ross_hight

When I'm out street shooting, it's one body, one lens, and film in my pocket. When I'm packing a tripod and a bag with everything, I have the usual lens-cleaning stuff, electrical tape, cable release, etc. that others have mentioned; I do a lot of night shooting, so I carry a stopwatch 'cause my self-timer only goes to 30 seconds.

If you get a chance, hold each and operate the controls before you buy. Many things I like about my EOS 30 are pretty subjective. With the vertical grip, it just happens to be a very good size, weight, and shape for my hands. I like having the aperture controlled from the camera body instead of the lens. I like having autofocus on a button under my thumb instead of on the shutter release. I like the quietness of the shutter and motors. Custom Functions let me get picky about which button does what and how the onboard flash behaves, etc.

 

I find it a pleasure to shoot with, but you might find each of these things useless or downright irritating. Don't overlook the subjective and intangible.

Good point Emre... since I've been taking pictures, more and more I've found myself thinking "woah, cool light" even when I have no camera and I'm doing something else entirely. (Or the opposite, on a night with very little sky glow: "Sure is dark tonight!")

 

As far as experiences and comments... Judging from some of the threads on the subject around here, a street photographer would never make it out of a photo.net convention alive; most places seem much friendler, and I have a great time shooting.

Derek-- what magazine!?

 

In answer to your question, they consider this type of thing art because it hangs in art galleries. Seriously. Don't make a distinction with art vs. non-art that you should be making with suitable-for-kids art vs. adults-only art or art that you like vs. art that you don't.

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-manual-lenses/

You have a zoom now, so why don't you buy a prime in its range? You can shoot with both and look at images from both and then sell the one you don't like. If you decide to keep the zoom, the difference between the discount-new price of (say) an EF 50mm f/1.8 and the slightly-used price will be slight.

 

And I don't think there's any reason to commit to filling your camera bag with one or the other. I like short primes and long zooms myself. Others find that to them, the extra speed of primes is superfluous in wideangles and very desirable in telephotos.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=0043gk&photo_id=1130479&photo_sel_index=1&unified_p=1

 

 

(HTML ignorant, please excuse low-tech link)

I agree. There are plenty of strong porn-glam shots on this site and elsewhere that are powered by really good models and elaborate makeup/painting. Being a photographer, not a make-up artist or model's agent, I immediately wondered what exotic photographic armaments were used... none, really.

 

I would suppose that APX100, Delta 100, Xtol, and digital would be on the shortlist of natural materials for this kind of work.

 

More productively, have you considered going to the source-- asking Bitesnich directly?

1. Went to Fred Meyer, bought ~$50.00 Velbon (CX 690, actually) with a pan/tilt head. Made sure it had nice features: bubble levels, QR plate, fast-operating leg locks, etc.

 

2. Started using Velbon. Realized that I forgot to make sure it had the crucial "hold camera steady" feature. It would have been fine for a P&S or a DV video unit, but the head was just too light and weak for any SLR and lens but the smallest and most plastic. (i.e. you might squeak by if you have a Rebel).

 

3. Found Tiltall No. 4602 at an estate sale. Picked it up for $25.00. Noted that it seemed seriously deficient in nice features compared to the Velbon, but I needed a replacement real bad.

 

4. Started using Tiltall. It was indeed inferior to my first tripod in most ways. However, the previous owner had been putting a 4x5 on it, so it did blow the Velbon away in the "stops camera from moving" department.

 

Since then, the Velbon has been gathering dust until I pulled it out to check the model number for this post. Moral is: To eBay with you! For $50.00, definitely go for the solid used over the flimsy new. Or I'll cut you a good deal on a barely-used CX 690. It has bubble levels!

Okay, joe, I'll take you up on that "save money and justify your

Sigma purchase" crack.

 

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I have the same amount of money to spend on photo equipment whether

or not I buy Sigma. So what I have to do is compare the Sigma lens

(and whatever else I buy with the savings) to the Canon (and whatever

else I don't get to buy because of it). In this case, I got the

Sigma lens for just over $400.00, and Adorama lists the Canon

equivalent, their 100mm USM macro, for upwards of $500.00, depending

on whether or not you buy gray market and whether or not you get the

hood and case. And like I said, my budget is the same either way.

So I'm really not comparing the Sigma to the Canon. I'm comparing

the Sigma to a used Canon, or the Sigma and a pile of film to a new

Canon, or the Sigma and some nice new filters to a Canon, or the

Sigma and a hundred dollars of tripod gear to a Canon. Sure, I'd

rather have a higher-quality lens. But I'd also rather get the shot

on a second-tier lens than not get it because I ran out of film, or I

couldn't afford a clamp, or flare ruined my negative because I

scrimped on the accessories, or whatever.

 

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And as for pros not using Sigma? I couldn't care less whether they

do or not. They have other needs, concerns, budgets, and resources

than I do, and our gear will be quite different no matter what I have

to spend.

 

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And as for getting what you pay for? If only it were that simple.

Both companies have different business models, overheads, and ways of

operating, so while a $4000 Canon is certainly better than an $800

Canon, "you get what you pay for" isn't the complete picture where

third-party lenses are concerned.

 

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Maybe you should think about contributing some useful (or at least

interesting) content, rather than just mindlessly bashing entire

product lines. If I wanted to hear ranting, I'd read usenet; I come

here instead because most of the posters aren't like you.

As far as Sigma's brand quality-- I recently bought the Sigma 105mm

EX macro. It came with a zippered, padded case and a metal hood, and

it was compatible with my Elan 7E. I am not an engineer, and I don't

know how much validity there is to "plastic bad, metal good," but

it's certainly mostly metal construction. The build, finish, and

appearance are all good, and there are several thoughtful features

(focus limit switch, a wide focusing ring that can disengage during

AF, distance/scale markings, etc.) that I like. According to my

improvised testing procedure (read: looking at prints) the optical

quality is also very pleasing. My only complaint is the slow micro-

motor AF, but it might as well be a manual-focus lens for me-- I

pretty much always focus manually for macro work. A version with

ring USM would be a much better telephoto, but not really a better

macro.

 

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Overall, I find it a very classy lens at a good price, and even

though I suspect that macros tend to be some of the better specimens

in anyone's lineup, I have no qualms about buying Sigma EX lenses of

recent manufacture.

...what would you force him to build before you released him back into the wild?

 

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Personally, I hate the AF-assist "strobe light" on my Elan 7. I don't do or desire to do much flash work anyway, so I'd love it if I could get a little hotshoe unit with just a near-infrared AF assister-- no main flash at all.

 

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...And while I'm dreaming, I'd make the engineer incorporate a bubble level into the back of the unit, so I don't have to swap back and forth between the two.

 

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Any other suggestions for custom/specialty equipment you'd buy if it existed?

Hey, NK Guy, I followed that link and spent the last hour or so

reading your page. Lots of good stuff there-- thank you very much.

As of this moment, a search for "Canon EW-75" on eBay returns a

single unit. Hurry, hurry, hurry, step right up....

I've seen this question discussed before, but none of what I've been able to find has mentioned the Elan 7E/EOS 30 specifically, and there seems to be some disagreement (or at least very different results on various EOS bodies).

 

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I would like to shoot Kodak high-speed infrared and Konica infrared 750 on my Elan 7E QD. Will the IR diode only fog along the sprocket holes, or will it ruin the image area? Also, I'm told that a dimpled back plate will change the result on the Kodak HIE because of the missing anti-halation layer. My backplate is not dimpled, but it does have some features, such as small Phillips screws. Will these show up on the image as well?

 

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Thanks in advance to anyone who knows the answers... I have to make a pretty good drive before I reach to a store that sells IR film, so shooting some just to check is not very practical.

Thanks for the good answers! I was sure I was going to have to

choose between 1) leaving my poor front elements naked, 2) using a

cheap skylight which probably degrades images, or 3) getting taken on

some kind of overpriced unit that probably doesn't even make a

difference. Shouldn't be to hard to find the middle ground now.

Thanks again.

I've been looking for a pair of good 58mm UV filters to keep on two new Canon EF lenses. Canon, of course, would rather that I used their own product, but I've also heard many good remarks about Hoya and Tiffen multi-coated UV filters. Can anyone tell me anything about how the Canon UV stacks up against B+W, Hoya HMC, etc.?

 

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Thanks,

 

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R.D. Hight

Not part of a cosmic energy field per se.