Digital SLR discussion thread...

[Tom]

i do agree its built pretty crap, but to say its below the 20D isn't right It is not significantly worse than the F1.4 optically at all, and I'd place it over any non L zoom any day. Admittedly I'd prefer a 1.4, but if I had a canon 16-35 I'd prefer a Zeiss 21mm, doesn't make the 16-35 bad (its not, its the best canon WA zoom out, and for a grand it better had be half decent) just the zeiss is better

Day to day other than the ugliness and the lack of USM the difference between the 2 lenses is minimal.

The 35-80 macro mod isnt bad i suppose but a proper macro lens is considerably better......problem is anything anywhere near the quality and magnification of that mod is gonna be £400+ VS £20

The nifty fifty is a great lens and the 18-55mm EF-s that actually is shipped with half the 20D's out their should be shot down well before the 50mm

[shiato storm]

the kit lens is an appauling mess of a lens, and to sell it on say the 300d is fine but on the 20D as well is a huge screw-up. Nikon's kit lens for the d70 is, lets face it, miles better... the canon's is soft as butter at all but the highest f/stops, personally I'd get the body, a 50mm and one of those tamron 28-300 jobies for a do it all lens to start off with then expand over time. the 70-200L is coming down in price all the time but I hear there have been considerable quality control issues with these and resulting in pretty hard back-focus problems...but it works well with an extension tube so its a possibility.

[bsodmike]

RE: the ebay sale.. You can pick up a 50-f/1.4 here for about £240 (plus postage admittedly, if you're not within staggering distance of a good little local), but still only ~£30 more than that import offering. TBH, I'd rather pay the extra and have the guarantee of a UK warranty and support.

/me hands BlueMagician a fireproof jacket...

Heh, seems like you are gonna need it LOL...Thanks for the post a lot dude. BTW I'm not a 100% UK resident, I'm there during term time only and besides I got my kit fully insured via HSBC when I am there...

Ended up grabbing it from town here in Geneva.

Note: I sold the stock lens on eBay and made £30quid profit hehe

Thanks,

Mike

[Gazcoop]

Hi im interested in buying dslr myself, anyone out there with a 350d ?? and wheres best place to buy ?? seen lots of offers on ebay anyone bought from these companys on there ??
cheers

[da_ging]

saving up for a 350d myself , i would not get it from ebay tho ,best place to get 1 from is a proper shop incase you need to take it back which is not that unlikely tbh, getting jessops to price match is probably the best way to go about it

[shiato storm]

best place to get 1 from is a proper shop incase you need to take it back which is not that unlikely tbh, getting jessops to price match is probably the best way to go about it

da_ging speaks wise words...don't bother with on-line retailers. getting a grey import is a possibility - and you don't want one of those.

[Tom]

definitely get jessops to price match it as i have said a hundred times before they have a great returns policy.

[shiato storm]

which I'm about to test this afternoon...battery on my camera deciding to discharge extremely rapidly! the timer for how much charge is in it seems to jump 10 minutes at a time! pain in the A...also something funny with the lens - really dark on one side of the frame, screws up panoramas!

[Agent]

definitely get jessops to price match it as i have said a hundred times before they have a great returns policy.

Do their retail stores match web-prices ?

[shiato storm]

mine beat online prices without me actually having to ask them to do so!! but generally yes.
once more: cameras2u.com is jessop's online company...they pretty much always price match them. though its a bit odd why you'd have to ask a company to price-match themselves

[BlueMagician]

I just got hold of the Canon i9950 printer to partner my 20D. I still haven't managed to pick my jaw up off the floor over the quality of this printer, especially when using profiled paper such as the Canon Pro 101 they give you in the sample pack (swines - getting you hooked on the expensive stuff )


However, I was wondering if anyone here had personal opinions / experience to give on the best / most natural method of sharpening images for inkjet output, particularly at 8x12 (and up) sizes.

I've read a fair bit on the web in the last few days, from layering/high pass filtering techniques in PS, down to simple USM - and quite frankly, having done silly amounts of test prints - I still can't decide what I like.. How about you guys?


Your advice is most apreciated,
S.

[rajagra]

"Simple" USM is based on a clever technique taken from the film world. It improves edge perception by increasing acutance. It does an excellent job, but you do have to play with the parameters and do test prints, which can be a pain. But what looks good on screen may not be best for printouts, so tests are needed.
Plug-ins and programs exist that claim to do a better job and/or make the task easier, and some people swear by them. But I think just as many people think they are snake oil.

In any case, I think you are better off understanding and experimenting with USM before you try/buy anything else.

USM explained.

The radius part of the unsharp mask is really the radius for a gaussian blur, hence the name "unsharp". What happens is photoshop blurs a copy of the image, which has the effect of destroying edge sharpness. Then, the unsharp version is compared with the original to see how much the pixel value changed. If there was an edge there previously, the difference between the unsharp and the original will be significant. If there was not an edge, there will not be much change. The threshold is the amount of difference needed between the original and the unsharp to change the value of a pixel. The amount controls how much the pixel is changed lighter or darker, based on how much of a difference there was between the original and the unsharp versions. Keep in mind this happens in each channel individually, so all caculations are done in black and white.

[shiato storm]

as far as usm goes do what you feel is best for that particular picture, I know some people do several passes at different settings for usm to get the desired effect...

[Tifosi]

Finally got my photo site up and running to a reasonable degree, let me know what you think.

I need to get some more photo's up there (before someone comments the ferrari pics aren't mine they were just for testing).

the javascript is still somewhat buggy

www.evokereality.co.uk

[shiato storm]

cool. can't wait to see it all finished

[BlueMagician]

Thanks for the responses... sorry for the late reply - too much work, not enough play..

S.