DRebel and Horseback Photography?

I just received this post from a friend on another forum and I don't have enough experience to answer him. What advice can you give to this professional cowboy photograher?

"I've finally decided it is in my interest to make at least a modest leap into the digital world, and was wondering if you digi-freaks out there could help me with some advice. While the vast majority of my landscape clients are not interested in digital submissions (yet), my western lifestyles (read cowboys/cowgirls/horse​s) and some adventure lifestyle clients are beginning to warm up to them. I would like to start slowly, and get a lightweight digital camera for shooting from horseback and portraits for my cowgirl calendar (It's a tough job but SOMEBODY'S gotta do it!). My 35mm system is Canon, and I'm looking real hard at the 300D. Though it seems limited in many respects, it seems like it would work for what I need it for. My main questions are: Is the AF adjustable enough and is the camera fast enough for shooting from horseback (it gets shaky up there and you need a fast shutter speed), and can I get a large enough file size. What would the final TIFF file size be from a RAW file on this camera 6.3MP)? Is it big enough for a 12x12 calendar image?"

If ever there was an application for the Image Stabilization lenses, this is it. Tell him to get the DRebel with I.S., and tell him to get the Equestrian model. ( ! )

A print image of 12x12 shouldn't be too difficult.

---Bob Gross---

In daylight? You can get nice clean pics at ISO 400 which would equal 1/400 @ f-11-16. ISO 800 isn't too terrible, either, but I'd avoid it if I could.
I don't know just how fast you intend to be going, & how much you'll be bouncing (got a good seat?), when you take these pics. Most vendors will give you a week (more if the item is a present) to check out the cam. Try it & see if it will work for you. Look into the Image Stabilization lens option, too. Maybe an option would be to buy both & return one after?

You can choose the ppi when you convert to TIFF (I'm not sure what the upper limit is). A 6MB RAW image @ 300ppi = an 18.5MB 8-bit TIFF. You can go to a 16 bit tiff which, if I remember right, is about 35MB.

Why not check with the potential calendar publisher & see what his guidlines are? I think you'll be OK with the 300D.

Here are some further comments firstly made by someone else regarding his questions and secondly his response with concerns about the Drebel and IS lenses.

Comment 1:
"I think the thing you would miss on the Rebel is a dedicated AI Servo mode. You can enable it on the Rebel by using Sports Mode, but then you lose control over ISO and other settings. Evidently there is a hack out of Russia or somewhere that gets around this though. With an image stabilized lens, I think you would do fine on horseback if you had plenty of light and could use the higher ISO's.

A 16-bit TIFF file extracted directly from RAW weighs in at 36 MB or so. It would be half that if you use 8-bit, I believe. You should do fine at 12 x 12. We have printed as large as 13 x 19 and could definitely go larger with many images."


His Response:
I'm a bit worried about the camera locking you into ISO 400 in Sports mode. Would that affect the resolution much (obviously it would with film...)? I also don't like the fact that the AF is not adjustable in Shutter-priority mode, which I would prefer to use. The set up I've been using is a too heavy EOS 3 with an IS 28-135 lens, which has not held up well to banging around in a saddle bag. The IS no longer works. Frankly the lens is a piece of junk, so I'm not real impressed by the IS thing. Hopefully they're not all like that....

ISO 400 or Sports mode will have ZERO effect on resolution.

You get the same resolution from a Raw file one way or the other.

If he wants to ask about color noise, then that is different.

As the ISO increases, the color noise also increases a bit. However, at ISO 400, it isn't bad. Even if you push the ISO higher, the color noise is tolerable, and it is mostly removable with Neat Image if it becomes objectionable.

---Bob Gross---