palfy

Go to pricegrabber.com (or any of your favorite deal site), search for 30D, and eliminate all vendors with less than 1000 reviews and less than a 4.0 rating. Then match the remaining vendors with resellerratings.com to pick the one you want to buy from. You might find some that are cheaper than B&H, but the savings will be in the single digits percentage-wise. E.g., I just ran the query and the subsequent matching. The cheapest one, including shipping, is buydig.com at $1299. Not a lot cheaper than B&H, so don't have any unrealistic expectations.

"Weight is also a concern, as I typically day trip with body, 19-35, 28-90 ans 70-200 which as you know is quite a weight already!"

 

Looks like you seem to leave your 100-400 at home a lot. If you do not think that you need it, sell it (I know it's a crime to sell an L lens :)) and spend the money to get a 5D and the 24-105L. I have both -- you won't regret it. In fact, when I have to go really light that's all I take - 5D plus 24-105. Covers 85% of my day-trip or even extended needs. Awesome combination.

eMule it. 16 months and 7000+ shots later, not a single problem with the hack. And yes, I used mirror lock-up a lot.

If you have the money to buy a 5D and assuming you are on Windows: Shell out $39 to get Downloader Pro from BreezeSys -- you can then embed any kind of IPTC metadata when you download your pictures. See <a href="http://www.outbackphoto.com/computers_and_more/veit_downloader_pro/essay.html">here</a> for a review

Actually, the correct article covering what worked for Michael Reichmann in Bangladesh is <a href="http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/bangla-worked.shtml">here</a>

One major factor will be how much gear are you willing to schlepp around. If all you do is shooting near your car, then heavy equipment won't matter. If you need to hike for mile to get to where you are, or if you will be on your feet moving around for an entire day, weight will matter.<p>

 

When I want to go light, I use a 17-40/f4L (to be replaced with a 24-105/f4L) and a 70-300/f4.5-5.6 DO IS (which has not the best rep, but is a good lens, if you know what you do, thus the ideal trade-off between quality and weight). Otherwise, I take my full equipment with me.<p>

 

Three good articles on "what's in the bag":

Michael Reichmann's <a href="http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/china-in-the-bag.shtml">China in a Bag</a> and <a href="http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/bangladesh-bags.shtml">Bangladesh in a Bag</a> (both essays explain why he took a lot of equipment and ended up not using most of it) and Uwe Steinmueller at <a href="http://www.outbackphoto.com/the_bag/uwes_cameras_2005/essay.html">Digital Outback Photo</a>. I recommend you read all three before deciding.

Assuming you are on Windows, have you tried the free Rawshooter Elements (at http://www.pixmantec.com), which allows you sharpening during raw conversion as well?

If you feel lucky or esp. daring today, you might want to go to Canon's site and download the manual. Unfortunately, it's posted only on Mo and Tu, so you might have to wait a bit longer

I tried the same combo (5D, 28-75 f2.8 Di) without lens hood and any filters. I also see some vignetting, the more the wider open and the shorter the focal length. It is not unexpected -- remember, Di means optimized for 1.6x cameras, which implies that corner performance on a FF sucks, which it does.

 

I'll sell my 28-75 f2.8 Di for sure. Don't know yet what to replace it with, but will use my 17-40/f4 L, 50/f1.8 and 70-300/f4.5-5.6 DO in the meantime...

Shred strategy by Canon! They will make their money not from FF, but from lens upgrades, since FF will ruthlessly expose the flaws of cheaper lenses. Just imagine getting your new FF camera and finding out that most of your existing lenses suck (relatively speaking at least -- just look at the lower left and right corner of the 5D landscape image in <a href="http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos5d/eos5d_sample-e.html">Canon's EOS 5D sample shot gallery</a> -- see the fall-off in quality even on a 17-40L/f4?) So the question to many Prosumers will be not only to go FF or stay APS, but to budget lens upgrades as well.

Is there any news/indication whether Canon will encrypt some of the

metadata for the 5D, similar to what Nikon did?

Since I do not know the topology of Bangkok, could someone recommend

vista points for shooting panoramas in Bangkok? Or would the air

quality be so bad that I should not even bother?

 

Thanks in advance

Palfy

Mark U,

 

why do you recommend not using filters? I frequently shoot with a polarizer, with both the 17-40L and primes and have not had any problems with that. Of course, I set my Canon to M, white balance to anything but Auto, focus manually and do not touch the polarizer (or zoom rimg) while shooting...

Clickable link: <a href="http://www.irtenkauf.com/photo/resources.html">http://www.irtenkauf.com/photo/resources.html</a>

Check out http://www.irtenkauf.com/photo/resources.html for links to various resources. The Panosaurus site has a very good description on how to best find the nodal point of your lens. Digital Outback Photo has a forum dedicated to stitching

I tried many and adopted Raw Shooter Essentials as well. It's the best one out there, at least IMHO. Certainly better than DPP that comes with the 20D, both from a user interface standpoint as well as the output it produces. It's more intuitive than Adobe's Camera Raw, with output quality on par. Better and faster than CaptureOne. Of course, Raw Shooter Essential being free is very helpful as well. Windows only, though.

Yes, I have one and I used it. What do you want to know about it?

To make it crystal clear

 

Option 1 would be Tamron 28-75 + Canon 100 macro. Option 2 would be Canon 17-40 + 50 prime + 60 macro

Rather than going for the 28-70L/f2.8, you could explore the following alternatives which would cost the same or less, but also allow you to buy a dedicated macro lens:

 

- Tamron 28-75/2.8 + Canon EF100/2.8 macro

- Canon 17-40L/f4 + Canon 50/f1.8 + Canon EF-S 60/macro

 

With the exception of the 60mm macro, I have all of these lenses and can recommend them all. Not a single one might be as good as the 24-70L/f2.8, but you'd get a dedicated macro lens + more flexibility.

I have all three lenses of option #1 -- you cannot go wrong with any of them!

 

However, I'd like to throw out another possibility. Since you have the 28-135 IS USM, you might have got used to shooting handheld with IS. Unfortunately, the 70-200L/f4 has no IS (and Canon certainly knows why they do not introduce one). If you need IS, go for the 70-300 DO IS, if you can afford it. I have both the 70-300DO and the 70-200L/f4. These days, I take approx. 85% of my shots with the 70-300DO. The 70-200L/f4 will only get used on a tripod, otherwise I do not even carry it any longer, since the 70-300DO delivers comparable or sometimes better results, IF (and that's a big IF for some) you know how to use it. It's twice as expensive as the 70-200, but worth every penny, if you want/need IS. Plus, it's light and it's black.

 

If IS does not matter to you, then get the 70-200L/f4.