manrique_molina

<p>I upgraded from a Canon XT to a 40D last year. I considered to upgrade earlier but did not because:<br>

1. I was (and in a sense still am) new to DSLR photography. I was tempted after just 1 year of owning the XT to get a 30D but didn't because I had not learned to use all the features of my Rebel XT.<br>

2. Needed to build up my lens repertoire. Started just with the kit lens, then got a cheap but useful Tamron 70-300, Canon 50 mm f1.8. The following year I got Tamron 18-50 f2.8. Still had not gotten the speedlight flash or tripod at the time.<br>

Then after some time I craved for more ISO coverage on the high end, spot metering and more fps. Voila! I knew it was the time to upgrade. By then the 30D was nowhere to be seen. The rave then was the new at the time 50D. So I got a 40D because the price was so good.<br>

So I am now in the stage of improving once again my lens collection (got a Sigma 18-250 OS to replace my kit lens + cheap 70-300, added a 2X teleconverter, Manfrotto tripod). My goal for this year is to add a Tokina 11-16 and maybe a lens baby for fun.<br>

I know sometime next year I will be craving once again for more ISO and maybe video. However if I upgrade now from the 40D to a 7D I'll get to master the new features when the 7D is already obsolete so I'll wait.<br>

After that I'll be craving for L glass... gee it never ends!<br>

Of course if I had the money I would've bought everything at once ;)<br>

I think if you already own L glass you will definetely see the difference in quality if you upgrade, I would go for the 7D if I were you !</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Patrick, can you be more specific about what kinds of issues you are having with your Nikon?</p>

<p>Pinky, check out the Vivitar 285HV ($85 at Amazon.com) , a workworse for off camera flash, you can hook it to a Cactus V2 trigger ($32 at gadgetinfinity.com). That would come at $117 brand new. I bet you can get it for less ar ebay.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Remember the days when you just went out and shoot and enjoyed the photographs you made?<br>

Its funny to see the Nikon and Canon folks arguing about stuff for which you need a microspocope to distinguish between the results.<br>

Does this discussion go between Sony, Pentax and Olympus owners as well or their cameras are so much superior than Canon and Nikon that they don't need these kind of silly battles?<br>

I own a Canon 40D and I'm as happy as I can be, and I have close friends who are Nikon users and I am happy for them too as both brands are as excellent as they can possibly be. I guess the "who is better" arguments might be necessary for new users who are trying to choose between Canon and Nikon and need some kind of decision point (even if its pointless). Once you choose a brand I dont see the point of fighting like 4 year old kids.<br>

Oh well, I guess we need this competition so we can get better products each year for our particular brands but don't see significant differences that justify "jumping ship".</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Another vote for the Canon A590. Can't go wrong at that price!</p>

<p>DSLRs are that way, usually presenting more soft and unsaturated pictures right out of the camera, but this varies depending on the settings you have on it. You can achieve the same effect as the LX3 easily on post production. Compact cameras are "fine tuned" to produce consumer pleasing pictures without that much effort, hence the name "point & shoot".</p>

<p>Easy answer. Definitely save a little more and get the 430EX or EX II. It will be one of the best investments you will ever make for your system and you wont regret it. But thats just my opinion. I went from a Vivitar 485HV to a Canon 430 EX II and although the 485HV is a very reliable flash , nothing beats TTL for you Canon (plus the ability to rotate your flash sideways).</p>

<p>Simon, what you are describing happened to me last year in New York when I was shooting a picture of a carriage in Central Park. This little old guy came running at me with a stick shouting "no pictures of carriage, no pictures of carriage" while hitting me with the stick (I think my dead grandmother can hit harder than him). I was confused and passers by were making fun of the situation. As I am not from the US and I had to catch a plane back I ignored the guy but he continued to follow me for a while ( really really wanted to smack him). At that time I was not sure about street photography rights. I remember 2 years before this happened to a friend of mine, he also got yelled at for taking photos of the same horse driven carriages so I think those guys have an attitude.</p>

 

<p>I use a Vivitar 285HV (around $90) with my 300D. Nice guide number, brute simplicity but I find it user friendly. It's a classic and you can find great reviews everywhere. Just be sure its the newer version "HV". The original one can fry your camera due to high voltage. The HV is safe for newer cameras.<br>

Also the price of Canon flashes like the 430EX are quiet reasonable nowadays.</p>

<p>I definetely also suggest the Canon A590. The price/quality relation is just unbeatable right now. It has more features than you probably need but they wont get in the way either. Plus it uses AA batteries which is very convenient.<br />In the end I chose the Canon SD870 (around $240 in Amazon) for the 28mm lens and slightly better video performance (I dont have a video camera so I wanted a camera with decent video quality although the A590 video is not bad either just a bit choppier at 20 frames/second vs 30 f/s of the SD870).</p>

I bought a flash for my XT recently, first flash ever! Evryone recommends the 430EX but I had little $$$ so I researched and ended up with the fabolous Vivitar 285HV. A classic but very powerful and great for learning flash. I might buy the Canon 430 or even 580 in the future but for now I am very happy with my Vivitar. What a difference a decent flash makes!

 

Check it out, it goes for about $80 (I bought it through amazon).

 

Just make sure you buy the HV version as the older model can fry your camera. The HV version is perfectly safe.

While you are at it , shouldn't the stuff over the bride's head be gone too? Looks like a weird antenna!

You were too brave. I tried first shooting a friend's sons children party and it gave me an idea of what is like to be an event (not just wedding) photographer. I took the task seriously (even if no one cared if I took good pictures or not). Big and dark entertainment complex (but with lots of neon and colors). I sweated profusely all the time. I did some post production and everyone was thrilled with the pictures. They did not expect anything like I did (I even did a few "formals"). I learned NOT to volunteer again (I dont even think about weddings). Too much stress! We have to give pro wedding photographers real credit for their profession.

Maybe while you're closing down the studio put a "Relocating or Changing location' sign and a stack of brochures of your wedding photography services. In that way passerby's or old clients won't get the impression that you are closing down shop due to lack of success...

Paul, I have the exact same problem with my 350D. I was going to post the same question but now I'll just try to post an example on this thread later today when I get home. I started recently shooting raw so I am not sure if this is normal or not.

 

I get the same type of noise (even more pronounced than yours) when shooting raw on 800 or 1600. What I dont understand is why I get this annoying noise everytime with raw but if I shoot jpeg/raw at the same time the jpeg is always almost perfectly clean but the raw image always looks horrible.

 

Can you try shooting jpg/raw to see if you have the same problem?

I would say no, but offer help on finding a wedding photographer. As you have a portrait business she will expect that quality even though you explained its your first wedding.

 

A pilot might be great flying a 747 but probably wouldn't be qualified to fly a regional jet before obtaining training/qualification on the smaller planes... so dont feel bad telling her that you dont do weddings...

I used to have point & shoots but basically just used the auto mode. Around a year ago I decided to learn more so I sold my P&S and bought a Canon 350D, Tamron 17-50 f2.8, Canon 50mm F1.8 and Vivitar 250HV flash. Although I'm still learning (last milestone was to learn to be confortable on M mode), I can see that now I'm able to shoot more beautiful shots than I ever had. I am embarrased to see the hunreds of mediocre shots I have from my P&S days, mostly to the lack of composing knowledge I had back then. Still, I miss the opportunity I had to shoot in places where now I can't with my DSLR. I wonder if I would be able now to get amazing shots from a P&S. I think I'll stick for now with my 350D but maybe in the future if I can afford it I'll add a P&S and Photoshop to "close the gaps" !

After having trial-tested or actually owned some of the following:

-Photoshop

-Noise Ninja/Neat Image

-Adobe Lightroom

-Focus Magic

-Portrait Professional 8

-Tiffen Dfx

-Fluid Mask 3

 

-Fuji F30, Canon Powershot A75

-Canon 350D, plus a variety of lenses

 

I was wondering if the advancement of software plus P&S with fairly decent performance can get you the same

results (or as close as possible) as shooting with a dedicated DSLR and lenses. Today you can get most of the

results you get from a SLR using a simple but correctly exposed and focused picture (bokeh, filter effects,

sharpness, softness, etc). Of course much of this depends on the photographer itself, but it amazes me and to a

point also saddens me that its so easy to get pro-looking effects with today's software.

 

I am learning the ins and outs of DSLR but I have to admit that there are times I am tempted to go back to a P&S

(due to portability mainly) and just do some post processing afterwards.

Yes, I bet they can be used to make a case against those establishments that do not allow "professional cameras or professional photographers" on their premises.

He did pay $200USD for it, at least he's saying that. He is not camera-inclined at all but always compliments me on my 350D, except the price (he thinks $500 for a camera is way too much). At first he thought I was a pro photographer. When I told him I was still learning to use it he kinda got interested. I lost touch with him for a while until he showed up with this thing. He wants to tag along with me on the photography outings I do around the neighborhood. I haven't told him anything yet, need to wait until he comes back from a business trip. Hope he can return it. It's a kind of a funny looking camera though, if I could buy it for $20 I would keep it sealed, might be worth something 30 years from now hehe. I wonder what kind of pictures it gets. I might run a roll just out of curiosity. Hope that 50 mm f6.3 lens works great on very bright sunny days at the beach!

Yikes, I had a feeling something was wrong, the thing looked too clean to be a used film camera, plus the manual

has some wrong spelling ("seperete flashing unit").

My neighbor also told me "I was a fool for having spent $500 for my 350D body and f1.8 50mm Canon lens as he

bought basically the same thing for $200". Oh well, I feel bad for him but then I dont know why I can't wait to break

him the news to take a little revenge from the last statement !

My next door neighbor approached me yesterday saying he bought a "professional camera" just like mine (well, I

have a 350D, not pro exactly but I don't complain). Only difference he said is that "it uses film" just like the pros do

(?). He then showed me the camera because he "wants me to teach him how to use it". I expected to see an old

Rebel but instead he handed me this "Canon D4000 Pro". It is a big black film camera with a 50mm lens (f6.3-f18)

with a separate flash unit. It looked old but certainly in mint condition (no even a scratch). He bought "pre-loaded"

with a roll of 400 Kodak film. He bought it for $200USD, "film and batteries included".

 

Problem is, I can't find anything about this camera on the net, except a picture I found at an used equipment site

where they sell it for $150. They advertise it as a professional camera used "during fashion shows and such". Has

anybody heard anything about this camera?<div></div>

Garry:

Hi Saludos from San Jose, Costa Rica!!! I enjoyed your story very much cause a very similiar thing happened to me! I shot my son birthday party at an indoor inflatable complex. Light was very dim with harsh light coming through holes in the ceiling. I was still learning to use my new Vivitar 285 flash. Well, aside from bad lighting, it was a nightmare trying to capture my kid and friends coming down the inflatable slides! Let's just say around 90% of my photos were pefectly frozen but "deer in the headlights" black background pictures! Worst thing was the embarrasment of avoiding showing such horrible pictures to family members expecting to see those probably "amazing pictures taken with the gigantic camera (Canon 400D lol)".

 

Two weeks later a friend's son had his birthday party at the same place and I volunteered to be the "official unofficial photographer". I HAD TO GO BACK TO TAKE REVENGE OF THIS PLACE JEJEJE. This time I also took my Tamron F2.8 17-50, plus I practiced at home in preparation. Not to tire you with the long story I have to say although I improved a little bit ( I would say around 30% of my pictures were ok), now I got tons of pictures with beautiful backgrounds but blurry sliding people!

 

Oh well, photography is all about practice! These are some if the things I did to convert around 30 nice pictures to around 50 very nice pictures =) . Some of these tips have already being mentioned:

 

1. Sharpen the RAW files or use unsharpen mask in Photoshop (the Lab Color method works nice for me).

2. Crop and enlarge to multiply one image into several perspectives!

3. Do B&W and Sephia versions

4. Add elegant borders

5. Desaturate slightly all except the main subject of some of the pictures.

6. For some of them, adding speed blur or star or light effects might work.

7. Nice tip from another member: ask the B&G for the P&S pictures they got and apply some of the post processing effects mentioned above.

8. Package everything in a professional looking way. You could print wallet sized samples to large prints of your favorite ones. Or you could give them a photo book (not that expensive at all and has a wow factor).

 

I am a learning photographer so I encourage you to continue volunteering for events. We will get there with practice and the help from forums like this!

 

I also learned as a safety tip to shoot several "safe" frames just in case, so I can apply some of the post processing tips later. For instance, while I master auto DEP of field I always shoot group photos using a small aperture, then I blur the background later. However, I do want to master this on camera (right now I always get at least one of the person out of focus).