david_b.

Hi All

I was wondering how many aperture blades the 35mm f2 and 50mm f2 M

lenses have.

with thanks

Hi everybody, Yes I was interested in setting up a remote system to

catch animals or insects, there are quite a few detectors sold by

Radio Spares that look good. I have tried to short the outer two

contacts of the four on the bottom plate of the camera, but no luck!

The electronic shutter release was not tripped. Fortunately, the

camera did not blow up either. I put in an order for an A2 or MA motor

drive with Jessops in Britain, but they have not been able to find one

yet. Thats as far as I've got for the moment!

Thanks for that information, Kirby, I understand now. The A-1 has four

electrical contacts on the bottom, and the motor drive must

communicate with the camera through them, to activate the motor drive

when appropriate, and to make available the electronic shutter

release. My power winder A (which does not make available an

elctronic shutter) uses only two of these contacts, the central ones,

and so the eletronic shutter release must be controlled by the outer

two. I suppose that you don't know how these contacts work, so that if

I cant find the motor drive I could use these contacts directly, to

control the shutter(but perhaps this would blow up the camera!).

Thanks again

Thanks for that information Terry. I wonder, do you know where I would

find out fuller specs for the LC-1 2 and 3? You say that the LC-1 sits

on the hot shoe. I presume that this is just convenient and not

necessary (providing that the cord was connected), as I would like to

do this remote control using a flash on the camera! I'm afraid that I

didn't understand your last sentence "As to modifying, I do not know

how they trip, but the motor drive and A2 power winder have a jack of

them for the remote trigger" could you clarify. Thanks once again,

I am interested in setting up a remote sytem to operate the shutter release for my A1 or AE1. I am interested in operating the camera from a distance, and also in using an infrared or lazer detecter to operate the cameras. Has anybody got any ideas? Is, for instance, it possible to get one of the camera bodies modified such that they can be tripped electrically? Thanks in advance for your suggestions

Thanks for that suggestion Tim, I was considering getting another FD

body. I was somewhat put off the T90 when I heard that it is supposed

to be the heaviest, noisyest and most vibration prone body Canon had

ever made, although I was attracted by its fast sync speed. I was

considering an F1, which can do spot readings, and, I think is

supposed to be quiet and quite vibration-free, although it's fastest

sync speed is 1/90. Another consideration was the cost. I wasn't too

keen on investing much money in my FD system, as I know that at some

stage I will have to abandon it.

I think we could agree that the design of the A-1 is certainly not a

"big design fault", although it is a bit inconvenient for me to work

in the way I wanted under some conditions. With the information that

you gave in the answers I will be able to use the camera better.

Thanks for your answers

David

Of course there is no reason why I have to use full manual, I just

consider it easier. Consider the following; I am taking a photo with

the sun in it. If I dont over-expose considerably compared to the

camera's meter when the sun is in the frame, then most of the frame

will be black. I meter on some part of the frame without the sun in

it, fix the settings manually, mount the camera on the tripod, and

begin to take my photos. In this sort of situation it is much more

convenient to bracket by changing the manual settings than by the use

of the exposure compensation wheel. This is because if I put the

camera back onto semi-automatic, my "base settings" will be changed

considerably, What I had determined as my manual settings may well be

equivalent to the camera's semi-automatic with +2 on the exposure

compensation wheel, or it may be +1.5, or 2.5. I would have to check

this, and this is a bit inconvenient.

Thanks for your answers, which were helpful. I did not realise that

the A-1 was not "WYSIWYG", and that in practice both shutter speed and

aperture can have intermediate values. Knowing this I will begin to

use the camera a bit differently. However, I think I will still miss

the ability to set intermediate shutter speeds by hand. This is

because I like to work in the following way much of the time.

 

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1) Frame the shot, and choose my prefered aperture.

2) Determine the range of light intensities within the frame, and work

out my best exposure.

3) set the camera completely on manual on a tripod and take the first

frame

4) bracket exposure. At this point I would like to manually work in

half stop sutter speeds, because I want a particular aperture. Of

course I could do this with the exposure compensation wheel, but this

means that I will have to work out where my exposure fits on the

exposure compensation wheel compared to the cameras recommended

exposure. This will take an extra step.

many thanks for your answers, they will allow me to make fuller use of

the camera

David

Has anyone noticed the following:

The A-1 has the control knob for aperture marked in half stops, but

for shutter speed in full stops. Therefore, the only way to control

shutter speed in half stops is to use the exposure compensation wheel.

BUT this wheel is marked in thirds of a stop. This looks great untill one realises that both aperture and shutter speed are controlable only in half stop intervals. Therefore, moving to (for instance) 1/3 stop, one is unsure if the settings will not change, or change half a stop; moving 2/3 stop, it is unsure if the settings will change half a stop or one stop. This effectively makes the exposure compensation dial useless for less than one stop intervals. Why did Canon do this??? Does anyone know a way round this problem??

with thanks

David Bertioli

Dear All,

Is it possible mount FD lenses onto Nikon bodies, and if it is are there disadvantages of doing so. With thanks, David

Dear All,

I have had a look at the archives, and I know that there is quite a

bit on this subject, but I just couldn't find exactly what I wanted...

Could anybody recommend a commercial flash bracket simmilar to John

Shaws' home made "butterfly bracket". I want to mount a small flash

just as he does. I would like to make my own, but I just dont have the

equipment, living in a foreign country (Brazil) not knowing how long I

will be here... The bracket need not be available in Brazil; I will

ask my Mum to bring the bracket when she next visits from England.

with thanks, David

Dear all,

Humming birds are fast, but what shutter spead do you need to freeze

the motion of (1) their bodies, and (2) their wings? I was taking

photos of a humming bird recently with a 90mm macro. I used 1/125s

f4-f5.6 ASA 100. The shutter speed failed to freeze the motion of the

body even when feeding. What if I had used flash? Apart from not

liking flash, my top sync speed is 1/60- I'd get a big ghost image!

What is the best solution? go for slower film and flash, or faster

film without flash. What is the best quality high speed film. I

usually use slide film.

thanks for your comments

David

Dear All,

We have been asked to produce a series of cards for the tourist board of Brasilia, to promote ecotourism in the area. We have designed 12 cards using slides of flowers from the region. Each flower has some sort of identification (its sometimes not possible to get down to species here) and has a little information about it. The cards have been completely designed in Corel Draw. The quality of the photos?- well they are certainly sharp, and we think they're good (but then we would, wouldn't we!). Although we are not doing this for the money, its nice to get a bit to compensate for the cost of photography. Up to now no prices have been mentioned. Has anybody any idea of what sort of price this sort of work commands? (of course we will have to do some sort of correction for Brazil).

Many thanks in advance

David and Soraya Bertioli

I've never had any experience with large wild carnivores, but have taken photos of quite alot of animals and birds using flash as fill-in

and at dusk with flash as the main source of light with badgers. In all cases except in bright daylight the bird or animal is startled when the flash goes off. In many case the animal or bird then goes off. Therefore, I have found the effect on the animal or bird to be very detrimental, but on the other hand, the photos that can be got are sometimes so much better that I often use flash anyway. I would be very wary about using flash with large wild carnivores unless they were known to be timid.