VTRacing wrote:Ok, I figured I'd better post my newly acquired gear here, too.
Canon 450D: - No complaints so far, certainly the camera is more advanced than my skill at this point.
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS: - Kit lens, does ok for what it is. Though it will be the first lens replaced.
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS - Nifty Two-Fifty: - Had this purchased for me, and I've been pleasantly surprised so far. On a crop-sensor camera it ends up being a pretty long lens though (88-400mm equivalent). Pretty good bang for buck in terms of image quality & versatility.
Lowepro shoulder bag: - Nice enough bag but it's already too small.
The photo pedant in me can't hold on. I will link to my Blog rant about it.
To be more pedantic, should I edit it to read, "...(88-400mm full-frame field-of-view equivalent)..."?
Its ok. I just have a bug up my ARSE about it after a few ripper arguments with the odd son of a bitch. So many people telling me I don't have the same zoom as them and their 300Ds, even though we are both using 200mm lenses. I will get over it one day.
i agree with you totaly norbs.. the magnification is no different, the depth of field no different, field of view is only different due to the sensor not capturing as much of this image circle.. however,, something i have been thinking of lately.. is... is there an advantage using a crop sensor for longer shots, vs cropping down a shot in a ff camera to the same FOV. being that the crop is cropped from the original image circle rather than chucking away pixels in post production. for a fair comparison it would have to be done with two identical sensors, in terms of pixel pitch and size of the photosites etc... only difference being the physical dimensions of the FF sensor compared to the smaller one.
i dont know the answer to this by the way, just something that ive thought about before... logically youd think the two images would come out identical... but in practice i wonder if its the case.
keep in mind that lightmeters are film calibrated.. quite often they are off a bit for a digital exposure...
im not entirely sure why this is, its something i need to research.. i believe (although could be mistaken) that Sekonic makes a high end meter thats digitaly calibrated.
It does have a calibration screw so I can adjust it. But it seems pretty much dead on from the metering test I have done with the camera. I know the bottom numbers are Light Value Scale (which I assume is candle strength) but I don't really know what that means or does in terms of adjusting the overall metering. See there are things I don't know.
Flickr Gallery Fourth Photography "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight." - Lon Chaney, Sr.
Hmmmmmmmmm, looking at that it might just be a Zone system type thing. Expirence gives you knowlege that you can put a number to, set the light metre to the knowledge number and then do a reading as per normal. In that way it takes into account what it is you are metreing for. Interesting. Will have a fiddle tonight / day and see whats what.
Thanks for the link dex. Nice find.
Flickr Gallery Fourth Photography "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight." - Lon Chaney, Sr.
DexterPunk wrote:keep in mind that lightmeters are film calibrated.. quite often they are off a bit for a digital exposure...
im not entirely sure why this is, its something i need to research.. i believe (although could be mistaken) that Sekonic makes a high end meter thats digitaly calibrated.
Yeah, dslr isos are often somewhat off, like ISO1000 really being ISO800. Probably for marketing purposes...
although even film is not always the rated ISO.. i tested some Ilford FP4+ ISO125 in an annoying sensitometry assignment i had to do and turned out to be something like ISO 96. but, theres a number of variables in development... it should have been developed very close to what is right though, timing was correct for the temp etc.. so i doubt the dev through it that far off.
by the way nige, you prob know, but keep the meter in darkness when not using it so it doesnt use the battery.
Out on the weekend I came to the conclusion that I either need an underwater camera to contend with the rain, or some way to at least make my camera resistant to rain, are there any sort of covers that can be bought or do you guys just rig up some plastic bag arrangement, any ideas?
i know a guy who lives in Ireland who ownes a 20D.. and claims to have shot in rain a few times with no bags and the camera was fine.. im not that game with my camera, but plastic bag should keep a majority of the rain off...
I picked up some goodies over the weekend. Got a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AF for a cracker price too. Also picked up a UV Filter for it (which i later discovered i already had one anyway, turns out the old 50mm Pix sent me had one attached. I just never realized.. lol ). Also got another 4gb SD card (cos you never have enough) & a cool little Lowepro ABS SD Card holder, which i only really bought cos i had money left over.
Was gonna buy a Gorilla Grip tripod too. However they were $89 in the store and i Swear i have seen them under $50 before, so i'll wait. Wouldn't use it a lot anyway i reckon.
Also bought myself a new Epson Printer for photo prints. I thought my 2 year old Canon had stunning Print Quality, this thing is insane. I paid a couple hundred for it compared to the $600 odd i spent on my canon one, but hey, that's the world we live in. I Went in with the Intention of buying an A3 Printer, But after buying other goodies I was a little limited for budget. And while you could get some A3 printers now for about the $350 mark, it wasn't till you looked over $600 that you were seeing quality Photo prints. So, This one will do for now and i'll put some pennies away for something bigger, or, alternatively, purchase a Large Format 900mm printer under the business or something.
Then headed off to Ikea and stocked up on a heap of frames. They have some seriously nice frames there for dirt cheap. I've been wanting to frame a few of my shots for a long time but Frames were just always stupidly priced, and the ones you could get from your Cheap as Chips or Go Lo's were just plain shitty. so i'm stoked
So, lots of Chrissy pressies for me.. yay. Was on a high purchasing toys. But then i had to buy an account keeping software package, that killed my day..lol
very nice Hz... im interested in those frames... how much are they?? and can you take a little piccy?? pllllssssssss closest Ikea for me is a good 25min drive away
DexterPunk wrote:very nice Hz... im interested in those frames... how much are they?? and can you take a little piccy?? pllllssssssss closest Ikea for me is a good 25min drive away
aww, poor you, closest Ikea to me is like 200k's away. softcock, harden up..lol
anywho. The frames I got are suited for A4, there are plenty of bigger ones there. I paid $16 for the ones i got, however they were not the cheapest. just the best suited for where the images are going. for A4, they ranged from as little as $3 up to about $30 for some of the more extravagant ones. I'll take a couple of shortly and put them up
this is probably the worst looking frame there too.. lol. But hey, that's what the missus wanted. Plenty of Black/white/dark timber/stainless frames there for the same prices.
Hz-Lab wrote:Then headed off to Ikea and stocked up on a heap of frames. They have some seriously nice frames there for dirt cheap. I've been wanting to frame a few of my shots for a long time but Frames were just always stupidly priced, and the ones you could get from your Cheap as Chips or Go Lo's were just plain shitty. so i'm stoked
Next time you visit Ikea you really should get yourself a new laundry basket:
...don't tell anyone but I did most of my last weeks commercial product shots using one
i just noticed your fine print too... dont think theres anything wrong with that, heaps of people use tents for jewellery and metal cuz its quick and easy. I dont see the difference if its an ikea laundry basket or some $1000 photography name tent that essentially does the same thing. So long as you know that for some objects you dont have as much control when you wanna do stuff like vary tones across surfaces and introduce a little contrast to show form... one thing a tent can do too well is make all polished metal too similar in tone.
Its ok. I just have a bug up my ARSE about it after a few ripper arguments with the odd son of a bitch. So many people telling me I don't have the same zoom as them and their 300Ds, even though we are both using 200mm lenses. I will get over it one day. 
