photojoe

The two answers above are great for CRT monitors. If you have this problem with and LCD please keep in mind that LCDs have a limite viewing angle. As you view a LCD from an "off angle" odd things happen to color and contrast.

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"Hanging Out"<div></div>

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I feel Sony could do good things with marketing and even hardware for the Dynax/Maxxum camera line. They have comitted to making compatable DSLR products for the future.

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Yet, in light of the recent fiasco with <a href="http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/">SONY illegaly installing Rootkits on their customers computers</a> I have grave concerns about the software that one might be required to intall in order to use any new Sony Dynax/Maxxum cameras that they produce.

I feel Sony could do good things with marketing and even hardware for the Dynax/Maxxum camera line. They have comitted to making compatable DSLR products for the future.

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Yet, in light of the recent fiasco with <a href="http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/">SONY illegaly installing Rootkits on their customers computers</a> I have grave concerns about the software that one might be required to intall in order to use any new Sony Dynax/Maxxum cameras that they produce.

I've got a 20x24 on the wall that looks great. It's from my 7D. When I got it from the lab I was disappointed. 150 DPI, YUK! (Yes, upsampled from the 3000x2000 camera image.) When hanging on the wall under glass with a couch forcing a minimum viewing disance of 5 feet it looks stunning. The closer you are to a photo the higher resolution you need.

 

I've got a rule of thumb for myself, if you hold it in hand it needs to be 250DPI(12x10 for the 7D), if it goes in a frame that self stands it needs 200 DPI, if it goes on the wall 150 DPI is good. If you're viewing it from across the room 100 DPI will do, from across the street 3 inch tiles formed into a moasic will be acceptable... but that's me.

Please post a link to an example.

 

That would make it easier for anyone who wants to help you understand what exactly you are looking for.

You'll need alot of candles if you want to get the shutter speed up to let you keep the infant from disapearing in a storm of motion blur. If you end up shooting color and decide to use any supplemental light you'll have to take care to filter your lights to match the color temp. of candlelight.

 

Sorry I can't offer you anything else beyond that and a suggestion to check www.google.com (the 1st thing I do, using the "site:www.photo.net" option.)

 

In fact, using google gave me this useful url:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009bC3

 

 

It's a post for "WEEKLY LIGHTING THEME: Combining flash and a continuous light source." Should help you quite a bit.

"Now, I'm about to buy a 20D or a D70s but I'm still very active shooting film, especially black and white. I need to upgrade my Maxxum 50 to something better and way more solid because I travel alot."

 

Here's a no brainer answer for you.

 

Get a Canon or Nikon 35mm body. That way you only have to haul one set of lenses.

 

Alternatively you can get a Minolta 7D and go with one of the many fine recomendations that have been previously mentioned (600si, 800si, 7.)

The 7D allows for shooting remotely w/ a PC via USB. I can't speak for the 5D, but it's almost the same camera as the 7D, just a diffrent control layout and slightly modified firmware.

"The image size was 1200x1600"

 

Okay. TO get 8x10 we need to get 8 inches on the 1200 pixel side or 10 inches on the 1600 side.

 

At 160 DPI we get 10 inches on the long side.

 

At 150 DPI we get 8 inches on the short side.

 

The lower resolution is 150 DPI. You will have a 150 DPI image to fill an 8x10 sheet of paper. Going 160 DPI will have you with an 7.5(or so) x10.

 

150 DPI is acceptable to some people. Just give the file to your lab as-is and see if you like the results. If not Genuine Fractals would help a little for you.

It sure looks good. I don't know if it's cost effective. For the cost of your CPU alone you can buy one of the better mid-range machines from major computer makers. Back off a few steps on the CPU clockspeed.

 

Don't buy the bleeding edge of today at a cost of nearly $US1,000. Buy last years bleeding edge on clearance for $300. (And get 85% of the performance and save the extra $700 for:

 

-drives set in in a RAID array

 

-premium power supply

 

-a new case with good airflow to cool the newer higher-heat components you're going to be using.

Minolta has all the typical lenses most folks will use. (They also have quite a few exotics only available in the K/M mount like a MACRO ZOOM and 135mmSTF.) Where you will find Minolta's lens seletion lacking is in the type of lenses that cost as much as a small car. So, if you're not looking to spend more than $5000 on a lens then Minolta's lineup won't leave you lacking. If you feel an urgent need to buy a 1200mm lens and kiss $20,000 goodbye then go with Nikon or Canon.

 

You're looking at 300mm, it will act like a 450mm would on a Canon 5D.

 

Oh, scratch that, you said 300mm equivalent. That's 200mm. Minolta has a teriffic 70-210 F2.8.

 

If you aren't looking at the 7D you're probably not the target customer for that pro-level lens. So, you'd be better served by the well-regarded 70-210 F4 (F4 at all focal lengths.) This lens compares favorably with Canon's "L series" 70-210 F4($US585 at B&H photo), and can be found for a fraction of the price! Oh yes, the Minola lens will have IS (Minolta calls it AS) where the much more expensive Canon lens lacks in that regard. [i know, all this Canon talk, when you're thinking Nikon, but I don't know Nikon as well as I do Canon and Minolta.]

 

 

To sum up, Nikon and Minolta are good. Nikon and Minolta have what you need. Nikon and Minolta have MORE than you need. Unless you are rich Nikon and Minolta have more than you can AFFORD. When you add in the cost of two lenses (wide to short telephoto, and short to long telephoto) the Minolta 5D will give you MORE at the same pricepoint as Nikon or Canon. Anti-blur (IS/AS/Whatever) technology in the Nikon and Canon line come at a premium price. The premium will be in every stabilized lens. The Minolta will provide anti-shake with any lens you mount on it at no additional cost. AS/IS etc are often(not always) irrelevant in sports as most(not all) spots are shot with high-shutter speeds to freeze subject movement, and as a side-effect will limit blur from camera shake as well. But for the times you WANT/NEED a slower shutter speed you will already have it on hand with the Minolta DSLR at no extra cost.

 

Go to a store with both cameras. Pick them both up. Throw on the lens you'd most likely be using on your photographic endeavors. Make your choice based mostly (80%) on what camera is physicaly comfortable for you to use and secondly on "gee-wiz" features. Neither camera will disappoint in terms of image quality so that won't be an issue.

If a shutter speed of 1/2000th isn't going to give you good "stop action" what do you expect with 1/200th and a flash duration of about 1/2000th? The ends results should be damned similar, in terms of freezing motion (diffrences will be seen in DOF and exposure from ambient light.)

 

A 1/2000th of a second exposure, either from a "burst" of flash exposures, or a single exposure won't make hell of a lot of diffrence unless your subject will be moving at such a speed that it travels across a great deal of the field of view durring a 1/2000th second exposure. If that is the case then you will get motion blur irregardless of HSS sync or regular sync.

 

Going from corded flashes to 5600HS flashes will NOT be a downgrade. You can get rid of the cumbersome cords and shoot HIGHSPEED and WIRELESS. There are non-"properitary" flashes made by third parties (sunpak, metz, etc.) that work just fine with the minolta system.

Same happened to me. Fire a frame. CF light comes on. LCD goes blank. Camera frozen. Pull battery to reset camera. Same problem. Changed CF card. No more problem. Threw out problem CF card (128MB Lexar, I have two for our 3MP point and shoot, an a 1GB Kodak and a 2GB Kingston for serious sessions with the 7D.)

 

After dumping the problematic card, never been an issue again.

 

Hope this helps.

<i>Aaron W. , sep 17, 2005; 01:40 p.m.

All that I can add to what has already been said is that in my last job (retired now) I used a Dell Latitude notebook on over 60 commercial flights (typically at 30K -35K feet) without any hardware failures whatsoever.</i>

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The aircraft you were in had presurized cabin. That is the air-presure in the cabin was held at a level that was much higher than the ambient air-presure you find at FL300-350. I'm afraid your experience isn't relevant because of that fact. We all do appreceate well intentioned input here at photonet. Even input with spelling errors (I usualy sneak in 1 or 2 dozen per posting, you want have to look hard to find them.)

My Routine

 

1) Copy CF Card to HDD

 

2) Tag Images with id keywords (EventName/SubjectName/InterestingInfo) [EX: SDAirShow-BlueAngels-InFlight]

 

3) Copy files to 2nd HDD on main machine

 

4) Copy files to all 3 HDDs on server (Poor mans RAID, ALT-C,ALT-V on each HDD.)

 

4) 2 Copies to CDR, Written at 1/2 media max speed or 1/2 drive maxspeed, wichever is slower. Also included on disk are PARity (PAR) files using 10% of the disk space for recovery should a portion of the disk be unreadable. Of course the disks are verified at time of writing.

 

5) 1 set of CDRs into the emergency bag (Earthquake,Flood,fire,boogieman, grab this bag on the way out the front door.)

 

6) 2nd set of CDRs go offsite.

 

7) Thumbnail process.

 

8) Start working on fullsize images (RAW Conversion, Color, Curves, pre-sharpening,etc.)

 

9) Finishing work for a session gets any files changed archived to 2nd hdd, server HDDs, and two sets of cdr.

 

I'm covered against user errors [Delete key is so close to Insert and End] hdd crashes [5 HDD copies] computer crashes [2 computers, 2 non hdd backups] disasters on site [off site backup and the "emergency bag"] and CD problems [two sets of CDs made]

 

What I don't have right now is a process to maintain my CD archive beyond jewel cases. I suppose when DVDR matures more I'll re-archive my CDRs to DVD+-R. I also don't have a prodecure to confirm the viability of my CDR backups once stored in the E-BAG or offsite. When I do switch from CDR to DVDR this will be simplified in that I can just burn the entire dataset to fewer DVDRs than I'd be burning CDRs for incremental backups.

 

Winkflash.com offers unlimitedphoto hosting with no limits. They also make decent prints. If you've got a super-fast internet conection you might use their photoalbums as a 2nd form of offsite backup.

 

Sounds like I do alot, but, from the point I pull the CF card from the camera till I get the 1st set of CDRs into the E-Bag takes me about 30-40 minutes per 700MB.

 

With the bottleneck being the CDR burning process.

 

Copies from HDD1 to HDD2, Copies from Workstation to Server, and Copies from Server HDD1 to HDD2 and HDD3 go very quickly relative to the time it takes for the CDRs to burn and be validated(this is the biggest time consumer.)

 

I've yet to loose a photo that's gone through this process. My offsite backup is only 14 miles from my home. I suppose a region-wide catastrophe could take out my entire archive, but I imagine I'd have bigger things to worry about at that point.

Considering the following appears when one uses your hyperlink I don't think any additional English readers will come across the site today.<p>

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You can do this with a tripod. Look for one with a reversible center shaft.

One has to assume those prices are per roll.

 

Doing the math the "standard" gets you some 1200x1800 or so DPI. "Professional" is 2400x3600. That's 2400 DPI for a 1x1.5 inch frame.

 

25 rolls of scanning will take how long to process with a Minolta Dual Scan IV? Does this machine accept 24 to 36 frame strips or just 4 to 6 frame strips? Then again, what kind of job will Costco do in terms of setting the optimum color balance and exposure for each and every frame?

Regarding the greater occurance of problems in large vs small files.

 

In files of any size one can create a PARity set to go with data that is truely valuable. Whatever medium I use I reserve 20% of the space to PAR files for recovery of corrupted data.

 

So, if my 80MB file had 2MB of bad data 2MB of PAR files would suffice to allow my computer to reconstruct the damaged sections and re-archive it on a new medium.

 

In addition so the 20% PAR rule I've set for myself I just burn 3 copies to diffrent brands of media, usualy the most inexpensive available. Two sets are stored offsite (one in a safe-deposit box, another at my sister's home.) I've yet to have any file fail to be recoverable. This is similar to the principle of RAID arrays in the world of hard drives (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives) where instead of few expensive drives data is instead mirrored onto multiple drives of lower expense. This results in a lower likelyhood of a hardware failure destroying your data. The down side is 4 drives in a RAID array take up more space, use more power, make more noise, and create more heat than any single drive of the same capacity. In my world, it means a potential clutter of recordable media, and a longer investment of time in the creation of backups.

I haven't found any offical word, maybe I can get some info here. Are

there any third party flash units that work with the 7D, and I don't

mean fire at 100% power all the time as working. A flash that

functions like a 5600hs or 3600hs, under TTL control.