notso bad

Thanks for all the advice. I couldn't find the graphics card online for less than $385 so I don't think I will spend the money. I may try to use

it as a second display, since that is driven by the connected computer. Most likely I will dismantle it to remove th hard drive and junk it. It

is a quad core i5, so that is why I thought about squeezing a little more life out of it.

I have a 2009 iMac 27. It was replaced by a 5K iMac for my use and kept as backup and for family use. Besides routine internet and word processing, is

used for garage band, editing on apple photos, Affinity photo or photoshop cs5, which my daughter is learning.

 

The graphics card died. I was quoted $400 including labor to fix it, and another 200 to change the hard drive while they were at it (since I

worry that could go soon, being several years old)

 

Is it worth spending this much to keep an older machine going? I should mention that i upgraded the RAM years ago to 12 or 16.

Alternatively she would use a 3 y old mac air with external drive (NAS, once I finish setting it up)

 

Thanks,

 

NB

This is a follow up post.

 

First, we had a great time, and never felt unsafe, we stayed in the Eixample district, away for the main most tourist areas.

The are felt safe and full of families at all times. The metro never felt too crowded in this off season. We kept our hands

on our bags, in front of us, and my jacket covered my pockets. If there were pickpockets, then they must have looked for

juicier targets. All around us everyone was on their smartphones and DSLRs were hanging on necks.

 

I took the 5D II with the flash and 16-35, 24-105' and 70-200/4. I carried them in a backpack, but this f stop backpack

opens from the back, where the straps are. I took the whole bag to Casa Battlo, without any space issues. The next day

our luggage arrived and I switched to a messenger style bag. The flash stayed in the hotel safe, and the 16-35 was

attached to the camera with the 70-200 in the bag as well. There were only a few times when I was annoyed that I didn't

have coverage from 35-70 mm. One day I took the 24-105 only.

 

Somehow we were never able to get going very early, so it was somewhat peak time by the time we got out. However, it

is still the slow season. Which is good, since these vacations are when I get to do most of my photography.

 

I was very happy to have the wide zoom most times since the extra view was great. This helped with the interior of the

churches, and in close quarters, when there were too many people to back up to get a good view. I am still learning how

to watch for my shadow and feet in the frame. Of course the tele zoom was great for architectural details, and landscapes

where I didn't want too much foreground, such as at the top of the tower in sagrada familia, or at montserrat. The only

time I wished I had brought the flash was for lighting my family's faces for fill, or later in the day. But we had a point and

shoot for that.

 

Thanks to everyone for hints and advice. I hope to find some keepers to post here.

<p>Thanks, for the comments.<br>

Daniel, I have seen your posts addressing the theft issue. We are traveling in a family, so with my kids, we will probably stick out a bit. That being said, I am usually comfortable with gear in cities all around. However, I was a bit intimidated with what I read online about Barcelona being more intense with pickpockets and bag snatchers.</p>

<p>I wanted to have less to worry about, so I thought about the 50D with 17-55 and pop up flash, but I will probably be disappointed stopping at 55m (88 equiv). So I am leaning towards the 5DII (for better ISO and a little wider) with the 24-105. And flash. And maybe one more lens. I will have to decide if I want to go wide or long. </p>

<p>Great pictures on your blog, by the way. <br>

incidentally, any suggestions for what to do in Barcelona for New Years Eve (with a family - two tweens)? </p>

<p>This is a two part question. With the reported higher crime and pickpocketing in Barcelona I want to travel and pack light, so I can use a smaller messenger style bag. <br>

I have the choice of a 5DII or 50D<br>

lenses available: 16-35/2.8, 24-105/4, 17-55/EF-s, 50/1.4, 70-200/4 and an old 28-105/3.5-4.5 that still seems pretty good.</p>

<p>given the cautions I have read online, I was planning one camera and one or two lenses plus the 430EX flash.<br>

I am leaning towards the 5DII with 24-105 +/- the 16-35 for extra wide angle. I tend to zoom in on architectural details, but with the scenes I have seen online for barcelona and monterrat and nearby scenic places in Catalunya I wonder if I will kick myself if I leave the 16-35 at home.<br>

so:<br>

1) will the extra width and extra stop of the 16-35 be worth the weight in addition to the 24-105? Or should I stick to one lens and flash?<br>

2) Is there another camera/lens combo that you would take instead?</p>

<p>thanks for your opinions</p>

<p>thanks for your opinions. Both have aperture plugins available so that I can upload easily, and both are cheaper than what I was paying anyway for the mobileme service. I like that smugmug can act as an additional backup for photos through their amazon data collection, but I will try them both out on a trial basis.</p>

<p>Now that apple's mobileme is shutting down, I need to find another place to put pictures online. I am an amateur shooter, so I post family pictures, kids sporting events, etc. I use password protection as I don't feel comfortable posting pictures of my kids or other kids online without a password. Flickr, picasa, snapfish seem to require the viewer to register, which is cumbersome and annoying. I have looked at smugmug, zenfolio, but I know there are others. I couldn't figure out if photobucket allows password protection without actually registering and trying it out.<br>

Before I spend another several hours researching on the internet, I would love to learn from the experience people have had here so that I can narrow the field a bit.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

<p>Good advice. the 16-35 is a new acquisition. All my previous vacations with a DSLR were with a crop camera. I have been to California and Vermont with nothing wider than 24mm (x1.6) on a 20D. We are staying East/Central, but we will drive out to the west coast.You are all right. If I leave it at home, I am sure I would miss it. The world is too big to come back to Ireland without seeing some other places soon.</p>

<p>Hi<br>

I am taking my frist trip to Ireland. I will be traveling with the family and we will have a car. I am taking a 5d with 24-105 and 16-35, as well as a flash and a lightweight tripod. We will be doing the usual touristy drives and looking at the countryside and castles. Although I tend to be a zoom in shooter, I think Ireland will allow me to really enjoy going wide.<br>

In your opinion(s) is it worth it to lug around the 70-200/4 (non-IS) in addition? It fits in my backpack, so I could take it, but it is a rather heavy total combination of gear.</p>

<p>thanks for your help.</p>

<p>thanks for all the info. I have an iMac, so I am limited to USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 until I replace this machine in a few years. My photo library is only 120GB or so, but with RAW files can grow quickly. At this point I am not in danger of running out of space on the main HD and I am looking for backup externals, so either getting a dock and swapping out hard drives or having two portable externals would work best for me. I have read that the 2.5 laptop hard drives are more durable for taking out and about. (to take offsite)<br>

Of course, anything I can use without a separate power supply is bonus, since my desktop is cluttered enough as it is...</p>

<p>I am planning on getting a second external backup hard drive so I can have one off site and periodically swap the two.<br>

Is there any advantage to buying an external enclosure and drive separately versus buying a prepackaged external drive (portable or standard)? The prices seem fairly similar, though eventually I suppose as I replace the discs in the future, I may save a few dollars be going with option A.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

<p>24-105/L. Not a bad lens, but did not have the "WOW" factor in the images that came from it, like the 70-200/f4 I bought earlier. Also, I liked the long end, but often felt 24 was not wide enough on an APS crop sensor camera. I later bought the 17-55/2.8, which rarely comes off the camera now. I keep thinking about selling the 24-105, but then I wonder if I might venture to a full frame camera one day, or otherwise regret getting rid of it. </p>

<p>8 MP is plenty for a few 8x10s and viewing on the computer. Don't buy a new camera just so you can crop more. Just get a longer lens. You have numerous options within your up-to-$1700 budget. Consider getting the 24-70/2.8 or 24-105/4 for high quality and weight. Or the lighter lenses without fixed max aperture include the 17-85, 28-135, 18-200, and several others of various focal length ranges, though the longer ranges of focal length tend not to be the best lenses. I am sure there are comments about these lenses on photo.net and dpreview.com.</p>

<p>Personally, I find the 24-105 not wide enough often enough that I end up leaving it in the closet most of the time. The 17-50/2.8 is faster, wider (probably lighter) and ideal for most of what I shoot. The gap between 50-70 is not as important as the gap between 17-24.</p>

<p>Maybe different metering (spot, matrix, etc) for unevenly lit scenes. Also, aperture priority will try to meter for ambient light, but other settings will allow a dark background. I have noticed big differences, esp with the flash on.</p>

<p>I agree with TM Cleland.Buy a cheaper computer and save the money. In 3 years you can buy a better (bottom end) computer than the top end ones today.<br>

I think that the bias of this forum is to go for more power because:<br>

1) there are many professionals here who really need the power and speed<br>

2) There are some gearheads and techies here<br>

If the OP has been getting by with a g4 laptop. He will already get a big upgrade by going to base imac27 and spend $500 less than core i7. Or he could get a refurbished macpro and use his existing monitor for a few dollars more<br>

I am probably going to save $300-500 and but the base imac27 because it will still be faster than my dual 1.8 G5. I hate my existing monitor anway. I would get the lowest imac, but I just feel I have to have the big screen.</p>

<p>Actually i was planning to stick with the core 2 duo, but now I might spend more to get the i5, after reading these comments.<br>

Interestingly, the writer of macperformanceguide.com, suggested by Stephen above, concludes that upgrading processor is a waste of money.<br>

In the long run, if I do the math, I am better off buying the cheaper processor and upgrading more often than spending up now and trying to squeeze another 1-2 yrs out of the high end computer. </p>

<p>It sounds like the core 2 duo is a better value then , then either the i5 or i7.</p>

<p>If you were in the market for a new iMac computer which would be preferable? I guess what I am really asking, is it worth $300 to move from the imac 27 core2 3.06 to the imac 27 i5 processor and get the quad core?<br>

I am using a powermac g5 dual 1.8 (early 2005) with 3gb RAM and find the 20MB RAW files slow to load etc on aperture. I use aperture, ilife, some photoshop and might move up to final cut express next year. (from the old imovieHD). This slowing down and my desire for an upgrade in monitor is pushing me to buy a new iMac.<br>

I know that people on this forum have recommended the i7 version, but I am skeptical that the extra $500 over the base iMac 27 will really make a difference over the next 4-5 years. Buying the i7 chip is 30% more expensive than the base iMac 27. I mean it may be smarter to save that $500 now and upgrade a year earlier next time. (either way I expect to spend $100 on aftermarket RAM and go to 8GB)<br>

Since I have zero experience outside my own machine, your advice is appreciated. Thanks</p>

<p>I am not sure if this method will easily work for referenced files, but I rename files on import. My old 20D died, so I bought a 50D. Also, I have a canon P&S that I sometimes download into Aperture.<br>

So I use the aperture renaming options upon import so that I can use custom names(to name the event) with image date, or image year, or whatever I need and use the counter. The only disadvantage is that the files are numbered in the order you import, rather than the image time. However, Aperture can view by image date, so this can be overcome.<br>

I actually imported all my pics into aperture. previously I had them in folders through adobe bridge organized by month, and I could never find anything.</p>

<p>What are you trying to achieve with the "caption" ? I like to use the keywords, and have added several that work for how I will want to search for pictures. I also import pictures with custom names so that The filename will identify what trip, session etc, the pic comes from.</p>

<p>Doesn't pocket wizard now have a TTL system that sits on the hot shoe?</p>

<p>I think the answer is to spend less. The OP didn't say what she was used to using now. I have seen wonderful pictures from cheap cameras because the photographer was skilled.<br>

I think it is far better to get a cheaper body and use the extra money leftover to get</p>

<ul>

<li>a) lenses </li>

<li>b) a good tripod/head </li>

<li>c) a remote shutter release (especially if she likes those long exposures)</li>

<li>d) Flash</li>

<li>e) extra battery</li>

<li>f) filters</li>

<li>g) camera bag(s)</li>

</ul>

<p>All the extras add up. In a few years the next cameras will be even better.</p>

<p>I think it is a great choice for this type of subject. Small kids don't have patience and don't usually take instruction to pose well, so the ability to zoom in and out to compose the way you want helps. That being said, most of my portaits with this lens end up at 50-55mm. F 2.8 is usually enough for a shallow DOF. And I agree with what Scott wrote.<br>

Of course, sometimes I would like to have a longer lens ( which I do) and then I change lenses. I love the portaits from my 70-200/f4 (non-IS). And I think about buying the 50 1.4 one day...</p>

<p>As a corollary, what is better? The mac mini with fancy 24 inch LED monitor ($1800) where only the CPU will be replaced, or an iMac 24 which comes with a much bigger hard drive, faster processor and costs $1500.(but will need to be replaced in full at upgrade time.</p>