-= T2i / 550D users UNITE! (2) =-

Well. Once again, it is time for Big Al’s Daily Round Up! I can’t believe we skipped spring! It was about 90 degrees here today!!

@Sandra – Thanks for the vote on the guitar shots! The Hot Air Balloon shot is great! The colors are great and it’s a good shot for low light!

@Rafa – again thanks for the vote of confidence. The guitar shots are narrowed down to 2 and 4 for me now, and I’m starting to lean towards 4. Rafa that car picture you just posted is great. I can't believe that you did that at 1/40 or so with the kit lens!

@cidnlars – Thanks for your vote and the props as well!

@Villanueva – very lovely animal and girlfriend shots. I like the lessened colors on them too.

@bobobird – Your Kowloon park shots are great. I wish we had an area like that near me!

@annie – as usual, lovely wildlife shots And, if you didn’t already know, I’m just a little crazy. Your smiling spider makes me smile, even if he is a nasty little critter.

@Mitch A. – Those are fantastic shots! Color, composition….all great…

@Peter2516 – Bring me one of those lovely guitars won’t ya ! Nice shots. Do they have a brand?

@Rev. Michael - The 2nd Cat picture is great! Great shots.

@Miguel – Once again, great car shots. I need to get some practice stopping the vehicle’s motion, but keeping the impression of speed. Lovely rose and building shots as well.

@Maru – Those kid shots are just too precious. Well done too I might add! I especially like both of the ones with the ball, and the lawnmower!

@gepixelt – I can’t see the first image posted, but the 2nd looks great, though if it were mine, I think I’d bump the exposure up. Otherwise, I LOVE the bokeh.

@natums – I’m really enjoying your shots of Hawaii, and I love the fact that they are not your typical vacation shots. That sunrise pic is simply stunning.

@Digital – Those are GREAT beach pics. I really love the first one.

@DSmonsoon – The shots of the … (audi?) are great! Looks like you’ve just about got the motion at speed shots down!

@Ofwiah – Those circus shots are simply fantastic! That tiger shot is wonderful. Really they all are. Great job!

@Allan – your bird shots are fantastic. Lovely color, pretty good contrast too. I’m really considering that lens instead of the 400L or 100-400L. Can you tell me what the aperture is @ 400mm?

wow you cant blink up here and forget to check in !!!!!!!! soo many good things all...

well i didnt get to the hockey pics yet... but my uncle told me about a place on my way home where there are some eagles... so nifty two fifty....

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/56197228@N05/5​604100661/

TeleFragger wrote in post #12191210
wow you cant blink up here and forget to check in !!!!!!!! soo many good things all...

well i didnt get to the hockey pics yet... but my uncle told me about a place on my way home where there are some eagles... so nifty two fifty....
.

beautiful shot!

What should I buy?
Hi everyone, Every year, my sister and I cruise to the Caribbean. I have a favorite camera shop in St. Maarten where I bought my T2i and lens last year after wanting a DSLR forever. I'm leaving next week on my next cruise and will probably be stopping at the same store again (same shop, but different island).
I can't decide what to treat myself too- I'm torn between a separate flash, or a new lens. I'm thinking of a 50mm cause I have two zoom lens now, but I need a flash too.
I think I want to limit myself to around $300. What would you chose? If I get a lens, which one? I'll probably stick with Canon. The store I buy from sells factory merchandise, not gray market, so I'm not worried about quality or warranty issues.
Thanks!

Allan.L wrote in post #12191125
...Got out for a walk just after 7 taking a break from studying haha. Sun was just setting. These are all cropped, and ISO 1600, 1/320-1/400 shutter speed, f8....

Allan, once again, great images from your new lens! If this does not convince Itzmered she should save $600 and buy this version instead of the $50-500 I don't know what will!

No, but seriously... I remember seeing the images the first day and regarded the lens as great though lacking contrast. This new images once more prove that the contrast is fantastic on the lens. You talked about it only being 1/3th of a stop slower than the 100-400 which is true, and since the IS (OS) is probably better on the Sigma (the 100-400 is now an 'old' lens), the only thing left to wonder is the AF.

How have you felt it? Is it snappy and accurate? We don't have the fastest focusing camera, so anything less than spectacular focusing performance is going to hurt for quick AF, so I'm eagerly awaiting your 'review' of this aspect of the lens.

Thanks a lot, and great pictures once again,
Rafa.

RafaPolit wrote in post #12191179
Ds_Monsoon, I'm very happy you are enjoying your recently re-born baby! I'm quite surprised though you never posted before a bitter complaint about the speed of the AF or wondered how is everyone getting focused pictures of anything not still. I am quite surprised actually that you haven't thrown the camera at a wall trying to make it understand "I needed that shot in focus in less than 3 seconds!!" . I am genuinely surprised that you have been able to take all those great images using only live view! I expect an exponential improvement on your images using the viewfinder, you'll see!

Absolutely! I always enjoy shooting but much more so now that the frustration of waiting for focus is gone. Sometimes focus wasn't too bad for speed but I just am not much of a complainer and figured it was just the way it was. Now I know different. I did some more testing and would call it about 8X (possibly more) faster focusing than I've been living with for the last year.

RafaPolit wrote in post #12191179
Also, congrats on those panning shots! Very well done, specially for first time using the viewfinder. For those panning shots (which are quite difficult to accomplish) and for which you have done very good! my suggestion is to set all the focus points active (as opposed to just center focus) and use AI Servo focusing system, since it just keeps focusing all the time while you have the shutter button half-pressed (if you are focusing with the main shutter button) or while you have the back button pressed if you are using back-button-focusing. Also, I recommend following the car prior to start shooting, and, using the continuous shooting mode, shoot 3 or 4 consecutive images while following the car with the camera. From those, one is probably sharper than the others. Of course, you will need slow shutter speeds like 1/60th and below to achieve the effects.

I did use the AI Servo setting and set for Continuous shooting but I still had it set for only the center focal point. I'll try setting that to Automatic next time.

wolfy317 wrote in post #12191207
@DSmonsoon – The shots of the … (audi?) are great! Looks like you’ve just about got the motion at speed shots down!

That's quite a statement as this was my first try!

I'm excited I finally get to add a bird picture to the discussion! Ok, so there's no technical merit to this photo at all and luckily I had my camera sitting next to me and I could fire off two shots before he flew away. But There was a male and female bluebird pair checking out the bird house I put up in the back yard a few weeks ago. Looks like they may build a nest here so I'll have plenty of photo opportunities this summer.

AnnieBananie wrote in post #12190868
Absolutely the viewfinder.

If you back up to post #3178 (upper right corner of each post has the numbers), there are some good reasons you would want to use the viewfinder. For me, it's a matter of what I'm more comfortable using, and that's the viewfinder.

And never feel stupid here. You're among friends, and we all had to start somewhere. The only stupid question is the one not asked.

Thanks! Cant wait till monday, thats when i get my camera!

TeleFragger wrote in post #12191210
wow you cant blink up here and forget to check in !!!!!!!! soo many good things all...

well i didnt get to the hockey pics yet... but my uncle told me about a place on my way home where there are some eagles... so nifty two fifty....

sun was going down so not sure it was the best... i took a few dozen shots.... but this is one of my better ones.. im going to post another in the nifty two fifty section....

OMG... who needs hockey when you have THAT? I'm in awe........not to mention about as jealous as jealous can be.

wolfy317 wrote in post #12191207
... again thanks for the vote of confidence. The guitar shots are narrowed down to 2 and 4 for me now, and I’m starting to lean towards 4. Rafa that car picture you just posted is great. I can't believe that you did that at 1/40 or so with the kit lens!...

Yes, I'm starting to believe I was a better photographer back then! It was kind of reckless as we got right up to the circuit's curves to get the pictures. This is another from the kit lens (so it doesn't have a compressed perspective) to show you how close we were:

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marubozo wrote in post #12191244
And here's another sunset to end the day.

This may very well be the best sunset you've shown us yet. Just amazingly beautiful!!

TeleFragger wrote in post #12191210
...sun was going down so not sure it was the best...

TeleFragger, FANTASTIC shot!!! Specially for us that have been watching a two bald eagles feed their newly borns this past days! The above quoted line is kind of a contradiction to me: sun going down is actually THE best time for any type of shooting, as the light is much more pleasant, less contrasty, better angled and more warm.

That lends your picture an incredible pleasantness to it. Congrats on a great capture and thanks a lot for sharing! I'm heading over the 55-250 to praise your other image!

Rafa.

[QUOTE=bobobird;121872​01]Vectoria - a while back in response to your trinket shots I mentioned a thread about simple (and not so simple) setups one could easily do at home for still life stuff but had lost the link.

Found it now

Thanks a lot I will look it over

marubozo wrote in post #12189830
It's so nice that it's finally warm enough to play outside!

Very nice pictures I always love taking pictures of kids because you never now what facial expressions you will get. They are cuties


Everyone else I always love looking through all these awesome pictures, great job

A couple more from yesterday, but compared to what's being posted, they're boring. LOL

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