The Photography Thread

[Alastair]

Oh yeah, if you've got the cash go for the 40d or 5d, I was comparing the fact you could get a 30 for pretty much the same as a 450.

[MartyG]

Ooops - I sort of bid on a Canon 10D on eBay and won ... well I've wanted to try Canon glass for a while and I got it pretty cheap

[Ginger Tosser]

ISO in viewfinder would be terribly useful, as I sometimes forget I've set it to 800

Aye, I do the same with iso3200 sometimes. Love the Squirrel pic btw.

Love the street furniture Alastair, noticed them on flickr yesterday.

Enjoy the 10D Marty, I know a lot of people are still very happy with it. Think it's a little slow on startup compared to what you have already. Not too sure if shutter lag is noticeable.

Btw, a flash gallery of my Birmingham pictures can be found here (i'm just playing around with it as the moment).

[winky]

By the way, Winky, it's a leaf.

yeah after Pete suggested it I could see it. Just the brown colours made me think of cigars. Like the squirrel shot but I agree that the critter gets lost in the leaves. It nearly works, and had the squirrel not had the brown stripe down its back I reckon it would have worked very nicely.

Alastair I love the second shot, and having been reviewing this thread I actually seen a sofa on the street and I immediatly thought of you
The first one is good, but the convergance of the light just looks out of place compared to the other lines. Not sure what else you could have done though.

Marty hope you enjoy your new purchase. Your innocent 'oops' doesn't fool me though


*disclaimer that all critique comes from a noob with no technical or artistic experience and therefore might be bollocks.

[MartyG]

Enjoy the 10D Marty, I know a lot of people are still very happy with it. Think it's a little slow on startup compared to what you have already. Not too sure if shutter lag is noticeable.

I'll be interested to see the differences between this and my Nikons - if I don't like it I'm not going to be out of pocket - I got it for way less than I've seen most of the 10Ds on eBay go for ( ?180 ).

[Alastair]

Glad you like the chair shot guys, I like it a lot, think it's something to do with the floral pattern on the chair complimenting the natural fauna on the wall, both then being nicely offset by the very urban concrete, walls and straight hard lines. Like the other sofa in front of graffiti shots the juxtaposition grabbed me.

The shot of the graffiti park winky, well, I know what you mean and looking back I could have got lower and got the top of the building in the background under the wire fence, or I could have gone higher to also tidy it up. I wanted the ground, that piece and the sky in shot though and if you're local the lights are a landmark. As it's trying to tell a story I thought that showing the fact that the pole has been tagged would help with the fact that it is a little out of control graff wise there. I could def have composed it better with a little more time and effort though yeah.

I mentioned above about helping out on a shoot, Kev's now put a shot online:
EDIT - Actually, I'll attach it.
He may have kept the best to himself for portfolio or book etc, I know not, I've not seen the others yet.

EDIT2 - Marty, hope the 10D works out, I've never used one but have used the 20D and (obviously) the 30D. I think the startup and save to card times will probably drive you insane though. What glass have you got your eye on?

[MartyG]

I've been looking at the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L ( I've ordered a cheap Tamron 55-200mm in the meantime, just so I can check the camera out ).

The 20Ds are still selling for as much as the 30Ds on eBay, and they're not that far away from 40D prices - too much for my liking.

I've seen the start-up times mentioned alot, but not the card write cycles - as I said, I don't reckon I'll be out of pocket if I don't like it - I'll just sell it on again.

[Alastair]

My prediction is that you'll be hooked and soon selling oodles of Nikon glass to fund the eggshell obsession!

The 70-200 f4 is just the best lens ever when related to any sort of sensible budget. I'm sure the 2.8's and the IS versions are even better still but the cost of those is insane.

I'm basing the write times on my experience from the 300d which I believe is the same internals to an extent, I could well be way off the mark though. You'll def be able to sell it on easy enough if you don't get on with it though.

[Magnakai]

Come over to the dark side!

My brother's got a 10D. It's a really great camera, very solid, as far as I can remember.

The 70-200mm 2.8 is really nice. I borrowed one at a gig once and took this:


But the price is bloody extortionate!

That reminds me, I meant to pose you guys a poll:
What is your one dream lens if you were only allowed one?
They can be suitable for your current camera or not... it's up to you.

Mine's probably the Canon 35mm f1.4L
This lens is beautiful, big and heavy. I used it (very) briefly, but what I've taken with it was amazing. The depth of shadow, the colour, the smoothness... just plain gorgeous. The 17-55 f2.8 IS would probably be more useful, but who cares!

[Gareth C]

Dream lens...

I LOVE my Leica 35mm Summicron f2 but reckon my real dream lens is the Leica Noctilux 50mm f1.

I'm still hoping to find one second hand for a resonable (lol) price!

[Alastair]

dream lens, hmmm. Got me thinking for ages. You said dream but then made it sound like it had to be existing so...

Dream = something stupid like a 17-300 f1.8. Even though I don't really mind swapping lenses about a bit having one lens that would do everything would be amazing.

Reality = 50mm f1.4 maybe. Super versatile though I would seriously miss my wide angle and telephotos.

For someone on a relative budget I think I've got it spot on at the moment but would love to add a 1.4x teleconverter for the telephoto for that bit extra reach at the race tracks.

[Magnakai]

How about the Canon 50mm f/.95? How low can your f-stop go?
There's even a Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/50mmf095/ Mind you, the pics aren't that hot really.

I totally forgot about M42 lenses... There's a 35mm F/2.4 Carl Zeiss that's blown me away a couple of times, and of course the Leicas have that indescribable magic quality.

But yeah, fantasy lenses. I really think I'd be happy with a 45mm f/1 that's super-fast, quieter than a mouse and sharper than Gordon Ramsay's best knife.

[MartyG]

How about the Canon 50mm f/.95? How low can your f-stop go?
There's even a Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/50mmf095/ Mind you, the pics aren't that hot really.

Indeed - proving once again that you can spend thousands on glass, but if you can't compose a shot, it ain't gonna make a scrap of difference.

[Gareth C]

The Canon .95 isn't that expensive. I used my mates one recently but the flare and contrast put me off. My Canon 1.2 is better and only cost £100 odd quid.

Still want the noctilux though

[PeteJ]

The 70-200 f/4 is one of the best lenses I've used, for what it's worth I actually prefer it to the technically better 70-200 2.8 - the latter is too big (and too expensive!) for my liking. That said, I've only used them a couple of times.

Dream lens at the moment is the Canon MP-E 65mm, just because I love my macro shots and there is no better alternative in existance. I'd also really love the push\pull 100-400 too.
In fact, can I not just have all of the L range?

Strike a pose!

Yeah that's me, greying hair and dodgy beard included.

I lent out my 100mm Macro and 580ex flash today, and I've just come up with loads of ideas that need them both! Oh the horror