Gary Naka

I need to go shopping. I really like my F2.

Send it in to a camera tech. I personally would not want to deal with removing the lever and knobs, and lifting the top cover.

Actually, IF I had a choice, I would use an 24/1.8 for my companion prime to the 18-135/140, on an APS-C camera. My logic is, IF I am shooting in low light, it is probably indoors. If I am indoors, it is probably a bit cramped. So a wide 24 would work better in a cramped environment than a normal 35 or a short tele 50. But Neither Canon nor Nikon makes a fast APS-C/DX 24/1.8 prime. So, I settled on the "normal" DX 35/1.8 for my Nikon. I think you have to do similar for Canon. In low light, I would not want to give up the stop of light from f/2.8 to f/2. On the short end, the 18-135 is f/3.5, only about a half stop from f/2.8. So why bother. But the 18-135 is 1-1/2 stops from f/2, and almost 2 stops from f1.8. And that is different enough to make a difference. @Jochen1664876637brings up a good point. The 18-55 and 18-135 are stabilized. The various APS-C fast primes are NOT stabilized, as far as I know. So for stationary subjects, a stabilized lens works just fine at slow shutter speeds, and you don't need the fast prime. But stabilization ONLY stabilizes for YOUR motion, not the subject's motion. You still need a decent shutter speed to deal with subject motion.

I would pair the 18-135 with a 35/2, for indoor photography. That is the same as my pair: 18-140 GP lens + 35/1.8 low light lens.

If you want more reach, the 18-135 is a great GP lens. I "think" it will work on your T2i. I use the Nikon version 18-140.

I get it. I still like using my old film cameras.

Oh "filing" is a totally different subject. I do not have a perfect solution (I wish), just one that generally works, for ME, and the way that I work. For school I file by the date of the event + description. Example the file structure in the attached pic. If you want a pic of a specific student; you have to tell me the sport they played in, their jersey number, and the games that they played in. If you just tell me the name, I have no way to find that student.

I don't know where you live and how you are going to Paris. But . . . My experience with TSA security in the US, was such that I will no longer take film on a plane. The TSA agent opened everything including sealed film pouches, and had I not yelled STOP, she was going to unroll my film, to make sure it was film. sigh Use whatever you are most comfortable with. Carry as little as you can. For ME, weight and bulk makes a difference. Yes you will have to compromise. F2 + 35-105 + 50/1.4 I shot with 64 or 100 speed film. Have your wife carry the G9. If you are not certain of the condition of the gear, send it in for a CLA. You don't want the camera shooting at the wrong exposure because the old lube is stiff.

Having said all that, when I get into my non-sport casual photo mode, I shoot in SINGLE SHOT mode. Sometimes I just take ONE shot of a subject, sometimes a few. No different than when I shot 35mm film. 2-1/4 or 4x5 different story. Then I spend a LOT more time on the ONE shot, as I rarely shot more than ONE pic of a subject. Unless I was JUST shooting that ONE subject, like a car. Even with digital, I still study the shot before I shoot. To try to get the best shot possible with the fewest shots. However, there are sometime when you just don't know. So I shoot several different shots from different locations/angles, then I can make up my mind later. Sometimes you may like one shot, and your client/others may like another shot.

LONG answer I may shoot from 500 to 2,000 frames at a game. Depending on what camera I use, what I am trying to shoot, how long the game runs, and the sport/game itself. It is, and I've had to figure out a few ways to streamline the process. I shoot in JPG, to avoid the extra time effort to do a RAW to JPG conversion. It is a quality compromise, purely to reduce processing time. I do it in a few passes #1 - QUICK cull to delete the obvious bad pics, like: the shot of my foot when I accidentally pressed the shutter, OOF shot of the back of ref when he ran in front of me, etc. #2 - I sort the pics by jersey number. This tells me two things, 1) who has a LOT of pics and 2) who has no/few pics For sports like tennis, without jersey numbers, I sort based on rank or court number. #3 - For 2-2, the players with few/no pics, I will go through ALL the pics looking for pics with them in it, and crop out a pic of them. Because I shoot for the Athletic Dept, my goal is to get pics of as MANY of the players as I can. #4 - For 2-1, the players with a LOT of pics. I will go through their pics and select the best 10-15 to edit. In a burst of 6 shots, I pick the ONE best shot. This way I avoid wasting time editing pics that won't make the final cut anyway. One reason for editing 10-15 is that sometimes I don't find a problem with a pic, until I edit the pic. So with extra pics, I have a few extra that I can reject. #5 - When I edit the pics, I do it FAST. I rarely spend more than a minute on a pic; level, crop, adjust brightness, rename when I save. 1 min per pic x 120 pics = 2 hours. #5a - I put the jersey number on the front of the file name like for player #5 = 05-ND1_0400.JPG. This keeps ALL the pics of a player grouped together, so it is easy to find a specific players pics; for the parents, the AD, and me. #5b - I changed the file number saved by the camera, so that the specific camera is identified. Example for Nikon, default is NDS_1234.JPG. I change it to NDx_1234, where x = the camera number. Example ND1, ND2, etc. So by looking at the file name I can tell what camera shot the pic. This is important when I have to troubleshoot a problem, as I have to know what camera to look at. #6 - When I assemble the pics for upload, I limit the number of pics per player to 5-10, to limit the size of the upload. I found an upload of about 100 seems to be the best size. For large teams like football, with up to 30 players, it will be maybe 5 pics per player. For small teams like golf, with only 5 players, it will be 10-15 pics per player. For the large teams, I will often split the upload into two; 1) the individual pics, and 2) multiple player pics and other pics. Following are two examples for football: Individuals https://carlmontathletics.org/photos/2022-23-football-varsity-vs-santa-clara-17-7-individuals Multiples https://carlmontathletics.org/photos/2022-23-football-varsity-vs-santa-clara-17-7-multiple-others And for Golf: https://carlmontathletics.org/photos/2022-23-golf-girls-vs-hillsdale This is the school's athletic dept picture page. https://carlmontathletics.org/photos Game pictures without a name in the title are usually my pictures. The students put their name into the title. I made some YT videos that I use for my class, which may also help you: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeKO26zuJMZusXuSalzFkUn61DciD7aPq whew

Do you think and plan before you shoot, or just shoot? There IS a difference. Example 1 If I am shooting a batter and trying to get the ball touching the bat, I have a goal of a specific shot. vs. just shooting pics of the batter, and see what I get. OK both are max FPS shooting, so you are mechanically doing the same thing. Example2 When I shoot a golfer and I want to capture the club/ball contact, I will shoot at 50fps. But JUST for that shot. IOW I have a specific reason to set up that way. Normally I would be shooting at 10fps or less. I don't shoot everything at MAX frame rate.

It depends . . . If you THINK about the shot, then film or digital, no difference. But as was mentioned, digital makes it "free" to take several alternate pics, vs. just ONE shot. I you use digital as "spray and pray," then film gets in the way of that kind of shooting. The problem that I have with S&P is that the photog uses volume to make up for lack of skill. "If I shoot enough, there should be something good in there." Now for sports, for ME, different story. Digital and the ability to take LOTS of pics and throw out LOTS of rejects, makes getting the gems a lot easier. Is it S&P, not really, cuz you have to still know what you are doing. Ever try shooting baseball to get the ball "just" touching the bat. There is a LOT of trial and error to get that shot. And I don't have to worry about hitting the end of the roll of film, in the middle of a play, and missing the key moment. About people photography, specifically portraiture. In the past, good studio photographers would spend time with the subject getting the light just right. Today, in the few chain studios that I saw. They use an fixed umbrella, take a shot, and "next customer." I see very little skill.

I suggest STUDYING the specs for the tripods. Many years ago, when I was looking at tripods, I was surprised that the difference in weight between AL and CF tripods was not as much as I was expecting. Yes CF was lighter, but not by the SIGNIFICANT amount that I was led to expect. The other item is the HEAD. My tripod heads vary CONSIDERABLY in weight. When I expect to carry the tripod for an extended period, I use the LIGHTEST head that I have. Not my best head, but at least I can carry it. When I travel, my "travel" tripod is a compromise. It is not as tall as my home tripod, nor is it as STURDY. And it has an integrated head, so I am stuck with that head. But it works, for me, so far. I use the camera bag on the tripod technique to add stability. But just don't overload the tripod. A tip for the "lighter" tripods, is to make sure that the camera+lens is balanced on the tripod. If the camera+lens is front heavy, with the camera attached to the tripod, then you have to JAM the elevation lock TIGHT to keep the camera from drooping. Been there, done that. Luckily I did not strip the threads on the head.

That is a pretty big jump from a P&S. I suggest you find a local camera shop and PAY them to teach you how to use the camera and lens. It is NOT going to be a short lesson. I think you have a LOT to learn. How Auto ISO works, differs by the camera brand and model, and this can get confusing. In some cameras, it will NOT raise the ISO until the shutter speed drops to 1/focal length of the lens. So if you set the lens to 500mm. In P or A mode, the ISO will not rise until the shutter speed drops below 1/500 sec. Then the camera will raise the ISO to maintain a shutter speed of 1/500 sec. I do not remember how Auto ISO behaves in S mode. In M mode the camera will adjust the ISO to maintain correct exposure at the set aperture and shutter speed.

A push/pull lens is great to shoot sports, I like my old push/pull zooms. But maybe not so good to shoot portraits. YOU have to think about how YOU will use the lens. Some people like me love push/pull zooms, others HATE them. A push/pull lens usually does not have a tripod collar/foot, so if you want to use it on a tripod, you may not be able to mount it on a tripod. Old advice, "if you have it, you can use it, if you do not have it, you cannot use it." For thinking of the future, you want the AF-S version of the lens. The mechanical AF lenses while still good, NEEDS to have a camera with an AF motor in the body. 1) As for how fast they autofocus, I've put a mechanical AF lens on a pro body, and the lens will AF as fast as any AF-S lens that I have. It comes down to the motor in the body. 3) As for your flash, the lens should not make a difference. 4) For OLD lenses, if the AF-S unit fails, Nikon may not have the spare parts to replace it, and the lens is effectively dead.

A public school does not have deep pockets. So they have to be frugal in spending money. The yearbook class had both Canon and Tamron/Sigma lenses. The Tamron/Sigma lenses helped to stretch their limited budget. Until this is clarified I am waiting. If Canon definitely will NOT allow 3rd party RF lenses, then I will NOT recommend Canon R cameras for schools. Pity because 2 of the 3 photo groups at my school (yearbook and journalism) are Canon dSLR shops. Sports Leadership is a Nikon shop. The problem for Canon is, if an organization jumps ship, from Canon dSLR to Nikon, Sony or Fuji mirrorless, it is very unlikely that they will later switch to Canon mirrorless. That is the same reason why the yearbook class stayed with Canon and did not switch to Nikon, when I came on-board. Switching systems is painful. As much as I wanted to switch to Nikon, the best decision for the school, was to stay with Canon.

Same here. Some said EVERYTHING goes through X-ray. Hand inspection obviously was too much work for them. Though some were good about it, and did the hand inspection.

At least you knew what they were doing. My experience was with an inspector that just started ripping open sealed Kodak 120 film boxes and then ripping open the inner foil pouch. I had to YELL "STOP!!!" to get her to stop, and tell me why she was ripping open the film without first telling me. Because the next thing she was going to do was to pull out the film and unroll the film, to make sure it was film. <sigh> She did pull out the roll, but at least did not unroll the film, like she was originally going to do. I don't want to think about the disaster she would have created, if I had brought my view camera and a box of 4x5 sheet film. That ended my air travel with film. I switched to digital soon after.

Both the Z5 and Z7xx are FX cameras, so the sensors are the SAME size. If you have the DX Z50, the difference to FX is 1.5x, not 2x.

Do you NEED HIGH ISO for what you do? From my research the Z6ii has the best high ISO. The Z9 is closer to the Z7ii. My need is for night/gym sports under poor lighting, so the Z6ii was the winner. Still have not pressed the [buy] button.

I had that problem when I first started 35mm with my own camera. I took it into a tech a couple of times, and finally gave up, it was just going to get something inside again, and I could not stop it from happening. I think the dust/dirt got in the body when I changed lenses, then got around the sides of the focusing screen to the top of the focusing screen.

Does it still work, on your 24 inch rail?

I would NOT have forced it in. Now you have to remove it, without damaging the camera, to check where it is binding, and repair that. The rail on that end could have been damaged and distorted in shape. Gud Luk

Two different types of lenses The 28-300 is the WIDE range single lens. As people said, great for travel and when you don't want to lug a bunch of gear, or can't stop to change lenses (or you get left behind by the constantly moving tour group). There may be times when you WANT the ability to zoom from wide to tele, without having to switch lenses. That is why I like my DX 18-140, and my m43 12-100 The 70-300 with it's more traditional range likely has better image quality. You have to research this. Make a chart with the factors of each lens, rank them, and decide for yourself. 28-300 70-300 item x y weight x y Having said that, there may be a good reason to KEEP both lenses. If they solve different problems, one can't really replace the other.

WIDE dynamic range is hard to handle. Sometimes you will be reduced to what do you want more the background or the speaker/subject. When in doubt, take different exposures, and decide when you get home on the computer. As was said, a flash would have been a good addition in this case. BUT you got to watch out for the shadow and red-eye. Especially red-eye. yuk. A flash is not a silver bullet. While matrix meters are neat and do a great job, they can still be fooled by both dark and bright background. I have lots of shots where the matrix meter failed to deal with the lighting of the scene, and I had an over or under exposed subject. The more you shoot, the more you learn. Keep good notes. Next time use a flash, and see what you learn.