lars69

Thanks for the answers.

I will probbably buy at BH Photo and ship it to my hotel address which is in Arizona. I blieve the NY sales tax doesn't apply in this case even though the law is about to change.

With BH it used to be possible to buy with a non-US card and ship to a hotel, hope that still works.

Regarding import duty, it's still worth to buy in the US.

And thanks for the 1st May increase tip. I might just buy now to be sure.

Lars

Hi,

I am going to the states in two weeks and was a bit tempted to buy a new

telephoto lens. So generally I am in favour of the 70-200 f4 L IS but I also

like the f2.8 non- IS, the f2.8 IS is just more than I can afford.

Anyway, I know the good and bad points of both, so that's not why i am writing.

But I realised something I find strange.

In the UK the f4 is around 730 pounds and the f2.8 930, so US$ 1450 and 1850.

So the difference between both is quite large and the f2.8 (non-IS) is much

more expensive than the F4 IS, almost 30%.

At BH Photo in the states the f4 goes for 1060 and the f2.8 for 1140, so just 8

% difference.

I found that quite strange, so if I buy the f2.8 in the US then I save almost

50%, if I buy the f4 IS I save much less.

That's regardless of which lens is better for my purposes and I don't want to

choose a lens purely by which one has the bigger saving. But I don't get why in

the US both lenses cost almost the same but in the UK one cost much more than

the other.

Any ideas why that is?

Find it a bit odd.

Lars

A bit of a late response.

But on the Spyder 2 the keys are on the CDs, so if you lost them you might be out of luck.

But its worth sending an e-mail to Pantone and explain the situation, they might be nice enough to give you a new serial as it's a legacy product.

Asking for the serial from someone here would be breach of copyright though.

You can't directly compare bibble vs Lightroom as Bibble is not a workflow tool but mainly a RAW converter. So Bibble does not import images form memory card, automate the EXIF data or otherwise organise your images.

Bibble does RAW conversion and that very well. On my 10D I find bibble's results better than Lightroom in quality but not as good as DxO.

But DxO is pretty slow so in average I find bibble is the best converter around.

Try the demo, it is worth it.

Hi everybody,

I had a chance to play around with a Canon 15mm f2.8 on my 10D the other day.

So this being a 15mm lens on a 1.6x crop DSLR; if I would want to get the

equivalent image on 35mm film camera I would have to use a 24mm lens.

I had never used a fish eye before on a crop DSLR and somehow imagined it to

behave simply like my 24mm did on my film SLR. So I expected not to see the

bend corners which are so typical for a fish eye.

But in reality the images still look like fish eye images, just with a reduced

angle of view.

So is there actually a way to have a proper wide angle image on a crop DSLR

without getting the bend corners to such an extent?

And this also means that any lens on 35mm SLR and its equivalent on my 10D (so

112mm on 35 and 70 mm on 10D for example) will give me the same viewing angle

but the optical properties (like how close things look to each other etc.)

will be different?

So using my 70mm on my 10D does not result in an image looking like a 112mm on

film but looking like a 70mm on film with the borders cut off to give a 112m

equivalent viewing angle.

Am I right there?

Thanks,

Lars

Thanks for all the answers.

Laser printer is tempting but the amount of printing I do would not justify the toner costs. I know per page it is cheaper but it would take a good few years before I get my money back.

At the end I just ordered a new Canon ip4300. Basically because it is the cheapest Canon with seperate ink cartridges. Hopefully I will have better experiences than with the Epson and I also will try to print something once a week to keep the nozzles free.

Thanks,

Lars

I don't know the Pantone Huey so I might not be much help.

In general if you want an application to start during startup, you just drag the application icon onto the dock and then right click on it and select 'execute on startup' or something (not in front of my Mac right now)

But that will only start the application automatically and you would still have to quit it each time.

So I am not sure how much that helps but I thought I give my 10 pence.

I have got the following problem:

I use an Olympus P-400 dye sub for all my photo printing and love it. But I also need an inkjet printer (or

maybe laser?) for office use. Sometimes I need color for charts etc. but mainly text only.

I therefore only use my current inkjet (Epson C66) once every 2 to 3 weeks. And every time the nozzle is

clocked up and I need to clean the head. A part from wasting a lot of ink it goes seriously on my nerves

and now it is so bad I can't get it cleaned at all anymore.

So my questions is, are there any printers around which can survive with less cleaning? I think I remember

that HP changed the head itself with each cartridge, does that make a difference?

Or should I seriously think about laser printers and if yes what are the running costs?

I just need a cheap and cheerful printer which I can use once in a while without becoming poor and

without cleaning issues. Quality is not very important.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Lars

This link is interesting:

<a href="http://web.canon.jp/imaging/cmos/technology-e/noise_reduction.html

"> Noise reduction</a>

<r> </r>

Sorry that it's Canon. But we are all friends, aren't we?

I am not sure what they did about the D300 and I bet Nikon will be very quiet about the technology.

Usually CMOS were noisier than CCD. A CMOS has basically components next to each pixel to read the value while a CCD reads the data outside the pixel area and basically scans the lines to get the information.

Problem is that every electrical component is different and with CMOS you get differences between each pixel. This leads to one type of noise (forgot the name).

I rememeber that Canon solved that on the D30 by first reading the image ( a few milliseconds) and then readying the noise when the shutter was closed. The noise was then subtracted from the image and you got a better result.

Anyway, don't know what else is going on but that is one example how a technical innovation could reduce noise.

Another factor by the way is that you use micro lenses to focus on the pixel and filters and as better they get as lower will be the noise.

Hope that helps,

Lars

I only have a 10D, but the charger works on 100 - 240V, all you need is an ordinary travel

plug adapter for europe to charge it and I would assume the 40D is the same. All modern

laptops, camera or mobile phone charges work on both sides of the atlantic.

Hi everybody,

I read somewhere that using RAID on a Mac Pro will not work if you want to use

boot camp to install Windows.

I actually wanted to buy a Mac Pro beginning of next year but RAID is

absolutely essential.

So I was wondering if anybody here knows if it is at least possible to use two

hdd to start up, in RAID 0 and only with Mac OS on it and have a third hdd for

windows.

Would mean that Windows would run sluggish but that is not such a big problem.

Or are there any other ways around that problem?

Thanks,

Lars

I agree with most people here that you should maybe consider prime lenses to get real fast aperture settings.

But with regards to your original question Sigma or Canon, get the Canon without any hesitation.

I used to have the Sigma and didn't see the point of spending the extra money for for the Canon L lenses but boy was I wrong.

If you only look at the image quality the Sigma surely can match the Canon and usually I would argue that is all that counts. But if you use the camera all day long the Canon just feels so much better, so much more like a proper lens.

Can't describe it, the Canon L lenses just feel right while the Sigma feels like value for money and cut corners.

Reviews can't tell you that with numbers about image quality but I would spend the extra money any day to get the Canon.

Jonathan,

If you are new to RAW converting then I believe Lightroom can be slightly confusing.

In the good old days working with RAW was like you described. Basically the RAW converter opened the RAW file and converted it into a TIF/JPEG. Only adjustments here would be colour balance and maybe brightness/contrast. Image editing came after saving the file and opening it in another application.

Photoshop is like this, you open the RAW, convert it and then start working on it.

Lightrooms advantage is that is does everything in one go. The conversions step only happens when exporting the file.

So when you open the RAW it loads it into memory and you work on that copy. The way it displays at first is down to Lightrooms interpretation of the RAW. You then fiddle around with exposure and whitebalance until you like what you see. You then crop if you want to and export the image.

That is basically the workflow in a short summary.

The white balance number should have been saved by your camera depending on the conditions. Test setting your camera to a fixed white balance, eg sunlight, and take a few shots. In Lightroom all RAWs should now have the same number at the start.

As to why the exposure is +50, no clue.

Hope that helped,

Lars

And exactly why did your instructor recommend a 5D? Or better why is a 30D not good

enough for your course?

I mean the 5d is a great camera and full frame, so it has without question a slightly better

image quality than the 30D and a bit less noise.

But that said I would first try out the 30D.

Basically if you cannot take good pictures with a 30D then you also can't take good ones

with a 5D. They are both excellent cameras and good enough for professional pictures.

Stay with what you have and if you have money spare get a decent set of lenses.

Hi everybody,

I have a slight problem with Lightroom and my Canon 10D.

If I open a RAW image file then at first it will look normal, by normal I mean it has the same colors as

Canon's file viewer, idimager or Mac OS X preview.

While the loading/working is shown it stays like this. At the moment the image is loaded the colors all

change and the image gets a red color cast.

If I export the file to JPEG the color cast remains.

This happens without manipulating the image in lightroom at all, just straight opening. I tried the Reset

button etc and no fix.

My monitor is a calibrated with a Spyper Pro and the same thing happens both on Mac and PC.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Lars

I would like to add that you could get ClamAV. It is a Linux virus scanner which runs on Mac.

I use it, but it doesn't actually scan for Mac Viruses (as there are none) but for Windows ones. So if you mix PCs and Macs at home you can use it to avoid sending viruses to other computers in your network and also to avoid emailing friends an attachement with a virus.

DNG is a digital negative format and effectively it is meant to be a universal RAW which should be used by all companies to avoid the problem that no-one can open files for new cameras.

That is the idea at least.

Adobe is pushing for it but many other software packages don't fully support it yet and most camera companies still use their own format.

Anyway, on Adobe's homepage search for DNG converter you will be able to download the software for free which you can use to convert you 40D RAW files into DNG. Those can then be opened in Photoshop. You won't lose any quality during the process by the way.

I am not from Hamburg.

But I believe you have got a Calument somewhere in the city.

They might have monitors in store.

Be careful when looking at LCDs in store. They often connect a whole set to one PC with a slide show running. So the resolution is set to one that all monitors can take and good monitors often look horrible.

Especially looking at standard format as most are set to widescreen.

When I bought mine I rather walked past the corner where they sell PCs and looked for a PC with has the monitor I want connected. Gives you a much better idea.

If they don't have it setup just go and ask them to connect the monitor quickly to a standalone PC.

I ended up buying the LG L1960tr (I think) which has a faster response rate then the Viewsonic and nice colours. Very good monitor but the button is a bit fancy and I don't trust it very much. But image quality is great, but costs 50% more than the VP930b.

As you are mentioning image stabilisation I suppose you didn't use a tripod?

What was you shutter speed during the shots?

With a 1.4x extender and the crop factor of the 20D you will need a really fast shutter speed to avoid all blur through shaking, even with IS enabled. With the lens at 200mm I would say 1/500 or so but i might be wrong as I don't own the f2.8 IS.

So maybe it is only a bit of camera shake by any chance?

Jonathan,

If I were you I would NOT upgrade. I have a 10D and there is no question that the 40D (or even the 20D) is better. But that is not the real question, the real question is if you are really unhappy with your 10D and from what I hear you are not.

I have a 10D myself but I could buy a 40D or 5D. But why would I?

There is always going to be a newer/better/faster model in times of digital. The day you buy something it is outdated. So rather then looking left or right I only look at my camera and as long as I like the images I am getting I will keep it.

I will only get a newer model when the 10D breaks or I really feel it is not enough for my needs anymore.

Until then, when I have some money spare, I will rather buy a good prime lense, they at least last for ever and might actually improve my pictures.

Hi everybody,

A bit of a long shot but maybe somebody in this forum went to Richmond Adult

Community College.

I would like to join their Digital Photo Studio Lighting BTEC Award L3, which

is more or less the most advanced course one can do when working full time.

Unfortunately, due to a silly tube strike in London I cannot leave work and

can't go to their open day.

And I would have liked to see the college and equipment before enrolling.

So if any of you have been at the college and know the course and/or

equipement then please let me know.

Warnings and recommendations welcome.

Thanks,

Lars