simon_kull

hi there

 

i'm off to japan in a few weeks. i just tried to do some research about buying

gear in japan. the question is not where to buy it but more if it is as

expensive as the rest of japan? comments would be much appreciated from people

who were already there and bought some stuff (canon slr etc. if possible...)

 

thanks

simon

It seems to me, that Canon is doing price discrimination (like most other camera companies). So, they should not wonder if people getting annoyed about it and look for (their) best buy outside their country. Sure, Canon doesn't like it, but that's how it goes, if you sell your products in different parts of the world to different customers. And nowadays customers are getting the hint how to get to cheaper gear (for them). Warranties etc, well that's an issue for itself.

After an extensive trip and 16 times x-ray exposure mostly in developing countries, I had not a single fogged film (velvia). Even checking with a 8x magnifier (think somebody sayd sth smiliar). As far as I know the "new-generation" of film is pretty "strong".

what ocean said, emphasized!

i don't want to discourage you but...have a drink, go into your local camera shop and buy a new grip and battery. what you want to do is purely lost time, especially with airport securities. nomather if you are right or not, THEY are always right, so you'd better forget the whole thing.

rehor,have you ever used a camera in any matter before? i have my doubts...sorry.

i don't think that it's a fungus. it sounds more like:

canon writes in his user manuals/documents, that due to manufacturing process it is (even with best quality glass) possible that there might be tiny airbubbles in the elements. however i believe they say it should not be vissible on pictures nor is (legally spoken) the lens defect or damaged. i don't know how big this bubbles in your lense you refer to are, but a friend of mine had some bubbles in a 300 / 4 L lens and never ever a problem (even when he enlarged pictures by XXX%).

charo,

 

don't worry to much, i was at thorung-la pass last october (if you go there you know what it is...:)) and took a canon ixus digicam with me and it worked fine. unless you get into a snowstorm you should be fine, put it in an inside pocket of your jacket to keep it warm and save. but believe me, at this altitutes you will have other problems than your camera....if you want some more infos, contact me.

watch out for maoists, cameras are nice trophys to take from tourists.

 

simon

chris,

 

you chose a good spot on our planet to go to vacation.

there is so much to tell about, however maybe you should know a few things before especially about bears:

 

it is not easy to get access to the real bear salmon feast. especially if you dont have plenty of money to spend.

 

you can find bears in denali n.p. and in some other places in "mainland alaska". if you really want to see them in action you should probably go to the kenai peninsula n.p. sofar so good, the only problem is that usualy it costs a sh*tload of money to get there. you have to fly in by waterplane and you can ONLY stay at the lodges there. its very expensive but your first problem will be having acces to a permit. because only a handful of people can have a permit to go there. this is done in a draw, kinda lottery. you can surely try to get on and maybe youa re lucky but thousands of tourists try to get one every year. i even heard that some TV crews tried for 5 years t get one.

 

however,denali is a great place to spot bears, take one of the several buses (first one leaves around 5.30 am) which can drive you upt to wonder lake. the drivers are very good in spottign bears and if you are at the rigth time at the rigth location with the right driver :), it is not uncommon to see 2 or 3 bears walking past your bus on the same gravel road. the agaisn, the buses will be very packed with everybody pushing and shoving their lenses around. but ii might be wort it. make sure that you book your ticket at least one day in advance at the visitors centre in denali n.p.

 

you can also get a hiking permit for denli so you can go on your own, but that's a different story. let me know if you need more infos.

i told you mostly of my own experience in alaska. maybe another person here knows more or has different infos about access to kenai n.p.

hi chris

 

i travelled several times to morocco and in my opinion it's definetly a no-good option developing them there. although it depends, if you only want some average quality paper-prints from a 1 hours service, boulvard mohammed 5 (along)in marrakech is the place to be. if you want to develope slides, you'd better be off taking them at home, it's worth it. (just don't put them in your checkin luggage due to heavy x-rays)

i went to see a hockey game about 6 years ago in dallas. i got my first "real slr camera", dump piece with a dump 70-300 zoom. you know what kind of camera i mean. and even at this time i was not allowed (even without flash) to take a picture. actually one of the seat attendances told me to pack it away in a very frentic way. to my surprise all other viewers around me gave this guy s*it...kinda "what's your problem, this kid only likes hockey and is a tourist too...", well they created kind of a scene, finally the poor guy left us alone and i could take some shots, eventhough i didn't have to say one word. sometimes mass is power :)

Trev,

 

That would interest me indeed too, since i'm going to ecuador as well very soon. however, i read in several guidebooks that there shouldn't be a problem importing films into ecuador. i don't know about peru. actually people told me that ecuador is even the country without too much hassle compared to other s-american countries.

hi, i travelled into the morroccan desert. unfortunately we got into

a little sandstorm. nevertheless my girlfriend and i kept shooting.

me with a EOS 1 V and 70-200/2.8 IS, she with a ELAN 7 and 28-135.

well after being back in a lodge i thought that the elan needs

exstensive care, but no. even without sealing (body nor lens) it was

in the same (good) shape like mine with sealing. obviously cheaper

doesn't have to be less effective in quality. nice to know right?

hi there

 

i'll go for three weeks in the north-african desert. it's going to

be very hot during the day. now i just realised that all my camera

bags / back packs are black. i then figured that this will be a

magnet for the sun and the equipment is going to be heated up like

in a grill, which -obviously- my camera will no like (and the films

too). what would you do, bedsides buying new bag(s) which are not

black? how to protect the equipment in a sufficient way? thanks a

lot for any experience (did somebody travel to similar destinations

e.g. dead valley, african desert?)

hi,

 

i'd like to get either a 28 or a 35 mm fix lense (not 24 nor 50mm)

so i have the following options (within my budget!):

 

EF 35mm f/2.0 Autofocus Lens

EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Autofocus Lens

 

i like lenses with the USM, although i never had the opportunity to

check out the 35/ 2.0, is it "noisy"?

 

which one would you take? is one SIGNIFICANTLY(quality of glass)

better? (no 1.4mm suggestions please:-)

 

how do they perform under lowlight conditions e.g. dusk or dawn,

shadow?

hi there

 

i was searching the web for a noise proof cover for my 1 V HS. i

would like to use (if it exists...) a premanufactured model, not

a "build-it-your-self" one. does anybody know a company which offers

these article? has anybody experiences in useing such a device?

 

thanks for any useful hints in advance!

hi there

does anyone own the external batterypack CP-E3 or the transistor

pack E? because i shoot lots of snowsports where i need (enough

power)flash (for sequences) i want to buy one of these to have

enough power for my 550EX. i couldn't find too many useful reviews.

 

any experiences would be greatly appreciated! did it REALLY

significantly rise the charging time for the flashgun, say; after 10

pics in series shot?

thanx

CONGRATULATIONS! your IS works, you can be proud!

 

BTW it's all in the lens users-manual:)

hi binyuan

 

the very same error occured on my girfriends elan 7 with a 28-135 IS USM, she couldn't "demonstrate" the error, it just randomly occured.

as you did, we checked contacts, batteries, you name it....it still occured,

my camera store sent it to canon switzerland; and now get the answer of canon: they said the IS unit was damaged, what a LAUGH!

 

but warratny was over and she had no choice, so she let it fix it. since then she shot about 30 rolls and it never occured again. personally i'm not sure if it was the IS unit because i can't see the link between IS and an Aperture error. but then again i'm not a technician. funny though was that even with the IS switched off the error occured. long story, but make shure they can really allocate the problem and tell you what's really wrong. good luck

hi,

 

ok, let me get straight to the point: besides that the sigma costs

1/5 of the canon and has a min. aperture of 1.8, can somebody

convince me to buy the one or the other? i read already some reviews

but i couldn't make up my mind. any practical information? overall

performance experiences? did somebody use it for eg. desert shots?

(BTW i will need the lens for shots in the desert)

 

thanx in advance

hi there,

 

i went to the zoo and did some shots of cheetahs (they did walking,

running and jumping, distance between me and them 15 feet), i was

playing around with the two AF modes and basically i felt that there

was no significant advantage in using the AF Servo for moving

objects. (BTW i used the canon EF 300/4 IS)the AF One Shot mode was

also very fast responding and locked-in to any movements. if i look

at the results, they are both dead sharp.

 

anyone had the same experience? do i have to go to a formual one

race track to see the real difference betweeen One Shot and Servo

Mode? thanks for answers!

easy Bob, there are many people out there who have very strong opinions about themselves, and like to provoke and being provoked. it's not worth responding to such posts. some people think they have eaten wisdom for breakfast, tststststs :) i and i'm sure many other members here think that your inputs can be very useful!

i agree with gareth, best thing to do is putting a filter on it. if the filter is scratched or so dirty that it's doesn't worth to clean it, just buy a new one. besides that it protects your lenscoating from dirt, it gives the lens a bigger value if you wanna sell it, but i guess you know that anyways.

 

personally i like these micro-pore cloths. but there are differences in quality. i found out that the really cheap ones put even more fuzzballs on my lense (the boarder of the cloths is not stiched and looses "fuzzels") compared to more quality cloths. i do not think that spitting or lensfluid is a very good alternative, but a quick breath to the lense never ever did damages to my lenses. i guess it also depends what your philosophy-of-cleaning is. so right or wrong is probably a personal attitude :)

santa,

 

especially you should get it if it's sarcastic or not! of course it's nonsense keeping it in a coat....but thanks for pointing it out :)

interesting, while traveling in china i met a german "test team", from an independent testing lab. they had the 1DMKII with them and we chated. they told me the main problme is the sensor. it simply cant take these temperatures. (don't ask me in detail i'm not a technician) they have some other guys in the same company who went with a bunch of cameras (new nikon, kodac etc) to all parts of the world for testingvand it defenetley failed in greenland and the sahara. besides that i envy these guys, for obvious reasons, i guess these new digital slr's are not ready yet to withstand this extrem conditions, sure if your are a national geograhic photographer who has like 6 backup cameras, all in heated boxes and 2 assistants who take care of them like newborn babies, sure you can use them min rotation but i guess that's not the issue here.