Will you send me some food?

[Analogy]

Damnit, now I want those lenses even more. Holy sharpness batman.

I rarely ever have to go into the menu myself. There are only a few features I need the menu for:
Switching between JPG and RAW
Manual white balance/color temp
Bracketing
Mirror lockup

I highly recommend exploring the custom functions, there are a lot of features “hidden” there that are really worthwhile. It lets you customize the operation of your camera to make it fit your style of shooting better.

You’ll get used to swapping lenses. I have no qualms about doing it in the dark nowadays. Just try and do it quickly to minimize the exposure of your camera’s innards to dust. Dust doesn’t really show up except at f/16 and lower, but if you ever do stop down that far you’ll be amazed at how much is in there.

[Elsinore]

I had a look at your pics and I just kept saying “Wow”–I left you lots of comments, but most of them were “wow” lol. Seriously, man, great stuff. And those lenses are sweet! Analogy’s right about not needing to go into the menus much. On the rare occasion that I shoot in-camera black and white, I go in there, or when I use mirror lockup for night shots. One of the custom functions I set was to make the set button (the one inside the wheel) be my switch between RAW/jpg and RAW +jpg. Very useful. As for dust, you’ll definitely want a bulb blower if you don’t have one yet. I have some stuff on my sensor that I can see at f/8, so I really need to give it a good dusting with the blower. IIRC, Canon will clean it once for free for you during the first year. I got my 30D for Mother’s Day, so I need to look into sending it back soon. Of course, that means I have to part with it for 10 days or so….

[Curious]

/Honest feedback from you folks is much appreciated. Your opinions are valued.

i can honestly say those are really nice. did you use the auto focus? and if so it does a better job than mine. or it may be that having a true DSLR lens makes more difference than i thought. i have auto focus film lenses mated to my DSLR body so there’s the 1.6 sensor factor to deal with. if i understand all the conversion stuff correctly my lens at 200 is the equivalent of a 320 film while yours is 200 period. of the ones i looked at that orange bird is not critically sharp but the cranes (?) are really great. the detail is super. the crane head shot says F8 at 200mm but the depth of field is shallower than i would have thought. incredibly sharp where it’s sharp but shallow. the second bee ran into the same problem we had with our bee pictures earlier. (by that i mean we both shot bees and have had the same problems) which is the depth of field vs. shutter speed. i noticed you are/were using ISO 100. any particular reason or just testing. since i “grew up” using ASA 400 color film and tri-x i stick with that now. decent speed vs. noise, at least for me.

i would be surprised if the one receptacle problem was related to work downstairs but one never knows. i was serious about the extension cord. may be mickey mouse but it will get you by until the outlet is fixed. i’ve got a Dell desktop with a 17″ CRT on an extension cord at work. and a printer we seldom use. it does fine and it’s 14 gauge wire.

[Elsinore]

For point of information, the 1.6 multiplication factor applies to all lenses mounted on a 1.6 crop factor body. A 50mm lens will always have the same field of view on a 30D as an 80mm on a 35mm film body or on the “full frame” 5D. However, the crop factor apparently doesn’t change the depth of field, so the 50mm lens won’t suddenly have the slightly more shallow dof of an 80mm lens. I don’t understand the technical stuff at this level to know/explain why, but that’s what I’ve read anyway.

[Analogy]

or it may be that having a true DSLR lens makes more difference than i thought. i have auto focus film lenses mated to my DSLR body so there’s the 1.6 sensor factor to deal with. if i understand all the conversion stuff correctly my lens at 200 is the equivalent of a 320 film while yours is 200 period.

Well first off, he’s not using “crop factor” lenses. Canon’s L-lenses are exclusively designed for full-frame cameras. And 30D is a 1.6x camera, so he is dealing with the crop factor.

Second, the conventional explanation of crop factor (i.e. “multiply the focal length”) causes a lot of confusion because it’s probably the worst possible way to explain it. I came to stills from video, which uses much smaller sensors so focal lengths are much shorter. 9mm in video land is sort of a decent wide. We don’t say that it’s “a 32mm lens equivalent due to crop factor.” We call it 9mm and just know what 9mm means in terms of field of view on a video camera.

You should really think about it the same way on your still camera, don’t be thinking “this 200mm lens is really like a 320 if you stick it on a DSLR.” No, wrong, it’s a 200mm lens no matter what camera you stick it on. Instead just throw away your associations of focal length to field of view from your film cameras and build new associations of how those focal lengths look on a DSLR. You do a whole lot less math that way.

If you have a lens that you were using on film and are wondering what it would look like on your DSLR, don’t think “multiply the focal length by 1.6,” think “take the field of view I remember from that lens and crop it down a bit.”

i noticed you are/were using ISO 100. any particular reason or just testing. since i “grew up” using ASA 400 color film and tri-x i stick with that now. decent speed vs. noise, at least for me.

ISO 100 lets you open the aperture more for depth of field. The amount of visible noise in digital is pretty much zilch up to 400, but if you’re shooting RAW, 100 lets you dig a lot deeper into the shadows for detail.

If I’m trying to freeze motion I’ll boost the ISO for extra shutter speed. Outdoors I’ll go up to 400 and open the lens all the way.

[millera9]

Analogy
Just to clarify, I meant the simple menus on the LCD screen to adjust shutter speed, ISO, etc. After 3 days of shooting, I’ve got that pretty much wired and now I’ll start looking at the more complex menus to adjust temperature and bracketing and the rest of that stuff. I will explore them all, but I like learning as I go so it’ll take a little while. I usually shoot for results and then go to the manual (or the forums!) when I’m not getting the results I want. Expect questions in the “Tips/Tricks” section very soon…

As for the lenses, well… I would probably have sex with that 24-70 if I could find someplace to stick it… 😉

Elsinore
Thanks for all the comments! I see what you mean when you say that parting with this thing for 10 days might be tough… I think the A700 misses me though, so it’ll get some love while big brother is gone!

Curious
The vast majority of stuff on there was shot in full automatic mode. The exceptions are the flying shot of the crane (sports auto mode) and the night shots (manual mode, autofocus). So yeah, I’m pretty happy with the way the thing autofocuses. I used the manual focus mode on the second day of shooting and I like it better. I will probably use it more often from now on. As for the ISO speed, I have a habit of shooting as low as possible because my little A700 produced a ton of noise at anythig above 100. It’s a habit that I will have to break. I also have a habit of shooting at as large an aperture as possible. The A700 was 2.8-8 and was totally useless at anything other than 2.8 or 4. I’m going to have to get used to that as well. I like the shallow DoF on the crane eye because it pulls the viewer’s focus to the eye itself, but that’s just my personal preference. I know it isn’t what you’re supposed to do.

Stupid bees move around way too much! Why can’t they just hover in the same place for one freaking second!?!

/What the heck is “Mirror Lockup” and how does it help night shots?

[Analogy]

Analogy
Just to clarify, I meant the simple menus on the LCD screen to adjust shutter speed, ISO, etc.

I’m not sure what “menus” you’re talking about here… In the manual/semiauto modes the shutter and aperture are controlled directly by the dials. ISO requires a button press to get at it but I’d hardly call that a menu.

I used the manual focus mode on the second day of shooting and I like it better.

How are you managing to get sharp results with manual focus?

/What the heck is “Mirror Lockup” and how does it help night shots?

Go into the menu under “Custom Functions” and set #12 to 1.

I’m not sure how much you know about the inner workings of an SLR so I apologize if this is a bit basic… Inside the camera there’s a mirror that reflects the image from the lens up into the viewfinder. When you take a picture the mirror flips up allowing the image to fall on the camera’s sensor. This is why the viewfinder blacks out when you take a picture. The movement of the mirror vibrates the camera a bit, so a good bit of engineering goes into timing the mirror movement and shutter release so that the shutter opens at a moment that the vibrations from the mirror are minimal. For longer exposures, however, the shutter can stay open long enough for some more residual vibrations from the mirror to creep into the exposure.

What mirror lockup does is bring up the mirror well before opening the shutter so the mirror vibration is not a factor in the exposure. How it works in this camera is you turn on mirror lockup, frame your shot in the viewfinder, and press the shutter button to raise the mirror. Press the shutter button again to expose the picture and the mirror comes back down. If you set the drive mode to self-timer (“Drive+ISO” button and spin the top dial until a stopwatch icon appears in the top LCD), pressing the shutter button will raise the mirror and automatically take the picture two seconds later so that vibrations from your finger hitting the shutter button don’t affect the camera. You can also use an external shutter trigger cord to trigger the camera without touching it.

[millera9]

Analogy
I have a rudimentary understanding of the self-timer function from using it for night shots on my Powershot, but I’d never heard of the mirror lockup thing! Thanks for mentioning it!

Most of the shots I took in manual focus weren’t very sharp. I only posted the ones that were.

And yes, the “click one button and the use the dials” thing had me confused for about a day. Partly because I kept wanting to hit the set button every time I changed something and found myself wondering why that wasn’t doing anything. Turns out the camera trusts the user enough to assume that if you change a setting, that’s how you want it right away. Also partly because I’m just dumb like that. I’ve pretty much got it now though…

[Elsinore]

As for the lenses, well… I would probably have sex with that 24-70 if I could find someplace to stick it… 😉

Do you fully appreciate just how damn hard it is for me not to respond to that one???????

Elsinore
Thanks for all the comments! I see what you mean when you say that parting with this thing for 10 days might be tough… I think the A700 misses me though, so it’ll get some love while big brother is gone!

You’re welcome 🙂 And you’ll definitely still have use for the A700. There will be plenty of times you want a camera that you can put in your pocket or just be able to grab without grabbing an entire bag full of camera gear. And the A700 does take nice pictures (especially macros!), so s/he (not sure which yours is 😉 ) will still get some use, I’m sure. My A620 still gets fondl–er–used, especially for grab shots with the kids outside (not that you have that issue…)

I like the shallow DoF on the crane eye because it pulls the viewer’s focus to the eye itself, but that’s just my personal preference. I know it isn’t what you’re supposed to do.

Bah. What’s this “supposed to do” crap? If you like it, go with it. Your personal style does factor into your photography, ya know 😉 And the “rules” of composition aren’t the end-all-be-all answer to every single photo you’ll ever shoot.

[millera9]

SIMULPOST! BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!

[Elsinore]

haha, simulpost

[Elsinore]

fuckin-A–almost had another simulpost!

[millera9]

LMAO

[Analogy]

Most of the shots I took in manual focus weren’t very sharp. I only posted the ones that were.

If you’re a hardcore manual focus freak, you can void your warranty and mod a new focusing screen with manual focus aids into your viewfinder. Downsides: Aside from aforementioned warranty-voiding, may mess up your camera’s metering since it meters through the viewfinder.

Turns out the camera trusts the user enough to assume that if you change a setting, that’s how you want it right away.

You’ll find that all true professional products try and make it so the user is spending the least amount of time in the menu as possible. When people are using your product to make a living and forcing them to go through a couple more button presses can mean the difference between getting the shot and not getting it… Well, you want to get rid of as many of those button presses as possible.

This is part of the reason I refuse to shoot video with even high-end consumer gear. That stuff’s just not designed to have a responsive user interface.

[zeke]

As for the ISO speed, I have a habit of shooting as low as possible because my little A700 produced a ton of noise at anythig above 100. It’s a habit that I will have to break. I also have a habit of shooting at as large an aperture as possible. The A700 was 2.8-8 and was totally useless at anything other than 2.8 or 4. I’m going to have to get used to that as well. I like the shallow DoF on the crane eye because it pulls the viewer’s focus to the eye itself, but that’s just my personal preference.

Depends on the type of shooting you’re doing. If you’re doing a lot of staged shots, ISO100 works just fine. Set your DOF as you want, and then use as long a shutter time as you need. Some of the candle lit shots I’ve done needed 8-10+ second exposures, but who cares so long as the subject isn’t moving. All depends on what you’re trying to capture. Now, shooting bees, yes, you need to get your shutter speed down as much as possible.

I know it isn’t what you’re supposed to do.

Says who? Are the photo nazis going to take you out back and flog you for breaking the rules? Nonsense. If it works for your style of shooting and produces the type of images you’re looking to make, roll with it. Sometimes the more artistic shots are done doing things “you’re not supposed to do.”

[Author]

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