demetri_p.

I would highly recommend the KM 18-70 esp at 52$. Reasonably sharp, good range, fast AF. Just not very large aperture (f5.6 most of the way). For brighter and sharper wide angle look into the KM/tamron 17-35 f2.8-4 or the older tamron 20-40 f2.8-3.5 (which I have and love).

If you have the kit lens and just want to dabble a little bit in really wide angle I highly recommend the olympus wcon-08 converter. (olympus sells these on ebay for 50$ or so). Turns your 18mm kit lens into a 18*1.5*0.8=22mm equiv super wide with passable optical perf even to the corners. Filter diameter is 55mm so it fits on the kit lens without an adapter ring. Also, it should work well on your 24mm prime.

Well you list dcresource in your title but dcreviews in the body of the message. It doesn't look like there is a dcreviews.com. Dcresource on the other hand, I find to be excellent and unbiased. The reviews tend to be less formal than those in dpreview or imaging-resource but very useful and balanced. I own enough equipment that has been reviewed there and I agree with the reviewer in almost every detail.

One point most people probably dont consider is that of battery charge shelf life. I now favor cameras that have Li-ion ability since I like to "grab and go" with a P&S camera. The canon only takes rechargeable NICDs or NiMHs. The fujis are Li-ion as are most proprietary batteries but the f30 battery is more potent than most. The Li-ions keep their charge much longer (months versus days) so you dont need to wonder if you put the AAs into the charger or not. Too bad the canons dont physically take the rechargeable CR-V3s which are a Li-ion in the form of a pair of AAs.

Do the grips look like Sigma grips to anyone else?

It's that lens. Other's have reported the same. I had one and at wide angles at 2.8 it could not focus accurately with neither my 5d or 7d. Those bodies focus great with any of my other of over a dozen lenses incl. a couple of old sigma primes (incl. a 28f1.8). I had bought it from cameta camera who is near sigma USA's HQ and I suspect that sigma knew and had cameta dump them on the market. Instead of dealing with sigma warranty service I just returned the darned thing and saved myself endless frustration.

Try a Fuji F30 in a store. Small, great lcd, very long battery life, very fast af, low noise and gives resolution closer to an 8 megapixel camera. I've owned a lot of digicams and 4 current dslrs and most were good but I love how close my f30 gets to a dslr. A dslr will give you even lower noise (~ 2 stops) and lens/flash flexibility but you pay in bulkiness even with a rebel xt or similar small dslr.

I use a fuji E510 (28-96mm equiv) among others which has an optical VF and gives pretty good quality with reasonable noise levels. I think it's still available new (although it's on its way out). There are reviews on steves-digicams and dcresource.

I think this has been frequently posted before but if I didn't already have a 7d and was limited to 1K I would get this: <a href="http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4898002">http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4898002</a> and use the left over 300 for a good lens (like a 28-75 f2.8 or a 17-35 f2.8).

<P>

Even if Sony fails completely, they probably wouldn't get out for a couple of years or three. Truth is no one knows since they've barely begun. On the other hand, it's extremely unlikely Canon is leaving the dslr market any time soon. If the beyond 3 year time frame worries you a lot, then I think you have your answer.

Should we assume that you've used the similar feature on dpreview? Hopefully, you're aware that you're reinventing the wheel.

 

One criteria that I like and is missing from your list is focal length limits (optical zoom range is not very useful).

A caveat to what I said above:

<LI>Converter affects image quality only for MD on Maxxum dslr not Olympus

Technically possible but for most not worth it. Summary of reasons:

<LI>needs expensive converter;

<LI>converter impacts image quality

<LI>accurate focus is harder on a 7D than your x700 (harder still on a 5D)

1. Make sure it is mounted correctly. There just might be enough minute differences between your 5d and the lens that jiggling it firmly after it's mounted may seat it correctly.

 

2. Try it on yet another camera (maybe a newer film body than the 3xi) and see if it's compatible.

 

3. Send it back or re-sell it (who knows how much you'd get though?)

 

4. Rechip it yourself if it's worth a lot. You would need to find a broken lens to buy cheaply. A junk minolta AF 50/1.7 should work fine. The circuitry comes off the back where the contacts are. Only potential problem I can think of is a motorized flash's lens not being set wide enough with this scheme.

 

Hope this helps. Let us know what happens...

The only way to avoid this is to use an old fashioned thyristor based flash with a 20$ adapter. See for example a <a href="http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00FYwb" >current thread</a> regarding the fs1100 adapter.

<P>

Some subjects are more prone to blinking than others; my 2yr old is especially prone but I am very happy to use the thyristor flash or using natural light with a f1.8 lens.

Well, I just looked at some test shots I did with the vivitar on a canon rebel (nikon MF mount) and no doubt it's a nice lens. Wide open it's a tad soft (not unexpected for a fast zoom) with a very nice "old-tyme" glow about it. At f5.6 it's nicely sharp with good solid contrast. Also, the vivitar is mechanically excellent with smooth operation and is very solid feeling. I use the minolta AF 28-85 on my 7d (I assume it's the same optically as the MD version) and IMHO for comparison the 28-85 is sharper and has much stronger contrast/colors so it depends on what look you want.

The Sunpak 383 works very well on the 7d and 5d via the fs1100. It seems quite stable up there. Another side benefit for me is not having the preflash cause blinking in sensitive individuals like my 2 yr old who has her eyes closed in 80% of shots with on-board flash. I will get a tiny little thyristor flash to lessen the profile for those times when I don't want to intimidate with the 383 but still need reliable flash.

I had this lens centuries ago and found it only was recognized by the 5000/7000/9000 series and nothing newer. The minolta 70-210 f3.5-4.5 would be a good contender but is about twice that on the used market. You might want to try the old 100-200 f4.5 which is available very inexpensively (got mine for 45$) and is virutally indistinguishable from my 70-210 f3.5-4.5. AF speed is not really too different either on the 7d/5d.

Depends on the film/lens combination. Assuming no scanning; just optical enlargements: test for 35mm show line pairs per mm resolution in the high 50s range for the best lenses and a sharp film and 40 or so for mediocre lenses.

 

We can expect a medium format lens/film combo resolving an excellent 40 lpmm to have a pixel reolution of (56*40*2)*(56*40*2)=20Mpix or a mediocre folder stopped down with maybe 25 lpmm giving a resolution of (56*25*2)*(56*25*2)=7.8 Mpix.

 

Res tests on digicams done on dpreview and imaging-resource show about 1800 lines height for 6 mpix models and about 2000 lines height for 8Mpix models (with the best lenses). This corresponds to (1800*1)*(1800*1.5)=4.8Mpix resolution for a 6Megapixel 3:2 sensor and (2000*1)*(2000*1.5)=6Mpix resolution for an 8 megapixel 3:2 sensor. The ratio of pixels on the chip to resolution is about 6/4.8=1.25 and 8/6=1.33.

 

Using the conversion above for final resolution vs. sensor pixels we get the MF camera with 40 lpmm giving 20*1.3=26 Megapixel digital sensor equivalent Mpixels and our little old folder with possible 30 lpmm yielding around 7.8*1.3=10 Megapixel digital equivalent.

 

The short and fast answer thus is between about 10 and 25 megapixels but someone asking a question like that will likely not care about all the caveats and conditions for that to be true. Like that this is for ideal optical enlargements. Like that optical enlargements are not usually ideal. Like, if you use a scanner, this is highly dependent on how good a scan you can get which is a difficult art in its own right. Like, the aesthetics of film grain which is emphasized by most scanning and so on...

I don't think the venus II does much for noise removal. Are you thinking it may be like fuji's f10? - forget it. I own the 3mpixel fz3 with the venusII whose noise is high and from what I've seen the noise is similarily high in the rest of panasonic's current crop (200 is the max iso I go for). Other than that and the typical P&S compression levels, I'm really pleased with my panny; great colors, speedy operation, fantastic lens and range and image stabilizer and very good ergonomics. For high iso with stabilizer and that range and quality you're looking to step way upp to a minolta dslr or a canon or nikon with stabilized lens.

Sorry for yet another followup but after doing some searching it looks like only leica-R mount adapters are commonly available. If that's true, canon may not hold any special place for you and your leica screwmount lenses.

Also, I hope you are aware that your 21mm will be about 33mm equivalent on a 35mm camera.

No, but I have used a few manual nikon lenses on a 300D and I really liked the results and the handling of the combination. The only catch is that since the screen is small, focusing is good but not great. I've read tha people have also used leica lenses with success. You can do this with the canon bodies since their physical lens mount dimensions make this possible unlike most other dslr mounts.

Remember that if you like manual focus primes, the canon bodies can (with cheap mechanical adapters) take all those great leica screwmount and nikon lenses of yesteryear and meter properly. You may like the 350d since you may be shocked by the 3 sec. turn on of the 300d coming from film cameras. It is also smaller so you should see how it handles in a store. Of course, all of the dslrs you mention are capable of producing the results you require it's just a matter of how you like the particular bodies and their systems.

 

All manufacturers offer cheap 50mm f1.8 that are capable of outstanding results. Beyond that, the prices usually start climbing so you have to pick carefully depending on your shooting. I think most people would not disagree that you can print at least 11x14 inches with 6-8mpixels. "Bridge" cameras are a varied lot. There are probably exeptions but these cameras tend to have high noise so that only iso200 is usable, higher jpeg compression artifacts, slower operation than a dslr and often no optical viewfinder just an EVF like a video camera. You can get good results but there are more limitations.

The AF is activated via a separate button on the lens with an annoying beep for focus confirmation. The button is positioned so that it falls nicely under the left thumb as you cradle the lens. It has a continuous mode that tracks AF without beeping as long as the button is held down. It also has a PC connector but I haven't tried it.

 

After playing with it for a few minutes it seems that its AF spot is about 25% wider than the microprism spot at 28mm. Unfortunately, I don't think the AF sensor changes it's view when you zoom in since it has a small fixed lens over the sensor. This is probably why at 70mm the focus area seems to be a large part of the frame; mine is weighted to the right maybe due to some misalignment?

 

I also noticed that it is the same lens as the MD 28-70 with the same markings, hardware and seemingly glass as the Minolta with the exception that the coatings are different. I seem to remember when using it that the optical performance was very good at 28 and ok at 70.

I have the aforementioned vivitar 28-70 and I just poppped some batteries in it. The AF seems pretty positive as long as it is pointed at something other than a blank wall with no hunting (I'm using it at full tele). When it can't make out an AF target it does nothing; it doesn't move the lens at all. Speedwise it reminds me of a 7000. I hope that helps (not sure why though?).

One thing to remember about the s30 that most people don't realize is that it's iso ratings are 1 to 1.5 stops too conservative. In other words iso 400 on an s30 will give you shutter speeds equivalent to iso 800-1000 on cameras with accurate iso ratings. I couldn't believe it either until I tested it multiple times against my film slrs at the time. That would make it's iso 800 around 1600-2200 which is incredible but the noise makes it unusable at that setting. iso400 is passable to my eye, though.

 

Anyway, I did end up getting a fuji f10 and am thrilled with it despite the lack of exposure and focus controls. I find it to be fast with outstanding resolution and long battery life which are the downsides of the s30. I believe these two digitals are the best in the high iso game without going to an dslr, almost any of which will give you much better noise control.