kristian_dale

<p>Hi, John!<br>

I have not read all the post in this tread, but I just wanted to let you know that the iMac 24" is a great choice! I went from this one after using PCs for many years without ant problems. I the iMac at home, though we have PCs at school. I really cant describe how much more I like to work on the Mac. It is really amazing compared to work on a PC. The Screen is also amazing, but keep in mind that you will need to be able to control the light to minimize the reflections. I managed to do this and I LOVE the screen.<br>

I would also recommend you to get another mouse asap. I recently bought a new one because I really dont like the feel of the mighty mouse. for me it is way to flat, and does not feel right in my hands. I bought the Logitec MX 620 mouse a few weeks ago and its great!<br>

by the way! I have the plain iMac 24" without any upgrades. It a pleasure to use for photography work. 2 gig RAM is working great with PS CS3 running together with a lot of other programs, though I will probably upgrade to 4 gig RAM soon to speed things up.<br>

In my opinion there is no cons on moving to mac. the transision was very smooth;)</p>

<p>Kristian</p>

alright!

Thank you for the response everyone!

Though, I just bough some 20 dollar triggers last week, I found some nice-prised Pocket Wizards on eBay, which I actually won! So right now I am pretty exited and looking forward to recieve them within the next two weeks!

Kristian

Thank you so much for the response everyone!

Kent: Where can I get these CyberSyncs? I didnt find them on B&H :)

by the way!

Do any of you know these triggers? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=220313762240

Thanks,

Kristian

thanks Howard.

I will definitley take a look on those :)

Kristian

Hi!

I bought some radio triggers on eBay a few weeks ago. When I first tried them they worked perfectly with my two

speedlite flashes, but since then I@ve had some problems with them. One of my recievers are not recieving the

signal, while the other one is going nuts and is trigging as soon as the flash is recycled.

I have tried to change my batteries several times, so batteries are not the problem.

(I am talking about these triggers:)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Radio-Wireless-4-Channel-Slave-Strobe-Trigger-2_W0QQitemZ350109518665QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350109518665&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Now I´ve given up on these triggers and have decided to buy something which will actually work, hehe. So I just

have a few questions.

My friend have almost the same triggers, but he has the 32-channel version. His triggers are working perfectly.

Do any of you have experience with these?

I am also looking at the pocket wizard (which I was originally supposed to buy, though it became too expensive

for me at the time). I know that these are probably the most reliable triggers on the marked, but are there any

other options which is a bit cheaper and still reliable?

I would really appreciate some opinions here. I will mostly use my triggers outdoors.

Best Regards,

Kristian

I´ve heard that the 3rd party grips are no good. their build quality is far from the originals. Though, I cant confirm this.

I have the Canon BG-E4 on my 5D and its amazing. I would say that its probably worth the extra cash.

Stands

Hey! I am about to get my first lightning setup, and I feel that I need a 2nd opinion on what stands I should get. Here are the two I cant choose between:

Weifeng W806A (from eBay): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=190256001840

The other one is a package made my Impact (from B&H): http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=475575&is=REG

I am really not sure which one to choose. The Weifeng have a little more height, can carry more weight, and seems like a better stand. Though, it is heavier. The Impact package has less height, can carry about half the weight, but again it is lighter. They both do have air cushion. I will be using these stands with hot shoe flashes, pocket wizards and softboxes, so they wont have to carry that much. Though, again I feel that the Weifeng is more solid than the Impact. What makes this hard is that I know that I will carry these stands a lot, and therefore think that light weight will be an advantage.

I would really appreciate some opinions here.

Regards, Kristian

Hey!

I am about to get my first lightning setup, and I feel that I need a 2nd opinion on what stands I should get.

Here are the two I cant choose between:

Weifeng W806A (from eBay):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=190256001840

The other one is a package made my Impact (from B&H):

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=475575&is=REG

I am really not sure which one to choose. The Weifeng have a little more height, can carry more weight, and seems

like a better stand. Though, it is heavier. The Impact package has less height, can carry about half the weight,

but again it is lighter. They both do have air cushion.

I will be using these stands with hot shoe flashes, pocket wizards and softboxes, so they wont have to carry that

much. Though, again I feel that the Weifeng is more solid than the Impact. What makes this hard is that I know

that I will carry these stands a lot, and therefore think that light weight will be an advantage.

I would really appreciate some opinions here.

Regards,

Kristian

thank you for your response!

Well, when I get the 580EX I will not only use it with pocket wizards, but also as my on-camera flash. But I will probably wait till next year before I get it.

I did check out your suggestions Bryan, and I´m thinking on going for the Vivitar flash instead of the Canon. Thank you for your advice. My friend just bought some of them, and they look pretty good. And they are really ineexpensive aswell :)

I was gonna place my order last night, but as B&H wont ship until next week I will have plenty of time to figure out what flash I will go for..

Thanks again for your help!

hm...I really havent looked into too many of the other flashes.. do you have any recommendations? :)

As long as it is easy to carry around, and is powerful enough I really dont care what flash it is.

Thank you for clearing out my recycle time question!

Hi!

As I am writing this post I am ordering some stands and umbrellas and stuff from B&H. I will also buy some pocket

wizards to trigger my flashes. The thing is, I had just settled to go with the Speedlite 550EX as my main flash,

and use my 430EX until I can afford the 580EX. My problem is that the 550EX seems impossible to get hold of. I

even tried google it, but could find it for sale anywhere. Then I started thinking about getting the even older

540EZ. My only concern here is that in its specs is it says that it has a recycle time of 12 sec! what are your

thoughs in this? Is the 550EX faster (I didnt find the recycle time for this one)? Do any of you have any

experience with these?

I will highy appreciate all your response!

Regards,

Kristian Dale

I just bought a iMac 24" last week, and I am really blown away with its performance! its running so smooth, and the monitor is so amazing. I really like the glossy monitor, but i believe that you need to be able to control the light to avoid reflections to use it at its best. For a computer to work with photography, I wouldnt trade it for anything ;)

I dont think I answered your question here, but I would highly recommend you to take a look at the iMac aswell.

Kristian

The 5D with a sigma 10-20 is no good match. I tried it just to check how wide 10mm is on a full frame, and I would rather recommend the 17-40. The sigma is designed for crop bodies, and leaves you with some massive vignetting through the entire zoom range as the lens does not cover the whole censor. It does only cover the middle of the censor and leaves both sides like in a circular picture.

Kristian

For landscape work I would highly recommend the Sigma 10-20. I used to have it on my 350D, and I loved its performance. The only reason I sold it was because I sold my 350D to go Full Frame. I bought the 5D with 24-105mm, and for a few months I really missed a ultra wide lens, until I got my 17-40mm.

The 17-40mm is amazing, but for landscape I would go for a wider lens on a crop body. I believe that you wont see that much difference since the FOV is basicly the same as your kit-lens.

Kristian

Hi, Keith!

I went from the 350D to the 5D (with the 24-105mm) just a couple of months ago and it was amazing! the IQ is just so much better than on the 350D. But unless you want to invest in some new lenses for the full frame body, you should definetly go for the 40D.

As John mentioned I also believe that the 40D will maybe be better for sports than the 5D.

Unless you are doing a lot of landscape or portrait work, or most common shoot wide angle shots, I would say that you should go for the 40D. I would also recommend that you get the Sigma 10-20mm (or the canon 10-22mm). I used this A LOT on my 350D, and had to suffer through almost a month until I got the 17-40mm to replace it on my 5D, hehe!

Please let us know what you will go for.

Best Regards,

Kristian

Matt - Yeah, a MacPro with a decent monitor would be great, and this is something I would definetly do if I didnt have a budget. this time I will have to go for a more inexpensive solution. Compared to the computer I have right now, I think probably anything new will be amazing, hehe! But thanks for your advice.

Kelly - I did check if I can run 4 GB on the 20" I will buy. I can buy one with 4 GB from the store, but if I install the Ram by my self I will save (equal to) 300 dollars. so I guess this is the way to go. :)

Jonathan - If I can afford it, I will go for the 24".

Regards,

Kristian

Hey everyone!

First of all I want to thank all of you for the massive response! Im really blown away with all the answers, which is so much more than what I expected!

Charles - Well, it seems like you really know what you are talking about! hehe, I must say Im quite sure I wont use Linux, since I really dont have enough knowledge to operate with it. I have also decided that I will not build my computer, again because of my lack of knowledge. But thanks alot for your response!

Daniel - I found you post very informative! the "save your money for new lenses" advice never fails. it is in my opinion one of the best advice which seems to be very normal in here aswell. The thing is that I have spent probably 80% of my paychecks the last 4 months on upgrading my photograhpy equipment (Canon 5D, EF 17-40 L, EF 15mm fisheye, EF 24-105 L, 50mm 1,4, among other things such as Lowepro Slingshot 300AW, a reflector ect.). So I really feel that I will have that covered for a while (concerning both camera body and lenses). the only lens I sometimes wish I had is a nice 85mm for portraits, though I feel that I can live without it for a couple of more months. My next investment will be some pocket wizards and a canon 580 EX with some softboxes, but this will have to wait till later.

As you mention in your next post, I have recently bought a western digital external hard drive for my photos. And I must say that I cant understand why I didnt get a card reader until a couple of months ago.

Thank you so much for your opinions!

Allan - If I would go for the PC I would never used Vista. I have heard alot about people using vista on computers which is not powerful enough to run it clean, and have faced so much trouble because of this. so I would definetly run Windows XP.

Christina - Your setup looks awesome. My plan is also to have one monitor for all the tools in PS so I can display the image fullscreen in photoshop.

Well, it looks like I have deicded to go with the iMac. At this point it looks like I will get the 20" with 1GB ram, and then upgrade to 4GB ram on my own. (a friend showed me how to do this, and this way I will save alot of money). If my paycheck for this month turns out to be more than expected I will go for the 24".

There are several reasons why I made this decision. one of them, and probably the most important, is that though I've always been working on a PC, I really like to operate on a Mac. Another reason is Virus. as some of you mention, this will not make a big difference in the future but i have had so much trouble with my computers that a system with less risk for Virus sounds amazing. A friend of mine went from PC to Mac some time ago, and he thinks the Mac is going so much cleaner that the PC. Its very important to me that my computer runs clean, because i have spent waay to much time with my computers freezing and such. (I guess a proper PC would run very clean aswell). I am not a gamer either, so I wont need to be able to rum any games on it. If I was a gamer, I would definetly go for a PC.

About cost. I have done alot of reseach on PC prises in Norway, and there is really not that much difference between an iMac and a PC if the spesifics are about the same. The difference shoots in when you start building your own computer, but as mentioned, this is not a thing I will do this time, though you really can save alot this way.

I would like to thank everyone for your response! I have really learned a lot.

Thanks again.

Best Regards,

Kristian

Thanks Reichard! I will definetley give them a call!

By the way! do any of you have any experience with the monitor on the 20" iMac?

Since I will use it for photography, I really need a good monitor

Kristian

wow! thank you so much for the quick response! I really appreciate it!

I was about to order the Dell computer yesterday, but I am leaning more over for the iMac right now, both after reading here and at other websites.

Michael:

I will be able to get PS CS3 with a nice student discount through my school, so the software should really not be any problem :) hehe

My final decition will have to wait two more weeks until I get my next paycheck :)

Im the meanwhile, feel free to drop by with your opinions of pros and cons on both the mac and the PC :)

Again, thank you so much for the responses!

Kristian

Hi!

As my computer is getting old (4 years?) I will have recently felt that I need a new computer dedicated for my

photography work alone.

At school and (at this point) at home I use a pc, though I know that Mac are supposed to be amazing for working

with photography and such.

I recently got a commercial flyer at my job, where I saw this computer which seems to be really good due to its

low price. This is what got me thinking of bying a new pc. The problem is that I really dont have any knowledge

of what to look for in a computer. The only problem is that the iMac is almost dubble the price of the PC, though

I can afford them both. So my question is really if it is worth the extra cash? :)

Here's the PC (Dell Vostro 200):

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=brdw2af&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&pg=review&kc=productdetails~vostrodt_200mt

Norwegian price = roughly 800 dollars

And here's the iMac (If I go with an iMac, I will choose the 20"):

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?mco=MTE3MDM

Norwegian price = roughly 1,600 dollars

I would appreciate it so much if any of you could take a look at these links and tell me what your opinions of

these two :)

Thanks a lot!

Regards,

Kristian