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Post by xr6turbo1 on Jun 23, 2006 18:38:41 GMT 12
Hi, Just wondering what sort of camera gear you all have and what you like or dislike about your equipment. I have the following: Canon 30D with a Canon 100-400 4.5-5.6 L IS lens and battery grip. Canon 20D with a Sigma 24-70 2.8 EX DG Lens. I like all of the gear really. The Sigma 24-70 is a great lens for the price they are, dislikes would be dust spots and sensor cleaning on the SLRs. In saying that dust spots are pretty easy to get rid of on photo shop. Looking at another lens for in between the range I have perhaps a Canon 10-22. Can anyone suggest any other lenses that are must haves?  |
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Post by planeimages on Jun 23, 2006 20:53:38 GMT 12
I use a Canon 20D with a 300mm f4 L IS (My favourite) and sometimes extend it with a 1.4 EXII. (Ugh)
For flexibility I use an f 2.8 L IS 70-200mm, again with the 1.4 sometimes. With the 1.6 x factor on the DSLR these lenses give me plenty of reach. I would rather not use the 1.4 but that will have to wait until I can sell the wife, house and kids and buy a 100-400.
When a reasonably-wide angle lens is required I use a Canon 17-40mm f4 L. If I want to maintain the genuine 17mm focal length then I would strap on one of the EOS 50 35mm film cameras I used prior to the DSLR.
A lovely Canon 100 mm f2.8 Macro completes the line up, although a Canon f3.5-4.0 28-200 is useful when I can't lug lenses around. The lack of speed is a handicap. A marriage is about to take place in the family and part of the dowry is the father-in-law's Canon 24-105mm f4 L IS. He has a 20D and he is keen to let me borrow his kit. Got me.
Sometimes I use my wife's 5 mpx Canon Ixus compact when I want to remain completely inconspicuous but it isn't a patch on the more sophisticated gear.
My real "ace-in-the-hole" is a ridiculous extravagance but which I mentally justified. In order to shoot moving targets at very low shutter speed I convinced myself that a Kenyon Gyro stabiliser was the word. Heavy to lug about with more wires than a biplane, the Kenyon is all I had expected it to be, a virtual hand-held tripod. Coupled with the superb Canon image-stabilisation system I am pulling in shots of prop-aeroplanes that I never thought possible.
It will come into its own when I do my next air-to-air sortie.
A 550 ES flash supports the system when I need some extra illumination or to lighten subjects' faces when they are in shade sitting in my school's Formula Ford racing cars at the end of their drive sequences.
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Post by xr6turbo1 on Jun 23, 2006 21:20:11 GMT 12
Thats some good information, which lens did you use for the Thunder Mustang taking off and landing as they are very good. Also do you have a picture or link for the Kenyon, quite keen to see what it looks like |
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Post by planeimages on Jun 23, 2006 21:39:50 GMT 12
Kenyon Labs in the US's website is www.ken-lab.com/stabilizers.html There should be a dealer in NZ otherwise the Australian guys are great. The Kenyon gyros use to 24,000 RPM heavy wheels mounted at 90 degrees to each other sealed in a helium gas environment. It feels like it is alive when it gets up to speed in about 5 minutes. The ability to track a moving target and keep it in frame is one of its equally- important attributes. I used the 300mm on its own but I can't recall if it had the KS-4 attached at the time. You can see how the lens gives a wonderful colour rendition and "bokeh" (background blur).I shot in RAW and only slightly adjusted the highlight levels in Photoshop just to make the subject stand out from the background. Glad to be of help. |
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Post by planeimages on Jun 23, 2006 21:48:52 GMT 12
Yes, the EXIF confims 300 mm (effective 420mm), f9 @ 1/160th, 200 ISO.
Given that the rule of thumb is 1/ the nearest higher focal length is the minimum hand-held shutter speed, you can see that the IS has allowed me to shoot 2.5 stops or so lower.
The Canon handbook says that IS only works from 1/250th downwards, but that is where it is required.
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Post by xr6turbo1 on Jun 23, 2006 21:52:33 GMT 12
The Kenyon idea is very interesting, I need to start shooting raw but dont have a convertor, any tips for somone starting out using RAW?
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Post by planeimages on Jun 23, 2006 22:39:47 GMT 12
Realistically, if you don't have Photoshop CS or CS 2 or some sort of converter I can't see the point.
I believe that off the street labs cannot process RAW files and, unless you are going to have fairly large prints made, then there is not much need to shoot in that format.
Since you have a 20D the Digital Pro 1.1 CD which came with the body has a conversion system to allow you to print in the jpeg-based Easy photo-print which also would have been shipped with the camera. There shold be something in that which will allow you to convert.
Irfanview also can be very useful. I believe it is freeware. I am not very knowledgeable about these systems. I just load photoshop and press buttons.
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Post by planeimages on Jun 23, 2006 22:53:27 GMT 12
PS. Digital dust can be easily cleaned using a system called Digtial Dust from Canada. A bit expensive, it uses what they claim to be a special flat brush which is charged with a blast of air from a can of compressed air available from radio shacks (Dick Smith or Tandy here). I believe the latest version has its own built-in puffer attached.
The air is simply to charge the brush electro statically. DO NOT BLAST AIR INTO THE CAMERA ON PAIN OF DEATH.
Follow the instructions with the camera's menu "Sensor clean". The lens must be removed and the brush should be charged.
The operation, when invoked, will lift the mirror and hold back the shutter curtains.
With a single wipe across the sensor lift the brush clear and turn off the camera.
Refit the lens and take a shot of your white computer screen at f22 with the lens on manual focus.
Put the CF card into a reader or connect the USB cable to the computer and look at the image.
Sensibly you should have taken a reference shot before all this so you can see the comparative results of your handiwork.
I understand that you can't damage the sensor as the thingos are covered by a flat, transparent film.
A mate of mine asked a salesman from Hassleblad how he cleans the huge sensor on the digital back of a 'blad. He demonstrated by wiping it on his shirt! I don't recommend that method.
If have shot over 18,000 images and my sensor shows no signs of aggro and the brush cleans it with one, maybe two goes each time.
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Post by amitch on Jun 24, 2006 7:53:50 GMT 12
The Kenyon idea is very interesting, I need to start shooting raw but dont have a convertor, any tips for somone starting out using RAW? Its free and one of the best. You can then finish off the photo in elements 2 as it's now a jpeg or tif file. |
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Post by xr6turbo1 on Jun 24, 2006 21:23:07 GMT 12
Thanks Alex, I shall have a look
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jun 25, 2006 11:53:06 GMT 12
Just bitten the bullett, and replaced my 30-year-old Pentax MX/Pentax ME system with a Canon EOS 20D and a Canon EF24-105 F/4L IS USM lens.
Strangely enough, I could buy this equipment in Auckland for $600.00 cheaper than duty free!
I'm off to New Caledonia next week, so that'll give me a good chance to work out how to operate it all.
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Post by planeimages on Jun 25, 2006 14:05:39 GMT 12
Oh, well done. You should have a ball with this kit. If you ever have a problem with "err 99" take off the lens and clean the contacts on the body and lens with an Isopropyl alcohol wipe.
Since doing this I have never had a repeat of the couple of isolated occurrences.
Make sure you have at least a 1GB CF card. Why stuff around, buy a 2 GB while you are at it.
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Post by glenn on Jun 25, 2006 15:03:21 GMT 12
I have just had the error 99 and this fix didn't work. Initially it did but it got worse and worse.
It turned out to be a faulty Mirror lock up issue.
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Post by planeimages on Jun 26, 2006 9:20:37 GMT 12
One of my "err99" problems was linked with use of mirror lock up. But I can't blame the camera as I had left the setting in the custom functions switched to "on". This function allows the mirror to lock up 2 seconds before the shutter fires but it takes two pushes of the button or remore to complete the sequence. If "mirror lockup" is still selected and the camera is used normally then the shot won't be taken, the camera goes intohibernation and I suspect this brings on the "err99" message.
That was my exprerience anyway.
Did you get yours sorted, Glen?
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Post by xr6turbo1 on Jun 26, 2006 13:29:55 GMT 12
I have had a 20D for 18 months and have had error 99 come up twice and both times were in situations that made me quite angry as I needed the camera functioning properly, i just turned it off removed the battery and put it back in and the problem went away, still unsure what caused it in the first place.
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Post by glenn on Jun 27, 2006 1:27:44 GMT 12
Peter. It cost me $94. But I also got my CMOS Chip cleaned and the lense I package it with had the scuff mark on the lense removed. So I got a bonus there
:-)
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Post by xr6turbo1 on Jun 28, 2006 18:37:13 GMT 12
Just got hold of a Canon 28-300 F/3.5-5.6 L IS lens for a good price so keen to use it when it arrives. Anyone got or used one? if so how does it go? |
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Post by agalbraith on Aug 4, 2006 20:32:20 GMT 12
Hi guys
Well I am just the basic ol amateur guy here, I love all of your pics and would love to take photo's like the ones you guys do.
My wife and I have brought a few months ago an EOS 350D, as we used to use our older Canon SLR but had a nice Canon macro lens, EX flash units etc as my wife likes to play around with photography.
Me well I am a bit of a point and shoot guy but am keen to learn more and try and see if I can get some nice results.
Thanks for all of your inspiration, maybe I too can post something you like one day.
Cheers
Anthony
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Post by planeimages on Aug 5, 2006 0:02:16 GMT 12
To xr6turbo1. I have used a Canon 28-200 f3.5-f5 for the last 5 years or so. I call it my utility lens but it does a good job so long as I am not looking for nice bokeh (depth of field blur). It rattles around a bit and isn't as quick to focus as the "Ls". To agabraith. Welcome along to the digital world. Get in close, then closer and closer again. Try some slower shutter speeds 1/250th-1/125th to blur props. Learn to pan at lower shuter speeds to obtain some background blur. Try a Canon 100-300 EF lens if you can get your hands on one. I look forward to seeing your results. At the risk of pushing my own barrow have a look at my personal photographic site: www.planeimages.smugmug.com .This and Pbase are XLNT ways of displaying your images on the net for very little outlay. |
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Post by xr6turbo1 on Aug 5, 2006 10:32:28 GMT 12
Hi guys Well I am just the basic ol amateur guy here, I love all of your pics and would love to take photo's like the ones you guys do. My wife and I have brought a few months ago an EOS 350D, as we used to use our older Canon SLR but had a nice Canon macro lens, EX flash units etc as my wife likes to play around with photography. Me well I am a bit of a point and shoot guy but am keen to learn more and try and see if I can get some nice results. Thanks for all of your inspiration, maybe I too can post something you like one day. Cheers Anthony The 350D is a great place to start, the kens is really the most important factor apart from skill which comes with a lot of practice. Good luck with it and I also look forward to seeing your shots |
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