eosbob

I have the hood from my Canon 300 2.8 IS with a screw, we may be able to cobble something together. It is the only

piece that didn't go over the edge. The 70-210 is alive and well by the way, and has been very helpful in allowing me

to hold off until Nikon announces the new 70-200. I am curious to play with your 300, I love the 200-400, but I miss

the hand hold ability of my old 300.

I am not aware of any upgrades to the IS since 2004. My experience with lens warranty is they either have an issue early on, or they are fine for life. I would lean toward saving hte money proivided the glass is mint. The condition of the barrel is less important to me. "L" lenses are built to take daily use.

The one on the camera has to be set to be the "Master", and the one off the camera is set to be a "Slave". Make sure both are on the same channel, which they should be by default, and as long as the slave is out in front of the master it should receive the signal to fire when the master is triggerd by the camera.

I recently moved from a Canon 1D Mark II to a D3 and I am trying to determine if

there is a way to put my name in the camera metadata file. I know how to

accomplish this in post. My Canon allowed me to upload my name into the

camera using the Canon software so the Maker field was always populated

regardless of how I post processed the images. Does Nikon accomodate

something similar?

I have a D3 as well as a D300. I love both for what they do, and I think either would give you a noticable improvement in low ligh tperformance and much better high ISO image quality.

Picassa should allow you to look at raw images, can't help with the Canon issue.

I use two programs primarily. Lightroom for large volumes of work like Portrait shoots, and Capture NX for unmatched control when I am working on individual images. I have Photoshop CS3, but since moving to Nikon earlier this year I have found myself using Capture NX more and more.

I have all my equipment insured against damage of any kind, theft, etc. It is a rider to my home owners policy and they required that every item being listed with a serial number and replacement value. The coverage is very inexpensive. My policy has a $500 deductible per incident and runs under $200 a year for $22,000 coverage.

If you are shooting anything but full frame then a 35 is behaving like a 50 on a full frame camera. On my 1D MarkII I used the 50 1.4 quite often while seated at the dinner table or other up close situations. Now that I shoot a Nikon D3 I find the 50 1.4 just as useful full frame again. If I am wishing for it to be a littel wider I usually want some flexibility and move to a 24-70.

The 100 macro is a fun lens if you enjoy macro work, otherwise you already have the focal length covered with the very capable 70-200. It will do nothing for you sports wise that you can't already do.

Lens baby is intriguing, but again a personal choice and also not much help fo rsports. A 300mm would be very helpful for sports. I had the 300 2.8L IS for years and never regretted the investment. The f4 version is also a very capable lens at a much more reasonable price. Also, the 2.0 Tele Converter on the 70-200 could be useful.

The first one would work better if the mother were looking at the child, she looks distracted or detached. The image with the hands works well for me.

Genifer,

I just switched from Canon to Nikon recently and am very pleased with the 18-200 performance. Between the auto ISO feature and VR I have no complaints with this lens. The images are first rate and the zoom range is very useful. I would strongly recommend it. WhenI bought mine a few weeks ago Nikon had it bundled with the D300 with a $300 instant rebate.

Does it behave the same way with focus set to manual? If not it may be the lens

hunting for focus lock. I have not experienced shutter issues other than lack of focus.

I shot a 1d Mark II when i was shooting Canon and there was a custom setting that

you could use to determine if the shutter would release regardless of focus. I had it

set to not shoot unless focus was achieved, I figured there wasn't much point to firing

away out of focus.

The 24-70 2.8 is a very popular wedding zoom, and a great all around walk around lens.

It will act like a 36mm on the D300, which may or may not be wide enough depending

on your style. I personally use a 70-200 2.8 VR quite extensively in my wedding work,

I prefer to shoot a lot of candids and find the working distance to be very useful. I also

make a lot of use of the 50 1.4 during the reception. I move from table to table and

work up close in the low light once the dancing starts. So much of the choice is

dependent upon your personal style.

iPhoto works just fine up to a point. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If your catalog gets too large then iPhoto starts to get sluggish. It used to be if you had 15,000 to 20,000 images it would get very slow, I don't know if it is any better in the more recent versions, I moved away from it 2-3 years ago.

For family snap shots and vacations it is good. If you are a prolific shooter and want to get into serious organizing then Adobe Lightroom or Apple's Aperature are more appropriate. I went with Lightroom because Adobe is the 2,000 pound Gorilla of the photography world so I figured it would have the most external support and training, and it does.

The extra stop exposure wise is nice, but the bigger advantage in my experience is the added brightness in the view finder and the improved auto focus response. I have a 1D MarkII and the 70-200 2.8L is my primary lens, while my wife shoots a 5D with the 24-105 4L IS. The 5d viewfinder always seems dark to me by comparison. I believe the 1D MarkII has a brighter finder to begin with, but the f4 on the 24-105 makes the 5D noticably darker. I have the non-IS version of the 70-200 (It wasn't available when I bought back in 2000), and while I would love to upgrade to the IS version some day, I wouldn't replace it with the 24-105IS for any length of time.<div></div>

I have the 300 2.8IS and find it hand holdable with the tripod collar removed. It is still very serviceable with the 2X and the resulting 5.6 still works fine with my 1D MarkII. I choose it because it fits in my Photo Trekker AW backpack and I take it every time I venture out. I have friends with the 400 and 500 lenses and they are great when they have them, but if you ever plan to hike about the 300 is a great choice. The 300f4 doesn't cut it when you add the 2X.

I would not recommend opening up a brand new lens at home, I have to believe that would void your warranty. The answer that you don't want to hear is that it should go into a Canon service center for repair under warranty. Time consuming, but your best practice in the long run.

I just remembered I now have the 3021 leg set with the column that can be removed and

used horizontally. Very affordable and well built.

I would take a good look at the Bogen 3020 series of legs. They offer a variety of different

heads and that is a more personal choice. I prefer a ball head, but not likely on the budget

you have set. The 70-200 will spin on any head without a means of locking the plate in

place. I use Really Right Stuff plates on an Acra Swiss ball head, but that would have to be

down the road. I recently retired my original Bogen 3020 leg set after more than 20 years of

steady use. I replaced them with a new sset of 3020 legs and have been very happy. For

now look for a head that will get you through until you are ready to invest in a RRS or Acra

Swiss ball head and plates.

Adobe Lightroom allows you to very easily change exif date and or time.

Try using spotlight in finder and search for ".lrcat" that is the extension used for catalog files

by Lightroom.

I have spent close to $4,000 on a Canon 300 F2.8L IS, and while it was a lot of money, it is a lens that holds its value and performs beautifully. I don't know much about Sony equipment, but $2,400 sounds like a lot of money for anything short of an Image Stabilized Telephoto. Canon's 70-200 F2.8L IS lens has a street price around $1,800. You might want to consider looking into Canon or Nikon if their lenses are more reasonably priced (reasonable being a relative thing).

I bought the new snap style locks for both of my old 3020's and converted them over. The parts were very reasonable and the new locks work beautifully. I bought direct from Bogen/Manfrotto

If everyone is agreeable I try to pack families tightly together on a couch with some sitting on the seats, some on the arms and a few kneeling behind. Get heads and faces close to eachother, touching if possible. As far a lens choice use whatever frames all the faces togehter with as little outside distraction as possible. The faces should be the focus of the image. Pack in togehter and take several exposures because someone always blinks. You can always swap heads if necessary in Photoshop. Flash is okay, but instead of putting hte sheet behind you use a nice bright white sheet to bounce or reflect some natural light onto the scene and expose for natural light.