Airshow today.. few pics and problem with 20D again...

[Adam Hicks]

Well the SanDisk card gave me some trouble again today. I formatted it in the camera to be safe, but after placing it in the camera I noticed that it would show 111 shots remaining. I'd shoot 5-6 shots and look at the display only to see 111 shots remaining. This in Large Jpeg mode. The SanDisk Extreme card is perfect. Weird. Nothing too big, but it's bad to not know you're out of memory until the camera goes into terminal 'busy' mode and you have to open a battery or CF door.

I found that my new 100-400L had some dust on the lens as a result of the Canon filter (which I put on 15 seconds after I got the lens) which showed some spots on the shots, but I think I got all of that cleaned up a few minutes ago very gently.

Adam

I have a lot of shots to go through, but here's a few to start (right off the camera and resized, may contain dusk speckles still!)...

(This is pulling some serious G's!)
http://www.golilm.com/photography/HighGvapor_small.jpg

http://www.golilm.com/photography/Red%20Barons%20Reduced.jpg

http://www.golilm.com/photography/American%20Flag%20Jumper.jpg

And of course every airshow has to have the 300+mph semi ;)
http://www.golilm.com/photography/JetTruckFlamesSmall.jpg

[Morden]

Nice shots! :)

But wierd behaviour with that CF card. :shock:

[defordphoto]

That's not a camera problem, that's a CF problem. Also, dust on your lens will NOT show as specks on a photo. If you see specks on a photo then you have dust on the sensor.

[Steven M. Anthony]

Okay, this is a guess, but I think the card showing the same number of photos left goes something like this: The system calculates how many shots will fit on the space left on the card. This is based on some average amount of space per image. But at least the size of the imbedded jpeg will vary depending on what is shot. So the actual space used per image (RAW + jpeg, if you are shooting raw) will differ based on what you shot. If you shoot a few and they are smaller (in total) than the average value set in the system to calculate "how many left," the "how many left" number stays the same.

Last week, I was testing battery life. I had the camera sitting "on" for 4 hours, then started running off as many photos as I could until the battery pooped out. Shooting large jpegs, the camera shows 203 left when the card is completely empty. I filled the card before (just before) the battery went dead--and had shot 339 images--all on 1 card! I shot a lot of the ceiling (focusing on a bug). I think light images take up less space than dark images. If you were shooting mostly sky that might be it.

[SnJPhoto]

Steven -
you are correct, the number in the LCd is a guess based upon some averaging function. If you lookk at the files on a disk you will notice they vary pretty well. Mine from a 1DMkII are from 4.2-6MB per large/fine jpg.

Scott

[Adam Hicks]

Hey RFM Sports... I thought the same thing re: specks on the picture, but I pulled the 20D out of the box, put a lens on it as soon as it came out and had the specks. I'll do some more tests today, BUT I only notice the specks at 400mm on my 100-400 (or around there) but not at 100mm or shorter focal lengths. I also didn't notice them on the 28-75.

This is frustrating because I started seeing them after the second use of my brand new 100-400, and it was on some zoo shots, not in a dusty or dirty environment (or windy day.) Very aggrevating.

Adam

[cmM]

did that semi pass emissions? I don't think it's diesel :P

Adam, if it only happens with that one card, try the card in a different camera see if it acts up.

[Adam Hicks]

It worked perfectly in my Digital Rebel since January. Never a problem. Just oddities with the 20D. Oh well I need some 1Gb 80x cards anyways...

Adam

[Jon]

No, to reiterate what Steven and SnJ said, there's nothing wrong with either the camera or the card. The shots remaining is just an estimate based on the normal size of a JPG at the current ISO setting. When there's a large area of essentially monotone (blue sky, for instance), the image will compress a lot more than if there's a highly-detailed, contrasty, and colourful subject. I've gotten around 650-700 frames (JPG/High) on a 1 GB MicroDrive on my D60 at an air show. Normally that'd show around 400 frames.