scott_ferris

P.S.

If you do the cheap flight once a year job, return to the UK with

your lenses (or whatever) in used looking condition, ie have a

filter on or a mismatched cap, in a camera bag and post all the

packing and warrnty docs etc to yourself. A British 'Receipt" never

does any harm either!

You know how sneaky these VAT and Duty officers can be!

Just don't tell anybody, Scott.

Dear Mike,

Macro is a subject which really deserves a dedicated lens, so I

would suggest getting one over a " better " zoom.

I'm British so what do I know about spelling in English ! The

thing on the front of your camera is (in english) a lens, you will

soon have lots of lenses, but you will always want one more!

Best wishes, Scott.

Dear Lindsay,

Without giving too much away! The trick is to make sure the

dealer you buy from in the foriegn country sells you the item "tax

free". That is if I buy from England, new or secondhand I make

sure the dealer is not charging VAT as the goods are going to

export. Similarly you need to find a dealer who will sell Duty Free

(that means he is not charging his countries import duty,

legitimate as he is exporting the goods), these can be found but

as ever check before parting with any money.

Take care, and work the system! Scott.

Dear Carl,

What is it that you don't believe? I can back up anything I write,

as can my local dealer. I take great care of my equipment, I've

been useing manual focus Canon equipment for years.

All my EOS stuff I bought within the last 5 weeks, and I love all of

it. And whilst I see the costs involved in developing and

manufacturing high quality lenses and bodies, can anybody

justify $65 for a simple piece of 3 core cable ?

P.S.

I got bounced down the steps at the Lincoln Memorial because I

picked an argument with security on a Chris Rock? movie being

filmed there. Just because a film company buys a license does

that give them the right to close down such an historic site ? And

they weren't even filming when I was there!!

Hi Mike, welcome to the wonderful world of SLR photography.

My first SLR was an AE1bought new in 1978! You have chosen

two fairly widely spaced subjects, photographicaly, but you have

a camera that can do both very well.

My first advice is make up your mind what lenses you want, then

wait until you can afford the best versions of these lenses. For

macro (closeup) work a Canon Fd 50mm f3.5 is a very good bet

and can be had for under $100 in good condition. Nature wise, it

depends on what you want to shoot, landscapes (a 24mm,

canon made several versions, but i would always recommend

their L series lenses) or wild animals on the plains (a 300mm

again the L versions).

Now i know some people are going to say you can get by with

this $20 lens or that $80 lens but the one thing 25 years of

donating my pay to Mr Canon has taught me ( and it did take me

several years of buying this or that $50 item) THE BEST LENSES

ARE WORTH THE MONEY.

Many companies made lenses to fit the Canon manual focus

cameras but I would recomend sticking to Canon ones. Yes you

need to get the FD series lenses, (the earlier FL series mostly fit

but don't work as well, and the EOS series won't fit or work)

No, specks of dust in a new lens are not acceptable. However I

just bought (sold my soul to the devil for) 2x1VHS's 16x35 2.8 a

24-70 2.8 and a 70-200 2.8 IS. And a $65 piece of cable. (ET-

1000N3)

So far, one of the focusing screens has a chip on the

pentaprism side, one of the bodies plastic is peeling off and the

hood mount/sealing ring on the 24-70 fell off ! I'm almost scared

to take the things out.

Dear Douglas,

I never said I did need four lenses to cover the 16-35mm focal

range. For my work i find one more than adequate, I was making

a Canon FD related point, on an FD forum.

The fixed focal length verses zoom argument is unwinable, you

believe you need the distortion levels in your equipment I pay the

rent with the distortion levels in mine, you move around to get

what you believe to be the best compositions, when I am able so

do I.

My original point was, one of the reasons why there might be a

declining interest in the FD forum (which I took to be FD in

general) was that there are more camera related options for

people to choose from, and there are fewer and fewer bargains

out there.

Take care, lets hear some other opinions aswell, Scott.

Hey Jim,

I've used a 199A on my 1V i don't understand what it's doing

though. The flash light comes on in the viewfinder when the

flash is charged/recharged and you get a real time exposure

reading up to the flash exposure level then the exposure level

indicators stop. If you press the shutter the flash fires, and the

exposure info at the bottom of the viewfinder says 60th sec f2.8

or 60th sec f4.0 irispective of the scene brightness or the power

level on the flash. There seems to be no way to alter the two

readings it just seems to pick one and run with it!

Does anybody understand what the camera is doing? I haven't

run a film through using flash so i don't know if the exposures

would be correct.

Many thanks for any advice, Scott.

Following my E-mail to you John and seeing your latest post, get

the 500D, the 24-70 is not practical to use with tubes, and with

your longer lenses subject distance becomes good but camera

and subject movment become super critical.

Dear Douglas, thanks for your reply. I hope i didn't loose my

point, a good collectable and useable AE1, A1, Ftb etc can be

bought for a song, the good ( L series) lenses, which in mint

condition were always going to be collectors items, even in good

user condition do not have the price disparity from newer faster

(better ?) lenses than one would think.

Now I grant you an FD 200mm f1.8 L is a rare and beautiful

thing, and to many people (me included) is worth in the region of

$3000,( a mint EF can be had for the same money) but I don't

believe an FD 135mm f2.0 is worth $400-$600 when a newer

(and sharper) EF 135mm f2.0 L can be had in the same

condition for not much more.

To compare a tokina 17 3.5 to a16-35 2.8 is not really on, and

besides it only adds weight to my point, after buying a Tokina an

FD 20 2.8 an FD 24 and an FD 35 I have spent $650 or so and i

have four lenses to carry, compared to the EF 17-35 f2.8 L at

about the same money!

On the sharpness issue, in real world use I have never had

anybody say upon seeing a picture of mine "shame its not

sharp" I have taken a lot of out of focus shots, but these i bin, in

reality i don't think many people can see the differance between

a photo taken with a prime as opposed to a good quality zoom. I

include my 35-105 f3.5 in that. I love that lens.

Now I hope I'm only stimulating discusion and not annoying

anybody and if I come across as too opinionated please forgive

me, the bottom line is I love Canon FD equipment and even

though I have spent a fortune going AF i will always use my F1N

and FD50 macro for my important flower shots, ( a good portion

of my income).

Hi Paul,

Have used one for years. Very heavy, very sharp, buy one.

Hi, I have both and the 12mm, the reason for the

recommendation to only use at the 70mm end is obvious when

you try to use the 25mm tube at the 24mm setting, lens to

subject distance. I have not measured the front surface to object

distance but it is in the region of 3 inches! This makes it

impracticle for most subjects.

On a more important note, despite the lenses hefty structure

and build quality, the hood mount and sealing ring from the front

of my lens fell off.

I'm brand new to Photo.net and ofcourse the FD forum, I'm not

new to the cameras, I bought my first camera, an AE1, new in

1978, I still use it and it meters and exposes as well as it ever

did.

Why the slowdown, well people are deffinitely thinking about

more important things, money is tighter, but another interesting

thing, (apart from the novelty of digital) is the availability of faster

and wider lenses for newer cameras.

I have been semi-pro now pro for a good while and as i said

have used Canon Fd equipment for all of it, recently however i

had to bite the bullet and went EOS. Why? Do i need 10 frames a

second, 45 point area AF etc ? No. I do need good speed, good

quality wide angles. Sure I love my IS 70-200, not for the IS but

its a 2.8 not an f4.0, but heres the big one, how much did you pay

for your last FD 20-35 f3.5? If it's a good one and its less than

$700 you did very well. How much is a new (old stock ?) 17-35

f2.8 USM ? Around $850!

I held off going AF as long as I could, I will always own my AE1

as well as several F1N and A1's and assorted lenses.As for my

large collection of lenses, I have replaced almost all of them in

speed quality and range with three lenses, these were

expensive but not as bad as you might think, and were I to sell

my FD equipment would get 90% of it back, a very sobering

thought.

Take care everyone, but more importantly, take pictures.