richard_hasty

I'd like to buy a camcorder with progressive scan recording

capability. This feature used to be available on new camcorders

costing less than $1000, but now it is only available on much more

expensive models. As a result, I am looking at buying an older Canon

Elura 2 or 20.

What's likely to go wrong with DV camcorders? Do the heads and tape

loading mechanisms wear out, and how much are repairs for things like

that?

There's a free standalone program for many raw files, but it is only distributed as C source code. The guy who wrote it will make a executable file for a fee. I use it under linux and it seems to be much faster for the Canon G2 files than the Canon software. If you have a compiler it would be worth giving it a try.

It is available at:

http://www2.primushost.com/~dcoffin/powershot/

I thought it might be useful to point out that there are accessibility options in recent versions of windows that would help out with the type being too small to read. I have perfect vision, but sometimes due to poor design I have to use them to read some web sites. One of the easiest things to do is change the text size for your browser. There is also a program called magnify that comes with Windows XP. It will apparently magnify a section of the screen, making it easier to read.

I am sure Macs have something similar.

I hope this suggestion is helpful.

These directions were great, but I have an additional question. I have the 100 mm f3.5 lens, so that is what I refer to below.

The question is regarding how well the range finder can be calibrated over the entire range. The "far focus" screw described above sets the point at which the range finder stops moving. If I set the far focus at 10 meters, anything farther than 10 meters away can't be lined up in the rangefinder. If I set it at 5 meters I can't line up anything farther than 5 meters away in the range finder... and so on.

The "close focus" described above adjusts the coupling between the range finder and the lens in the way one would expect. The problem is that the range finder doesn't have the same "slope" as the lens. If I make 1.2 meters line up ( the second marked distance), then 5 meters is pretty far out of whack.

Is this normal operation for this camera? Is there some magic combination of settings that will do better than this? Have I missed something obvious?

I ended up using the "close focus" adjuster to set 5 m to be accurate, because that's about the distance I think I will want to use most.

I just bought a Mamiya Press Universal, and I'm quite happy with it

except that the range finder is off. I took some pictures of meter

sticks at 45 deg to the film plane to figure out what's wrong. It

looks like the distance markings on the lens are OK, but the range

finder doesn't agree with them. The range finder indicates a

distance of 1.7m when it should be indicating 2m.

Would this be a simple thing to adjust, or should I send it out to

somebody? Can you reccomend somebody who works on these cameras?