maxasst

I have recently started using a digital camera, a Canon D60, and am

not pleased about the white balance. When a camera samples the scene

for the white balance, does it use information uniformly from the

entire field, or if there is a spotmeter does it base the white

balance on that part of the meter reading?

There was an article in Pop Photo recently that discussed NASCAR photography with lots of tips about positioning and equipment. I remember one tip that said try to position yourself on the "bright" side of the car. You'll have more flexibility in aperture selection and it makes the car stand out against the background. I don't photograph cars for a living, but at our local track, Road America where I can get my fix, I find the best position is near a deep curve where drivers do most of their overtaking. It's where most of the action occurs as the drivers push their cars to the cornering limits. Have fun!

The dying batteries are hurting the good batteries when they are being used together. Cull them. Try to use batteries of similar age/use together.

I went from AE-1, but have settled on an EOS5 as its replacement. I mention this because we initially bought an Elan 7E QD, which is primarily for my wife, and it is not too complicated for anyone to use. I think any Rebel or Elan can be used as a simple point and shoot camera, so your bases are covered there. It was quite an adjustment for me to go from manual focus to autofocus. The Elan 7 has a viewfinder small and dim compared to the AE1 forcing you to use the autofocus in less than ideal light. A few years down the road, I bought a used EOS5 (not A2E) and 50mm f1.8 lens, then a second EOS5 body since it had the features I like over the Elan 7: brighter viewfinder, narrower lightmeter, more compatible with manual or uncoupled lenses, and it has the dial on the rear for exposure adjustments. I have not handled the rebel t2, but if it is similar to the other dim rebels that I have tried, you might be frustrated in using it manually for focus, and you'll be slowed down by the multiple button pushes it takes to adjust exposure compensation. Find a store that carries both and try them while keeping these ideas in mind. That would be best.

The filter threads are larger than 52mm but smaller than 55mm when comparing to lenses I have. I haven't had the time to get the right step up ring. I simply held up the flash to my 50mm f/1.8 (the metal mount one) and took a few pics. There is no vignetting when focusing at minimum distance and f/1.8. In fact, I noticed that when I looked through the viewfinder, I thought the subject was at the edges, but when looking at the images on the computer, there was a good sized margin of what was cropped or not seen. No vignetting with any of those images. I went so far as to increase the shutter speed and at 1/250, I could barely make out a fuzzy lower border of the image. I will try to make some sort of holder that will allow the flash to be attached to the grooves where the genuine canon ringlight attaches on my 50mm f/2.5 lens.

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I want to reciprocate the advice I have received here with tips of my

own, as this is such a great site where I have learned a lot. For

digital, I recently obtained the Canon EOS D60. I have been testing

out a ringflash unit, the Olympus Digi-slave RF-50 (won off that

online auction site for a little over $100), that was part of the

Medical Healthcare Kit. I had one of our maintenance technicians

here at work check this (and a few other flashes of mine) for the

voltage and it is 5.0 Volts, so it's safe with Canon. It can be

fired off via a hotshoe adapter or directly via the PC connection of

the camera; or if need be, wirelessly as it has an optical trigger

that accomodates the pre-flash. On Auto, which I tested ISO 100 and

f/5.6 according to the chart on the flash, exposures were accurate. I

also tried the wireless set-up and it works too, but only when the

pre-flash immediately precedes the actual flash. It did not work

consistently when trying a flash exposure lock then taking the

picture, at least with my few rudimentary trials. Also, the flash

did not work with E-TTL when the flash's back was not facing the

flash squarely. The flash looks like the Digi-slave RF-50 made by SR

Electronics, and is an older model in their lineup. I have no

affiliations with these companies, yada3.

Mitsubishi DD-8030 DVD player works with the vueslide and hamrick software. However, it is picky about the size of the image files and won't display the large files. Good enough for me! Thanks!

CON, if you want to use it on a tripod, the mount is way off center which makes the camera more shaky. PROs, when using the BP-300, gripping the camera with the ring and pinky fingers takes a lot of load off the middle finger when the camera is held horizontally; I use AA rechargable alkalines in the grip and they still have a good charge after 8 plus months.

Stroboscopic shots are a manual feature. First, get a flashmeter and setup your subject at the proper distance from the flash. Don't bounce the flash because you'll only be wasting power. Use Manual on the camera and manual focus on the lens. Then manually trigger your flash at a fraction of full power to see how low you can go at your desired aperture (maybe start with a fairly wide aperture so as to be less demanding of flash power). Once you have the aperture that your flash can handle, it is now a function of how quickly the subject is moving to determine how high a frequency the flash should fire off. You'll eventually hit a ceiling of balancing the flash's maximum frequency with the power output. Good luck.

I made a slideshow with NERO Express 2 with disappointing results. I

used a digital camera with the Large/fine (least compression) setting

and the images are quite nice when viewing from camera to TV or when

viewing the individual files on Photoshop Elements, but when playing

back the slideshow, the images are very jagged, like jpeg at high

compression. Is the NERO down-resolving the images? I know that the

size for the 50 or so images is less than 256mB since that's all that

would fit on my compact flash memory card. Would using smaller

images make a difference? But for this time, can I resize or down-

resolve my images with better results? I cannot shoot the event

again. Thanks.

I have an Olympus Digi-slave RF-50 ringlight which will work with the E-TTL pre-flash. I haven't used it extensively, but it does work. I think it is the same unit produced by SR Electronics. You can find one at B&H Photo Video and ask their experts for more guidance.

I'd like to share a little tip. The lens hood ET-62 originally

designed for the 100-300L f/5.6 can fit the Canon Macro 50mm when

trimmed slightly with a rotary tool using the finest sandpaper at the

lowest rpm's. Make certain that you press the hood release buttons

to retract the tabs as much as possible when trimming these down. If

you don't retract them, the hood won't stay on. If you don't trim

them, the hood won't mount. Since the groove is about 3 times wider

than the tabs, the fit is slightly loose, but it stays on. Also, the

hood can be reversed and it clears the camera so it is truly

compact. No vignetting that I can see.

I was tinkering with my new (to me) EOS D60. The Speedlite 200E

mounted on the hotshoe enables the red Focus Assist lamp of the flash

and disables the on-camera bright white Focus Asst lamp. The flash

does not fire off and the behavior is reproducible even when the

custom function 5 is set for the focus light emit/flash to fire. The

beauty of the setup is that when I want flash, I just mount my 420ex

and not need to change any camera settings. I used it with great

success over the weekend photographing my buddy in a Tae Kwon Do

competition held in a dim school gymnasium and using a relatively

slow Canon 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 lens. This was my first time using

predominantly AI Servo, no flash and quick action sports. The

limiting factor was the frame-per-second ability of the camera, but

that's another issue.

I just started digital photography and would like to work on basic

presentation. I read here in the past of adding a certain

file/program (which I can't find with google) that, when placed on a

disc that contains just images, will execute a slideshow. Something

basic so that all grandpapa needs to do is place the cd-r in the dvd

player and it shows all the pictures. I have more complex programs

from NERO and others for my higher end needs already. Thank you.

As above. When would one be used instead of the other?

I read the two articles above and tried to relate the salient points to some pics I took. I understand how underexposure is displayed on the graph, but what concerns me is when the waves reach the top of the represented amplitude. I have a pic under incandescent light - the background is black and the subject is underexposed. On the histogram, there is a tall narrow curve just left of the 50% line. What does this represent? I'm thinking that the image consists of signal within that range of tone, but what bothers me is that the curve extends above the represented graph, which I interpret as clipping. Has anything maxed out and I'm losing detail somewhere? On electrical diagnostic equipment, I'd turn down the sensitivity, but on the Canon D60 camera, I don't think it has an adjustment for that.

I have the older 200E that I use on an Elan 7E. It does an excellent job for fill flash and is very compact. It also makes for fool-proof snapshots. For example, during my son's Christening at a dimly lit church, I handed an unprepared friend our Elan 7E, 50mm 1.8 lens and 200E flash and his pictures were the best of the bunch, technically speaking, and he was using the Program setting throughout the whole ceremony. The tilt and bounce advantage of the other higher end flashes are awash when you use the off camera shoe cord. I bought mine here off a photo.netter for $20.00 and found the optional wideangle adapter from Levine's for $2.00. Probably the best $22.00 (plus shipping and handling) bucks I spent.

Thanks for info. I appreciate this!

This camera is new to me. I placed a spankin new Sandisk Extreme

compact flash card, I went through the Menu to find "Format" and

clicked on the box to confirm the command. The display showed "Busy"

then it went back to Menu. I didn't read anything to demonstrate

success or failure of the formatting procedure. I repeated it a few

times and got the same response. I used the camera last night and it

seems to be working just fine, although I only took 16 images. I

read somewhere here that if the card is not formatted correctly it

will shut down or seem full prematurely. Did I format the compact

flash card correctly?

I am receiving a used camera from a reputable, photo.net supporting

dealer and want to make sure everything is proper before the 60 day

bumper-to-bumper warranty is done. I would go through the

instruction book and operate things as described but am worried about

subtle things that I'll miss. What are the D60 Model-specific issues

I should be aware? What are the known failures? Thank you. This is

probably the most expensive camera related purchase I have made.

I recently acquired this teleconverter and it with the old zoom lens on an EOS5. The camera registers the aperture as f/8 and it attempts to autofocus. I help it a little by manually focusing in the ballpark (when it starts to sharpen) then pressing the shutter release button halfway zips it into focus. This was done indoors focusing on a brass fixture which had some bright highlights. When the lens is initially at nearest focus and attempts to focus on a distant object, it hunts a few times and gives up, but at least it tries. Tonight we have nosebleed seats at a Milwaukee Bucks game. I'll try the combo in this real life situation.

My bad. You are right that there is no such a thing as "M-TTL". I was doing this by memory and poor attention to detail. That's why I put it in parentheses. To the question. If you take a Canon flash and perform the Manual Mode modification as outlined on the EOS documentation project, how does the flash behave on a digital canon camera? Can it still fire it off at full power? Will it still need to be powered off and on when taking pictures in succession? Again, sorry for misquoting.

I read on photo.net that digital canon cameras can fire autoflash flash units (that have just the single center contact like the Vivitars) with good reproducibility and success in exposure. I also read that when canon-branded flashes are fired with just their center pin exposed, they lock-up and they need to be turned off and on again to restore their function. I'm sorry to be misleading, but I'm not looking to achieve TTL flash function, but the EOS DOC website listed it as "M-TTL". I am hoping to be able to fire off a canon branded non-E-TTL ML-3 flash that I already have at full manual flash on a digital camera body which I will purchase in the very near future.

I couldn't get to the site as well, but if I recall, the "M-TTL" modification allows the use of canon flashes firing at full strength Manual, so not really a ttl, but helpful because the flash does not lock-up when exposing just the center pin. Did I interpret that correctly? Also, can anyone with a digital canon do this to confirm it will behave the same way? Please? Thanks.