adrian douglas

Have a look at second-hand EOS 5s, or A2s in the US, they shoot at 5fps, or 3.5 with tracking. THere are some differences between the A2 and the 5, I can't remember exactly what they were but apparently the 5 is the better camera. I've had an EOS 5 for 7 years and it's still going strong.

It's cheaper to buy from B&H than it is to buy here in Japan on almost all new camera gear.

I'm with Bogan on the GL for shooting wakeboarding and the like. I have an XL1, which I bought about a month before the GL1 was anounced, and have used it to shoot surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, skating and motocross. For surfing and motocross the XL was great as everything was shoot locked down or where there was plenty of room. For wake, snow and skateboarding the XL can sometimes become a little to cumbersome. I've shot follow footage with a friends XM2, the PAL version of the GL, and it was so much easier duue to the smaller form factor. To top that off if you want to shoot from the water a housing for a GL2 is both cheaper and easier to handle than one for the XL1.

Rajesh,

 

If you live in the US then I would stick to NTSC. Most software converters do an ok job but you are often left with motion artifacts, unsynced audio, chopiness, just to mention a few side effects. The conversion from PAL to NTSC also means you will lose any advantage gained from PAL's higher resolution. I'm an Australian now living in Japan and have a PAL XL1 that I used in Australia before coming here. It is a total pain in the arse not being able to just plug-in and make a quick copy, and to preview I have to take my multi-standard monitor with me everywhere.

 

However, if you really have to have a PAL camera then I would look at the <a href="http://www.focusinfo.com/products/firestore/dvconversionsuite/dvcsuite.html">Firestore DV Standards Conversion Suite from Focus Enhancments</a>. This is the best conversion software I've used and does an excellent job with all kinds of footage.

I realize this is a bit late but I've got one and it's a great little pack. It's not too big but still big enough to fit all you need for a day's shooting in the backcountry. I have my 1nRS, 70-200, 50mm, 15mm fisheye and 540EZ in there along with a Powershot S45 and various cables for off cam flash. There is still room for anouther couple of lenses inside as well as pockets on the outside. I have a reflector disk in the shovel pocket but my shovel still fits in nicely. My probe, shovel handle and a small tripod also strap on while still allowing me to strap my board on as well. The little film pockets aren't good for much more than film but the other two pockets can fit some snacks, cleaning kit, compass and a small first aid kit. If you can find one snap it up as they they are pretty scarce.

This is a common problem with MiniDV cams and quite often comes from the mixing of tape brands. Once this appears on a camera using a simple head cleaning tape usually won't cure the problem, but that doesn't mean don't give it a shot. However, it will most likely have to go in for a service. When you get the camera back choose your favourite brand of tape and use it exclusively. Use the highest grade you can afford, Panasonic PQ/MQ tapes are very good.

 

Mixing tapes causes problems because different manufacturers use different lubricants on the tapes. For example Panasonic use a dry lube and Sony uses a wet lube, neither is compatable with the other and mixing them causes gumming and results in head cloggs.

The 1D has dissapered from the retailer sites here in Japan so that's a pretty good indication that something new is coming pretty soon. The current rumor here is that the 1D's replacement will be in the 6-8MP range but that's all I've heard so far.

Hell, you guys should try living in Japan, it's the most expensive hobby of all. Drive to the beach, it's 3 miles, costs you both time and money, sometimes 2 hrs and them about US$10 just to park the car for an hour. If you want to go further afield say to the mountains to go snowboarding then your looking at around US$250 for tolls, another 200 for gas, 30 odd for parking for the day, 60 for a lift ticket, which you lose if you go out of bounds, and then a bit more for food. I'm sure you would have to pay for just walking out the door if the government and the companies could work out a way to track 125 000 000 million people.

 

On the plus side used camera gear is plentiful and pretty cheap, except Leicas of course.

If your just starting out then I'd be looking for a second hand EOS 5. I started out with an EOS 500n and quickly found it to be too slow, both in AF and shutter response. After my first season shooting with the 500n I bought an EOS 5, this was back in 98, and it was a much better camera for shooting snowboarding. A good kit to get you going is an EOS 5, 28-105, and 75-300, at least that's what I used and it handled the job well. As you improve you can later consider more lenses and maybe a better camera. I now use an EOS 1nRS with range of lenses from a 15mm fisheye up to a 70-200/2.8.

 

I'm sorry I can't help you with the Nikons as I've never used on.

I probably should have put included the gear I'm using, a 540ez and a 1nRS. As neither of these support E-TTL then the Canon wireless system is out. I looked at the Ikelite Light Link but as the 1nRS doesn't have an onboard flash that's out to. I've been looking around for a second-hand 430ez but here in Japan they are long gone. I was lucky to find the 540ez.

With the 1D the 15mm fisheye loses most of it's distortion and just becomes a badly distorted wide angle. It's not enough to be fisheye, but too much to be wide angle. I'd go with either a Sigma 17mm/2.8 or Canon 20/2.8, a 50/1.4 or 1.8, and a 70-200/2.8 or 4.

Does anyone know of any 3rd party cables compatible with Canon's TTL

off camera flash set-ups, I'm looking for something about 10m long?

I could connect 3 of Canon's 3m CC300s together with TTL

distributors but I'd rather have one long cable than a bunch of

smaller cables and distrubitors that could let me down.

I use an Omnibounce on my 540EZ with a 15mm fisheye and it covers the full frame. There is slight falloff in the far corners but it's so gradual you barely notice it. Since the fisheye coverage is much wider than the 17-35/40 you shouldn't have a problem.

How are you getting the video from your camera into your computer? There are various different formats/codecs of digital video and your video card or WM9 may not support the particular format/codec. if you tell me how you capture the video to your computer I may be able to help you.

Both Velvia 100F and 100 are both available here in Japan. I've shot about 6 rolls of 100F and while it's not as saturated as Velvia 50 it's still very vivid and extremely accurate. I have a few rolls of Velvia 100 but am yet to shoot them. When I do I will shoot one of both the 100 and 100F and post the comparisions.

What program are you trying to play them with? Are you using an editing application and trying to preview while editing? Do you have it set to use the TV out on your graphics card? Does your card support video out from an editing application.

 

Standard media players like WM9, QT, etc don't use TV out on graphics cards. The best way to view your videos on your TV is send it back to your camera and connect your camera to the TV.

Cindy, you might also want to look at a secondhand 200/1.8. I've shot a bit of Kendo here in Japan using the 70-200/2.8 on 1600 film and was only getting 1/180. This isn't too bad as it give a little motion in hands and feet but you are totally limited if you want ot freeze anything, I was using an EOS1nRS body which accounts for about 1-stop of light but the room was extremely well lit with 5500k lights. The biggest problem with shooting indoor sports like these is that you have absolutely no control over the lighting and the lighting is never designed for photography. On the subject of bodies, one advantage of digitals in this situation is the fact that you can adjust the white balace without the use of filters. This is invaluable in low light situations where you are dealing with mixed light sources, once I had to deal with sunlight, tungsten and floorstanding worklights.

Carl,

 

Unless your TV/video is more than 10 years old you shouldn't have a problem playing back NTSC video. You won't be able to record it though unless you capture it into a computer. Once in your computer you could use something like DVAlantis to convert it to PAL. Otherwise you could use a hardware converter to convert the NTSC signal to PAL for recording.

Apart from the obvious, optics, AF, and lens speeds, what makes a

lens better for some applications than others? What makes an 85/1.4

better for portraits than a 50/1.4 for example?

The IS system in Canon's video lenses is faster and more sentitive as you are dealing with moving images. It's also silent so as not to introduce any noise through the mic.

 

If you want tips etc for the XL then check out the <a href="http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/index.php">XL1 Watchdog.</a href> It's the number one XL1 site on the web.

"Moral:it's nuts out there. Carry a weapon". Talk about your all time bad advice. This is a major problem in America and a contributor to the more than 10000 gun related deaths each year. Just because you have a camera and call yourself a photographer doesn't mean you can just go around shooting anything and everything you see, you should also respect the rights of others and always ask before you shoot pictures of strangers, especially those from other cultures. Respect and thought for each other and our surroundings is the answer to avioding confrontation not carrying a weapon and adding to the astronomical rate of violence in the US. Everyone is so concerned about THEIR rights, what about the rights of others.

Vegas 4 is an excellent choice and currently the best bang for your buck NLE package available. The new Premiere Pro is top notch but your looking at a couple of hunderd more than Vegas.

If anyone is traveling to Japan and is interested in 200/1.8 there are 3 in prime (opps, bad pun) condition at Map Camera's used stoe in Shinjuku. They have 280 000yen on each of them which is roughly US$2300.

I would consider it as Pinnacle have announced that they will no longer be supporting the DV500 and Pro-one with newer versions of Premiere. Edition is a slightly different interface and takes some getting used to but it is quite intuitive and very productive once you get the hang of it. I'm currently trying to upgrade my DV500 after 3 hard years of use after trying a software only version of Edition.

The SONY VX2000 is also another good choice in this price range. It's a little more point and shoot than the GL2 but has larger CCDs and better low-light performance. For my money the Canon is the better camera but the VX2000 is a good alternative.