rather than lugging a burner around just take your flash card to a photostore and let them burn it for you. alternative buy an ipod and back up your photos from the ibook
The purpose of backup is security. Having two HD on you while traveling is not security. Burn the disks and send them securely to a secure location. The ipod is too prized of an item to secure images on for an extended period without additional measures.
At the studio I worked at we archived all images on a server, and on 2 sets of disks, one on site and one off site. Then for the film shots there was also the original film archived.
BTW, if you're thinking about saving some $$$ and getting the Canon 300D, pick one up and feel the build of it first. I haven't toyed with one enough to say, but I know it's mostly plastic, and might not be ideal for rough and tumble travel.
Basically the same sensor. The main differences are the versatility, and durability. But the image quality should be the same with either.
Edit: The other question is whether you already have glass for Nikon or Canon. That is an investment. If you have one, stick with that.
The differences I've heard through the photo community in my neck of the woods is that the color accuracy is better on Nikon systems but Canon has less problems with noise. Never used the Canon systems but they're a well respected system.
Cool- I did the side by side and really the only major difference I found is with the metering on 10D. The 10D has 35 area eval, center weighted, partial and the rebel has "Auto".
What exactly is "Metering"? I don't know a lot about photography- just tha basics. Is this going to prevent me from taking good photographs? Whats the advantage of having the more advanced metering system?
I don't really mind the plastic body- I've held the rebel a few times and the 10D a few times. Yes- the 10D does feel much better and more solid, but is that really worth the extra $500 plus a lens? The rebel actually doesn't feel that bad.
BTW- I'm planning on getting the rebel with the lens (I've actually heard that the lens is a great starter lens and plus my friend has the 35mm rebel and a few canon lenses- he is going on the trip too- I would be able to use his lenses too)...
Metering is the measurement of the amount of light in your view, measuring the light reflected into the frame to put it in more accurate terms. It determines the amount of exposure needed for the film or sensor to pick up the details and color of the image correctly. The exposure is controlled by the aperture and the shutter speed. There are different ways to measure the light coming into the lens: measure at a spot, measure using several points in the frame and various versions and combinations of these. Almost all cameras use an area metering system of some sort, better cameras have a way to spot meter the center area in the frame, even better systems have center-weighted area metering, area metering that takes focal distance into consideration (especially for flash), spot metering where the spot can be moved around, etc. Any dSLR will have these options with the manufacturer's own implementation of them.
If you're going to do a fair amount of manual exposures where you control the aperture and shutter independently, you essentially bypass the metering system and meter the scene yourself. I highly recommend using manual exposure as often as possible when learning the ropes of photography -- you work with the fundamental elements for capturing light and get a much better understanding of how a camera works and how light behaves.
I don't know if I'd go completely manual, but it would be indeed a great way to get into metering correctly -- building a knack for judging aperture/shutter. Basic metering in all cameras is set to expose 18% gray correctly (18% as a value of the midpoint between black and white is highly negotiable -- many disputes, arguments over the exact value between cameramakers, etc.---all despite ANSI standards). If you average out a scene, it comes to roughly 18% gray, so the camera calculates to expose this color correctly in the given light conditions, either taking into account the whole scene and comparing it to a huge library in memory (matrix/evaluative), center of the scene, or a point of it.
To elaborate a little more on what Rotto already gave you, though, aperture specifically is the amount the diaphragm in the lens is stopped down. On lenses it is given in terms of an "f-stop" -- a fractional measurement (e.g., the largest aperture is the smallest number -- smallest aperture is biggest number, just think reciprocally). If you open up almost all the way, i.e., use a large aperture, you can capture the most light and will be able to use higher shutter speeds (sharper pics).
But speaking of sharpness, aperture opens up a new discussion next to metering/exposure -- depth of field. Opening up (large aperture) will indeed let you use a faster shutter speed, but approaching the largest aperture, depth of field (the area in focus completely) decreases. With very wide apertures, like f 1.4/1.8 (common on 50mm lenses -- which you should get one of -- cheap and sharp!) the depth of field is extremely shallow. Keep this in mind as you're shooting and learn to use the depth of field preview button if your camera has it. Sometimes a shallow depth of field is very desirable and contributes much to an image (esp. sports, portraits), but sometimes it can go too far and ruin a good image to an extent. But you'll be using a DSLR, so enjoy its advantage of WYSIWYG!
Metering with a DSLR is also affected by the ISO equivalent you choose -- if you want to take acceptable shots in available light (e.g., you're in a situation with the aperture opened up as far as you can for the shot -keeping DOF in mind--and can't get a suitable shutter speed for handholding) adjust the ISO until you can get to one. Noise is indeed a factor as you go up the ISO scale (but it's becoming much less of an issue ---I've seen some EXTREMELY impressive shots coming out of the Nikon D2h @ ISO 1600 with 70-200 VR lens), so keep it as low as possible. But if it's a matter of getting the shot, be pragmatic. You can always use curves in photoshop to alleviate some of the noise in shadow areas later, and it's usually not as pronounced in print as you see onscreen.
With that said, as I opened -- jumping into full manual is indeed the way to start, but I usually keep my camera in aperture-priority mode, where I set the aperture and it judges the appropriate shutter.
There is one more metering mode that Rotto didn't elaborate on -- 3D color matrix metering (only found in F5/Nikon D1/D1x/D1h/D2h). It uses a small CCD to bring color information of the scene into account for the shutter/aperture calculation. And it's usually DEAD ON in available light. Flash metering takes practice -- and you have to realize that using a flash on camera with or without a bracket will never give you studio-quality results, but they'll be great nonetheless.
Enjoy learning about photography!! You'll be much rewarded in the end. And remember to keep an eye out at sunrise/sunset.
I can't stress enough how important the bag and extra batteries are. All the other gear is worthless after your battery is dead... everyone runs out of juice at just the wrong moment. Get more batteries!
The easy way to remember how the aperture affects depth of field (DOF): the greater the aperture value, the greater the depth of field. For example, an f stop of 22 keeps almost everything in your view in focus, while an f stop of 1.4 keeps only the object you focus on, or sometimes only part of it, in focus. Both shutter speed values and f stop values are really the denominators of fractional numbers. The f stop is the focal length divided by the aperture size, f/A.
I just think full manual is a great way to cut your teeth on this stuff. "Camera" in Italian means "chamber" or room. Originally, the concept was used in painting by people like Vermeer; a "camera obscura" or dark room was just that, with a pinhole in one side. The light that was outside the room projected through the pinhole and was cast onto the opposite wall (upside down and backwards). The painter would then trace the projected image on their canvas. Now, instead of placing a canvas back there, you put film or a sensor that records the light pattern and colors. The chamber is also a lot more portable, the pinhole size is adjustable (aperture) and how long the pinhole is open is adjustable.
OK since we're overwhelming the poor taco with photography lessons: a quick primer on ISO values. ISO is the standard value placed on traditional film that measures how sensitive the film is to light, that is how quickly the film's granular surface exposes/turns to white or color. You often hear the ISO value for film referred to as film speed; I prefer to call it film sensitivity, but it's the same idea. A lower ISO value means it's less sensitive to light, which means it exposes more slowly. No surprise that a higher ISO value means it's more sensitive to light. So 100 speed ISO film needs more exposure time to light to get a proper exposure than 400 speed in the same circumstance.
So what are the consequences and trade-offs?
1. Film sensitivity affects shutter speed. 100 ISO film can take too long to expose in low light, so the natural tremble of your hand will blur shutter exposures that are too long if you don't have a tripod and a delayed release or plunger. 400 or 800 ISO film can expose too quickly in bright light like direct daylight, so your images might be either washed out or the images will appear too "frozen" due to the very high shutter speeds needed.
2. Film sensitivity is directly proportional to film grain or noise. 100 speed film has a finer grain than 400 speed film, whose grain and irregularities in the exposed color becomes apparent to the naked eye. In other words, higher film sensitivity means a noisier image.
What does this mean for digital cameras?
Digital cameras are designed to behave similarly to film cameras by creating the option for this sort of trade-off. You can take properly exposed pictures in lower light with a higher "ISO" value, but it introduces more (digital) noise into the image. dLSRs with APS-sized sensors take good pictures with an acceptable amount of noise even at 800 "ISO," whereas non-dLSR sensors with their smaller sensors take rather noisy pictures at any setting higher than 200 "ISO."
Woah- thanks everyone for the great tips and tricks. I do know the basics about shutter speed, ISO, etc... Thanks for posting it all in one spot- I took some photography in high school, but haven't done anything in a long time (2.5 years)- I'm a little rusty.
Well- it look like I'll be picking up the Digital Rebel in a week or 2 along with a 512MB compact flash card. My 64MB that I have for my Digital Elph isn't going to cut it with the 6MP images eating up space! Woah- 6MP- I can't even imagine!
I wouldn't mind getting a firewire compact flash reader- any suggestions? Mainly low cost please...
Any ideas on what lens I should buy next? The rebel kit comes with Canon's new compact EF-S 18?55mm f/3.5?5.6 zoom lens. Which I hear is a great started lens... I love marco pictures, but I don't think I'll be taking many of those in Europe. I guess I'd mostly be taking pictures of landscape, city buildings/streets, and people (outside mainly)...
Well- after looking to purchase my camera this weekend at a retail location I couldn't find it!!! Everyone was out of stock!!!! I checked about 15 different stores!!!!
Anyway- I ended up ordering the kit (lens and camera) from apple. Shipping was 7-10 days- so if I'm lucky I'll get to use it at the detroit auto show in 2 weeks!!!
I'm soooooo excited! I can't imagine 6 mega pixel- holy $hit!
Oh yeah- I'm playing around with iView right now- maybe apple will update iPhoto at MW this week- make it faster, RAW image compatible, etc...
I haven't read the entire thread so sorry if I'm not repeating.
I'd bring some good compression software so you can 'zip' up your files. I'd also bring a good FTP client so you can FTP some major chunks of pictures from your iBook to a remote location.
As for the picture taking, you seem to know what you're doing. When I was on the road for 4 months though, I had a good supply of film and a really good case for my camera. Choose wisely on the case because I got sick of having it around, but I'm not a photographer like you seem to be. If you're already used to lugging around several pieces, you should be fine. If not, find a nice low profile case, sturdy but small. It'll be your best friend on the road. Anything small is your best friend on the road.
Oh, and buy some Gold Bond Medicated Skin Powder. It helps with chafing.
As far as lenses, if you get to be a pretty big enthusiast, you'll probably end up buying either zooms or fixed lenses between (in 35 mm equivalent values) 18 mm and 200 mm, maybe even 400 mm. 28-85 and 28-200 mm zooms are fairly common. Wider angles (lower mm) lenses are better for architecture, tight spaces; longer lenses are better for portraits, details, etc. If you go wide angle, get at least a 28 mm equivalent lens, if you go tele, get at least 200 mm. Try the one that comes with the Rebel, I think it's a 35-85 mm equivalent.
BTW, the thing isn't just Mp, it's about the sensor size and other factors too. The New Sony DSC-828 is 8Mp but crammed into a smaller sensor. so chromatic aberration and noise are issues with it, among other things pro and con. You'll find that the Digital Rebel's APs-sized sensor takes better pictures with a lower Mp count. The pictures won't be as high contrast, sharp or saturated as someone else's point-and-shoot camera though. The higher cost of the Rebel does not equate to better pictures out of the box. The Rebel will however give you more accurate pictures of the subject: light, color, DOF, detail, less noise, etc. It also provides the means to controlling those sorts of things more, especially using a RAW post-processing workflow.
Two things to add to bunge's post:
1. You can zip files from the Panther Finder if you have it, otherwise you can buy Dropstuff or something like that. JPEG files will not compress further, they're already compressed, so don't bother if you take pictures in that format. Sounds like that won't happen too often, but there are occasions.
2. Watch where you apply that Gold Bond. Watch out in those, uh, sensitive areas. I'll leave it at that.
Yeah- I realise that mega pixels don't matter much on image quality above 5MP. I seriously thought about the Sigma that only makes 3MP images, but captures an image in RGB- the image/color quality is supposed to be outstanding- plus it comes with like 3 lenses for like $1500.
But I guess its a slow camera- boot up time- saving files- AF- etc...
Anyway- I bought a mini-tripod this weekend. I hope to pick up a 512MB CF card and the 50mm f1.8 canon lens in the next couple of months..
cheers!
thanks for everything- I'll post a review, sample pics, and boxing opening pics in the next few weeks (2 weeks hopefully)..
USB is freakin' slow. I once tried downloading 150+ photos (JPEG, ~2MB each) by USB. I never even finished. It's much easier to pop the card out into a FW card reader. That took about a minute to do that transfer.
I think in those 3 sample photos you've provided, a higher f-stop would have been better... F6-7 or even higher. Makes it easier on the AF when in aperture priority mode too.
Like the first pic of the female duck...the snow is actually what's most in focus instead of the duck. And I don't think it's stylistically beneficial to keep the ducks in the background out of focus.
Comments
originally posted by Aussie John
rather than lugging a burner around just take your flash card to a photostore and let them burn it for you. alternative buy an ipod and back up your photos from the ibook
The purpose of backup is security. Having two HD on you while traveling is not security. Burn the disks and send them securely to a secure location. The ipod is too prized of an item to secure images on for an extended period without additional measures.
At the studio I worked at we archived all images on a server, and on 2 sets of disks, one on site and one off site. Then for the film shots there was also the original film archived.
Originally posted by LiquidR
Hope this does it.
Basically the same sensor. The main differences are the versatility, and durability. But the image quality should be the same with either.
Edit: The other question is whether you already have glass for Nikon or Canon. That is an investment. If you have one, stick with that.
The differences I've heard through the photo community in my neck of the woods is that the color accuracy is better on Nikon systems but Canon has less problems with noise. Never used the Canon systems but they're a well respected system.
Cool- I did the side by side and really the only major difference I found is with the metering on 10D. The 10D has 35 area eval, center weighted, partial and the rebel has "Auto".
What exactly is "Metering"? I don't know a lot about photography- just tha basics. Is this going to prevent me from taking good photographs? Whats the advantage of having the more advanced metering system?
I don't really mind the plastic body- I've held the rebel a few times and the 10D a few times. Yes- the 10D does feel much better and more solid, but is that really worth the extra $500 plus a lens? The rebel actually doesn't feel that bad.
BTW- I'm planning on getting the rebel with the lens (I've actually heard that the lens is a great starter lens and plus my friend has the 35mm rebel and a few canon lenses- he is going on the trip too- I would be able to use his lenses too)...
Thanks for all the help! Keep it coming!
If you're going to do a fair amount of manual exposures where you control the aperture and shutter independently, you essentially bypass the metering system and meter the scene yourself. I highly recommend using manual exposure as often as possible when learning the ropes of photography -- you work with the fundamental elements for capturing light and get a much better understanding of how a camera works and how light behaves.
[edit] another link to DP Review:
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/Glossa...etering_01.htm
To elaborate a little more on what Rotto already gave you, though, aperture specifically is the amount the diaphragm in the lens is stopped down. On lenses it is given in terms of an "f-stop" -- a fractional measurement (e.g., the largest aperture is the smallest number -- smallest aperture is biggest number, just think reciprocally). If you open up almost all the way, i.e., use a large aperture, you can capture the most light and will be able to use higher shutter speeds (sharper pics).
But speaking of sharpness, aperture opens up a new discussion next to metering/exposure -- depth of field. Opening up (large aperture) will indeed let you use a faster shutter speed, but approaching the largest aperture, depth of field (the area in focus completely) decreases. With very wide apertures, like f 1.4/1.8 (common on 50mm lenses -- which you should get one of -- cheap and sharp!) the depth of field is extremely shallow. Keep this in mind as you're shooting and learn to use the depth of field preview button if your camera has it. Sometimes a shallow depth of field is very desirable and contributes much to an image (esp. sports, portraits), but sometimes it can go too far and ruin a good image to an extent. But you'll be using a DSLR, so enjoy its advantage of WYSIWYG!
Metering with a DSLR is also affected by the ISO equivalent you choose -- if you want to take acceptable shots in available light (e.g., you're in a situation with the aperture opened up as far as you can for the shot -keeping DOF in mind--and can't get a suitable shutter speed for handholding) adjust the ISO until you can get to one. Noise is indeed a factor as you go up the ISO scale (but it's becoming much less of an issue ---I've seen some EXTREMELY impressive shots coming out of the Nikon D2h @ ISO 1600 with 70-200 VR lens), so keep it as low as possible. But if it's a matter of getting the shot, be pragmatic. You can always use curves in photoshop to alleviate some of the noise in shadow areas later, and it's usually not as pronounced in print as you see onscreen.
With that said, as I opened -- jumping into full manual is indeed the way to start, but I usually keep my camera in aperture-priority mode, where I set the aperture and it judges the appropriate shutter.
There is one more metering mode that Rotto didn't elaborate on -- 3D color matrix metering (only found in F5/Nikon D1/D1x/D1h/D2h). It uses a small CCD to bring color information of the scene into account for the shutter/aperture calculation. And it's usually DEAD ON in available light. Flash metering takes practice -- and you have to realize that using a flash on camera with or without a bracket will never give you studio-quality results, but they'll be great nonetheless.
Enjoy learning about photography!! You'll be much rewarded in the end. And remember to keep an eye out at sunrise/sunset.
Buy a nice camera bag big enough for everything.
Have at least one spare battery, preferably two.
Voltage + Plug adapters for recharging
I can't stress enough how important the bag and extra batteries are. All the other gear is worthless after your battery is dead... everyone runs out of juice at just the wrong moment. Get more batteries!
I just think full manual is a great way to cut your teeth on this stuff. "Camera" in Italian means "chamber" or room. Originally, the concept was used in painting by people like Vermeer; a "camera obscura" or dark room was just that, with a pinhole in one side. The light that was outside the room projected through the pinhole and was cast onto the opposite wall (upside down and backwards). The painter would then trace the projected image on their canvas. Now, instead of placing a canvas back there, you put film or a sensor that records the light pattern and colors. The chamber is also a lot more portable, the pinhole size is adjustable (aperture) and how long the pinhole is open is adjustable.
OK since we're overwhelming the poor taco with photography lessons: a quick primer on ISO values. ISO is the standard value placed on traditional film that measures how sensitive the film is to light, that is how quickly the film's granular surface exposes/turns to white or color. You often hear the ISO value for film referred to as film speed; I prefer to call it film sensitivity, but it's the same idea. A lower ISO value means it's less sensitive to light, which means it exposes more slowly. No surprise that a higher ISO value means it's more sensitive to light. So 100 speed ISO film needs more exposure time to light to get a proper exposure than 400 speed in the same circumstance.
So what are the consequences and trade-offs?
1. Film sensitivity affects shutter speed. 100 ISO film can take too long to expose in low light, so the natural tremble of your hand will blur shutter exposures that are too long if you don't have a tripod and a delayed release or plunger. 400 or 800 ISO film can expose too quickly in bright light like direct daylight, so your images might be either washed out or the images will appear too "frozen" due to the very high shutter speeds needed.
2. Film sensitivity is directly proportional to film grain or noise. 100 speed film has a finer grain than 400 speed film, whose grain and irregularities in the exposed color becomes apparent to the naked eye. In other words, higher film sensitivity means a noisier image.
What does this mean for digital cameras?
Digital cameras are designed to behave similarly to film cameras by creating the option for this sort of trade-off. You can take properly exposed pictures in lower light with a higher "ISO" value, but it introduces more (digital) noise into the image. dLSRs with APS-sized sensors take good pictures with an acceptable amount of noise even at 800 "ISO," whereas non-dLSR sensors with their smaller sensors take rather noisy pictures at any setting higher than 200 "ISO."
Well- it look like I'll be picking up the Digital Rebel in a week or 2 along with a 512MB compact flash card. My 64MB that I have for my Digital Elph isn't going to cut it with the 6MP images eating up space! Woah- 6MP- I can't even imagine!
I wouldn't mind getting a firewire compact flash reader- any suggestions? Mainly low cost please...
Any ideas on what lens I should buy next? The rebel kit comes with Canon's new compact EF-S 18?55mm f/3.5?5.6 zoom lens. Which I hear is a great started lens... I love marco pictures, but I don't think I'll be taking many of those in Europe. I guess I'd mostly be taking pictures of landscape, city buildings/streets, and people (outside mainly)...
Thanks and Happy New Year!
Anyway- I ended up ordering the kit (lens and camera) from apple. Shipping was 7-10 days- so if I'm lucky I'll get to use it at the detroit auto show in 2 weeks!!!
I'm soooooo excited! I can't imagine 6 mega pixel- holy $hit!
Oh yeah- I'm playing around with iView right now- maybe apple will update iPhoto at MW this week- make it faster, RAW image compatible, etc...
Thanks for everything!
I'd bring some good compression software so you can 'zip' up your files. I'd also bring a good FTP client so you can FTP some major chunks of pictures from your iBook to a remote location.
As for the picture taking, you seem to know what you're doing. When I was on the road for 4 months though, I had a good supply of film and a really good case for my camera. Choose wisely on the case because I got sick of having it around, but I'm not a photographer like you seem to be. If you're already used to lugging around several pieces, you should be fine. If not, find a nice low profile case, sturdy but small. It'll be your best friend on the road. Anything small is your best friend on the road.
Oh, and buy some Gold Bond Medicated Skin Powder. It helps with chafing.
BTW, the thing isn't just Mp, it's about the sensor size and other factors too. The New Sony DSC-828 is 8Mp but crammed into a smaller sensor. so chromatic aberration and noise are issues with it, among other things pro and con. You'll find that the Digital Rebel's APs-sized sensor takes better pictures with a lower Mp count. The pictures won't be as high contrast, sharp or saturated as someone else's point-and-shoot camera though. The higher cost of the Rebel does not equate to better pictures out of the box. The Rebel will however give you more accurate pictures of the subject: light, color, DOF, detail, less noise, etc. It also provides the means to controlling those sorts of things more, especially using a RAW post-processing workflow.
Two things to add to bunge's post:
1. You can zip files from the Panther Finder if you have it, otherwise you can buy Dropstuff or something like that. JPEG files will not compress further, they're already compressed, so don't bother if you take pictures in that format. Sounds like that won't happen too often, but there are occasions.
2. Watch where you apply that Gold Bond. Watch out in those, uh, sensitive areas. I'll leave it at that.
Have a good trip. That's my dream camera too
But I guess its a slow camera- boot up time- saving files- AF- etc...
Anyway- I bought a mini-tripod this weekend. I hope to pick up a 512MB CF card and the 50mm f1.8 canon lens in the next couple of months..
cheers!
thanks for everything- I'll post a review, sample pics, and boxing opening pics in the next few weeks (2 weeks hopefully)..
USB is freakin' slow. I once tried downloading 150+ photos (JPEG, ~2MB each) by USB. I never even finished. It's much easier to pop the card out into a FW card reader. That took about a minute to do that transfer.
Where are you going in Europe?
-get insurance
-keep your bag in sight and with you at all times
-GET A LOCK OR TWO
-try and even get one of those "sentinel" locks that will set off an alarm if they are mishandled... like a Kensington lock.
-beware of gypsies
Its great! I also got the canon digital slr accessory kit (second battery, UV filter, and bag).
I'll post some sample pics later...
Click on the link in my sig...
peace.
Originally posted by tacojohn
Well- I posted some sample pics on my web site.
Click on the link in my sig...
peace.
I think in those 3 sample photos you've provided, a higher f-stop would have been better... F6-7 or even higher. Makes it easier on the AF when in aperture priority mode too.
Like the first pic of the female duck...the snow is actually what's most in focus instead of the duck. And I don't think it's stylistically beneficial to keep the ducks in the background out of focus.