Andy Collins

<p>#2</p><div></div>

<p>A couple of shots from rural Indiana...#1--A red barn, soybeans, and fall colors!</p><div></div>

<p>Thank you, Anthea!</p>

<p>Stormy skies, #2</p><div></div>

<p>Stormy skies...</p><div></div>

<p>A visitor outside the window...</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Adrian</strong>--I love the treehouse!<br> <strong>Anthea</strong>--That first shot is <em>wonderful!</em><br> Here are a couple of mine from the last couple of weeks, both shot with my G16...</p><div></div>

<p>I bet you do get some good color. We've already got quite a bit here in central Indiana, so I'm planning to take my F3HP out this weekend to shoot. Looking forward to your posts!</p>

<p>The last stormy day of Summer.</p><div></div>

<p>My greatest influence was, without a doubt, my dad and his Kodak Retinette 1A. All of our childhood photos were captured with that camera and watching my dad use that camera was what made me want to get a camera and follow suit. My mom also strongly encouraged me to take pictures (and to do creative or artistic things in general), and even when I began to pursue photography as an adult, she gave me the first several books that began my photo library.</p>

<p>Retire the 'old' 7D when it no longer functions like it should or when it's no longer useful to you. Buy the new one anyway and use the old one as a back-up. The best excuse for buying the new one is because you just want to. That's <em>my</em> excuse anyway...</p>

<p><strong>Brad C</strong>--Beautiful Yosemite shots! That's my favorite place.<br> Here's a shot from our woods taken with my Fujica 35-SE.</p><div></div>

<p>I love this camera already and I will definitely buy one as soon as I can. I'll have to because mysteriously my 7D has stopped being as good as it was the day before the 7DII was announced! Seriously, I still love my 7D and consider an excellent camera, just as excellent as the day I bought it. But I'm very excited about the new AF in the 7DII. I had hoped that they'd put the 65pt AF in it but I never imagined that every AF-point would be a cross-point. I agree with Robin that this camera looks like a home run! And it costs the same as the 7D did 5 years ago!</p>

<p>#2--The Moon</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Steve B</strong>, we're serious cat people and that picture of Chartreux had both of us petting the monitor! What a beautiful kitten! Here are a couple of mine from the last week or two...<br> <br />#1--Flowers...</p><div></div>

<p>I'm with Bob on this one. I still really like my 7D and find that it still serves me quite well 5 years later. I will get a 7DII though because I'm really excited about the new AF and the increase in performance (response and hopefully less noise) that I imagine the dual Digic 6 processors will bring. I'm also excited about the new pixel technology just because it's new technology but as I believe it affects video output more than still photography, it probably won't be of great benefit to me as I don't really give hoot about video on my dslr. It actually sounds like an exciting camera to me, not groundbreaking for sure, but still exciting. Now bring on the <em>"Is the 7DII better than the 5DIII"</em> threads!</p>

<p>#2</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Louis</strong>--I love <em>Bulgari</em>! <strong>Lex</strong>, Freddie looks like his stories would be pretty interesting.<br> I'm still playing around with the Canon SX50 HS. I decided to try one out because I'd seen a lot of impressive photos taken with it, but I went into the purchase as a complete skeptic. While it has a number of characteristics that I don't care for (cheap build quality, horrible EVF...), the lens is pretty amazing and the 24-1200mm focal range is insane. The image quality is surprisingly good for a small sensor, especially when shooting RAW. Here are a couple of Hummer shots from yesterday. Mind you, this is still a work in progress!</p><div></div>

<p>How "cheap" do you want to go? As Lex has indicated, there are nice mirrorless APS-C cameras with that feature, but as I've only used the EOS-M (which has the feature) I can't really speak to any others. If you want to spend less money, most of the Canon PowerShot cameras have a "fireworks" mode. For about $399.00 (or less, shop around!) you can get the PowerShot SX50 HS which has that mode along with its crazy 24-1200mm lens (and surprisingly good IQ for a small sensor camera), or for $299-$329 you can get the PowerShot SX700 which also has it and has a 25-750mm lens in an easily pocketable body. Both of these also allow full manual control so you can input your own settings. These are just a couple of suggestions; there are many, <em>many</em> more as I'm sure you'll learn...</p>

<p>#3--<em>Sunset</em></p><div></div>

<p>#2--<em>Still growing...</em></p><div></div>

<p>A few from this weekend--#1...Freshly rained on!</p><div></div>

<p>Absolutely beautiful, Louis! The camera is a very nice example and the pictures you've created are superb. I've never used a TLR, although I've had a couple of lesser models that I used for display. I have, however, always admired the looks of the Yashicas and I've seen incredible shots taken with them. Perhaps I will yield to the urge to acquire one and learn to put it to good use; your pictures are certainly encouraging me to consider it. Thank you for the great write-up and excellent pictures!</p>

<p><strong>J.W.</strong>--that shot is magical! Mine for this week was taken inside because it was too wet to go out and shoot...</p><div></div>

<p>Another welcome to you <strong>MRJ</strong>! That's a very cool shot; I actually like the rich saturation. Like Rick, I'm working on a roll in my recently revived Nikon FE, but for now here's another shot from the Pentax K2.</p><div></div>