Pros: Extremely fast focus. Amazingly clear, sharp, images. Great in low light.
Cons: Heavy after a full days use, even with a monopod. Obviously limited range (and extender is a must). So much DOF it's very important to choose the correct f-stop and focus point, otherwise you'll end up with one feather in focus and the rest out!
Overall though an outstanding lens that does exactly what is says on the tin.
I've just returned from a rather relaxing holiday on the French waterways, where life pretty much slowed to the pace of our boat.
Of course, with all this extra spare time I spent a lot of time fiddling with my camera. The images in particular that I had a lot of fun with were those taken with my new infrared filter. You can browse through them here.
I've had my new Canon EOS 10D digital SLR for about a month now. It really is a great camera, creatively and educationally the change from film to digital SLR is exactly what I hoped it would be. New shots and techniques are a lot easier to compose and a lot less expensive when you get them wrong.
The advantages of digital cameras will not come as ground breaking news to most of you however, so I thought I'd post a few of the slight disadvantages and quirks I've found since buying the camera.
- As with traditional photography you'll still need a tripod and remote release cable to get any decent, large format shots. Quicker previews of your images on the LCD screen only serve to highlight hand shake and mistakes better!
- Due to the 1.6x enlargement effect of the CMOS chip, my 50mm lens is now an 80mm portrait lens and my 28-135mm a meaty 44-226mm zoom. Great in some ways, but I do miss the option of using the wider angles I had at my disposal before, especially in urban settings.
- Lastly Your new found creative freedom will have you drooling over super-fast/expensive L series lenses.
All in all though, minor points (that mostly affect film photographers too).
The camera has hardly left my side. Highly recommended.
Related: Buy Camera at Amazon | Read in-depth review at dpreview.com
I've set up a small store at CafePress to print my images for my own use and to allow others to purchase them. I've no idea how it'll go, but I'd love to hear your feedback.
Visit it here
Update: I also now have a UK based shop here
Everything seems to be a photo opportunity since getting my new camera. So you can guess what happened when the first of this years snow arrived.
I had to stick to faily high ISO settings as I didnt have a tripod with me, but I'm fairly pleased with the results and as always it taught me a lot about the camera.(start near the bottom with this one)
I spent a couple of days last week in Paris, in the company of (among others) my new Canon EOS 10D digital camera. I'll post more about the camera later, but you can see some of the pictures here in the meantime.
Overall I had a really great time. My experiences with France in the past, have been limited to small towns and beach holidays as a kid. The architecture was constantly gorgeous and overwhelmingly photogenic, so much so that I had to stop pulling my camera out at every opportunity.
What really made the break however, was the friendliness of the Parisians we met while there. My school-boy French is embarrassingly bad, but almost everyone we met almost fell over themselves helping and welcoming us.
In particular La Dalea Restaurant & Bar and the Hotel Innova, both in Montparnasse, come highly recommended. Try the champagne cocktails or Entree's at the former and the way above short-break-2-star service and welcome and the latter.
Over the weekend I was lucky enough to be hired by a friend of a family to take pictures of the 40th Reunion of their old youth club.
I wanted to make sure the pictures came out well and as I was also lacking a decent flash gun, I decided to hire a Digital SLR for the event. (yeah, yeah, I wanted a new toy too)
A quick Google came up with Guy Thatcher at hireacamera.com. Although he didn’t have the EOS10D (buy) I was after, I got a great deal on a Fuji FinePix S2 Pro Digital SLR (buy), Tamron Zoom lens and TTL Flash Gun. (Overall I highly recommend hireacamera.com, Guy was friendly, helpful and efficient to the point of chasing the courier down the motorway to get the camera to me the next day)
The camera itself was a lot of fun. Very similar to the Canon's I'm used to and very easy to use. In fact, despite the fact I inadvertently left the instruction book at work, I found it very easy to get to grips with. About the only problem I had was that what looked like bright, focused images on the LCD came out a lot darker and sometimes unfocused once in PhotoShop. (I'm guessing this may be down to differing display gammas)
I was less impressed with the Tamron lens, which was very slow and noisy to focus. I spent a lot of time pining after my fast, silent and stabilised Canon lens.
The reunion itself was also a lot of fun. It was great to have a captive source of people to photograph, especially as I still find it hard to stick the camera in strangers faces to achieve the shot I'm looking for. There was a fairly quick learning curve of when and how to use the flash and I still find it a lot easier to get good shots in natural light.
There are only a few shots I'm really happy with and one too many slightly out of focus, but the whole experience taught me a lot.
I also spent Sunday wandering round the docks of Bristol (the same ones I walk past every day, to and from work) and the Industrial Museum (where the above picture of the Bristol Car is from). I hope to add more pictures as I get the chance.
Adobe have announced a brand new version of PhotoShop, part of their new 'Creative Suite'.
Among the new features are a few that will be welcome to digital photographers: Dynamic Histograms, Improved Colour correction, RAW image support, an improved file browser and customisable metadata.
Adobe have also dropped the version number in favour of the 'CS' moniker and includes anti-privacy product activation similar to that of Microsoft.
If you do any kind of serious image work then you'll already be a heavy PhotoShop user, so this upgrade is pretty much a no-brainer.
UPDATE: Detailed review over at the ever reliable Digital Photography Review.
Phil Askley has posted an exhaustive review of a pre-production EOS300D / Digital Rebel over at Digital Photography Review. UK list price given is £899.
From the review it sounds like an outstanding camera for the price, especially when compared to similarly priced fixed lens cameras. The only thing lacking seems to be the feature set, which Phil suggests they crippled on purpose to ensure people still bought the EOS 10D.
He even thought the body finish wasnt *that* bad.
