bill.akstens

You say you erased the card. But did you format it? There is a difference. Format the card in the camera using the CF card format menu...

RGB mode. I find that the red channel can be as much as one stop clipped when judging by luminance mode. I understand the luminance mode is basically the green channel.

Before upgrading equipment I always ask myself "What is lacking in my current setup that I really need to do my work?" What do you feel is lacking with your present camera? You mention sharper pictures. Are you not getting sharp photos with the Rebel? Perhaps a technique, lens, or post-processing upgrade would make more sense? That said, I love the 30D...

There should be an optical slave trigger built in to the alien bees, right?. I think you can use any dumb manual flash unit on-camera (Vivitar or whatever), dial it's output way down, and use that to trigger your bee. In other words trigger wirelessly using light, not radio.

Does the alien bee manual discuss optical slave triggering?

You cannot use a Sekonic flash meter to meter Canon flashes operating in an ETTL mode. The preflashes will confuse it. It should work however if you use the flash in a purely manual mode.

Learn to enjoy the benefits of shallow DOF. Sure, it will take time, and many photos will be out of focus, but with time you should end up with many photos you are happy with. Shoot lots of photos.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but even though the 420EX does not account for the 1.6 cropping factor it still provides complete coverage of the cropped frame. It just wastes a little power by spreading light out too wide.

Just to re-emphasize what was said before: What you really need to consider is the focus lag plus the shutter lag times. Not all camera manufacturers seem to specify both numbers. A quick shutter lag by itself may not be what you're looking for.

I noticed some typos and grammatical errors in the FAQ pages: there vs their, evet vs event, alonewe vs alone we, ...

I noticed the same on my 30D compared to my two Elan IIs. I assume it's normal.

You should also budget for a backup flash.

I have a 30D and it cannot use the '*' for both focus and FELock, only one or the other by switching the Custom Function setting. If I want to use FELock I have to use the shutter button for focus. I would guess the 5D works the same way.

Three additional points to keep in mind which complicate the answer even more:

1) The center focus point is the most sensitive one, so in low light shooting using other focus points may be more difficult.

2) If you set the Custom Function to use * for focus lock, then you can't do Flash Exposure Lock (FEL) with * unless you reset the CF. Kind of a pain.

3) If you use spot metering mode in camera, the meter spot is always locked to the center focus point.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but FEL only uses the middle focus spot. So you can select any active focus point you want and it won't affect FEL. Choose a focus point that after recomposing will fall on your subject. Just remember when doing FEL to have the center focus point on the subject even if it is not your chosen active focus point. And be sure to be in One Shot AF mode.

Isn't baking soda the wrong kind of soda to use for film development? I thought it needed washing soda or something else. Anyway, sounds like a very fun experiment.

I am by no means an expert, but here are my thoughts. Question #1 - yes, the camera/flash will figure what it thinks is the correct exposure. This assumes the flash is in an auto mode, and you probably need to research "flash compensation" and "flash exposure lock" in order to master using one flash correctly since these two items can have a huge effect on how your image turns out.

Question #2 is more complex. Your camera/flashes should allow lighting ratios to be set. Research "lighting ratios". But Canon ettl is more complex. Traditionally a photographer thinks of lighting ratios on the subject of interest. With a background flash I think the camera can only determine ratios based on what light comes back into the lens. This is not necessarily the same ratio of light as on the subject. It will really depend on the slave's angle, background reflectivities, and lots of other variables and my very limited experience says that is hard to control outside a studio setting.

Check with The Development, in downtown Hermosa Beach. They do great work in general.

I'm not familiar with the RebelXT, but a used Canon 420ex flash should only be about $125 (very nice flash - I have two). Or an inexpensive Vivitar (or similar) flash run in a strictly manual mode (but you'd need a handheld flash meter to get correct exposures).

Would be tough to do for flash-lit images. The amount of flash will affect the histogram so a live histogram would need to be strobing the flash all the time.

If the bright white autofocus assist light of the Elan7 would bother you, try the older ElanII which has a nice, subtle, yet effective red focus assist light in the body. No doubt the Elan7 is a great camera, but I prefer the ElanII.

My favorite area is the Jumbo Rocks area. That's where all the big boulders are scattered about the landscape. Very interesting rock formations. It has easy access.

I have been very happy with both my ElanIIe cameras. I find them to be well built, dependable, and inexpensive. Have never used the Nikons so can't compare.

My digital video camera developed a hot pixel after a year or so, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same kind of thing happens to a DSLR sensor. A hot DSLR pixel should be easier to fix though...

My XP2 negs usually have a slight purple tint to them. I believe this is normal (antihalation dye remnants?). My guess is the first lab just isn't doing a competent job printing them neutral. My biggest issue with machine prints from XP2 is getting decent contrast - oftentimes the prints look too grey and dull.

I normally don't use Delta but I did just develop a 35mm roll of it exposed at 100 in DDX 1:4 at 68F and I think I used 12 minutes. Was happy with how it turned out. I haven't tried printing them yet.