a semi appology to canon

[evilenglishman]

Since I returned my first 20D and got a replacement I have been highly dubious about this camera.
At home under normal circumstances I've been getting 40% blurred photos (natural light etc).
I have come to the conclusion that I cannot take photos with it at less than 1/125th otherwise blur sets in.

That aside I took it on its first proper outing on Wednesday and I'm very impressed with it under studio conditions.

Good points:
1. 99.9% of the images are razor sharp (17-40, 70-200f4) without ANY sharpening.
2. Battery grip + 2 fully charged batteries. I took over 800 photos, chimped, showed the model etc and it is still on full power.
3. I never saw a busy screen once (RAW + 80x lexar)
4. I shot a set of 84 photos in 12 mins and it was a very nice set!

Bad Points:
1. The LCD colour is way off. A red colorama appears orange on the LCD.
2. The histogram does not seem accurate - exposing to the right blew highlights, although they were recoverable (?) a good exposed image seems to have the histogram centred.

[tim]

No offense, but it's probably user error. The LCD's for quick image review, you can't really trust the colors, but the histogram I would expect to be reasonably accurate.

[transcend]

Isn't the LCD on a 20d adjustable? I believe it is, but can't say for certain as I have a 10d, which is not.

[slin100]

I doubt LCD adjustment on the 20D is any different than the 10D, which only allows you to adjust brightness. Any color casts are not correctable. To be sure, I would suggest doing a CWB of a white page and then taking a second shot of that page using the CWB setting. If the image on the LCD screen doesn't look grey, then that would confirm a color cast in the LCD.

Regarding the in-camera histogram, it's always based off of a JPG image. For RAW images, the displayed histogram is of the embedded JPG. You lose approximately 1 stop of headroom with JPGs. This explains why the histogram can display blown highlights but the RAW data is not blown.

[evilenglishman]

No offense, but it's probably user error. The LCD's for quick image review, you can't really trust the colors, but the histogram I would expect to be reasonably accurate.
not sure how it is user error.http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif when its at the right - white is blown but can be recovered. When its in the centre its great.

The LCD can only be made brighter or darker - I tried that on the set, it just made it brighter orange and darker orange instead of red.

sounds like slin100 knows what he's talking about. cheers for that info.http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

[transcend]

I doubt LCD adjustment on the 20D is any different than the 10D, which only allows you to adjust brightness. Any color casts are not correctable. To be sure, I would suggest doing a CWB of a white page and then taking a second shot of that page using the CWB setting. If the image on the LCD screen doesn't look grey, then that would confirm a color cast in the LCD.

Regarding the in-camera histogram, it's always based off of a JPG image. For RAW images, the displayed histogram is of the embedded JPG. You lose approximately 1 stop of headroom with JPGs. This explains why the histogram can display blown highlights but the RAW data is not blown.

Ah ok, for some reason i was under the impression that the colors on the 20d LCD were also adjustable.

[tim]

not sure how it is user error.http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif when its at the right - white is blown but can be recovered. When its in the centre its great.

The LCD can only be made brighter or darker - I tried that on the set, it just made it brighter orange and darker orange instead of red.

sounds like slin100 knows what he's talking about. cheers for that info.http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

I didn't meant to be offensive, if I was I apologise. 40% blurred shots indicates to me either very difficult conditions, or user error. If you're new to the 20D practice and give it some time. I sucked when I first got my camera, but within days or weeks I got a lot better. Finding the ISO button really helped me a lot ;) (that was before my class and I knew what it did)

[alan sh]

What lens are you using and what are the lighting conditions when you get bad photos ?

When I first started with my 20D I was getting a lot of bad photos. I bought the 28-125IS which helped. I then started to really think about what I would need to do to produce a good photo rather than just click away and my % rate when up loads.

Last night I took 55 photos of cubs and a presentation award ceremony and had no bad ones - just one that came out too dark. This was using the 18-55 and a 12-24.

So, persevere and start to take notice of the small issues - it will get better. Practice a lot - it costs nothing (I have had the camera 2 months and am up to 1700+ pictures).

Alan

[tim]

In two months i'm up to something like 3000 photos... not including the ones I deleted straight off because they were terrible or just little tests. Practice makes perfect. Well, it makes you less bad anyway ;)

[alan sh]

In two months i'm up to something like 3000 photos... not including the ones I deleted straight off because they were terrible or just little tests. Practice makes perfect. Well, it makes you less bad anyway ;)

Ahh - but NZ is such a nice place to take photos !!!

[tim]

Ahh - but NZ is such a nice place to take photos !!!

Not so much when they're of stupid things like your foot, a bottle of water, or stupid stuff lying around the house ;)

[evilenglishman]

I've had the camera quite a while, have taken over 3000 photos with it. Lens? 17-40 mostly but also 50 1.8.
I know it is fairly dark this time of the year but I'm having to put the camera on 800 ISO to be able to even use the 17-40 at a decent shutter speed during the daytime.
I'm also using the grip for extra stability.

I've even tried with a tripod and most of them came out blurred.

I never had this problem with the D60