Will you send me some food?

[XenPix]

Millera – OMG, those are fantastic. I put myself in poverty for the 400D (rebel XTi, whatever) but I would almost sell my house for that set up. Bastard. 😉

The manual focus thing:
I find I get clearer shots with manual focus than I do with automatic. Could be because I’m so used to manual (been manually focusing since I was 16, dammit, and that’s a long time!). Could also be my subject matter. Autofocus on sports is usually very messy, I even use manual focus on my A70 if I’m doing motorsport, because the autofocus craps itself if I don’t.

[Analogy]

I can see manual focusing with a camera and viewfinder that was designed for it, with a split prism focusing aid or whatever, but with the stock focusing screen on these SLRs designed for autofocus? I can’t see anyone getting sharp shots consistently, and I’d rather eliminate every variable that I can that could keep me from getting the shot. Most of the stuff I shoot is moving subjects where I’m really capturing moments instead of capturing scenes, and if I blow the focus on one of those shots it ain’t happening again.

The funny part is that for video you couldn’t pay me to use a camera with autofocus. Really. Admittedly, video autofocus systems are nowhere near as good as you get in still cameras, you get a lot of focus hunting that really looks bad in the video. Video has to worry about looking good over time while stills just need to look perfect for the instant the shutter is open. Also, you can get away with manual focus in video a lot more because it’s a lot more tolerant of focus errors, the resolution isn’t as high and the depth of field is a lot bigger.

[swampa]

Says who? Are the photo nazis going to take you out back and flog you for breaking the rules?

They aren’t? Fine, I will start doing things properly then! *grumbles* Thought I could save on my monthly spanking bills there * ends grumbles* 😛

Nice photos millera9, I’m definately not giving you any food so you will become too weak to protect the camera 😛

[XenPix]

I can see manual focusing with a camera and viewfinder that was designed for it, with a split prism focusing aid or whatever, but with the stock focusing screen on these SLRs designed for autofocus? I can’t see anyone getting sharp shots consistently, and I’d rather eliminate every variable that I can that could keep me from getting the shot. Most of the stuff I shoot is moving subjects where I’m really capturing moments instead of capturing scenes, and if I blow the focus on one of those shots it ain’t happening again.

My split prism got a bit dodgy after a few years, so I learnt to pick the focus from the whole screen so that kinda helped me with the DSLR. I guess it’s just what I’m used to, and the autofocus always tries to pick out the things I don’t want, so instead of getting frustrated, I just turn it off.

[staplermofo]

They’re renovating one of the apartments below me

Get a UPS, now. Run everything you care about through it.
Daisy chaining three UPSs before you even think about plugging in your computer is the bare minimum for nerd status.

*waits for nerds to come out of hiding to jump on that*

[Analogy]

My split prism got a bit dodgy after a few years, so I learnt to pick the focus from the whole screen so that kinda helped me with the DSLR.

That’s incredible to me. The amount of detail that the camera captures is way more than my eye can see in the viewfinder, so I would never trust myself to be bang on, especially if I’m shooting quickly. A video camera will enhance sharp edges in your viewfinder so you know you’re in focus when the edges pop out at you, but no such luck with film…

Never had problems with autofocus myself… As long as I manually select the focus points. I generally leave it on center, focus using that point and recompose. If the camera is in “auto select focus points” mode I agree it is way too squirrely. I’ll use that mode for sports though because in AI Servo mode it does a good job at keeping track of which points are covering the subject. I’m also using my bigass tele lens so the subject pretty much covers all the points anyway. =D

[monkeybort]

Miller – one trick i use is to change the AF button from the shutter to one of the ones on the back – i think it has a little star next to it. may not make a difference for the most part, but it helps to keep me from taking those ‘accidental’ shots while composing. it’s one of the custom functions but i don’t have my manual here.

good work; i’m super jealous and *will* be putting arsenic in your coffee to facilitate removing those lenses from your possession.

[Elsinore]

Ahhh the infamous back button focusing. I tried that and couldn’t get the hang of it, though admittedly I didn’t try for very long. I know a lot of people swear by it, though.

[Curious]

somewhat out of order.

Get a UPS, now. Run everything you care about through it.
Daisy chaining three UPSs before you even think about plugging in your computer is the bare minimum for nerd status.

what he said, although i don’t count as a nerd by the x 3 thing i do have all my computers on UPS. in millera9‘s case that will have to wait until the powers back.

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.

when you’re right, you’re right. my tele is a 75-300 and the longest lens i had before was a 210 so i’m still getting used to the extra length in general. and then when the shots aren’t critically sharp at full zoom i tend to say things like: “well it’s really a 480 and i was hand holding so what do you expect?” plus with that lens it takes a really bright day to get decent speed AND aperture.

i think the lesson here is you get what you pay for and given the budget the bulk of the money went into the body.

re the manual vs. auto focus debate i used minolta’s XD-11 bodies for years before going digital and they have split prism (manual focus only) and except for really low light worked fine. and were fast once you got used to them. now with the maxxum 7D set to center auto focus it works as well as i can manually focus 90% of the time. the “focus here or there” setting produces unacceptable results more often than not. especially on busy subjects at close distance.

ISO 100 lets you open the aperture more for depth of field.

pardon? isn’t it the smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field? and the higher the ISO the greater the light gathering?

but if you’re shooting RAW, 100 lets you dig a lot deeper into the shadows for detail.

when i first got into B/W photography i was taught to shoot tri-x at 250 then under develop slightly to get shadow detail w/o getting too much noticeable grain. is this similar? i really don’t understand why letting in less light would produce more detail. with film the actual media (the film coating) is different for different ISOs. or is there something in the software that produces the same results.

[Curious]

one trick i use is to change the AF button from the shutter to one of the ones on the back

Ahhh the infamous back button focusing. I tried that and couldn’t get the hang of it, though admittedly I didn’t try for very long. I know a lot of people swear by it, though.

the/my maxxum 7D has that and it’s real handy unless you hit it by mistake. then it’s sort of WTF. so long as you want to use it and keep it pressed it’s a nice feature.

[monkeybort]

i love the back button focus – my ex-bf converted me and i’ve used it ever since. it was probably a little more useful when i was shooting film (since an accidental shot = 1/36 of my available exposures), but i still use it on my 20d.

[millera9]

Thanks for chiming in XenPix, Swampa, bort, stapler, everybodyelse!

I take it I can re-map all the buttons on this camera. I did not know that. I will have to try a couple different configurations once I figure out what functions I’m going to use more often. I haven’t been able to figure out what the ‘*’ button is supposed to do. Is it just an extra?

I like manual focusing on stuff like the butterflies because it allows me to choose which part of the body I want to be in focus much more quickly than letting the camera decide. I have yet to try setting the focus point as only the central box. That would probably accomplish the same thing for me. I’ll have to work on that one.

stapler I do have everything running through a nice powerstrip and backed up on a WD hard-drive, so I’m not too worried about losing data. I probably should go buy a UPS with a decent battery life though…

Curious, the extension cord is a great idea! Unfortunately, it doesn’t help me too much. You see, my apartment was built in the 1920’s and so all the original outlets don’t have a slot for the grounding pin. There’s only one outlet in the whole place (installed much more recently by the looks of it) that is grounded. I have my powerstrip running to an extension cord which then snakes all the way across my apartment and up the wall to the grounded outlet. Sadly, this is the one that has failed. *sigh* I could go buy a 3-pin adapter, but I don’t trust the old outlets to be properly grounded through the center screw, so I’m not going to do that. Argh. In any case, thanks for the attempt, I appreciate it… 🙂

The joke’s on you bort, I don’t drink coffee! Bwahahahaha!!!!!!

[Elsinore]

Not all the buttons can be remapped, but the SET and * buttons can be (maybe the AF select button too, now that I think about it). The * button by default is your AE lock button, which you would use on aperture priority (AV) or shutter priority (TV). When you’re in AV or TV, the shutter or aperture speeds could change slightly if you focus then recompose, especially if you’re shooting with spot metering or a scene that has really variable lighting/shadow. I shoot a lot in AV mode and I generally move the AF point to near where I need it, focus, and shoot. But sometimes I need to recompose slightly, so I lock in the exposure with the * button then shoot. Unfortunately, I’m left eyed and the * button falls right under my right glasses lens, so when I bring my thumb up to press the button, I invariably smudge my glasses.

[millera9]

Why do you shoot with your glasses on? I’ve got the diopter on mine set to the astigmatism in my left eye (left-eyed weirdos unite!) so that I can shoot without my stupid glasses on. My biggest problem is that my ridiculous nose touches the screen and leaves a nice big smudge!

/Thanks for the explanation of the ‘*’ button btw!

[Curious]

I have yet to try setting the focus point as only the central box. That would probably accomplish the same thing for me.

having never used the canon digitals i don’t know how tight they are .. but the maxxum 7D is a nine square grid and the center definitely does what you want. especially on tight shots like the butterflies. actually it probably works well in any particular square/box but i usually use the center. that halfway down to set the exposure then move to compose is faster than manual IMHO.

and while it may not be literally true i tend to think that routing through a UPS gives you better spike/surge protection. the power around here tends to be a bit erratic.

[Author]

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