ci_p

sigma's 8mm fish eye is much better than canon's.

I also recommend you don't get a photo guidebook.

IS is definitely not indispensable - what on earth did photographers do before IS?

 

However, IS is great if you can't be bothered to carry a tripod, or when the light conditions are marginal.

 

If you're loaded, get it. Otherwise, probably you're better off spending the money on something else. I vote for a 24-70.

I have one. If you have a FF sensor and want an 8mm lens, this is probably your best practical choice. Otherwise you're into Peleng (optically a lot worse (esp for flare)) or nikon (or olympus) via an adaptor.

 

Optically it is OK. It is not super sharp, but it is definitely OK.

 

It is bit bigger that the peleng lens, but is way smaller than the nikon one.

 

I would second Andrew Robinson that the AF capability of this lens is redundant. I'm not aware of any practical situation where one would want to use it.

I'd also suggest waiting till February, if you can. If they are going to produce a new camera, you're likely to find out about it then. Figure on a few months wait after that until you can actually get hold of one.

That's great!

Even if everything is fake, does it matter if you can't tell the difference?

You can do the job with the f4 lens and no IS. The IS and f2.8 are mainly only a benefit in marginal shooting conditions (which you've not described) and the lack of these can be mitigated somewhat by increasing the sensitivity.

 

The whole IS / tripod thing is irrelevant as you're taking photos of moving subjects. If you have a problem with camera movement, you have a bigger problem with subject movement which IS / tripod will not fix.

Are you prepared to leave the USA and go somewhere more interesting?

He has a photographic in-tent

That definitely looks cool, though I'm not sure they should call it armour if it isn't bulletptoof.

I've got one. I take it eveywhere I go on holiday. It got stolen once in Paris, but was lucky in that they didn't get far before I was able to take it back - but it could have been bricks in my bag and they'd have still tried to steal it.

 

Re weight. Yes it's heavy, but if you get a decent bag and strap it is not too bad. You can't take pictures with it if you've left it at home. It is a personal tradeoff, though, the pictures you didn't take vs the weight you didn't carry.

 

Re safety. Ideally you want to be using stuff that you can afford to loose / break etc., because you have insurance or the cash to replace it. Or you spend your time worrying about sand / theft / water / rain / etc. and that doesn't make for a fun holiday. But taking it on holiday and leaving it in the hotel room is almost as bad as leaving it at home.

 

May I suggest you go on lots of holidays, some with the lens and some without, so you can get some personal experience.

Goto Habu Templ. And Saqarra Dashur have fewer tourists. I'd suggest 24-70, 70-200 + your favourite prime (35?). And hire a bike in Luxor to get around. And try some sugar cane if you're there around easter.

The European warranty (EWS) from Canon I received with 1Ds2, said...

 

"Warranty repair service is excluded if damage or defects have been caused by: - Use of spare parts, software or consumables (such as ink, paper, toner or batteries) which are not compatible with the product.

 

There are other notes on other included docs which re-iterate the same point.

 

Sounds like people are spreading FUD.

 

I use (6 or so) non-canon NP-E3 batteries (costing 20usd) and have never had a problem. What can go wrong? It's not like they contain Li-ion cells. I canibalised one (which was DOA) so the camera can run from a brick of AA cells in my pocket.

Don't quote me, but your camera probably is just doing intra frame compression (like MJPEG). MPEG 1,2,4 do inter frame compression, so you get potentially much smaller files with approx the smae quality.

The minimum cost option is to take a few DVD-R discs and copy your flash cards to them in an internet place. Take a USB reader.

 

A PSD is probably not the right solution unless you take lots of big RAW files away from home for extended periods.

 

You can (or I can) buy 15GB of (slow) flash memory for the price of a bare Hyperdrive SPACE.

AFAIK, You need to buy a tourist visa at the turkish border. Since you're from the US, you need to pay with USD. For UK people, it costs 10 GBP. For that you get three month multiple entry sticker.

If you want warmer weather and are prepared to fly, head south. Suggest Athens, Rome, Barcelona, Sicily, Malta, Istanbul, Egypt. The price of flights might limit how far you can go, but if you're going for 2 weeks, the effect of cheaper places further away may have a positive effect. If you go north, days get shorter (bad for photos). If you go east, it gets colder.

 

Otherwise, consider Paris Brussels etc.

It can't meter with MF lenses.

It is not waterproof. You're taking your chances if you use it in the rain.

How about the Memory Stick Pro Duo Magicgate? Or should that be Duo Pro? What *is* wrong with SD cards?

OK, than answer I got was that they were worried about disability regulations in the EU. It was felt that making it MF only could be considered discriminating against people with only one hand if all their other lenses had AF capability.

 

Personally I'm skeptical that is the real reason - I got the feeling that the person I was talking to was not giving me the respect I deserve.

In Paris, id try and stay near the centre - ie near the pont neuf / chatlet. That way you can walk about at night easily when all the city is lit up and you can get places on the metro with minimal changes. In that area there is not too much cheap accomodation. There is a novotel near chatlet (expensive buisness style hotel) but a room seems to have a double bed and pull out sofa. Also there are things called citadines aparthotels which are more like apartments with your own cooker / sink dishwasher etc. - one near pont neuf and one near chatlet. Anyway, the important point is the central location rather than somewhere like l'etoile where go have to get a metro to go anywhere else.

 

I don't know about where to stay in london, but use oyster / travelcards for transport (rather than single underground tickets) and using busses means you get to see more stuff.

At f4, focused at 1ft, everything from infinity to 1ft is in focus with this lens, leaving only 6 inches or so in front of the lens out of focus. So in most contexts I am not sure what advantage AF would have. You could disable focusing entirely (AF and MF) and not seriously impact the lens' applications.

 

As an aside, the massive DOF makes any AF system really inaccurate.

 

I would *REALLY* like to know what you do with AF on a 8mm fisheye.

 

The peleng IQ is much worse than the sigma lense (at least mine was) flare was terrible.

I'd try the Jessops internet price match promise. It's going to me more fun than any other option and you get a shop to walk into when your camera breaks. Try also applying the price match promise to sandisk memory cards (compare with www.picstop.co.uk or similar). Prepare yourself with the Jessops high price accessory bingo card - cross off each item on your card as they try to cross sell expensive accessory items. Maybe I'm being unfair, but it is definitely worth a go.