neil_fraser1

<p>Have you looked at the lens wraps produced by Domke? They're not all that thick but they come in different sizes so you could use one of the larger ones so that more material is wrapped around.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

To reiterate what has already been said, star trails are going to really give your batteries a bashing. I've never attempted

it myself but plenty have so I'm sure someone will be able to comment on actual battery life at some point. Alternatively

you could just google it, I'm sure it'll be out there somewhere.

As for your question about cable release, it depends on wether you want to stick with canon gear or are happy to go with

a cheaper (much cheaper in some cases) 3rd party model. There are plenty on eBay and the easiest way to find them is

to do an eBay search for the canon model number that most closely matches your requirements - few of the results will

be for the genuine canon model.

Any cable release will have a bulb lock off switch for extended exposures but if you want one that you can set to expose

for a specific time and then close the shutter then you are limited to the canon Remote Switch TC-80N3 which will cost

at least £80GBP here in the UK. Expensive but it is probably the best cable release you can get. It can be set up to

take multiple exposures that last for as long as you want at any interval that you want. So for example, you could set it

up to take a 30 minute exposure every 2 hours for the next 10 hours etc. Again, if you search eBay for this model there

will probably be various copies available for much less.

Ah, just noticed my mistake. You have the M8 not the M8.2. If only you had paid for the 1320 EURO (!) upgrade, they

might have thought to put a bit of rubber tubing in there somewhere...

Why is there always so much bickering in the Leica forum? Regardless of what it says in the owners manual, if I had a

camera that cost that much and dies after being exposed to a bit of condensation, I would be pretty annoyed. Even

more so when the manufacturers tried to land me with a bill like that to fix it! It's a box of circuits, I'm NOT an electronics engineer but I honestly cant imagine that they cost that much to produce.

Anyway, for a camera that allegedly aimed at pro photographers it's pretty poor that it isn't protected somehow. So

much for Leica quality. This is taken from the Leica website:

Robustness & discretion

The new LEICA M8.2 is the very first professional digital camera to use an ultra scratch-resistant sapphire crystal as

coverglass for the camera monitor. It is so hard that it can only be worked with special diamond tools. The camera also

sports a new easy-grip and specially robust "vulcanite" finish.

Ha!!! Reinier, don't you feel lucky that they thought of that 'ultra scratch-resistant sapphire crystal', at least your LCD

screen isn't damaged!

John,

for photographing indoor sports the IS wont be as much use as you might think as it does nothing to help freeze the motion

of the players. The best way to go is probably to get a lens with a wide maximum aperture (f/2.8 for example) but if you

want a zoom then this can become rather expensive. Also, I would have the 18-50 2.8 that you mentioned would be rather

wide for sports (unless thats what you want) - how close to the players will you be? Have you thought about buying a

telephoto prime lens? That would work out much cheaper than getting a comparable zoom.

If you only want to take a camera and one or two lenses then how about just using a holster type bag. It is probably the

most compact way of carrying what you mentioned. I like the Think Tank Digital Holster range as they're not as bulky as

others like the LowePro Toploader range.. They come with a divider inside so you can stack two lenses on top of one

another with one attacked to the camera. They come in 5 sizes but you probably want to ignore the smallest (Digital

Holster 10) and the two largest (40 and 50) as the smaller one is too small and the big ones are made for Pro DSLRs with

build in battery grip etc. The 20 and 30 are both good sizes and can be extended to hold longer lenses or lenses with the

hood attached.<div></div>

If you haven't already, take a look at Adobe Lightroom 2. You can download a months free trial from the Adobe website.

You don't mention if you already have a cataloging system set up for your photos but LR provides this as well as a fairly

good selection of editing tools all in one package. For anything else, it is integrated fairly well with CS3 and images can be

exported there and then back into Lightroom easily.

I have a LowePro Flipside 300 and while it does keep your kit safe, there it very little storage on the bag for anything

other than your camera gear. There is only 1 external pocket and it is very thin - so much so that it is fairly useless for

anything thicker than pens or a small torch (maglite solitaire sized) etc.

I recently went on a trip to Egypt with the Flipside with a fairly similar equipment set to what you have described except I

had the 24-105mm rather than the 24-70mm. It will fit your equipment with a little room to spare but there really isn't

space for the kind of things that you would want to have with you while traveling. Also, I personally dont like having to

take a backpack off to change lenses or put my camera away.

The equipment you listed isn't overly heavy (although you don't specify which of the 70-200mm lenses you have) so in

my opinion a shoulder bag would be a better choice as it would allow you to carry a small backpack as well to hold all

the other bits and pieces you want to have with you. Much easier for putting your camera away and changing lenses

too.

Chris,

Think Tank Photo make a series of bags called the Urban Disguise. They come in 6 or 7 different sizes and sound likt

they might be what you are looking for. They are designed as shoulder bags but the strap comes off and they can be

carried by handles on the top. I use a Urban Disguise 30 and I can fit my camera body and 3 or 4 lenses inside the main

compartment and that still leaves space for small accessories in the other pockets.

If you want to go really minimalist, Domke make a range of Lens Wraps that are just lightly padded material that can be

wrapped around lenses or camera body and attach by velcro.<div></div>

Simon,

Shooting in RAW is not always the best thing to do. In order to get the best from RAW you must be willing to put in

some time doing post processing and editing on your computer. Some people don't want to do this, which is fine, and in

that case JPEG is probably a better option. The reason for this is when you take a photo using JPEG, the camera

records the scene and makes several important decisions automatically - things like, sharpening, White Balance and

exposure are all set and once the photo is taken you have limited control over changing these things. With RAW

however, the camera doesn't make any decisions for you and these settings can be changed once you get home and get

your images onto your computer. RAW file is exactly what the camera saw with no adjustments made. If you are just

starting with photography and don't want to be spending a lot of time in front of your computer just yet then there is

absolutely nothing wrong with shooting in JPEG for the time being and moving onto RAW later on.

From your comment I'm guessing that you have Adobe Lightroom? If so, and you want to shoot in RAW then it really

isn't all that difficult to convert them. Other people have got different opinions on this but I convert all of my Canon RAW

(CR2) files to the Adobe DNG format which can be done at the same time as importing to Lightroom. Every camera manufacturer has their own RAW file format (Canon have CR2, Nikon have NEF etc) but they are all basically the same

thing. DNG is Adobe's version of the RAW file and I just like using it as it means I have one less step in my workflow.

I'd second the ThinkTank line. Do you want a shoulder bag or a backpack? If you're looking for a shoulder bag then the

Think Tank Urban Disguise 30 would probably fit everything you listed. It would just depend on the 70-200mm. Which one

do you have?

I have a UD 30 and can fit a DSLR, 70-200mm f/4, 17-40mm f/4, 24-105mm f/4 and the 50mm f/1.4 in the main

compartment. It also has lots of little pockets for other bits and pieces.

Jani,

did you take a look at the Think Tank website? The bag that you just described it the TT Urban Disguise exactly! The UD

was designed for street shooting. Why do you think it would be unsuitable? The UD doesn't have too much padding and

TT provide more dividers and inserts than I think anyone could use. The UD 40 has about a dozen pockets and slots for

storage including a full length pocket on the back. The bottom of this pocket can be zipped open for the bag to be attached

over the handle of a pull-along suitcase. By the way, maybe the picture I posted is slightly misleading, the bag does come

with a shoulder strap!

Think Tank Urban Disguise series. The Urban Disguise 40 and above (they also have a 50 and a 60) will hold your

laptop as well as a surprising amount of gear. In my UD 30 I can fit a Canon 40D, 17-40mm, 24-105mm, 50mm and a

70-200mm. It's fairly snug with that gear in the main compartment but thats the way I like it anyway. There is also

plenty of pockets for extra bits and pieces. The main camera compartment is closed with a zipper while the other

pockets on the front are covered by a flap.

If you really like the Crumpler bags but are just put off by the strap, I'm sure it will soften with a little use. I personally

don't like Crumpler shoulder bags (or backpacks for that matter) - they have FAR too much padding! You end up

carrying a huge bag that holds less equipment than one half it's size.<div></div>

Sorry, just read back through the thread and I noticed that you had ruled out the 5DII on cost grounds. So you might as

well ignore my last post. Since you said that you do tend to shoot longer then I think the 50D is the camera to go for. On

a 50D your 100-400 will max out at 640mm! To get that on a full frame body you are going to be spending a silly amount of

money. Yes, you could use a x1.4 tele-extender to get near that, but you will loose a stop of light and a bit of image

quality.

I don't think we can really bring image quality into the equation just yet, seeing as neither camera has been released and all

we have to go on are a few examples. But if we must talk about it, I very much doubt that a normal person would be able

to see the difference between prints made by these two cameras. I expect that both will produce excellent images. I might

be completely off the mark but for me, at least, the crop factor/price difference/fps burst rate etc would be more important

factors in a decision between the 50D and 5DII than an extra 6mp. It is a decision I will be making at some point in the

next 12 months or so and I fear it'll be down to the bank manager to decide for me!

Do you use editing software that allows you to view the metadata from your photographs? If so, take a look at what focal

length you tend to use your lenses at. In particular look at the metadata from the 100-400 and if you find that you're consistently using it at the longest setting then I think you would miss the x1.6 crop factor of your XTi and that would

suggest that the 50D is a better choice for you.

You also mentioned that you like shooting birds so the 50Ds 6.3 fps burst rate is going to be very useful compared with the

5Ds 3 fps. If you do decide to go for the 50D I would wait a little while before getting it though to see if the price settles

down a bit and to take advantage of the inevitable canon rebate offer.

If the tripod does what you need it to then there's no reason you should have to buy a more expensive model for the time

being. As your photography develops, you might find yourself needing something more robust or versatile. Especially if

you get into macro photography. One of the main benefits of buying a more expensive tripod it the ability to individually set

the legs at different angles, reverse the centre column etc.

When people use a plastic bag to waterproof their camera on a rainy day, do you have some kind of cut out for the front

lens element? Or do you just pull it flat and accept any image degradation? Harry, this sounds like it's the way to go but if

you need something more robust, most camera bag manufacturers make expensive plastic bags to cover an SLR set-up.

Although these tend to be aimed at sports/wildlife photographers using long telephoto lenses. Think Tank Photo make a

couple.

I can only imagine it has to do with the size of the 5D2 sensor compared with that on the 50D. Bigger patch of silicon

means its already much more expensive to produce than the 50D sensor - maybe adding these features would make it too

expensive for it to keep its place in the canon lineup. I'm sure canon have thought about it!

Couldn't you just copy all of the files from your various cameras/cards into one folder on your desktop and them import into

LR from that location rather than from the cards? By doing this LR will treat all the images as a single import and will

number them sequentially. Then just trash the folder on your desktop. I would recommend using some kind of

date/custom text though.

Courtney,

you would have to provide a little more information in order to get useful advice. I expect your problem is simply that your

lens isn't fast enough. When you say horrible, I take it you mean everything is blurred? Would you be able to provide the

metadata of some of your shots? By this I mean the information of how the camera was set when the shot was taken

(Aperture, shutter speed, ISO). What lens are you using and how close to the players are you?

Jackson,

if you actually want to take all of your gear as carry on but are unable to get everything into your lowepro bag then I

second the idea of taking a look at the products made by Think Tank Photo. They have an entire range of bags (the

Airport range) aimed specifically at getting as much gear through airport security as easily as possible. Their bags look

a bit boxy but thats the price you have to pay for maximizing the space on the inside.

I think anyone on this forum that has ever used a Think Tank bag will back me up when I say they are probably some of

the best made and well designed camera bags you can buy.

The 24-105 is a great walk around lens - its almost permanently fitted to my camera when I'm out and about. No its not

f2.8 and no 24mm isn't all that wide on a crop frame body but for the focal distance it covers you would be hard pushed to

find something better. If weight and space are a big issue then I think the 10-22 and 24-105 together would work pretty

well. Then maybe just one or two small and fast primes for low light work if you think you need it. If you do need more

reach than the long end of the 24-105 can provide then is it worth taking a 1.4x extender? I have no idea how well it would

work on that lens though.

Alright, I've had a good dig around and, for anyone that is interested, there is a work around for this bug. Once you have

imported the photos you can rename them using F2 and when this is done the correct date of exposure will be shown in the

file name as opposed to the date of import. Mark thanks again for letting me know that others were having this problem.