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brian_keyashian

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Posts posted by brian_keyashian

    Help with traveling

    in Travel

    Posted

    Thanks for the good advice everyone! I think I'm going to have to take a trip to a camera store and see what type of bag is the most comfortable...but I'm leaning towards just using my backpack...haha i already wear it all the time at school and it saves some money that I can spend on some good food and wine.

     

    Stefan, I have heard biking through France is a lot of fun and I plan to rent a bike in at least one of the wine regions. Let's hope your camera is never stolen

     

    Manuel, I've never heard of doing that...I certainly would never expect anything very expensive to be in a grocery bag

     

    John L., my cousin did the very same thing and she was not so lucky...I guess it's just luck of draw

     

    John H., I will definitely look into those backpacks. Sorry about the confusing post title. I had initially meant to post to be a general request for advice and maybe recommendations of places to travel to...but I was also worried about camera theft and I figured this would be a good place to ask

     

    Brian

    Help with traveling

    in Travel

    Posted

    Thanks for the tips!

     

    Francois, I have the sigma 17-70. It's a nice lens that is a little over 3 inches long (very rough estimate...haha I couldn't find a ruler) without the lens hood on. Although it extends about twice as long when fully zoomed.

     

    Vin, thanks for the museum recommendation. It looks awesome! haha...there's also a major photography exhibition in Arles i'm hoping to get to.

     

    Brian

    Help with traveling

    in Travel

    Posted

    Hey everyone,

     

    I'll be traveling to France in July and would like some advice/tips on taking

    pictures. Over the course of 3 weeks I'll travel to most of the major regions by

    rail. I have a canon digital rebel (the older one) and a single sigma lens with

    what I think is plenty of memory. I'm a bit worried about theft so can you guys

    recommend some tips to protect myself? I don't have a camera bag...until now

    I've used a standard school backpack. Should I get a camera bag or is a backpack

    fine?

     

    Thanks!

    Printers

    in Accessories

    Posted

    Hey Everyone,

     

    I was recently given a printer by a neighbor and while shopping for ink I

    realized the printer was discontinued and that ink is very hard to find. Can

    anyone recommend a good cheap printer capable of making decent quality photos? I

    print mostly black and white text for class and print very few photos or colored

    pictures so extremely high print quality is not necessary, but I would like the

    ability to print photos.

     

    Thanks,

    Brian

    I'm looking for a big external hard drive to store all my images

    in Accessories

    Posted

    in all honestly, pick the cheapest option. other than that everything is pretty much the same. just remember that all hard drives eventually fail (usually after 3-5 years) so either back up to DVD's (they fail eventually too, esp if scratched) or back up to an alternate hard drive. RAID 1, although ideal, can be expensive for external systems. RAID 1 (aka mirroring) automatically stores one copy of all of your data on each hard drive. if one fails, you have a duplicate which can be used to recover the raid 1 array. (raid 0 (aka striping) won't help you as it just spreads half the data to each hard drive. if one hard drive fails you lose the data on both of them).

     

    if you don't need instantaneous access to your backups, the cheapest option is properly stored dvd-r's that will last 20 years or so. specially made archival dvd-rs are supposed to last 100+years, although these are considerably more expensive.

     

    Brian

    Can't pick a tripod that's right for me

    in Accessories

    Posted

    i use the Bogen-Manfrotto 725B Digi Tripod. it has an integrated ballhead so it doesn't meet that requirement. but it is definitely light and easy to travel with. i'm also not sure if you can attach spikes to it. btw...the travel bag it comes with is worthless unless your like 4 ft. tall...the strap is just too short.

     

    hope this helps, Brian

    I think I've been infected with the "lens-disease". Help!

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    Jeff,

     

    I have the sigma 17-70 and really like it. It covers a really useful focal range (for me at least). I haven't noticed any major quality issues (very slight barrel distortion at the wide end when wide open is about it). It is a bit slow at the long end, so you'd need to use flash in dimly lit indoor settings. And for around $350 it will leave you plenty of money left over to buy the 70-200 L or the 70-300 IS, both of which are excellent lenses in my opinion.

     

    Brian

    Question: who needs a ``Superzoom``?

    in Accessories

    Posted

    This whole argument is pointless. whether or not you need/prefer a superzoom camera is an entirely subjective question. Ed, you seem to be talking about it as if there is an objective answer. I would say most serious (and casual) photographers have well over the reach of 12X available to them. Whether it is one camera/one lens as in the FZ like your talking about or in an SLR with multiple lenses. Which solutions is best for you depends on what you do with the shots. I highly doubt you'll find any of the pictures in a magazine taken with a compact, consumer grade digicam...the quality just isn't anywhere near close to what a high-end SLR with multiple lenses is capable of. But if you only plan on posting to the internet either would be fine becuase you have to shrink the the size and quality of the image down so much that any quality differences becomes unnoticeable.

     

    As for the 0 or 1 debate for primes, 1 is the correct answer. If you think of it intuitively, what is a 2x zoom? it would be a lens that covers the focal ranges of 20-40, or 100-200. what is a 3x zoom? it covers 20-60 or 100-300. what then is a 1x zoom? it covers 20-20 or 100-100. this type of zoom lens has a special designation...its called a prime. primes lenses are therefore just a term used to describe a 1x zoom lens.

     

    Ed, you are, in the original post, talking about the zoom ratio as if it were magnification. you are saying that lenses with a higher zoom ratio are able to take pictures of objects that are farther away. this is entirely true, but misleading. the examples you give all deal with the higher end of the focal range where a high zoom ratio corresponds to a very wide range of focal lengths and thus allow you to "magnify" images over a wide range of distances so that they fill the picture. however, what about the case of a 1mm-12mm lens? this is where it is misleading. this lens has a 12x zoom ratio, however it cannot produce the pictures that you are talking about or any of the examples given. the magnification is nowhere near that of a 100-1200mm lens which also has a 12x zoom ratio. in the former case, taking a few steps forward or backward will negate any changes in focal length whereas in the latter case you might have to walk across a football field. this is why zoom ratio is primarily a marketing term and there are other methods used to compare a lens's magnification.

    utterly pointless comment

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    HAHAHAHA...that would be hilarious, a pimped out lens. I can just imagine it in all its blinginess...a gold plated, diamond encrusted lens on a platinum and ruby body with a diamond flash that looks like a cash symbol. now that truly would be a waste of money!

    utterly pointless comment

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    Brad, that's the best part of having a hobby...it's its own justification ...no need to fill out expense reports or anything. you just have to say "i want it. it will make me happy." and no one can argue with you.

     

    Jon, that's becuase your wife hopes that if you spend all your time behind a camera you won't notice how many shoes she has. j/k My situation is a little different than other people who go into debt to fund their hobbies. I live in debt...it does't matter what my hobby is or even whether or not I have one. Medical school school tuition is $35000 and that doesn't include housing ($8000 in chicago...my brother is paying $15000 in new york), books ($1500 or so), health insurance (mandatory, $2000), or food, utilities and other living expenses (variable). It is not physically possible to have a job while attending med school. I spend 6-8 hours per day in class (some mandatory, some not) and another 4-8 on top of that studying. Unfortunately I was unable to save a quarter of a million dollars while working part time throughout my 5 years of college...you may have, but I didn't. My measly $4000 in savings (pre-camera) will cover all of a months worth of tuition. quite frankly...i have no choice but to borrow money. I also have a desire to be sane after my 4 years of med school, which is why I picked up a hobby, photography. so please, spare me your criticisms about my using debt to buy a camera and be thankful that people are willing to go through this at all to be a good doctor. (not to mention that during my 3-7 years of residency after med school before I can practice I will be lucky to earn $40000/year...if a company had a ROI like that it wouldn't be in business very long)

    utterly pointless comment

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    hahaha...great responses people. golf is definitely an expensive hobby...my dad went through 3 or 4 expensive sets of clubs before the pain in his shoulder forced him to give it up. and i've got plenty of friends who dropped a ton of cash on their rice rockets.

     

    but i see some people didn't get the joke...hahaha. i didn't mean to "knock" anyone (well...ok...i did...but only the type of guy who buys a 1Ds then asks what kind of batteries it takes at the checkout line, a story that was originally told by someone else in a previous post). many of the lens questions are indeed legitimate...its a great idea to ask people who have used many different lenses for their subjective opinion of them...its just another source of information for which to base a good buying decision on. and if your rich enough that you can buy a beamer with the spare change lost in the couch, more power to you...but i don't see too many people like that on these boards. and the OP is not even the only one doing it. i've seen to many posts of the variety "i have $400 which of these cheap lenses is the best" and the advice given is to go out and buy the most expensive L lens in that focal range. (that's not to say that always advising people on lenses other than the ones they've look at is a bad idea...i've seem great posts in that regard and its those posts that keep making me come back to these boards.)

     

    so since i don't really have a point to this post and since this thread is worthless (I won't argue with you there eric), I'd just like to thank all those out there who take the time to help those who, like me, lack the years of experience and the photography knowledge that comes with it.

    utterly pointless comment

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    I had a cheap digicam which I used very often but i found it very annoying to access the more advanced features and that meant i never used them...that's the main reason I decided to upgrade. I figured I would gradually begin to teach myself new features and techniques. hahaha...that was before I realized med school requires so much time. I mainly wish to buy a telephoto zoom because I can imagine it coming in very handy at times, and the extension tubes becuase i like to play around with macro...haha...but i still don't have the time to teach myself the new techniques so its just a waste of money at this point. its still fun to dream though...

    utterly pointless comment

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    Is anyone else noticing that people are willing to shell out enormous sums of

    money on something they know relatively little about? I've noticed a lot of

    posts of the nature "I have x amount of money, what's the quickest way to pour

    it down the drain" or "I just spent 10 grand on this 1Ds, what's a good lens?"

    It seems to me that if your willing to spend that much money you should at the

    very least know that the L lenses are better than the $150 consumer grade lens.

     

    Don't misunderstand me, I'm not accusing anyone of anything or trying to start a

    flamewar. I'm guilty of this too. I treated myself to a brand new xt and a sigma

    17-70 lens after graduating college. the grand I spent on that comprised more

    than a third of all the money I had. Now that I started med school and moved

    half way across the country, I barely use it and am debating what my next

    purchase should be...a set of extension tubes for my 50/1.8, telephoto zoom

    (70-200/4 or 70-300 IS), or furniture for my still bare living room. All this

    given that I've taken out $60 grand in loans this year, have about $3000

    leftover after paying tuition and whatnot and just spent a grand last month on

    books, food, and necessities (well $200 of that was spent on a veritable orgy of

    a dinner, but given how rarely I see my gf nowadays I want to treat her to the

    good stuff).

     

    It just seems to be that as cameras get cheaper and cheaper, technique is taking

    a backseat to equiptment. I mean, i now win the metaphorical pissing contest

    amongst my friends when it comes to who spent the most, but my pictures aren't

    any better than theirs and most of them are looking to extend their distance a

    bit more, if you get my drift, even though their technique is no better than mine.

     

    Anyway, i have no intention of offending anyone...i'm just desperately trying to

    avoid studying for tomorrow's test.

     

    Brian

    $5000.00

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    hahaha

     

    if your selling the 70-200/4L for $3-400, I'll buy it. good condition used ones on ebay go for damn near retail value ($530 or so). I just priced a few weeks when I was considering buying one.

     

    but outside of the joke i don't have much to add. a good quality wide angle is what I'd go for. or you can always upgrade to the 5D with that much money.

     

    Brian

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