Kiwi - GKPE - New and Improved General Ramblings (5)

Well I found more things out about the 30D in the last 24 hours ...

it's a tad noisy in fast dropping lighting conditions when you underexpose your shots at iso800 (that push to the right is starting to make a lot more sense now when working in RAW)

(that would be user error there - no fault of the camera I'm sure)

even when panning (was at skatepark after work) you seem to need *much* quicker shutter speeds than 1/60 (even with IS on). Static shots seem to be fine at 1/40 handheld at 85mm. What is the deal with on lens IS anyway? I know it helps with static shots - but it is detrimental for moving objects?

(more user error - number of crystal clear noise free shots - 0 - number of klippe shots - well a rough copy of the style - quite a few)

Focus tracking seems to work effortlessly - unlike the 40D which got switched off quicksmart. Why oh why did they change it?

and the battery life ... man it's impressive

And finally (and embarrassingly enough) I know that mirror lockup kicks the self timer to 2 seconds (was using that last night) - didn't know that if you left it switched on (and kicked back to single shot) it turned the shutter into a 2 press affair afterward (!) thought the camera had malfunctioned (well for about a minute before I realised what had caused it)

Stepping from a p+s to that beast is brilliant. Stepping back, not so much

Thus ends the mini review ... and lambasting of my real camera handling skills.

Cheers, Shane.

Gear bug seems to have left me

low orbit wrote in post #5338906
Well I found more things out about the 30D in the last 24 hours ...

it's a tad noisy in fast dropping lighting conditions when you underexpose your shots at iso800 (that push to the right is starting to make a lot more sense now when working in RAW)

(that would be user error there - no fault of the camera I'm sure)

even when panning (was at skatepark after work) you seem to need *much* quicker shutter speeds than 1/60 (even with IS on). Static shots seem to be fine at 1/40 handheld at 85mm. What is the deal with on lens IS anyway? I know it helps with static shots - but it is detrimental for moving objects?

(more user error - number of crystal clear noise free shots - 0 - number of klippe shots - well a rough copy of the style - quite a few)

Focus tracking seems to work effortlessly - unlike the 40D which got switched off quicksmart. Why oh why did they change it?

and the battery life ... man it's impressive

And finally (and embarrassingly enough) I know that mirror lockup kicks the self timer to 2 seconds (was using that last night) - didn't know that if you left it switched on (and kicked back to single shot) it turned the shutter into a 2 press affair afterward (!) thought the camera had malfunctioned (well for about a minute before I realised what had caused it)

Stepping from a p+s to that beast is brilliant. Stepping back, not so much

Thus ends the mini review ... and lambasting of my real camera handling skills.

Cheers, Shane.

So you gonna buy a 30D now aye?

naqs wrote in post #5338917
So you gonna buy a 30D now aye?

In a heartbeat if I had the coin. I'm not sure about the lens though (17-85 IS USM) - could just be the incredibly mean conditions that I'm throwing at it that's making it perform wonky (low light, flat grey weather) - or it could be (and I reckon it's this) it's my not being used to what it does under certain conditions that's causing the end result. I know it can perform well. I just have to get it to do so more consistently.

Cheers, Shane.

weka2000 wrote in post #5338915
Gear bug seems to have left me

There's a Tui ad just waiting to happen

And to someone earlier - 5D - tool. There's no toy about it. Same goes for the xxD series.

low orbit wrote in post #5338944
In a heartbeat if I had the coin. I'm not sure about the lens though (17-85 IS USM) - could just be the incredibly mean conditions that I'm throwing at it that's making it perform wonky (low light, flat grey weather) - or it could be (and I reckon it's this) it's my not being used to what it does under certain conditions that's causing the end result. I know it can perform well. I just have to get it to do so more consistently.

Cheers, Shane.

Ummm I found the Servo better on the 40D than 30D as do most...odd.

Yes, the 17-85 gets slaughtered in low light, hell even 2.8 starts to struggle as it disperses, 1.4-1.8 is your only real option, so conditions were harsh.

IS isn't going to freeze a moving subject if the shutter is open too long...cant change physics :P

Mevunky wrote in post #5338962
Ummm I found the Servo better on the 40D than 30D as do most...odd.

Yes, the 17-85 gets slaughtered in low light, hell even 2.8 starts to struggle as it disperses, 1.4-1.8 is your only real option, so conditions were harsh.

IS isn't going to freeze a moving subject if the shutter is open too long...cant change physics :P

i agree with what you are saying re the Servo on the 40d - but only when it decides to work..

however that 30d he has got is a wickled sharp example of the model.

Mevunky wrote in post #5338962
Ummm I found the Servo better on the 40D than 30D as do most...odd.

Yes, the 17-85 gets slaughtered in low light, hell even 2.8 starts to struggle as it disperses, 1.4-1.8 is your only real option, so conditions were harsh.

IS isn't going to freeze a moving subject if the shutter is open too long...cant change physics :P

Thanks, you've just confirmed what I already suspected about slow lenses in low light. And the IS. I was thinking hey I should be oh about 1/250 or higher for these guys as I was taking the shots. Should have ramped the ISO way up Ah well, good experience.

NZ and Aus must have got a bucketload of bad ones then - both Chris's 40D and the one I borrowed for the drags have issues. What are the odds ...

Bizzarely enough I like the 30D better. Couldn't care less about the extra 1/2 inch of LCD. Thought I'd miss live view, but with the way this thing AF's - even in low light - is amazing. I'm sure it would come in handy in landscape and critical (manual) focus, but you could drop a test shot and check by zooming in on the 30D.

To me it feels like a film camera. I like that. Different shutter sound too.

Yep, I haven't had a lot to do with IS - just this and the s5is. Can you tell?


Cheers, Shane.

a great portfolio - NSW so don't open it at work...

http://photo.net …ber-photos?user_id=982230

You're right. That is good.

jasestu wrote in post #5338680
Nice work Brent, starting to mix up the styles a bit for 365 eh? Doesn't have as much of the trademark bright sunshine vs hard flash look. Much softer, and yes, sexier - all works very well.

...and yes, happy birthday to Kirst too.

For ages I was using the common excuse, "I don't have the right gear to do anything different" when the issue was actually "I don't have enough imagination to do anything different".

And the post work on that shot was almost nil (almost) - I straightened the horizon and cropped down, changed the white balance slightly as it was a bit oranger and then in PS I removed 2 lights on the water that were annoying.
The rest is Kirst...... there is blurring around the face because of the wind and cold .... and she moved!! haha!

I like your new direction Brent. My only little niggle with that shot (of Kirst) is it could have been cropped tighter - the stuff on the right seems redundant.

Cheers, Shane.

Nzshrimper wrote in post #5339022
a great portfolio - NSW so don't open it at work...

http://photo.net …ber-photos?user_id=982230

good, not great.

low orbit wrote in post #5339067
I like your new direction Brent. My only little niggle with that shot (of Kirst) is it could have been cropped tighter - the stuff on the right seems redundant.

Cheers, Shane.

Ahh see I hear you and I looked at that and dismissed it, I tried the crop and found it less balanced in my eyes with the boats on the left.
Also a lot of my shots are left or right biased, I wanted this to be centre weighted and I think it works personally.

I have no problem with your idea though.

Ive heard people also comment its learning how the servo works, and once they learned to use it properly it worked much better, but acted differently. I have not experienced any of this but I have read this comment a couple of times from others.