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Dear Margham Marauders After the incredible winds of this week, we all hope that what we will find around Margham are pristine, virgin sands for our drive Friday. We will be disappointed if we expect that in the wonderful bowls around Margham itself - but we will try to find them and see if we cannot play just a little bit! From there we will be making our way through some wonderfully swoopy, small fund dunes: nothing too challenging, but for the newbies you will need to have your concentration level on high. The good news, this is a truly all levels drive now, with almost as many senior, experienced drivers as newbie or fewbie. Newbie's and Fewbies, this is an opportunity for you to watch and learn. Don't under estimate how much you can pick up from watching the car in front, and if it's an intermediate, it means that they have been honing their skills for some time, have control of throttle and steering and know what to avoid and what not. Intermediates, fantastic that you're embodying the spirit of Carnity and joining an all levels drive. Passing on your experience and knowledge to the drivers on this drive will be so valuable to them. They can see how you drive the line, the gas you use, the small potentially imperceptible alterations that you make that let you float above the sand - but it takes discipline: because you're setting the example. Here's our proposed convoy. @Niki @Anoop Nair @Gaurav Soni @TT_Dubai @Alfred Alinazar @Shaaz Sha @Ishraque Ahammed @Wade Pat2 @Watteau @Warren Flay @SP kALATH @Lawrence_Chehimi @Foxtrot Oscar If by some chance I got someone's rank wrong - my apologies. We will be using Carnity radio channel 2. Briefing will be in car, because we are still driving under COVID restrictions. Hopefully, now this list is published, we are done with the changes ... but you never know. See you soon in the sand.

@Niki @Gaurav Soni @Shaaz Sha @Watteau - up for a challenge? I'm thinking you'll all enjoy a special Intermediate activity that I plan for you tomorrow during the drive. I'll explain to you in the morning a 'merit' points based system that we will use during the drive tomorrow. Be very careful as @Foxtrot Oscar will be the ultimate arbiter of who our 'winner' will be.

Photography is an art that CAN come from any lenses of a phone, dslr or even potatoes Nokia. Keep it up @Veedooshee your photography art is an awesome and I'm always in love with seeing your photo composition. @Thomas VargheseI have D750 nikon but my majority shots are from samsung note and iPhone, sheer due to convenience and these days phone camera are really not that bad from potatoes Nokia and Ericsson age. Best part is today's phone is so fast that you can capture a moment in 2-3 sec with a phone as oppose to reaching and unziping camera bag and removing lens cover takes 10 secs atleast.

@Zixuan Huang @Charbel Yazbeck @Nitin S @JamesThorn @Luc Khaldoun @Simon Hope @Jamil Abou Assali @Anoop Raj @Lynel Dsouza @Nicholas Cox @Gordon Reid @Kailas @marks @Gaurav Drive RSVP is closed now Please find below the convoy numbering for tomorrow's drive Absolute Newbie Drive Al Qudra 07 May 2021 Attendees Level Car Pos # Vanessa8580 Marshal Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Blue 1 Marks Advance Toyota FJ Cruiser Silver 2 Zixuan Huang Absolute Newbie Nissan Pathfinder 2010 White 3 Charbel Yazbeck Absolute Newbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB 2015 Silver 4 Nitin S Absolute Newbie Ford expedition 2018 5 James Thorn Absolute Newbie Lexus LX570 2020 Black 6 Luc Khaldoun Absolute Newbie Nissan Patrol 2020 7 Kailas Expert Jeep Wrangler Red 8 Simon Hope Absolute Newbie Jeep Wrangler JK SWB 2018 Silver 9 Jamil Abou Assali Absolute Newbie Jeep Wrangler 4door 2012 Grey 10 Anoop Raj Absolute Newbie Toyota FJ Cruiser 2014 11 Lynel Dsouza Absolute Newbie Toyota FJ Cruiser 2017 Black 12 Nicholas Cox Absolute Newbie Dodge Ram 1500 2018 13 Gordon Reid Absolute Newbie GMC Sierra 4door AT4 Black 14 Gaurav Crew Mitsubishi Pajero SWB Silver 15 We will be using radio channel 1 (44600625). If you have a radio already, please bring it and make sure it is programmed, if you don't, you can use one of our spare radios. Looking forward to see you all tomorrow morning at 5.30 am. In case of an emergency, you can contact me on 056 434 1668.

Excited to have you @Islam Soliman and @Frederic and the team in the drive tomorrow. 👏👏

Dear @Frederic @Darren Brooke @Rawad Bahsas @Nithin Vaidir @Hisham Masaad @Chris Wing @JeromeFJ @Mehmet Volga @Adhir Saxena @Sinol @Ranjan Das @Thomas Varghese @Nabil Bishara, I am excited to have you all tomorrow on the drive and looking forward for a safe and fun drive. See you all tomorrow at 5:30am sharp, all deflated by 5:40am and ISA will start rolling by 5:45am. Below is the convoy order and for radio comms we will on channel 3 (446,056.25).

Absolutely looking forward to the drive !

Dear IM drivers, @Niki @Watteau @Shaaz Sha @Gaurav Soni (sorry @Lawrence_Chehimi for reasons that will become clear tomorrow you're out of the reckoning) having deliberated long and hard with @Foxtrot Oscar we have set and arranged the IM challenge for tomorrow. Please be sure to have in your vehicles for the start of the drive the following: Pen or pencil Scientific Calculator (most mobile phones will have this functionality) A sexton or other appropriate device Sunglasses Scarf All will become clear during the briefing tomorrow.

@WrangeldRank for me is still Newbie with 2 drives. Honestly, I was going to skip a week until I saw there was a spot on this drive open with all the expirienced drivers. Couldnt pass up that chance to learn.

Looking forward to tomorrows drive

This notification is the most anticipated one all week long and by far the most exciting one 🤘🤘

Drive RSVP is now closed. Please go through the tutorial videos and make sure your cars front and rear tow hooks are in order. Hope all of you also have the required gear for the newbie level drives (Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor). See you all tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM and we will be using Radio channel 2, 446 031 25. 1 Brette JGC Lead 2 @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil Wrangler 2nd Lead 3 @samamara Pajero 4 @Naim Aoun Wrangler 5 @Fiel Francis Telan Tahoe 6 @Tbone Xterra CF 7 @bunty_and_pops Wrangler 8 @Marky B Wrangler 9 @Fabien Monleau LC 10 @Pierre de Maigret FJ 11 @Mukundan Nair Xterra Sweep

Sorry to hear that Lakshmi, rest assured many more sessions will follow. @Gaurav i have added you to the session.

Hi @Danish Mohammad @JeromeFJ @Stav @Ehab @Abdul Rahman AK @varunmehndiratta Here’s the convoy list for tomorrow. We will be on channel 1 See you all soon. Cheers!

Hi @Mario Cornejo, @N@ved, @Dodi Syahdar, @Francois Germishuys! finally the week end is coming!! we are only 5 that's mean more fun!!!! can't wait to see you all on the sand! here the convoy: we are going to use Carnity Channel 4. Remember that we are meeting each other at 5:30 .. yes summer is coming! see you all tomorrow then!

All FJs together, sweet:p

Hi, Nice to e-meeting you all My name is Zixuan and you are also welcomed to call me Charlie :D. This is my first time with Carnity, but I have previous desert driving experience (with friends) and I desire to learn more from the professionals and make friends with same interest. To answer the questions: 1. Nissan Pathfinder 2010 R51. 2. Previous experience yes, Have been to fossil rock and several deserts near by Hatta Oman road. 3. Yes, equipped with both front and rear tow points, and I do have towing rope with shackles with me Yes, I have watched the newbie video. Can't wait for Friday!. Zixuan

The mind boggles. I'm not going to one one of those special parties again am I? Appropriate device is giving me a lot of scope. Can the device be digital or must be analogue? So up for this apart from the dressing up. I only do that on the last Tuesday of the month.

😳 this sounds worrying like navigation based activity… I get lost at mall car parks so am gracefully accepting last place in advance. and a homemade sextant link below … just need to raid my kids school pencil case!!

We have a nice and tight convoy with some well capable drivers. So be ready to push the pace tonight and lets see how far we can go. Convoy Numbering 1. Srikumar - XJ 2. Hasan Wahlan - LC100 @Hasan Wahlan 3. Ruan - Wrangler @Ruan van den Heever 4. Farooq - JGC @Farouq Owdeh 5. Chaitanya - Xterra @Chaitanya D We shall be using Carnity Channel 3. See you there at 10:00 PM.

Let's hope my navigation in the sand is better than keeping track of these things! Delighted to have another SWB 3.8 in the convoy. R

Ugh! even worse than rank, you got my wheelbase wrong! lolol

@anish I have 2 soft shackles but no kinetic rope yet

Dear@Russ, @Miguel Codes, @Sunil Mathew, @Tareck, @Nafly Azhar, @Chinthaka Ruwan, @WaYan, @Andrei, @Joseph Sebastian, @Juan Carlos Elizalde Reyes, @Jeepie, @Nivin, @Dwain Fernandes, @Veedooshee RSVP is now closed Very happy to see you all tomorrow morning! When you will arrive, preferably a few minutes before meeting time so you can be ready to go at 5.30, please stop on the side of the track keeping a 5-10m distance with the other cars. Our convoy numbering will be as follows : 1. Emmanuel (White Xterra) - lead 2. Veedooshee (White Pajero - IM) - 2nd lead 3. Juan Carlos Elizalde Reyes (Cherokee Liberty) 4. Nafly Azhar (Pajero) 5. Dwain Fernandes (Grey Pajero) 6. Tareck (Grey Patrol Y62) 7. Sunil Mathew (Yellow Wrangler) 8. Nivin (Blue Xterra - advance) - CF 9. Miguel Codes (Red Wrangler) 10. Chinthaka Ruwa (Xterra - Fewbie) 11. Russ (White Raptor) 12. Jeepie (Green Wrangler - expert) - sweep Please make sure you have all following items onboard, otherwise we won't be able to allow you on the drive: 1) Offroad flag 2) Shovel 3) Pressure gauge / deflator 4) Compressor (gas station nearby has no compressor) 5) Radio with the Carnity frequencies programmed. We will use channel 1 (446.006.25). Also, if you haven’t done it yet, please open the following link (Covid19 precautions 2.0), go through it and at the end click on the “totally agree” icon (in that same link, not here). See you in the sands!

@Chaitanya D @Malachy McGrogan @Kenneth Bollhardt @Larry Cadden @Probir Mukherjee @Richard Franks @Pacific @luis mantecon @Lakshmi Narasimhan @bony raphi @Chris Wing Hello Everybody, I hope you all are doing well and had a great week. Please find the attached convoy list and we will be using Channel 3 (44605625). Looking forward to see you all tomorrow afternoon for the drive, rest well and enjoy the weekend. Hello Lakshmi, glad to know that you are feeling alright after the vaccination and thank you for informing, see you soon, take care.

Excited about the drive! I better set 2 alarms...

@Watteau he was awesome! Came personally with the spacers! Made a ramp free for me in a full garage and changed it up before I could get hungry for lunch! Such a super bloke and thank you for establishing the connection! I didn’t get the control arms done yet but plan to at a later stage for sure! Ps the spacers from the other garage were put on poorly so this was a blessing to get fixed before any issues.!

You just spared my embarrassment @GauravSoni!! I was about to bring in the school project sextant based on that YouTube video!!

Dear Angela @Foxtrot Oscar, My car is out of workshop and is ready to ride the dunes. Me & my car is ready for the dance inside the desert behind you. Lets dance on Saturday afternoon.

@Watteau if you turn up with a military grade, Bluetooth operated, Siri integrated sextant that’s just not fair!!

Where is the sextant shop please

I have 2014 model FJ cruiser with lifted shocks, and I did 4 drives earlier in Tawi, Nazwa, would like to join with my family with out any adventure drive, just for fun.Please provide the contact number for tommorow morning, and finally the vehicle is equiped with front and rear towpoints.

Hi!! I drive a 2017 FJ Cruiser, and have both front and rear tow hooks. I have a bit of experience of driving off road from a couple of years ago, but always looking to learn!

ohhh now that sounds like fun!! definitely up for the challenge @Wrangeld ... i have packed a few extra red-bulls to bribe to judge Was excited to be out there with you to explore and now even more so with these mini in-drive-games

hi. i drive a 2015 Pajero 3.8L equipped with front and rear hooks. i am a newbie offroader but keen to learn :-)) and so excited to be part of the group on Friday after i watched the introduction video.

Al Aweer to As far as we can go - Drive Report "Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colors; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.' - Khalil Gibran What I had in mind was a drive in true desert conditions: torrid and dusty, with soft, shifty and blinding sand. What we got was almost a miracle: a drive into dark clouds, under torrential rain, followed, just as quickly as it came, by a full rainbow, and beaten, wet, cakey sand. Words should leave their place to images, which I hope the better equipped members could capture with their Go Pros or mounted cameras. What I can say, climatic conditions aside, is that the main skill of the day - ridge riding - was practiced with great precision by the whole convoy, even though the uncommon terrain (wet and beaten on top, but soft and gluey just below the surface) provided an easier ground than usual when climbing, but a more reluctant surface when riding the ridges, with muddy sand quickly building under the cars, and forcing more than one exit from the crests. The main takeaway from the day, besides nature's wild beauty, hopefully was that it's possible to ride ridges without ploughing them down, driving along their curvy contours with just as much finesse as that required to tackle technical dunes, building and adapting momentum (as generated by the speed extracted from the engine, times the weight of the car), depending on the ridge length, curvature, steepness, and on the eventual exit point (weather forced or willingly chosen). I believe the experiment of alternating Intermediates with Fewbie Plus drivers gave good fruits, resulting in an overall sustained drive, during which there was never a moment of clear and present danger (in the case of this area, even more likely, due to the length and curviness of the cordons, and the omni-presence of bushes and small trees). Great support by @Craig Finlayson at CF, and @Shehab Alawadhi in SW, with @Lakshmi Narasimhan executing a clean Second Lead, and @Gaurav Soni and @Ali Abas promptly coming to assist when needed. Great job by @Pacific, @Batuhan Kulac, @Gok Krish, and @Ranjan Das. A special mention for @Probir Mukherjee, who came into the drive after a long absence from the desert, and overcame with patience and perseverance all the obstacles that the terrain, combined with his rustiness, threw at him, steadily improving his driving throughout the afternoon, all the way to executing a great self-recovery from the last ridge before exiting. Well done Probir, for persisting and getting your mojo back. At end of this eventful day, we fulfilled the goal of the drive, and went "as far as we could", driving 59 Km, in a total of 3:43 hours, of which 2:39 moving, at an average moving speed of 22 Km/h (16Km/h total average). Thank you all for joining, and see you soon again.

With the tremendous increase in the number of COVID cases in the UAE, we all have to be responsible while off-roading. Failing to abide by any single precaution at any time during the drive, will result in an immediate ban from Carnity Off-road Club. ZERO TOLERANCE First offender - 1 Month Ban. Second offender - 3 Month Ban. Third offender - lifetime ban and report to authorities. COVID19 PRECAUTIONS 2.0 All Carnity off-road drives will be LIMITED to driving only: No Socializing and gathering allowed at any time. No break for taking photos, breakfast, smoking, etc. No exchanging of off-road or recovery gears. Wear a mask at all times, while outside your vehicle. For passengers restrictions, follow RTA or NCEMA guidelines. All passengers should be inside the car, at all times. Maintain a minimum of 2-meter social distance at all times. Sanitize your hands and recovery gear after use. PS1. If you and your passenger cannot sit inside your vehicle for 3-4 hours please DO NOT JOIN CARNITY DRIVES. PS2. A Member who has RSVP the drive is RESPONSIBLE and LIABLE for their passenger's compliance. PS3. The above precautions apply to everyone irrespective of their vaccination status or schedule. PS4. You can confidentially submit the photo of any offender by sending an email to [email protected]. How to comply Read the drive post before arriving at the meeting point, so that you know your convoy numbering and radio channel. Arrive at the meeting point and switch on your radio to the pre-set frequency of the drive. Stop your vehicle at least 10-20 meters away from each other. Deflate your tires, while wearing a mask, and then go back inside your car. All briefings will be done on the radio now, so pay full attention to a briefing for your own safety. After the briefing, fall in your convoy position just before the drive starts. While driving if you get stuck, announce on the radio and be inside your car at all times. Trip lead and/or support will guide you on the radio for self-recovery or tow-rope recovery. While there is a stuck or a refusal, everyone else supposed to be inside their car at all times. You can only take a bio-break during the drive, by requesting trip lead permission. Once the drive is over exit out to inflate by maintaining 10-20 meters distance from each other. While inflating, only the driver supposed to be out and with the face mask at all times. After the drive, you can talk on the radio for any feedback, suggestions or help you need.

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: BAN POST Two Way Radio Guidelines Every Offroader brings his own radio, programmed to the frequencies described in below advice topic. We will not share spare radios or program your radio on the drive. If you need assistance in programming the radio, post a topic on the Carnity website with your questions and we will help you out. Make sure your radio is fully charged. It will be your only way of communication while driving. Before buying, please carefully read below advice so you are informed properly on which model / cost / shops... No radio = No drive. It is an essential tool and you should make sure you bring it on every drive and learn/practice how to use it. MUST WATCH: NEWBIE VIDEO BRIEFING Drive Details Level: Newbie and above When: 7th May 2021, Friday. Meeting time: 5:30 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: (https://maps.app.goo.gl/e2RMayTqDefGri7B9 (Khatam) Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 09:30 AM LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 12 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP ON THE CALENDAR

There is still time but it seems this will be a small group allowing for some serious pace! See you all at the dawn of Saturday. Can't wait! Hopefully we make it to Lisaili this time 😃

@Brette Thanks - see you all tomorrow!

This is going to be a great evening.

Congratulations @Chinthaka Ruwan for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. Fewbie: Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Advance side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives And Fewbie Plus, after 5 drives at Fewbie level only Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Congrats @Chinthaka Ruwan!

Hi @Gaurav Soni you can join the drive.

https://gulfmodels.com/collections/frontpage/products/inno64-mitsubishi-pajero-evolution-205-piaa-paris-dakar-1998-1-64 as close as we are going to get to the full size thing

Thanks for letting me know @varunmehndirattaI'm sure we'll drive together soon

Operating a Digital Camera sometimes feels like controlling a spacecraft, and on top of that, thinks like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and many other technical descriptions seem very confusing, which leads to 90% of DSLR users to choose their AUTO modes and fear of ever using anything else. This is perfectly normal, but with some basic guidelines and understanding you can quickly overcome this hurdle and start shooting stunning photos. Like every hobby, it needs a bit of patience and research, but the advantage of shooting digital is that you won't have to waste any money in developing "mistaken" photos that were part of the learning experience. If you took a wrong photo, just delete it and move on For Astrophotography, you will need to select "MANUAL MODE" on the rotary dial of your camera so you can set the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO yourself. There are many misconceptions about photography, and one of them being that you need to spend thousands of dirhams to get professional looking photos, but that is simply not true. With any decent brand (Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fujifilm, etc..) digital camera you will be able to take amazing photos as long as you practice and learn to understand how the camera works and how you should be using light, composition, etc.. to accentuate the end result. Our club has focused so far on night photography only, which is in some kind of way no too very difficult because you are not taking portraits of living/moving things, don't have to worry about shadows, and have enough time to experiment with your settings while your camera is mounted on a tripod. Having said that, it will need a bit of practice in setting up your camera and understanding of the different settings, and learning about the 3 main things your camera has to deal with: 1) APERTURE Aperture means how much will the lens be opened to capture the photo you will take. Just like your own eyes which will open more in a dark environment, a lens has an aperture setting that you can control to open or close the lens more in order to achieve a photo that is not over-exposed nor under-exposed. As you can see above, the lower you set your aperture value, the more light that will enter the lens, which is what we need for night photography. You will find the aperture specifications on your lens, for example a prime lens of 28mm / f1.8, or a kit lens of 50mm with f4.0. On top of that, the aperture will also control your DOF, or depth of field. Now if you like to take a nice portrait that has that beautiful blurry background, you will need to use a low aperture setting like f/1.4 or up to f/2.8. For night photography this is not an issue 2) SHUTTER SPEED Now, it is one thing to open your lens, but the second thing is to tell the camera how long the lens should remain open before closing again. The longer it will remain open, the more light that will be captured, which is what we want for night photography. While for action shots of your kids playing football you will need a very short shutter speed to avoid the picture from getting blurry, for night photography and capturing the stars you'll want to keep the shutter open for as long as possible. This will be somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds based on your lens, camera, and other factors. 3) ISO ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to light. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive it is to the light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive it is to the light. For night photography you can increase the ISO level up to 3200 and more, depending on your camera and lens capabilities. Understanding and experimenting with these 3 above-mentioned things here will get you already on the way to make stunning photos of stars. A few other things to look into are: RAW vs JPEG JPEG is the typical compressed file format that delivers nice images for sharing, just like MP3 for music. However it creates certain limitations as well. Due to the fact the file is being compressed, it cannot be altered properly afterwards. Hence if you want to optimize your night shots afterwards in with software like Adobe Lightroom or others, you will need to shoot in RAW mode. This is the mode that creates a large file that is uncompressed and which will allow you to make a lot of changes later on. Most cameras have a setting called JPEG+RAW, this means every time you click a photo it will save a RAW file and a JPEG file on your memory card. White Balance Setting You can keep it on AUTO MODE, or experiment with different white balance presets, like Tungsten which might work better at night. If you are planning to optimize the photo in Lightroom afterwards, then the AUTO setting should be fine. https://astrobackyard.com/white-balance-astrophotography/ To get used to your camera and its different settings and functionalities, you can head over to Youtube where you'll find thousands of tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=richard+bradbury+500d LENSES Last but not least, every photo being taken is passing through a lens, and there are many different lenses on the market, from the "general use" kit lens that came with your camera, to the professional tele-lenses that have a massive zoom. We will just describe the most common lenses below: 1) Kit Lens: This is an economic lens that came with your DSLR, has a fair bit of zoom, for example 55-105mm, with a standard aperture of f/4.0. They can be used for many purposes and is a good allrounder. 2) Prime Lens: A prime lens has a fixed focal length, for example 50mm, so you cannot zoom with it. The good thing is due to the fact that these lenses do not have the magnifying components inside, they are cheap and most have very good aperture, for example a typical Canon 50mm / f1.8 lens is very cheap to get and will deliver fantastic portraits with nice blurry background (also called bokeh). You will generally find them in 28mm, 35mm, 50mm. 3) Tele-lens: These are the lenses you'll see on sport events from where professional photographers need to zoom in a lot, while keeping a stable image. These are expensive, big, heavy lenses that will have O.I.S (Optimal Image Stabilization) on board to make sure the image remains stable when zooming in that much. 4) Wide-Angle Lens: This is a lens often used in astrophotography, as it gives a very nice wide angle view on the night sky and is able to capture a lot of information. A typical wide-angle lens would be anything from 14mm to 28mm, with an aperture of f/2.8 or even lower. They are also popular amongst people who take photos in real-estate business and will make a tiny hotel pool look like a massive olympic swimming pool Finally, it is important to understand the balance and correlation between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, as they are interconnected as you can see in below triangle: I have attached a full collection of Snap Cards, a Photography for beginners tutorial, and some specific cheat sheet for astrophotography. Good luck ! Specific settings for astrophotography (courtesy of Mikhail Lukichev): select RAW mode decrease brightness of the screen to minimum disable long exposure noise reduction disable high ISO noise reduction select manual focus mode turn on live-view zoom in the picture in the live view mode select manual shooting mode (M) disable auto ISO set ISO to 3200 set shutter speed to 15sec set aperture to minimum (f1.8 - F3.5) set manual white balance to 3200-3500K 1905255335_Snap_Cards_Full_Collection(4).pdf Photography for Beginners (3).pdf night-sky-cheat-sheet-new (2).pdf