Official: T2i/550D

On another note, I just wanted to say how amazed I am with this camera. I was just playing around outside last night in the full moonlight and was able to get some decent exposures at 1 second at 6400 ISO HANDHELD! Obviously the image stabilization works (I always assumed it was a gimmick). On film I would have had a max ISO of about 1600 on high speed film which would have been very grainy and I would have needed a 4 second exposure or more. I can see now that I'll be able to get photos that were never possible for me before. Why did I wait so long?

kfreels wrote in post #10789337
Well, as for what I'm shooting.......everyth​ing I can possibly think of and every thought I've imagined over the last 12 years that I was completely out of things. I don't even have to worry about the cost of developing any more. That's just plain awesome and I'm loving this!
I think I'll go for some filters but keep it limited. Maybe some graduated ND and regular NDs, circular polarizer of course. I'll skip the bellowshade and vignettes of course.

Now I just need to figure out how to use pp software. My old Paint Shop Pro 9 doesn't recognize the CR2 files.I've been using PSP for years for web graphics. I downloaded Adobe Lighthouse and it doesn't seem to be what I want. The Canon utility that came with the camera actually seems better than Lighthouse so can't seem to justify the $300 for that. I'm going to try out Gimp and Photoshop. Anything else I should maybe look at?

If you are happy with PSP just stick to
it. Gimp and Photoshop still require external converters for CR2 files (althow they are more integrated into these two programs). However I still prefer Canon's DPP for RAW - I do some initial white balance and exposure adjustments in it and then transfer to PS (there's a command for that in DPP so no need to save and reopen).

For basic organizing, there's ton of free or cheap solutions. Picasa now supports T2i CR2s. However it doesn't apply in-camera presets so they look underexposed in it. Still OK and you can use Picasa's excellent organizing features. Canon ZoomBrowser has some basic tagging and is the best for viewing files. There's a $10 shareware that adds CR2 support to Windows so that you can preview them in Explorer as if they were Jpegs.

Amamba wrote in post #10792614
For basic organizing, there's ton of free or cheap solutions. Picasa now supports T2i CR2s. However it doesn't apply in-camera presets so they look underexposed in it. Still OK and you can use Picasa's excellent organizing features. Canon ZoomBrowser has some basic tagging and is the best for viewing files. There's a $10 shareware that adds CR2 support to Windows so that you can preview them in Explorer as if they were Jpegs.

I use the basic Microsoft RAW viewer. Once you have the proper Canon RAW codec installed (the latest download or what comes with your camera CD), it allows you to view cr2 images in explorer and displays thumbnails. Best of all, it is free. Go to Microsoft's website and search their downloads for "Microsoft RAW viewer".

Rebelmeister wrote in post #10793184
I use the basic Microsoft RAW viewer. Once you have the proper Canon RAW codec installed (the latest download or what comes with your camera CD), it allows you to view cr2 images in explorer and displays thumbnails. Best of all, it is free. Go to Microsoft's website and search their downloads for "Microsoft RAW viewer".

Unfortunately I can't seem to be able to make this work. I uninstalled the raw viewer, uninstalled the canon raw codec, restarted, then re-installed and still no joy. says 'unsupported file type'. I suspect that this has something to do with the many tweaks and utilities that I've installed over the last year to my tablet pc.

It appears that Picasa 3.6 supports it just fine, but my old PSP 9 doesn't. I'm going to give the new PSP Photo X3 a swing and see how it goes.

I am curious how you all are handling the workflow. Supposing a hundred RAW images on a memory card, you would of course move all of that from the card to the PC into a folder just for your RAW files, then output processed images to a separate "processed folder. But do you usually "batch process" everything at once? Or do you go through and make adjustments to all the photos one at a time then batch process them? How do you keep track of what you have processed and what you haven't? Do you keep all of your RAW images as well as the processed jpegs?

Got my new 55-250 lens today. Simply amazing. Check this out....Took it from about 10 feet.

http://picasaweb.googl​e.com …rnkUrssRA?feat=​directlink

http://picasaweb.googl​e.com …rnkUrssRA?feat=​directlink

I can actually see myself in full color as well as the pool, the trees, and heck, I can even count the rungs on the ladder! All I did was lift the camera up in full-auto to see how close I could focus and squeezed off a few shots. No setup or anything.

You should use the IMG tags, people are too lazy to click links

Instead of full auto, try av mode with an F setting = to twice the biggest aperture. Usually this is where the lens are the sharpest. I don't think it'd be good for your lens at 250mm since you would need an F of around 11. Try the same pic, in manual focus mode with the same F setting and compare them. But be sure your subject does not move at all. Try something else than the girlfriend, she will bored :P

Rivest wrote in post #10797449
You should use the IMG tags, people are too lazy to click links

Instead of full auto, try av mode with an F setting = to twice the biggest aperture. Usually this is where the lens are the sharpest. I don't think it'd be good for your lens at 250mm since you would need an F of around 11. Try the same pic, in manual focus mode with the same F setting and compare them. But be sure your subject does not move at all. Try something else than the girlfriend, she will bored :P

lol. That's the daughter!
But yeah, Im going to experiment some more with this in the coming days. Like I said, this was a haphazard shot fired off on a whim which is what impresses me so darned much.

Let's try the image tag....didnt see it up there.....

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/png' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/png' | Byte size: ZERO

Rivest wrote in post #10797449
You should use the IMG tags, people are too lazy to click links

Instead of full auto, try av mode with an F setting = to twice the biggest aperture. Usually this is where the lens are the sharpest. I don't think it'd be good for your lens at 250mm since you would need an F of around 11. Try the same pic, in manual focus mode with the same F setting and compare them. But be sure your subject does not move at all. Try something else than the girlfriend, she will bored :P

just a quick question so a 70-200F4 would be sharpest at around F8 Mate ?

shane33 wrote in post #10798641
just a quick question so a 70-200F4 would be sharpest at around F8 Mate ?

Do you mean the IS or Non IS version ?

kfreels wrote in post #10797356
Unfortunately I can't seem to be able to make this work. I uninstalled the raw viewer, uninstalled the canon raw codec, restarted, then re-installed and still no joy. says 'unsupported file type'. I suspect that this has something to do with the many tweaks and utilities that I've installed over the last year to my tablet pc.

It appears that Picasa 3.6 supports it just fine, but my old PSP 9 doesn't. I'm going to give the new PSP Photo X3 a swing and see how it goes.

I am curious how you all are handling the workflow. Supposing a hundred RAW images on a memory card, you would of course move all of that from the card to the PC into a folder just for your RAW files, then output processed images to a separate "processed folder. But do you usually "batch process" everything at once? Or do you go through and make adjustments to all the photos one at a time then batch process them? How do you keep track of what you have processed and what you haven't? Do you keep all of your RAW images as well as the processed jpegs?

I had the same problem with Canon's RAW codec. I purchased a $10 program called FastPictureViewer (it's actually a codec) and everything works now. Highly recommend it - a small price to pay for convenience.

Superdaantje wrote in post #10798717
Do you mean the IS or Non IS version ?

Non IS version

Well it's not a fact that is 100% true on every lens but usually they are the sharpest at twice their biggest aperture. Sure it depends of some other fact as focal length and shutter speed but you get the idea.

My 50mm 1.4 is soft wide open but really sharp when stopped down to 2.8

Hope I learned you something new guys

kfreels wrote in post #10797356
I am curious how you all are handling the workflow. Supposing a hundred RAW images on a memory card, you would of course move all of that from the card to the PC into a folder just for your RAW files, then output processed images to a separate "processed folder. But do you usually "batch process" everything at once? Or do you go through and make adjustments to all the photos one at a time then batch process them? How do you keep track of what you have processed and what you haven't? Do you keep all of your RAW images as well as the processed jpegs?

I'd be curious to hear about other folks workflow as well. For the images I've spent time on, I keep both the RAW and the JPEG since I figure that's like keeping the negative and the print

Then again, I have two 4TB drives so space (so far) isn't an issue.

I'd like to "batch process", but when I manually tweak I don't select the same options all the time, so I'm wondering if there's a program that can look at the raw and give a "best take" so that I can have most of my images "ok", and only manually tweak those that show promise but didn't come out well, or where I "have" to make the image good. Suppose I could shoot "JEPG + RAW", but then I gather speed becomes a real issue?

1st post here. Used to have a 350D until it recently broke. Picked up a replacement T2i till I move into 7D territory. Looking forward to all the great info you guys have to offer!

C-M2 wrote in post #10799700
1st post here. Used to have a 350D until it recently broke. Picked up a replacement T2i till I move into 7D territory. Looking forward to all the great info you guys have to offer!

Congratulations on your new purchase and welcome to the club!