New camera?

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Ok, here's a little photodocumentary of one of the remote switches I'm making (making another for a friend). First, we start off with parts:
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...and finish with a completed remote shutter switch. I'm in the process of making a right-angle adapter for it (to reduce the stress on the camera body) so that the cable can hang down rather than stick straight out of the side of the camera.

In case anyone is wondering why there are two buttons and a toggle switch rather than just a single button: This remote actually has two functions. It allows the photographer to take a quick shot without physically touching the camera (such as portrait shots) and leaves the photographer free to interact with the subject if needed. In this case, the two push-buttons on the remote are used. The black button is used to focus and meter (generally, manual focus is used, though). The red button is used to activate the shutter to take the picture. Another use for this remote is long exposure shots (night photography, for example). In this case, not physically touching the camera is mandatory, as even slight vibrations can cause serious image blur. For such shots, the black button is used to meter just like normal, but instead of using the red button to take the picture, the toggle switch is flipped. The shutter will stay open as long as the toggle switch is turned on (called a "bulb" exposure).

PS- I got the wiring schematic from here.

[SSJ4 Gogitta]

Looks pretty cool, though I would've modded it to fit inside an electrical tape coated Altoid tin. There are already some pretty cool Altoid tin mods for different things.

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

haha Nice.

[skryingbreath]

That looks complicated, sarge. Are you going to use it for long exposure shots?

Also, I know I'm being a whore, but is this as awesome as I think it is? [1] I've been looking around for how to do those backgroundless photos for a while and finally found a tutorial on DeviantArt.
I messed with it in Photoshop for a while though.

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

That's a pretty nice looking background. I'm really not into the extremely bright wallpapers, but it looks good.

As for the switch... it's really not that complicated. Ya just have to have the right tools, parts, and patience. The hardest part about it is the soldering. I've never been good at it, but I can stick two wires together. I think that if I ever make a smaller switch, I'm either going to put the parts on a PCB, or use male/female crimp connectors rather than soldering the wires to the switches and buttons. Since we're dealing with something that doesn't require extremely high connection quality (like audio or video where signal quality is important), putting it together with crimp connectors isn't unacceptable. But overall, I'm relatively happy with the outcome of the project. And yeah, I'm primarily going to use it for long exposure shots.

[Canon]

Originally posted by sgtfuzzbubble99
The hardest part about it is the soldering. I've never been good at it, but I can stick two wires together.

The only reason why soldering is hard is because America banned solder that has lead in it, so they use tin and other alloys instead.

[ElChevelle]

Solder has little to do with it.
It's an art form best performed by little people with little fingers.

[swingdjted]

There are new soldering tools that are easier to use, but they're expensive. Personally, I still just use the ($12) plug-in iron and the spool of solder and some flux. I usually burn myself and end up using far more solder than necessary.

[Canon]

Originally posted by ElChevelle
Solder has little to do with it.
It's an art form best performed by little people with little fingers.

Thats true. Whats your opinion about butane soldering irons?

[ElChevelle]

What's the matter with a traditional electric iron?
They were plenty fine for putting out eyeballs.

[Schmeet]

Originally posted by Canon
The only reason why soldering is hard is because America banned solder that has lead in it, so they use tin and other alloys instead.

Using a bit of flux on what you're soldering compensates for the lack of lead and cleans the surface.

[fwgx]

These were taken during a walk around the park with my new Sigma 70-200 macro. What do you think? Personally I fancy the arse off this lens.

[skryingbreath]

Those are stunning. I especially like the second from the top.

[Razzinno]

I especially like the fourth one.

[Canon]

The third one looks really nice.

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Unbelievably awesome, Phily. !

[gaekwad2]

Flower fight!









moar

(yeah, I can't compete in terms of bokeh (in fact the (Tamron) "Fujinon"'s rendering of out-of-focus detail is pretty ugly))

[Canon]

your pictures are actually very nice. My cameras bokeh isn't very good either, but I can always simulate the effect in photoshop.

[fwgx]

Cheers guys

gaekwad2: You had some fantastic light there when taking those shots! Some good stuff.

[skryingbreath]

The bee crawling out of the flower is fun to look at. Where are you taking these?

[gaekwad2]

At the garden (not mine though, my mother's, it's her main hobby).

[swingdjted]

Renee's flower garden has about 4 inches of snow on it right now. Maybe I'll get back to you in a couple months.

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Great pictures, too, gaek. Hopefully I'll get around to taking more pictures after I move. Right now I just don't have the time or ambition to go out and shoot.

But I have been researching more things online lately, though. I've come across a few more links that have lots of info, sample images, and reviews of cameras, lenses, and accessories. The first one is somewhat similar to dpreview.com. The other two are geared towards Canon, mostly. I'm posting these here for anyone that's interested as well as for my own recollection.

http://www.dcresource.com/
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/
http://www.eflens.com/

[edit]
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/
Also has lots of info, reviews, and news.
[/edit]

[fwgx]

My fave photography site is http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/ Lots of pros in there. To start with it's demoralising because everyone is so god damn good, but then I do think I've improved as a result.

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

I took a quick look around in one of the forums. They do indeed have a lot of talent in there.

[! ! ! 007AMP]

Originally posted by Canon
The third one looks really nice.

agree, really nice

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Damnit!

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...&modelid=11922

I just found out that my 70-300 IS lens is one of these.


[edit]
Just sent an email to Canon Support. Hopefully they can tell me something helpful.
[/edit]


[edit 2]
Just got a reply from Canon Support...

Thank you for contacting Canon product support. We value you as a Canon customer and appreciate the opportunity to assist you. I am sorry to hear you are experiencing an issue with your EF 70-300 IS USM Lens.

Please respond with your address, phone number, the complete serial number, and date of purchase. We will create a case and send you a prepaid shipping label so that the lens can be sent to our factory for modification. I am sorry for any inconvenience.

Score! I just sent them the info they need.
[/edit 2]

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Until now, I've never really used my 70-300mm IS USM for portrait-style photography, so I never noticed the distortion. I just took a couple test shots a little while ago to verify the defect, and yeah, it's quite obvious...

To test, I found a U-Haul box here in the house. It's got a nice printed pattern on it that turned out to be perfect for my testing purposes:




I set my tripod up in the living room and took a horizontal test picture of the box:

Test Image 1 (Horizontal - 1.6MB)

Then I set the camera up for a vertical test picture:

Test Image 2 (Vertical - 1.4MB)

The horizontal image looks nice and sharp throughout the entire field of view. In the vertical image, you can clearly see bad out-of-focus distortion in the upper half (especially the upper-right corner) of the image. Both images were taken with exactly the same camera and lens settings. I included the EXIF data with the images. Strange.

[skryingbreath]

That one is really fudged on the top.

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Very.


Also, I just boxed up my lens and shipped it off to Canon about an hour and a half ago. And in my infinite wisdom, I forgot to include the Service Request Evaluation form in the box with it. Ugh. I just sent an email back to Canon Support and asked them if it'd be possible for me to mail the form separately. I hope I can. I'd hate for them to get it, open it and not see a form, then just close it up and ship it back.


[edit]
Canon Support sent me another email a little while ago. They said I could just mail the form to the same address that the lens is being shipped to, and that I could call them to let them know that the form will be coming separately. Cool beans. I must say, I'm pretty impressed with Canon's support so far.
[/edit]

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Ok, as long as Canon doesn't slap me with crazystupid repair bills for my lens, I've picked out a few other things that I want to buy soon.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens
Nice, cheap, normal length prime lens with a big aperture for narrow DOF images. I've seen some pictures taken with this lens, and despite its cheapness, it produces very sharp images.

Canon 430EX Speedlite E-TTL II Hot-Shoe Flash
While the built-in flash in my 350D is adequate for a lot of situations, it's very limited with its capabilities. The 430EX is everything I could need short of studio lighting. It'll probably be a while before I get one of these, though. I might even wait until I get a FF dSLR because even the 430EX dwarfs my 350D. The 580EX II is even worse. Not cheap, either.

Hakuba PSTC 200 Pro Tripod Case
It's difficult lugging around my tripod without a case or a carry strap. This is the best looking case I could find that doesn't cost an arm or leg. It looks like it should be large enough to hold my tripod with the head attached.

Pelican 1554 Large Watertight Protector Case (Black, With Padded Dividers)
My little Tamrac backpack isn't big enough any more. I need to upgrade. Pelican makes some of the toughest cases around, and I think this would be a good case to protect my gear.


Thoughts or suggestions?

[m0e]

Well today was the first day we have had above freezing temps (well, except while I have been at work) since we bought our camera, so I finally got to go shoot some photos. Got a Topeak bag and rack setup for my bike, works real good for bringing the camera and stuff along.
I have been taking advantage of being stuck inside to read up on photography, learning how the various settings affect how your photos turn out, and getting to know the controls on the camera itself. However after actually getting out and taking some photos I see I definitely need to work on my technique. Also it became clear the kit lens is less than adequate for most of what I want to do. Trying to take pics of wildlife is frustrating and architecture, well it is kind of disappointing. Even with those limitations I am still amazed by the quality of the pictures I have taken so far, I am really happy with the camera itself. I am thinking of getting the same telephoto lens as Sarge has, our local photo shop has one for about the same price as I can get one on the internet. Hopefully I can get in there this week with the camera and give it a test spin. I will check to see if it has the serial number listed in the link Sarge posted also. It would be nice to be able to pick up either one of these or one of these but those are slightly beyond the budget for now. I'd also like to get one of these but I think I'll use the telephoto more and I am also still shopping for a tripod (we're almost going to be in civilization in a couple of weeks, hopefully someone will carry Slik products there) and would like to pick up the battery grip and a polarizing filter soon. Plus there's Photoshop CS3 and the Macbook Pro to run it LOL .
Definitely need a card reader for the computer. One of our printers has a card reader built-in so I tried to use it to transfer pictures from the card to the computer, took almost five hours to transfer about 60 raw files, using the USB connector for the camera only takes about 4-5 minutes to do the same. Thats not bad but I would rather just run the cards from the computer than having to unplug a USB cable, connect the camera and then reconnect whatever I disconnected to start with.
I'm also thinking of making some sort of rack for the tripod to mount to my bike frame but I will probably wait until I actually get a new tripod.
As usual any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

The lens choices you have there are very nice. The two L-series lenses are quite spendy, but when you're ready to put down the cash for one, you'll definitely not be disappointed. The EF-S 10-22mm comes highly recommended to me, as well. It's a very good wide-angle zoom lens. And if you get the battery grip, I'm pretty sure you'll be pleased with it, too. I love mine.

I need to get a couple of good circular polarizers for my lenses, also. I've got my eyes on a couple of Hoya multicoated circular polarizers...

[m0e]

Well after doing some looking on the net this is my current wish list:

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM
Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM
Hoya Pro 1 Digital 58mm Polarizing filter
Hoya Pro 1 Digital 67mm Polarizing filter
Slik Pro 700 DX
Canon BG-E3 Battery Grip
Canon RS-60E3 Remote

Now as much as I would like to I'm not planning to spend that much on camera equipment this summer, so I have a couple more questions for the photographers among us.

1.Is there any advantage for me to use Canon lenses with our Digital Rebel. That's pretty much all I have looked at so far. My mother has a Minolta 35mm SLR and when we got the Rebel I was thinking I could use the lenses she had for it to see what I would like to get for us, but the Sigma lenses she has are incompatible with Canon DSLR's made after 2001. so I was wondering if I will lose any functionality by using current lenses by a different manufacturer.
2.Of the two telephoto lenses on the list am I going to miss the 100mm in focal length, the adjustable aperture and the image stabilization on the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS if I go with the 70-200mm f/4L. The difference in price is minimal and the build quality and sharpness of the L series lenses is supposed to be well worth the price. My main interests in shooting will be nature/wildlife, kids sports/events and family (not necessarily in that order but my mom does a pretty good job on the family photos, she currently has over seven thousand different family photos on her computer and backed up to both external hard drives and CD's).
3.How should I rank importance of these items as to what I should get first. I have a tripod I can use as long as I want but it is very cheap. Basically what is the thing I will see the most benefit from and is there something not on the list I should be looking for.
4.Does anyone here know what the difference is between the HMC and S-HMC coatings on the Hoya filters.

Thanks again in advance for any help.

[fwgx]

1) Not really, except the L series Canon lens are very good. My two favourite lens' are made by Sigma so don't be scare of third part lens'. The Tokina 12-24 is supposed to be an awesome lens.


2) I don't think you'll miss the 100mm on he long end and the camera has enough pixel to crop if required. The 70-200 focal length is bread and butter for a huge number of photographers. If you're going to want to shoot a lot of little birds however you'll be wanting a LOT more than 300mm. - The Sigma 50-500 with 1.7 TC would be more like it. But then you lose aperture and will need longer shutter speeds making it less useful for sports.

If you need the IS that's fine, but personally I opted against it. I would (did) go for the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 if I were you. The build quality is second to none as is the image quality. Then you get a better aperture than either of the two lens' you mentioned. The IS will at most give you two stops to play with shutter speed wise, at which point you may as well be using an f/2.8 lens. It will be better for sports too where you will want to stop motion - IS cannot do that!

Plus you get a constant aperture throughout the zoom range and HSM for very fast focusing. The macro version also allows for 1m focusing throughout the entire zoom range.

3) The order I would get things in would be:
a) Camera
b) General walk about lens in the 18-70mm range - something cheap to get started with but also a very useful zoom range.
c) A spare battery for the camera - no need for a grip this early.
d) A 70-200 lens, like the Sigma one. - for sports, portraits etc
e) A polarizer for the 18-70 lens - You'll use it on this lens, probably not on the 70-200
f) A good tripod and ball head - NOT a pan and tilt head
g) Battery grip - if you must, probably only worth it if you're taking a lot of portrait shots to the extent that your hand gets tired - event shooting etc.

I don't know why you'd want a 20mm f/2.8 lens. It's too wide for most things except landscapes and for that you wont want to be using it at f/2.8 anyway - it'll be stopped down to f/8-22-ish and on a tripod, so what's the point?

[skryingbreath]

[Canon]

even though the S6000fd is a better camera and its not that much more.

[skryingbreath]

Hahah, I knew you'd say something like that.

[gaekwad2]

Have you tried raw already (using s7raw or ACR)?
ISO 64 should be usable without any noise reduction (just smart sharpening in order to not sharpen the noise).

[skryingbreath]

I tried RAW at 64 and it always gave me weird grainyness (not sure how else to explain it). I figure I'll just shoot in .jpg for a couple days until I get more comfortable with it.

Oh yeah, I finished building a light tent.