10D- Good and bad

After my 2nd weekend with the 10D heres what I have found out comapared to my D30:

Focus: Definitely faster and tracks much better.

Multiple shots: Doesn't lock-up foir writing like the D30 did. I've found I can still click off shots with a short wait even while it writes to the CF. Of course it shuts down when the buffer is full.

Ease of use: Still good. lots of menu items were moved around, but I still found them without needing the manual.

Exposure: Slightly better than the D30, but still lacking. Based on the histogram I need exposure compensation of 1/1 to 1 stop underexposure. Yes the new LCD is very bright and can fool you into thinkg they are off but the histogram is the final say. I also get shots taken in the same light minutes apart, and one will be OK and the next grossly overexposed!! And that is with the compensation!!

My only other problem is finding a place to put all the pics. Since thay are twice as big and I get more good ones (since the focus works much better) I have less storage space before archiving them.

Can anyone shed some light on exposure troubles? My D30 was so bad I had to use manual exposure and sent it back for service multiple times.

-Pete

How are you metering? I use manual exposure most of the time on any camera. In a situation where the light isn't changing, a single read from a gray card is often the best thing to do.

No matter how smart they make the "evaluative" algorithms, you are probably still smarter

That's a pretty high recommendation for the camera, and a small price to pay for more, bigger, better pictures.

Joe

I got a chance to use my 10D on some real action subjects this past weekend. I went up to Hood River and took some pictures of the kiteboarders and windsurfers. I shot in several different modes, center point focus/metering in one shot and AI and 7 point focus/metering one shot and AI.

Lens was mostly a 70-200 4.0L but some where taken with a 24-70 2.8L for some of the closer shots. I found when I got them back and on the computer so I could evaluate them at their full size that most of the 7 point AI shots were out of focus. I suspected they would be because as I was focusing, the points that lit up were all around the subject and rarely on him. So it was focusing on the background and the water around rather than on the subject. The ones I took in center point AI were better but still some where not in focus. I had more of the center point one shot in focus than all the others, but I had to be sure and not leave the shutter button pushed half way down as I took a sequence of shots while I panned with the surfer. Other wise I got the first picture in focus and then maybe the 3rd or 4th. I didn't move the focus point to the star button. I was going to try that on Sunday but decided not to go back that day.

A also appreciated the bigger buffer than my D30 had and the way it did snap into focus. My camera meter seems to be right on. Where I have a problem is with my studio lights. I have to compensate -1.5 stop from my flash meter (which I know is pretty accurate from when I used it with a Rebel G, EOS 3 and D30). It use to be only 1 stop under until I did the flash upgrade and not it's -1.5 to -1.75 under.

I did wish I had had the 100-400 or a 70-200 2.8L with one of the tele-converters though. The wind was keeping the kiteboarders (whom I really wanted to photography) over on the far bank of the Columbia River.

Mike

Exposure

No metering. Just shooting and adjusting until the histogram was acceptable. Mostly I use Tv, but when the shots are all over the place with exposure, manual is the only way I could shoot and get usable pics.

-PS

Well that certinaly would explain your exposure problem... but...

Then you are metering. So the question is still how. What metering pattern, and how do you choose the metering point? If you just set Tv and point and shoot without thinking about exposure, then your results will be inconsistent.

Re: your exposure problems.
I take a lot of motorsport photography using a D60 and before that many Canon EOS bodies. If you are getting the car to fill most of the frame, that will be your problem. Predominantly white car will underexpose and black car the overexpose. These cameras are not fool-proof. I suggest taking a light meter and monitoring without the car or using the camera exposured against the track and grass and sticking with that.

Just my two pence worth.

Peeps27

for shots like you describe, i have never had success with autofocus, even with premium 35mm cameras of old.

ive always prefocused and panned and shot when the subject got to that spot.

what cameras are able to focus on-the-fly in conditions like you describe? i would be interested.

thanks,

james

10D even more explanations

Metering: I let the camera do its thing set on evauative, using Tv as the mode. Like I said earlier, my D30 got so bad (even after repairs) that I had to adjust the exposure in manual mode using the histogram to get the exposure anywhere NEAR correct.

The 10D hasnt gone Wayy off like the D30 but I do notice some images are real light, some ar right and some are dark. This is independent of how much the screen is filled or if its black or white. I think it does better on black or white subjects than it does on other colors.

My real point being that despite the HUGE advances in technology, My A2E had better exposure control than either of my digital bodies. Luckily we have photoshop to fix those problems.

-Pete

Using slide film? If you were shooting print film, you'd never know.