sfdgs

<p>Be careful using alcohol on lenses, I heard it may damage the coating on there. Could be a bad rumor, but I wouldn't take the chance.</p>

<p>Got the unit back today, and it shows they replaced the battery, inverter, and cables. I even got a new serial number. Everything was replaced with the exception of the carry case!</p>

<p>I called to see if there is anything I can do to prevent this from happening again, but they said it could have been anything from overheating the inverter from shooting too fast to a possible defect in the inverter. No real answers, but I will be more aware of my shooting style from now on to avoid future issues. May not be a bad idea to invest in a second Vagabond to have peace of mind and not have any unexpected downtime!</p>

<p>They are going to repair it under warranty, but it will take 3 weeks because the inverters and parts are all on backorder. Hopefully this won't happen again, I can't justify buying another one as a spare if this is how the Vagabond's operate. In the meantime, I did rent a Honda eu2000i generator for a couple of shoots. Expensive to buy, but flawless performance and extremely quiet!</p>

<p>I talked to someone at PCB yesterday and he told me it was one of two things, which are both inside the inverter and happen without warning. It occurs when the unit is overheated. I'm concerned because I don't do rapid shooting or anything that should cause any overheating, and can't afford to be down like this again.</p>

<p>Thanks, Peter. They are closed til Tuesday, so that's the first thing on my to-do list. Check back and I'll let you know what they say. Hopefully it's just one of those fluke things, and not operator error!</p>

<p>I saw that about the overheated inverter, and that may be the culprit, although I had only taken about 50 shots with it in an hour. I did try a flash while the charger was hooked up, but no luck. I was hoping that there might be a quick fix so I can use it tomorrow. I'm definitely calling Monday to see what I can do.</p>

<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>I have a Paul Buff Vagabond II that I've been using for the past couple months to fire 3 White Lightning Ultra's. No problems until my shoot yesterday when it just stopped powering the flashes about an hour into the shoot.</p>

<p>The green "charged" light is on, it is fully charged, and when I turn it on to either fast or slow, the fan in the inverter comes on like normal. I checked the power strip that was plugged into it and it's fine, and I tried each flash directly into the socket on the Vagabond, but no luck. I also checked the two 2-1/2 amp fuses under the inverter, and they are both good.</p>

<p>Is there anything I may be overlooking that could be causing this problem? The unit has never been dropped and all connections are secure.</p>

<p>Thanks, Jason</p>

<p>Thanks Ben!</p>

<p>That's kind of what I was thinking, but due to my lack electrical knowledge, it's always safest to ask!</p>

<p>btw, this light is used and was made in the 1990's. I may purchase a safe sync until I can get a wireless trigger system.</p>

<p>I just purchased a White Lighting Ultra 600 monolight to use with my Canon 40D. According to the manual, the 40D has a max sync voltage of 250V and the light is 9.5 volts.<br>

I am curious as to whether or not there are any other variables that come into play with this, or if it's safe for me to hook the light sync cord directly to the camera body until I can afford a radio trigger.<br>

Thanks, Jason</p>

<p>Raise your ISO, use a larger aperture. If you're indoors where the lighting isn't that great to begin with anyways, it's difficult to get that fast of a shutter speed. I'd shoot manual and adjust your settings.</p>

<p>Thanks for your help too, Michael. I'm going to go with the regular 1DII, not the N, just to get a feel for the camera, and relegate it to my backup when I'm prepared to buy another body.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately I won't be able to know who the camera is from, I'm going through KEH since they have a 60 day guarantee and I've always been satisfied with everything I've purchased from them.<br>

JDM, I will definitely check on the actuations and keep my eyes open for any possible problems or issues.</p>

<p>Is the image quality comparable between the 1D II and the 40D? I usually won't print over 16x20.</p>

<p>I recently had my camera bag stolen with my 40D and Rebel XT inside of it. Luckily my lenses were in another bag that was left untouched. Anyhow, I can only afford to replace one body right today, and I'm looking at the 1D Mark II or the 40D. I shoot weddings and my daughter's volleyball games mostly, so I don't need anything over the 8MP. I'm leaning towards the used (gently) 1D MKII for the faster auto focusing and ability to use two memory cards which would come in very handy for weddings and sports. I know there is a lot of technology that has changed since the 1D II was released, but is it a good idea to purchase it over the 40D?<br>

Thanks, Jason</p>

<p>I just got in a 30x40 print back from the printer yesterday shot with an 8MP Rebel XT and good lens and it is spectacular, even up close. I resized it using Genuine Fractals and the guy that prints my pictures probably made some adjustments of his own before printing. You should be fine printing that large, especially if it will be viewed from a few feet away and it is a good clean image.</p>

<p>Thanks for the recommendations. I'm just nervous about spending too much money on something that may end up collecting dust. The Bamboo is pressure sensitive, but only has 524 levels as opposed to the Intuos which is something like 2048 levels of pressure. Big difference I know, and I've never heard anything negative about the Intuos4. I'm going to keep doing some research before I jump into this, but I guess you get what you pay for in regards to size and features.</p>

<p>I've been using Photoshop for several years now, and after reading up on tablets, I think it may increase the speed of my workflow and possibly the quality of my work over just using a mouse in PS CS3. I can't justify yet spending hundreds of dollars on a tablet without knowing whether or not it will fit my needs, so my basic choices from Wacom are the Bamboo ($70), Bamboo Fun ($99), or the Intuos4 ($150). They are all the small versions- 4x6, and will be used on a 15" laptop PC which is sometimes connected to a 23" monitor. What I'm wanting to use it for is mainly dodging and burning, masking, skin correction, dust removal, etc. I'm not sure what else it is really capable of doing, so if I'm overlooking something important, please let me know. But which tablet will do what I'm asking of it at this point? Thanks, Jason</p>

<p>Thanks for both of your suggestions, but neither one seemed to work with this issue. I also uninstalled and re-installed the program with the same results.</p>

<p>I recently purchased a new PC and installed Lightroom 2.2 on it. When I open the program and choose a catalog to work out of, all that is displayed is grey boxes in place of where the images should be. All the data from each shot is displayed when I click on one of the grey boxes, but no image will show. How do I fix this problem?</p>

Thanks for taking the time to answer. My friend has a complete system from the 10-22mm up to a 70-200f2.8 IS,

including several flashes and 2- 40D's. The EOS3 is my sole backup, so I'm mostly concerned about that and the

flash. I do have the 18-55 kit lens, but I'm not sure I trust it with wedding quality pictures. Would a used 20D be good

investment, or is it too old to serve a useful purpose? Wow... after reading your responses and reading the more

questions I have, I should work a lot harder to set aside more money to invest in the equipment I need. Also, my

420ex flash has seen a lot of use in the 3 years that I've had it, so it basically comes down to the fact that I need:

 

a) One more flash

 

b) Wide angle lens

 

c) Second digital body

 

I have put all of my equipment to good use so far, and I see no reason why that wouldn't continue with adding the

above items.

Last time I sent them equipment, it took about 2 weeks from the time I sent it to them to get a quote. I had a check the following week. Sounds normal to me.

I do like the effect of that, but it looks like it could take a lot of practice to get it consistenly the way you want. I should probably get my priorities straight and first learn to develop my own film and get a scanner. Then try new lenses. I can get my film processed for pretty cheap at my local lab, but the scanning part gets expensive. I'm definitely going to keep this lens in mind.

Have you had a chance to use the 150mm on people yet with the soft glow? That would probably be my main reason for using it. The 180mm seems like a really great deal for the price and quality.

Thanks for posting these images. I've been thinking about getting either this lens or the 180mm. I'm not sure if I'd ever use the soft focus discs though.

You will probably get different answers since the best ideas are whatever will work best for you. But, I meet with a potential customer for our initial consult, which is usually after a phone call or two, and them viewing some samples online. I book anywhere from 50%- 75% of them during the initial consult. I could probably get that to a higher percentage if I was more aggressive with my sales approach. After the first consultation, I like to meet with at least the bride 1 1/2 to 2 weeks before the wedding just to go over the final details to make sure nothing major has changed. For weddings that involve travel, it is mostly phone calls and emails. Many of those weddings are from referrals so I've most likely met them at a previous wedding, so they know a little of what I look like and how my demeanor is toward people. Otherwise I lay on the charm and hope for the best! Anyways, 2 meetings with the customer is the norm for me.