Photography Equipment & Software Thread

[NecroMorrius]

There's a 1100D as well. Similar to before but now shoots video and has a 'feature guide' which you can turn on, which provides a popup explanation of what all the different functions in the menu do etc.

Plus a 600D. Looks like a 550D with an articulating screen.

[rundll]

Canon have a few too many cameras now I think. Lots of choice I suppose, but confusing if you don't know anything about the SLR world.

I just want to see a Canon equivalient to the Fujifilm X100.

[gerald.d]

Canon have a few too many cameras now I think. Lots of choice I suppose, but confusing if you don't know anything about the SLR world.

I just want to see a Canon equivalient to the Fujifilm X100.

Then they'd have even more Canon cameras though!

[Mike]

My Nikon D3100 came today Just in time for my week off next week.

[rundll]

Then they'd have even more Canon cameras though!

SLRs! /cough

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Oh and PS for Napoleon.

Get yourself one of these :

It'll turn your 70-300 into an image stabilised Macro lens.

Niiice, I'll get one of those.

[Fletch]

Lovely lens - but I think its going to be mentally expensive and heavy. Doesn't stop me wanting one. A new 500F4IS though ... fingers crossed the second hand price of the current one will drop. 500 F4 GET !

Oh and PS for Napoleon.

Get yourself one of these :

Talking of which, any reason why I shouldn't get these for my 50mm 1.8?

EDIT: Forgot link

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Macro-Close-Up-Nikon-Camera-Lenses/dp/B004GCMYW0

[NecroMorrius]

The problem with Canon is they keep replacing things in their lineup but go on selling the previous model for ages. I don't know why we can't just more 'mark II' upgrades and less 'add a hundred to the number' upgrades. What happens when the successor to the 900D comes out? They've already got a 1000D.

[Dingleberry]

I had a theory a while ago that Canon would standardise around the number 5 after the 5DII came out.

Then the 550D and 60D weren't called 500DII or 50DII and my theory was ruined.

[NecroMorrius]

Cripes, I'm insured in Dubai and I have no plans to go there whatsoever. It costs me £13 a month...

Anyway. Follow focusing knob thing for Canon, looks awesome:

You can buy it here, not cheap

[Scratchy Bollock]

Looks pretty awesome!

If it's even remotely (No pun intended) effective, that is actually an incredibly reasonable price. A decent, conventional follow focus will set you back around £600 or more.

[Scratchy Bollock]

I thought I recognized this! You might find this interesting:

http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=19746&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

[Dingleberry]

Anyone use Apple's Aperture? I bought it from the App Store, it installed and ran fine. Now, when I try to run it, it bounces up and down in the dock for ages then says it's not responding. Any ideas?

[g wings]

Just try restarting your machine. Its normally a memory issue

[kircough]

Anyone have any experience using one of these?

I'm no pro and it looks like it could be ok for a bit of fun.

Any opinions?

[Dingleberry]

Just try restarting your machine. Its normally a memory issue

This is from a fresh start. Is it possible to reinstall from the Mac App Store?

[g wings]

This is from a fresh start. Is it possible to reinstall from the Mac App Store?

Oh, sorry, thats odd. Not sure but I would assume you uninstall and then download again.

[rundll]

Tried repairing permissions in Disk Utility?

[Alexlotl]

If something dock-bounces then fails, it's usually a dodgy Prefs file or similar. Try nipping into /Users/<username/Library/Application Support/ and deleting the Aperture Folder - that should effectively set it back to just-installed state. You won't lose your library, that's stored in your Pictures folder.

Never heard of a Mac needing a reboot due to a memory issue; the protected memory management is excellent.

[Zomby]

Just looking for a bit of advice as I'm still learning how to use my 20D. So today I went to The Deep Aquarium in Hull, got some ok photos for me being a newb but I really struggled to take photos of fish that were swimming around tanks. I was using AV mode set to 7.1 (variable), ISO 100-1600 depending on light, this gave me enough shutter speed to take most photos apart from the moving fish. I would've set to full auto and altered the shutter speed so I could snap the fish but I get a bit lost with the settings. Is there any easy way to explain to me what I can do to capture moving objects in quite low light with no flash.

Thanks in advance.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Wider aperture (lower numbers), higher ISO. If your object is moved, your shutter time is too long. So if you went for F/3.5 (or lower depending on what your lens can do), ISO 1600 it would probably come out OK-ish.

[Zomby]

I get you, my lens is shit though so it only allows me to go to say F/5.. that's probably why I couldn't capture anything that moved at speed. I have a year pass for that place now anyway and I live in the same city so I shall go again and keep practising

Thanks Nap.

[kircough]

You'll have to manually focus and despite the glowing review on Amazon these cheapies are as soft as a soft thing. One of my camera buddies picked one of these up. Personally I thought it was awful. That said, if its just for a bit of fun ... but I can think of better bits of kits to splurge nearly £50 on.

For example :

A decent polariser.

A Canon 500D close up lens.

A Kata reflex strap.

A set of Hi Tech ND grads.

A beanbag.

A Lowepro backpack.

A decent remote switch for your camera.

Sorry to be negative just trying to be helpful and honest

Don't apologise, I asked hoping for some practical advice.

I ordered one anyway the other day; like I said, I'm no pro and if I can impress the missus with some wacky pics of the kids 'n stuff so be it.

Cheers.

[rundll]

Aquarium photos are really hard. As well as low (perhaps fluorescent & UV) light and small moving objects, you are also taking photos through a thick, distorting sheet of glass. And water too....

[Zomby]

Yeah I realise this, just wondered if there was anything I could do to make it a little easier

[rundll]

Remove the glass?

Other than that. What Nap said.

If your best lens only does f5 then you will find a nifty/thrifty fifty (canon 50mm f1.8, £70) to be a huge improvement. Essential lens for any dSLR user for sure.

[Zomby]

I have one of those lenses actually, never thought to use that at all as it has no zoom facility and I've only ever used it for portraits; shall whip that out next visit and see how it performs.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I use the 50mm all the time. You just have to zoom with your legs

[Alexlotl]

I was using AV mode set to 7.1 (variable), ISO 100-1600 depending on light, this gave me enough shutter speed to take most photos apart from the moving fish.

Use shutter priority mode, surely? Work out what speed's acceptable for moving fish (e.g. 1/120), lock that in, then let the camera worry about the aperture etc. It'll probably end up using max aperture the whole time, but it might stop down if the going's good.

Consider spot metering too - certainly if your fish is lighter/darker than the surrounding water.

EDIT: Just saw your pics in the photo thread - nice!

[NecroMorrius]

I'm going to shoot a nighttime chinese lantern thing tonight. Anyone got any shooting tips for that situation?

I'll be shooting with a 7D, 24-105 f4.0L IS USM, 50mm f1.8, and my tripod. Am I better off using the 50mm for the extra light? It's crap at focusing at night, I'm pretty sure with a shallow dof and lots of lanterns at different distances it'll be useless. Though there's always manual focus of course. Alternatively I can use the other lens and tripod and have longer shutter speeds, but might end up blurring the lanterns.

My girlfriend is going to attempt it handholding an 18-55 kit lens.... good luck