure readings in the viewfinder and miss them because most of them are shutter-trigger happy. They will only examine the exposure of the pic after the shooting, from the LCD screen.

Only those who are using M, know what they are doing and very well-aware of the readings in the viewfinder.

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Added on July 31, 2010, 12:12 amI am aware of the lens's focal-length relationship with the slowest shutter-speed used, to prevent camera shake.

I was just isolating the shutter-speed vs camera-shake case. Under 1/30, it starts to capture micro-movement like breathing and pulse. You can hold your breath, but pulse?
Try shooting an image with a shutter-speed 1/15 or 1/10 and show us, without tripod.

I totally agree that at f/22 will have optical diffration, I was just using an extreme example which we rarely use. Sometime under a certain lighiting condition, we don't need to go f/22 for the camera to choose shutter-speed 1/15 for you.

This post has been edited by DenKhoo: Jul 31 2010, 12:12 AM