yeahroon

That's easy!

EOS 630 with 50mm Mark I.

I am from Amsterdam and have lived in the US for going on 7 years now. I am leaving for Amsterdam in the Am to go visit my family for 2 weeks. I spend about 2 weeks in Europe every other year or so and every time I find myself bringing less and less photography equip.

 

This trip's setup consists of the EOS 300 D, the kit lens that comes with it and my trusty 50mm 1.8 MK I. That's it! Of course the 50mm will act as an 80 on the DREBEL.

 

I have found that I bring shorter and shorter lenses. Even though I am from Europe I still like to soak in the scenery and do a lot of landscape/architecture shots. I have found that it doesn't take very looooong lenses as Europe is quite the "compact" continent!

 

Have phun! Enjoy the vacation. Above all remember that human feet make a wonderful zoom lens

Jim, I tried it in full manual, it doesn't fire. Which I don't understand, after all... what is required to pop a flash, huh? Not that much! Then again, I never understood why the off shoe cam cord is not compatible with the 630 either. Think about it, it's an extension cord... Oh well, guess I'll hold on to my Rebel X for a little while since that is the only camera I can use the combo of the PZ 4000 AF and the cord on. Whaddayaknow, my dumbest camera turns out to be the smartest!

"Quick Release" is such an interesting idea that us guitar players usually opt for "strap locks" which are the exact opposite and prevent a guitar from being quickly undone from its strap.

It's interesting that the question (should I buy or wait) seems to prop up more often lately in regards to digital cameras. Computer users have been asking themselves the same question for years. I guess what it means is that more and more digicams, and especially digiSLR, are coming down to a price/quality breakpoint where more and more ppl start considering them. This is good news for the consumer. At the same time, we are worrying about things we shouldn't worry about.

 

I just bought a new 25 thousand dollar vehicle. Why did I not wait? After all, I *know* for a fact that in another 9 months the manufacturer will come out with a bigger, better, cheaper model. The reason I didn't wait is that I need a car NOW. Not in nine months from now. And the fact that a newer model is available, does not make mine obsolete. Even after a new model, mine will still get me from point A to B at a speed that I am comfortable with, it will still take the same kind of fuel and that fuel will be available (at a higher price maybe) in 9 months.

 

So, if the camera does what you want now, BUY IT! Unless you have a feature on one of your current film cameras that you can't live without. In that case wait...

 

But can you really not live without it? A friend of mine owns an Elan 7e, it has eye controlled focussing. He swears by it and is not going to go digital unless Canon comes up with a DSLR that has that feature (and I imagine they will at some point). Is that justified? I would not know, I have never owned a camera with the same feature. But while he is running his film to the lab, wait's for it to come back, then outs it on a light box and goes through the tedious process of running it all through the Minolta Dimage film scanner, I snap a pic, plug the camera into my laptop and INSTANTLY have feedback. I can decide right there to print the image (on my Epson Stylus) in sizes well in excess of what would be considered priced reasonable if I had to go to the lab to have it done.

 

I don't foresee that in the near future my demands will change. If the camera suits me today, it should suit me fine 5 years from now. Sure, I won't be able to print 5 by 8 foot prints off the 6 megapixels. But hey, I would need a whole lot more equipment to do that and even with film cameras that is no small feat.

 

So... can a DSLR do what you are doing with your current film equipment at a price you can afford? Go buy one!

 

Lastly, to answer the original question:

 

We will see more and more megapixels packed into a camera at cheaper and cheaper. There will be features in digital cameras that film counterparts already have (like eye controlled focus) that will justify (from the manuf. point of view) raising the price of the camera. I think that at some point we see a full "35 mm" sensor so we can get rid of the 1.6 factor and after that we might even see manufacturers upping the size to above 35 mm.

 

Hope that helps!

So I switched the batteries, that didn't help! While I was doing that I did notice something that I thought was odd. The flash is gettig all the other signals from the camera. The auto-focus assist beam is coming on, it correctly zooms the flash-head...

 

So I decided to put the Sunpak on my Wein peanut. And you guessed it, that doesn't work either. Think the flash is just kaput?

I have a Sunpak Power Zoom 4000AF Flash which I am very happy with.

That is, up until today! The flash does not fire when connected to

my 300D (DREBEL). It fires by itself (diconnected), it works on my

Rebel X and on my 630 bodies and on the Rebel X it even works with

the flash extension cord. I tried my (not much better than a popup

flash) Speedlite 200E and it works fine on all 3 bodies and on the

300D and X with the extension cord (which is not compatible with the

630). Is there a known problem with this combination? I have googled

it and couldn't find any! I looked at the hotshoe connector for the

Sunpak and sure enough it is lacking the 6th contact. I always

thought that was only used to lock the flash into the hotshoe.

Matter of fact, even totally generic flash-guns lacking far more

then just pin 6 at least fire on the X and 630. Does anyone know

more about this?

On the subject of the Nova: Fiat (italian car maker) renamed a model that was called Fiat Ritmo in all of Europe to something else in the UK because in the UK they (they as in someone else not the car maker) market a brand of condoms under the name Ritmo. At the same time, Fiat also made a car called the Fiat Croma. They named this car the same in every market even though in Holland (where I grew up) Croma is a product much like we know in the US under the brand name Crisco. Now what would you rather be "driving in", a condom or a tub of baking grease?

This question didn't interest me at all at first. Then I started thinking about it. What is more interesting is not who (and I didn't count the responses) is left eyed or right eyed but WHY are we left or right eyed. Personally I am right handed and use my left eye to look thru my SLR's viewfinder. Now I am all freaked out as to what that means. hehehehe... Seriously, when I was in the early days of my career in the IT industry I had a tech support job and was the ONLY right handed person (out of 20) that had his headset hanging over my left ear. When right handed people play guitar (as I done for nearly 20 years) the most work is performed by the left hand. Look at your flash-bracket, although most can be "fixed" they come out of the box with the handle configured to be mounted (and thus held) on the left side of the camera. My mother is left handed, she grew up in a time when it was "bad" to be a lefty. She learned to write right handed, eat (hold fork and knife) right handed and does everything righ handed but cannot operate a pair of scissors with her right hand. I cannot write left handed or operate a mouse with my left hand, but give me a paint brush and I'll trim in a window frame as easily with my left hand as I can with my right. a friend of mine is left handed but plays guitar right handed because he learned it that way... So what gives... really?

<quote>With film, if you know the film and understand exposure and the processing machine is properly adjusted, you've got the results you want without time consuming, boring, tedious hours spent after the fact. </quote>

 

Digital is just another type of film... It too takes experience to master, just like any film. I'll leave the discusion whether or not the processing machine is properly adjusted in all cases out for now but the plain fact is that (if it is) it is properly adjusted because it is designed by an engineer with A LOT of expertise on the subject. In other words: countless tedious hours have been spent so you don't have to. You seem to be forgetting the people who do their own darkroom work. Photoshop is the darkroom of the digital media. For your point to be valid you shouldn't compare a "processing machine" to Photoshop, rather you should compare doing your own darkroom work to post-processing with Photoshop and comparing "the well-adjusted" processing machine to dropping of your CF cards at the local lab.

 

Show of hands, which of you doing your own darkroom work think it's tedious AND boring?

19-35 mm.

It's my new fave lens!

Not as wide as the one you wanting to buy but close enough. On a film body it behaves like a true 19 mm lens with plenty of fish-eye like distortion. on the 10D with its 1.6 magnification It will be a 30 mm at the wide (19mm) end and a 55 mm at the 35 end. to make it a "normal" lens. I love it!

 

Tack tack sharp (although I am sure someone will disagree here) and it just looks soooooo COOL with it's 77 mm front diameter and "tulip" lens hood!

How about a printer with card reader built in?

<i> If the DSLR truly can't do better in automatic modes then Canon should set customer expectations accordingly. </i><br><BR>

 

I take it you also believe the Washington Post really had a web site for the last one-hundred years, OxyClean really does get whites whiter, Geicko can really save you 15% on your car insurance and pigs really do fly?

I looked at your folder with the unedited rebel images and think that nothing is wrong with the camera. They seem fine to me, some need a bit of tweaking in the exposure department (the pink/puple scarf the boy is wearing in one of the outdoor shots is over-exposed to the point of too much color saturation - ridding the image of some detail) but overall I'd say the photos are OK.

 

However, I do notice that in some imgaes the focus is (in my opinion) in the wrong spot. In several photos the clothing is in tack-sharp focus while some of the facial features (especially the eyes) are a bit soft. Are you relying on auto-focus? If so, you might want to consider manual focus for a while or carefully check which of the AF points the camera is using.