kari v

XTi. Newer tech and it's nicer to carry around. With the 17-40L it makes a really good P&S with a capability to go farther when needed.

You're already lugging a 5D and lenses.

 

"But then again, given something with more flexibility (like the 30D) and time to play with it without fear of messing up someone else's camera, she might change the way she shoots."

 

What do you mean by flexibility? Controls are a bit different of course but I can't think of anything really important that the XTi couldn't do in this case.

Normally I'd say that color cast and poor contrast is because of your processor / printer but combined with that super vignetting it makes me think your camera is falling apart.

This thread gave me some really funny ideas how people read each other's names here. :)

I received my Kiev 60 MLU two days ago and I've been wondering a couple of things.

Many people say that it's a beast and that it weights a ton. Yes, the ergonomics

could be better I guess but it's not really that different from other old and

clunky design manual cameras. With the metering prism it weights a lot but with

wlf it's about the same as, say, Canon 40D which I don't find that bad. And even

with the prism it's easily handholdable.

My point is that for my taste the Kiev is ok for an all metal 6x6 SLR and that

if you're thinking of getting one the weight is not such a big issue.

 

The camera feels solid enough, winder works fine, meter seems accurate, MLU

button is responsive and there are no signs of bad flocking or any mechanical

problems. So far so good, I think Arax made a good job with this body.

Check out the K10D in a store. It's very very affordable for what it offers.

 

"The K100 does seem to have the advantage of lower noise at high ISO's"

 

Have you actually seen real life pics where the difference is clear?

50/1.4 is too long for all around shooting but Sigma's 30/1.4 is very nice and affordable.

Canon 50/1.8 is very cheap (~$100) but the image quality is very good. You could consider buying that and the Sigma.

"what I would be interesetd is to capture city sky lines, sydney opera house, sydney harbour bridge etc at night"

 

Buy a tripod, your subjects are not going to run away. Handholding just doesn't make sense. A bit blurry event photos are ok, but blurry skylines etc. just look bad.

 

"and also new year eve photography : all this without need of tripod."

 

Depends on the light and your subjects. 50mm with 1.6crop is a bit long. Something like Sigma 30/1.4 would be far better to my taste. Considerably wider view, more DoF (1ft more DoF at 10ft shooting distance), ok handholdability at 1/30 - 1/45 (with 80mm equiv. you "lose" half a stop or so) and sometimes the difference between 1.4 and 1.8 really counts.

My modified Kiev60 should arrive soon. It's only 12 shots per roll but I don't think it's going to matter that much and I wanted square. I often find that 36 frames is too much. I really don't like going through hundreds of shots in post processing, not in digital and absolutely not with film.

Yes.

What aperture and shutterspeed have you set?

Hmmpf... yes, I can't think straight today. Forget that.

"will they work perfectly with my old Canon Elan 7e?"

 

Yes, they're EOS lenses.

Yesterday I tested Canon 1D MkIII with 85/1.2 in a store just for kicks. While it was great (especially that lens) it was also very bulky and heavy. I wouldn't want to carry that with me everywhere and now that I think about it, I wouldn't want to use that kind of a body at all if not necessary. Also, the price is just absurd.

 

Buy a D300 and travel a bit.

One thing though, HP cameras tend to be quite bad, cheap or expensive.

Under $100 -> buy used, very good quality stuff can be found. Then again, when you don't know about cameras that much it's a bit problematic.

 

Just buy a low end model from a known manufacturer. I think A460 is the cheapest current Canon model it's around $100.

"Not sure if I made it clear or not but the picture I included is the scan AFTER I had increased the contrast and adjusted the brightness."

 

It shouldn't look like that no matter what.

I think the problem solves when you post your settings screenshot.

Full frame 12-24 has bigger image circle than the 10-20. If you refer to vignetting with filters the 1.6 crop should eliminate that.

Also, if Andy feels like he needs something Really wide he can use the 12-24 with his film gear (and with full frame dslr).

"designed to work with full frame, so has some limitations, like incompatibility with filters."

 

What do you mean?

See this chart:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00NOCc

 

Try if you see a difference without the uv-filter.

Anthony Beach: "Personally, I hate out of focus noses. The reason a 50mm lens doesn't stack up so well against 85mm and longer lenses is precisely because you can get a nice bokeh on the longer lenses and still stop them down enough to keep the subject's entire face in focus."

 

I must say I'm not a big fan of blurry noses either but in this case Bill is mostly going to take pictures of his kids... Last time I checked kids don't have that big noses. ;)

Also, 85mm can be a bit too long inside.

 

Bill, you may find this DoF calculator useful:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Those older Olympus p&s cameras are great. My friend had C-5050Z and while it was bulky (=abuse-resistant) it had good picture quality and 35-105 / f1.8-2.6 glass.

"Some of the things on your list (like the oversized viewfinder) are estoteric enough that I doubt they'll ever be on Nikon's R&D radar."

 

Nothing wrong with esoteric, I think I'd really enjoy FF viewfinder in a crop camera.

 

...what? Sigma has one?

Dave Redmann: "Some compacts have manual focus, but that can be hard to use."

 

I wouldn't say so. DoF is so huge that it covers pretty much everything when walking around. It's good for macro too and eliminates af hunt in low light completely. Set f5.6 or so and try it.

 

I took a few snapshots of my friends at a bar last night. I just set focus to 3ft if they were close and 6ft is basically the same as infinity.

I just retaped the battery compartment door of my T70. ;)

I'm going to shoot some Efke IR820 (120) with 25A and R72 filters. Has anyone

tried adding a polarizer? Is there any special effect or is this just a stupid idea?