h.l.

This is similar enough to get you started.

 

http://www.eosdoc.com/manuals/?q=500f4LIS

If you don't like the picture quality of your lenses now, you won't like them with the new body. I'd go with getting some high quality lenses first.

Exposure lock via half-pressing the shutter only works when you are using One Shot and Evaluative metering.

I would go with the 70-200 2.8L IS for a single lens solution. Later on, you can supplement with the 85 1.2L if you like that range. Otherwise, go wide for environmental portraits.

How big do you print your photos? If you don't frequently make prints bigger than 8"x10", then either the Rebel or the 30D is fine.

I think that the "No PO" requirement is to ensure that only US residences can apply.

 

A number of Canadians rent US PO so that they can have a US mailing address. This is necessary to conduct business with US companies who only send to US mailing addresses. If you live next to the border, it's a short trip to pick up your mail.

To do what you want, keep the flash in auto (ETTL) and use the camera's Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) to adjust the flash power. The camera can be in Av, Tv, or M depending on what you want to do with the ambiant light.

I thought that "secure" meant that you can't

a) write copy-protected files to the card without authorization

b) read copy-protected files from the card without authorization

Security was meant for the benefit of the copyright holders not for us consumers.

The recommended procedure for using AI Servo is to track the subject for approx 1 sec before releasing the shutter. The 0.5 sec of the IS startup is well within this interval.

 

Unless you are panning, you should turn off IS for moving subjects. IS will counter your attempt to track the subject (remember, the point of IS to stop your motion).

 

There is a special mode for panning. You'll likely to track the subject for a couple of sec in this case also.

www.dpreview.com has a noise comparison between the two in their 20D review.

 

I think that the noise level is pretty much the same for both up to ISO 400. The 20D improves when you get to 800 & 1600.

 

I am afraid that post processing is your main option at this point.

For Action/Sport, the most important factor is to keep your shutter fast enough to capture the motion. Typically, this will be 1/250s or 1/500s or faster.

 

The easiest way is to use Tv and adjust your ISO to get the shutter speed you want with the lens that you have. The Sport mode will also do so whatever works for you.

> That's useful to know. However, I was referring to the case where the subject was already a medium grey. There's nothing to fill in. Why does the flash go off?

 

The sensor element does not know (or care) that the subject is evenly medium grey. The subject could also be contrasty but averages to medium grey. The metering system then compares the values of all the sensor elements against a database of pictures and determines the exposure from that.

 

I suspect that the flash output will be powerful enough to match the ambience light level regardless of whether the subject is evely medium grey or not.

>If the flash is also trying to make the subject medium grey, then it shouldn't go off. Where's the catch?

 

In brightly lit scenes, the object of fill-flash is to minimize contrast between the shadow and the lit areas. If you have the automatic flash reduction on, the flash will try to bring to shadow area to 1.5 stop of the lit areas. If you have the automatic flash reduction off, the flash will try to bring to shadow area roughly the same brightness of the lit areas.

 

The power output is actually quite high since the flash must match the ambient light brightness.

The lenses are the same.

 

I believe that Canon Canada is owned by Canon USA so the market is considered to be the same. Somehow, though, Canon Canada seems to pad its profit margin much more than Canon USA so Canadians have to pay more for the same thing.

4/3 fit computer monitors. Makes it easier to peek at the pixels.

 

This is funny. I noticed that a lot of the newer notebook are using the widescreen format. I guess that this is to make viewing DVD & HDTV easier. Maybe we'll get a 16:9 format soon.

I like the flat format of the forum too. You only need one click to view everything following the question. Quick and simple.

I agree with Vesa.

 

Under the old TTL system, the camera sensor directly measures the amount of light put out by the flash and reaching the film. The camera can signal the flash to stop when when it determines that enough light has been produced.

 

With E-TTL, the measurement is done with the preflash which is 1/32 of the real flash output. The camera calculates the amount of light needed and sends the information to the flash. I have no idea what information is sent but it could be something as simple as a multiple of the preflash power (i.e. 16x for half power and 32x for full power). The camera no longer has a way of directly measuring the actual output so tt's up to the flash to accurately produce the requested power.

 

If the flash power control is bad, then then exposure will be bad. If the power control is very good, then the exposure should be right on. The secret is to make the power tolerance match the response of the sensor/film.

You need power to run the sensor, cpu, memory, etc... Even if the shutter does not require power, you'll still drain the battery.

Hvae you visited the Canon Camera Museum? It's at http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/

The mechanism that allows the camera to confirm that you are in focus is the mechanism that allows the camera to AF. If the camera can't confirm that you're in focus, it can't turn on that light and it can't AF.

 

It makes sense if you think about it.

The 1/200s is probably the flash sync speed of the camera. The camera won't like you setting the shutter speed faster than that in normal flash mode. If you switch the flash to High Speed Sync, you can use the faster shutter speed. You'll loose a lot of power above the flash sync speed though.

"...I know alot of good online dealers in USA, but if I use them, I must pay alot of additional taxes for shipping (for UPS customs agent), province taxes, federal taxes, taxes on the taxes (unfortunately this isn't a joke)... "

 

And it's still cheaper to buy from the US.

 

You can avoid custom fees by avoiding ground transport at UPS/FedEx. There aren't any duties on cameras.

1st curtain sync allows you to control the moment when image is captured with the flash. The flash goes off almost instantaneously after the shutter is depressed and is critical for capturing the peak of action.

 

With 2nd curtain sync, the flash goes off after a variable time period from when the shutter is depressed - by the shutter speed. As such it is very hard to capture the peak action. It is, however, valuable for capturing the sense of motion.

Canon is known for their fast AF. In order to accomodate the fast AF, the rotation of the focus ring is very short. This makes DOF markings fairly useless since they would be too close together.

 

To control DoF, advance bodies like the Elan II has a special mode - DEP. You first select the desired aperture, point the AF sensor at one edge of your desired DoF, point the AF sensor at the other edge, and the camera will focus to the point which will give your desire DoF. You can turn off AF at this point and walk around.

 

The consumer/pro-sumer DSLR has an another mode called A-DEP. IN A-DEP, the AF sensors must be placed on the near and far edges of the DoF simultaneously.

13% is darker than 18%. The number is a measurement of how much light is being reflected. If the object reflects less light, then it looks darker.