jan_thomas1

Bob's right. The physical format of these disks is different. If your drive didn't understand +R

then it would have rejected it as it would not be able to read it (you do know that blank disks

aren't really blank right? :-))

It's likely that your drive was designed as -R and during production the firmware was

updated to include +R, but who knows, this is Apple we're talking about.

What they said, though I might add - If you only have 1 copy of your data which is on the

external drive, I wouldn't format the external drive immediately after copying the data,

because that's inviting disaster. What I would do is make a copy of the data on your

internal drive (assuming you have space), THEN MAKE ANOTHER BACKUP - either buy or

borrow another USB or FireWire external drive and use that to make another backup before

finally reformatting the external drive and copying your data back. This will take extra time

to do, but if your data is important...

I read that the lightroom libraries are compatible, but I haven't seen any real world tests

yet. Besides, it doesn't really matter that much because with lightroom you are still able to

get at your images in the normal way if you had a problem (browsing through the folders I

mean).

I'm a bit late on this one I think, but who said "Poverty is inspiring"?

Anyway, as someone who hates their job (an I.T techie) and would love to just walk out and start taking pictures for a living, I think that everyone just needs to find the job that they love, regardless of how well or poor it pays. A job you hate but stick to, will eventually destroy you. In one way or another.

>Have a 24. Just push it back a little farther on the table. No issues yet.

Haha. Or buy a 17" and bring it closer... :-)

Thanks for your responses re: the screen quality.

Getting the 24" may be a good move, but the 20" iMac is probably the best model that I can afford.

At the moment I am running a G4 mini with 1GB, any iMac is going to be a HUGE upgrade ;-)

I'm considering buying the 20" iMac, and have a question about the built in

screen. I have read that the quality of the ACD's are excellent and many serious

amatuers/pro's use them for professional work. Now I am not a pro, and not

nearly serious enough as an amatuer so the point may be moot, but I would like

to know how the screens compare. I doubt that they use the same panels, and I

can't find the monitor specs of the iMac on the Apple store.

Anyone have any experience of the two (20" iMac and 20" ACD)?

Mac's aren't expensive. Good PC's can cost the same or even more. It's just that Apple

don't make cheap and nasty. It's very easy to build yourself a cheap PC from components (I

have built 100's over the years), and no matter how much care you take selecting parts

and putting it all together, the quality of the finished item relies on factors you cannot

control.

I was recently looking at the new MacBookPro, and considering what you get for your

money. Because I work for IBM, I'm surrounded by Thinkpads at work. So, I decided to do

some research into what TP compares to the MBP, and I found the IBM Thinkpad Z60

series. This machine stacks well against the MBP because the two machines are similarly

featured (and share much of the same hardware), they are the best in their field (the

Thinkpad is one of the most reliable and best built PC laptops ever), and have more or less

the same price tag. After looking very carefully, my opinion is that the MBP just pips the TP

at the post based on the specs, (MBP's are slightly better for the money).

However - I cannot afford either, so I'm instead my next machine is probably going to be

the 20" iMac. If you don't need the portability (I don't), the 20" iMac is probably the best

value in the entire Apple range. :-)

Actually, ERR99 is an endefined error. It means something is wrong but the camera doesn't

know what. There are many things that can cause this.

'Sorry to be on the wrong side of the bell curve in terms of my knowledge of how to

properly use my camera, but what is meant by "sorting out the room's white balance"'

If the room is lit by daylight, then there should be no problem, as long as you have enough

of it. Basically you need to know which types of lights there are (if any) in the room,

whether they are going to be on/off, and if theres anything in the room which may reflect

and possible alter the colour of those lights. I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet,

but SHOOT RAW with LARGE JPG! Then you don't have to worry about the colour balance

until PP time.

USE a tripod. Also, if you have one, use the remote, and maybe use mirror lockup (custom

function). Once the group composition is how you want it, dont eyeball them from the VF,

but stand back and just watch them closely, and fire the remote as and when you want to

(take lots and lots of pics).

As to the lens, I would say that the 85 will probably get the best IQ if you have the room to

back up a bit, but any of your lenses at f8 will be pretty good.

Good luck, and post the pics when you're done ;-)

If you're gonna buy a new Sandisk card (and why not), don't buy them off ebay unless you

KNOW the seller. There have been reports of fake Sandisk cards being sold by high-feedback

sellers, and the cards tested much slower than the genuine items (although ISTR that the fake

card I saw was SD not CF). Just thought it worth mentioning.

Remove lens, CF card, and battery. Leave in a dry and slightly warm place for 24 hours. Clean lens contacts with a cloth or cue tip and eclipse/alcohol.

If the camera doesn't turn on after this, even without CF card and lens attached, then it needs to go to a Canon service centre. Don't tell them you got it wet, and maybe it will get repaired FOC.

If you're going to go digital I would say buy a new end of stock 20D at a fantastic price, and put the rest of the money into starting a decent lens collection. BTW, all the focal lengths that you are used to will become 1.6x longer with this body. If this is a problem then look around for a used but good condition 1D/1Ds series camera.

The 350D (rebel XT) is also a good choice, and coming from the AE1/A1 you will probably not get feature overload! but the body is small and plastic and you may not like it. Best bet is to handle these cameras before making a decision. Good luck.

I have owned EOS 5 (A2E), 10s and 650. All were decent cameras, but I would say go for the 5 before the 10s, and the 10s before the 650.

Other similar models would be the 100 (very much like the 10) and the 620 (a slighly better camera than the 650 and a couple more features (like an illuminated LCD panel)).

In fact the damn 650 got me hooked on this expensive photography hobby. I bought that body because I wanted a camera that would be good for astro work (bulb mode doesn't drain the battery), but I could use for general photograghy...

You definately cannot rely on the ruler test, its just not accurate enough. Also do you have access to any other lenses, just so that you can get an idea whether its the body or the lens(es).

I used the focus21.pdf method last night as an additional confirmation of the Bob Atkins method which I did a week or so ago. The results are the same whichever method I used:

Nifty Fifty: ~5-10mm BF

Sigma 17-70: ~10-15mm BF

Tokina 12-24: ~5-10mm BF

Sigma 70-300: ~10-15mm BF

This points to the camera being the culprit (10D). Luckily for me I found a Canon authorised service centre in the Czech Republic that can recal my body for about 25UKP. It's going in this week.

Anesh, I have bought one, and have just shot a few hundred pics this week in Crete (I'm writing this while waiting for my delayed flight home :-( ). Hopefully there will be some keepers, if so I'll upload them to my flickr gallery that I started before I left at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jan_thomas. Check there in a few days.

I do like the lens, and the focus is a little stiff, but like everyone says, it will loosen up over time, especially if you consider that this lens has a lock on it to stop it creeping from 17mm, and that I was riding a quad bike with this thing round my neck for 2 hours without the lock engaged, and it stayed the whole time at 17mm... give it a few months and I'll probably have to start using it ;-)

To be honest, you're not going to get much quality in $500, so it might be better to

narrow your choice to one quality zoom. The new Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5 is about $400,

the range is great and the quality is fantastic for the money. You only get f/2.8 to about

20mm though, at portrait lengths (~50-70) its going to be f/4 - f/4.5.

If you're serious about portraits then I would add the 50mm f/1.8 mkII for about $70? or if

you are really serious then forget the Sigma and get the much better 50mm f/1.4 USM

which I think runs about to ~$300-350.

Good luck.

I have the 50 1.8, but if I had L glass either side like you, I would buy the 1.4 instead.

If you really want a 24-70 f/2.8 without paying Canon prices, look at the Sigma 24-70, theres a bunch of reviews/discussion on it here:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=81291