How you trigger a flash depends upon what options you have and methods you use. For the Metz 44 it sounds like its being optically triggered by the onboard flash on your camera; so the flash on your camera has to fire for the Metz to pick up that light and then fire its own.

If you want it to fire without the popup ever appearing you'd need another kind of remote control option such as a radio wireless connection or a cable connection.

In Lighting

Eh once the internet went mobile on mobile phones and the like the English quality went down again. Even people who normally use good English come up against the problem that posting on a mobile phone or other tiny device gives you so little screen room to see the errors as easily and that typing on them is so much slower than on the keyboard attached to a computer or laptop.

In General Photography discussion

Have they overhyped it? Last I checked they just said "something new is coming" and we members went crazy

In ePHOTOzine discussion | Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Ahh Mike you raise a very good point and yes this is a topic that can fast get very confusing because many of us have only very incomplete patchy understanding of this area of technicalities -- built up with a good slew of conventions (which I suspect even in their early days were simplifications of reality).

In Lenses | Page: 1, 2 ...27, 28

Quote: All my Flickr stream photos are JPGs straight out of the camera with no tweaking at all

I get what you mean John (I assume you mean you download from camera, resize and post), but surely by virtue of shooting in JPEG, the camera will have "tweaked" the image already (maybe a bit of sharpening, maybe a bit of contrast, bit of extra saturation perhaps, and almost certainly some compression ) depending on what settings you have for your JPEG's. Even if you have all settings neutralised, they are "tweaked" to some degree as I understand it.


Yes - its akin to letting the lab do your photo development and printing. The only faithful part of the process is that every single photo gets the exact same treatment (whether it needs it or not) - unless you change the editing settings in the camera. The only problem with this is that you can't currently change anything after the photo is taken, it has to be before and thus you can't predict when a photo might want less or more of some adjustment.

The other downside is its all global changes (ie the whole photo) many times things like noise reduction and sharpening work best when limited to specific areas of the photo.

This is no more or less faithful than shooting in RAW and having the RAW processor use the same processing settings each time - or changing them yourself to suit the photo on an individual basis. It is still values affecting change to the core photo. Even if you took a RAW photo and set every single slider to 0 (ie no change) you would still see a difference in the photos (generally slight but it is present) if you used different RAW processing software options (each one will draw a different "base" line so whilst the same effects can be got with the sliders the baselines will vary.



Then again it does produce very usable and good quality results - heck much of the fast media journalist industry uses JPEG for when the photos have to be transferred almost as soon as they are taken to the newspaper (eg for sports). There's no chance for the photographer to have any input and thus no point in introducing the step.

In General Photography discussion | Page: 1, 2

I wonder if its just a facelift (ie some other company bought the name itself and all its trading assets) and its totally a new engine under the bonnet - or if its the same car with a slightly smaller engine and a respray?

I will be interesting to find out, also if it is a purchase of the trading name I'm surprised it was never done with the likes of Woolworths or others (when one considers both the decades of solid trading and name building behind it and the cheapness of not having to re-label bought stores).

In General Photography discussion | Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

As said above many of us choose to shoot in RAW mode, this essentially gives us as close to a digital "negative" that we can get. That negative, just like with film, has to be processed before it can be viewed as an image.

Now in the world of film you could do it at home or send it to a lab. If you sent it to the lab and let them do as they would they'd touch the photo up to their standard level, higher quality labs might take more time or used more refined processes and also might act upon owner instruction as to applying certain effects or processes. But the upshot is that a standard lab would apply standard "adjustments" to the negative to get it to a print.

In the digital world of RAW and JPEG we can still do this - the JPEG out of the camera is that same "standard" adjustment photo. It's been adjusted in the camera to standard values set by the software developers - although the camera also offers the photographer the choice to pre-select the adjustments within a range of values to give their own twist to the standard.

RAW shooting however gives the photographer the negative to work from, even when you open it up in photoshop (or other software) the RAW processing stage still starts with the factory defaults (often as read by the camera) and leaves the actual final choice to the photographer to select (in fact most of the tools in digital editing are direct copies of methods and effects from the film processing world).


As for how far people take things that is up to them - for some setting its basic and others its intensive work. For some its a general overview, for others its nitpicking every fine detail. For some its HDR all the way to overpowering colours - for some it more moderate tonemapping.

In the end how far is hard to tell, some very heavily edited photos can be quite simple in their appearance, hiding the amount of post-shot work that went into them.




As for the argument on "fixing it in editing" this is a line made by marketing but often not used by many photographers. Fixing things is hard to do well and can take hours of time in editing. Many photographers greatly enjoy shooting and often aim to get it right in camera - whilst many I know who do extensively edit are just as keen because you need all that light data just right in-camera so that you can push and pull the photo more heavily without resulting in degradation of the quality (which either ruins the effect or adds even more editing time).



So in the end seeing "straight out of camera" shots is kinda hard to do, esp when so many shoot RAW. That said its also important to read the above and realise that editing and processing the picture for display is just the other half of the whole photographic process. People debate till they are blue in the face on forums and in person as to which part is the "greater" and which part is the more "truthful" or "pure" or "classic" etc... However all those arguments are avoiding the real truth, that they are simply equal halves of the whole that is the final print/display version. Sometimes with a specific photo one will be "more" intensive with work and effort, but no one half is greater than the whole. If you have a photo with no editing you have nothing to show - and if you have no photo you have nothing to edit to show.

In General Photography discussion

Quote: I had a set similar but they has an ES fitting and ran off the mains

http://www.photographyattic.com/product-1316

If your looking for cheap options, check out charity shops and car boots, there`s no shortage of cheap old flash units.

Just remember that if one buys old flash units which can be mounted to a camera hot-shoe be sure to check online first if they are compatible with digital cameras. Many older speedlite flash units from the film era had higher peek voltages that they send through the connector in the hotshoe - if its too high it can damage internal components of your DSLR.

In Lighting | Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Interesting little unit. The only concern of mine would be that you've no power control so its a constant output that you'd need to modify with diffusers and excluders. The other consideration is the power, at Guide Number 24' (7.3 m) @10' (3.0 m), ISO 200 I wonder if it might not be possible to get more power from a single (even cheap) speedlite flash over using several of the smaller ones (esp when one considers the price of several small ones next to the price of a cheap speedlite flash).


PS - I'm hopeless at reading guide numbers so whilst I've quoted it from the store site for discussion I've no idea how well it compares up to regular speedlight flash power output

In Lighting

Mike - far as I know the depth of field is not just affected by the distance to subject, but also by the circle of confusion, which is affected by the size of the recording area. So when you compare uncropped photos from a 35mm sensor and a crop sensor the crop sensor will show a difference in depth of field - even when the distances are the same from subject to sensor (as in the case of 1:1 macro photography).

The effect is about the same as a one stop difference in aperture and I agree that its the crop sensor that shows the increase in depth of field over the larger sensor.

In Lenses

*shameless self promotion*

How does a Sigma 150mm f2.8 macro second hand sound (Canon mount of course)? If interested send me a pm

In Lenses | Page: 1, 2

Youzine?

In ePHOTOzine discussion

It's a blue pheasant - otherwise know as a Melanistic Pheasant. From what I can find its a mutation off the common pheasant which is able to breed true (ie you can breed more of them from a mated pair and they'll be blue pheasants).

edit more info here
Menalistic Pheasant

ps that link suggests that it could be mistaken for another breed, although the one you've photographed looks to have the darker colour and seems similar to the Meanalistic pheasants that I've seen/found on the net (in all my short time searching)

In Off-topic discussion | Page: 1, 2 ...27, 28

Its a 3year extended warranty if you fill in the paperwork.

HOWEVER far as I know there are some consumer laws that protect you beyond a year anyway so half the time the extended warranties are just a paperchain/extra earner for them.

I suspect even if you don't have it if you have a clear manufacture (and not a user error/accident) problem you can get the cover/fix.

In Off-topic discussion

I'm glad I'm not the only one left utterly bemused and confused by the whole concept of tipping! Keep the change is easy as you have a starting point on the price - but tipping is just confusing. Tip to little and you get frowned at, tip too much and you rush out of cash as everyone pesters you. (of course my biggest problem would be having more than either 2p or a note £10 in my pocket because most of the time everything goes on teh plastic)


Sadly as you say its just something we really don't ever think of doing in the UK - its rather like haggling. There are a handful of places left where you can (Car dealerships and market stalls mostly) and the rest of the time even if you try to haggle chances are the person your dealing with can't (and not nothing is more painful than two people who can't haggle trying to haggle )

In Off-topic discussion

As I'm modding on another big photography site (ok not as bit as EPZ but still big enough) I won't put myself up here; but I will say that from what I've seen the EPZ team has some strong guidelines and team ethic behind the scenes. That makes so much difference when moderating - its not lone gunners fighting it out against the forum.

Those insults, names and things that get slung at mods, yeah it happens, but normally there is the team of mods there behind you to back you up and help take the sting out of them; and when those words are undeserved also there to exact punishment upon those who need to learn to curb their tongue at times


Good luck to whoever signs up and I hope that the Team here can increase, being understaffed is not fun, for mods being a little overstaffed is always the best, sure you'll trip over each others feet now and then when modding and catching the same error/problem, but it means you don't have to be stressed out having to deal with everything and it also means mods can slip in and out as other commitments take up time without affecting the team itself.

In ePHOTOzine discussion | Page: 1, 2

I'd generally assume that they mean either full manual (M mode on most cameras) or one of the two priority modes (aperture or shutter priority).

Those three modes are generally the most manual ones on the camera, with the priority modes only automating a small part of the cameras operation if you're using the cameras built in meter to read the light in a scene and you're not adding significant light with flash (ie using no flash or just fillflash to counter shadowing).

If you're using external light meters, using significant additions of flash lighting or simply working in a situation where you want fixed settings no matter what the built in meter is reading then full manual is the way to go.

Expose to the right, as a theory, can be used with all of those 3 modes very easily (remembering that you might have to use exposure compensation with the priority modes). The other modes on the camera such as full auto and program mode offer good control options as well, but customising those results to fit with something like expose to the right theory can be a bit more cumbersome for many photographers and can often feel a bit of a work around. Those modes tend to favour more point and shoot mentality (that isn't "bad" sometimes even pros just want to point and shoot) instead of taking over and controlling the camera itself.

In Digital imaging | Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

What's the question? (even just one can help give some grounds to start discussion)

In Digital imaging

If you view any subject to the point where its a specialist interest the amount of quality you see will diminish.


This is true of almost anything, if you take photography and divide it into subject based situations and then choose to study or become a fan of one of those specific subject based divisions you'll generally find that what you once saw as good will shift to just being average or even mediocre. Worse still is that certain effects or styles will start to feel repetitive or dull (often the case these will be the styles abound when you become most interested in the subject, often older styles will appear more interesting simply as they are less used today even if they were heavily used in the past).

It's easy to get stuck into thinking then that the whole subject area itself is stale and dull and really not worth approaching because its all been done - but honestly its more a reflection that your tastes have refined and become more focused. You're no longer impressed by anything and you've become more selective. There is nothing wrong in that at all, and indeed it can lead to some great discoveries if you find those specific styles within a subject based interest which fit to what you like (getting more refined again).

In the end I think that when one views a subject as dull you've two choices. First is to walk away from it until such time as you're less familiar with it and let the interest naturally rekindle - the second is to study the subject in much greater depth to unearth the hidden gems (which were always hidden its just that you didn't realise it till you could see the fools gold surrounding them).


Also don't limit yourself to just one resource - EPZ (for example) or Flickr are big image archives shot by the masses, there are some astounding photographers in there, really amazing work. And there is heaps of common stuff - stuff that won't interest the more selective or higher grade viewer/interested person. Some websites have managed to reduce this effect, but mostly just by being new and smaller scale (eg 500pix or whatever its called) and others do so by restricting themselves to a specific interest area (eg a website dedicated to macro photography or landscapes).


Note one man's fools gold is another mans treasure so the opinion as to what is and isn't dull will vary a lot.

In Taking photos

It's annoying as the cheap ones simply won't work well with my Canon system without adding further options and lenses - whilst the expensive choice isn't that far behind just getting a proper TS lens itself.



That said I think I've boiled it down to one of 2 choices:

Either stopshot with highspeed shutter and crossbeam lasers (ie bugs in-flight kit which I can expand on with IR sensors later for general motion stopping outside of larger subjects)

Or

Safari 2 flash kit


It's almost 2 halves of the same setup since if I get the latter I'll have all the lighting I'll likely need for a very long while and mobile whilst the former gives me the trigger setup that I can use (with lighting) for highspeed photography (my biggest limit with that is that I've at present only the macro flash units and a single 580EX2 - which puts out good light but is rather one directional being just a single flash).

The only factor really is that a lighting kit can be easier to justify, whilst the macro laser it is more exotic, a bit more limited in scope - but is also one of those things that could end up easily being "I'll always get" and never will.

In Accessories | Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Note that most Canon DSLRs which have live-view can still retain auto focus up to f8 when shooting in live view only because that mode uses a different kind of focusing system. Sadly its also much slower than normal AF through the viewfinder and is generally not as good at action even when used with a good lens.

I've also known several people to use a 100-400mm and a 1.4 telecovnerter (either a 3rd party non-reporting or own brand with a few of the pins taped over so that the camera can't "see" it but still communicates to the lens) and they generally all agreed with what Justin just said. It's ok in good light for a record shot, but generally not really worth the gain in focal length for the image quality drop.

In Lenses | Page: 1, 2

I think the increase in other brands is because of the lens to camera communication - canons EOS mount hasn't got any manual aperture lenses and whilst there is a trick for mounting no contact EOS lenses with the blades shut it is a pain (you have to work with them shut the whole time so very little light gets in.

In Accessories

Paul the tilt transformer looks like a very interesting idea, however it seems that it was only made for a limited number of lens mounts (not Canon) and that lensbaby discontinued it as while back as well. The Canon one that you've found appears to be a fixed amount of tilt that one can rotate around the mount.

The idea of an adaptor is interesting and I seem to recall bellows tilt setups as well which could potentially be used for the same effect. Of course the biggest thing is not losing the aperture control (at present I know that Novaflex make an adaptor that lets one retain aperture control whilst adding a non-aperture transmitting attachment - the downside is that it is adding more extension to the whole setup and thus increasing magnification and reducing working distance).

In Accessories | Page: 1, 2

A "headslap" feature which allows moderators and staff to click a single button and send a user directed headslap to a member - with the headslap arriving in real time. Whilst this won't be something the user base make use of it should help significantly with ending little quibbles and quarrels on the site for the mods and will provide hours of fun* upon such jovial days as April Fools.



Or maybe EPZ is going to merge with facebook to make EPFZ - Ephotofacezine - allowing members to not only share photos but also everything!



* enjoyment might be biased toward the mods/admin here

PS the feature might also be used by admin when mods/coders/techies have small accidents around the site

In ePHOTOzine discussion | Page: 1, 2

For the circle of blur that could be done Puertouk - but when it comes to the tilt shift ability (in a proper tilt shift lens or the lensbaby option) it allows you to shift the plane of focus.

In macro where you can't get front to back depth of field on most shots without focus stacking (or using a very small aperture and suffering a lot of diffraction softening and detail loss) the ability to shift the plane is very powerful as you can have it sit right over the subject far more so than normally (since not all subjects will be easy to photograph with their best side flat plane to the front of the lens.)

In Accessories | Page: 1, 2 ...27, 28

I can see the appeal, but I'm not sure if the rendering of the out of focus and the whole sweetspot design is really what I'm after in a lens.

In Accessories | Page: 1, 2

I've never seriously looked at the lensbabies, but don't they do other effects alongside their shifting of the focus plane?

In Accessories | Page: 1, 2

Money spending advice time.
So I've got some cash saved up and I'm in a quandary as to what to spend it upon. I've a few options and each option is worth the investment (at least in my mind) and comes with its own bonuses.


1) Cognisys Stopshot. Likely the most expensive setup (even after currency conversion) although also the most exotic. I'd aim for the crossbeams, and external shutter primarily to allow for a custom setup for photographic insects in flight. Although that setup could also be adapted to other situations which would benefit from laser based trips. They also have their new IR kit for a more reliable animal trigger and chances are I'd also pick up a small trip to do some waterdrop photography (Because everyone loves that ).
Downside is that it is all somewhat exotic and expensive and big - it could well get used and then gather dust for a while during the wrong season or just without the right motivation to get it all out.

2) Stackshot (from same company as above); automated focusing rail for stacked photography; a bit more limited in what it can do, but very rewarding in being able to reliably automate a very tricky shooting setup. Even with a very stable setup doing stacked shots manually and not missing a frame or overshooting on the distance can be very tricky.
The downside is that its doesn't really let me do anything new; although it greatly enhances by ability to do focus stacks both in the field and indoors.

3) Tripod + tripod head - not 100% sure on the exact options I'd opt for, but with the rough budget amount I could certainly replace my 055 manfrotto legs with gitzo legs; I've always wanted to move away from the horizontal central column to a central mount of the tripod head on the legs for low down shooting - I also could use another tripod head as at present I only really use my geared head (which is useless for anything not static like landscape or macro). This would likely be the best setup for my options other than macro photography.

4) Tilt shift lens - whilst I've not a massive interest in landscape to justify it and don't really do any architecture at all, I do have a macro (addiction) interest and the option to use one of the tilt shift lenses with extension tubes to allow for close focusing and the ability to shift the focal plane itself would be very powerful for macro work.

5) Flash - currently I've only my 580EX2 and the canon twinflash and I've often wanted to move into using one or two more flash units alongside larger diffuser setups for some photos. I've also had my eye on the high end 2 flash ultra small head setups with batteries - giving the features of a studio flash, but with the portability and size of a speedlite (portability being important to me and why I'd opt for one of these setups over regular studio flash units). An example of this would be the Elinchrom Lead Ranger Q Hybrid Kit with me likely adding a second flash head at a latter date - there is also the Safari Li-on Portable which has a good stat rating against the Elinchrom and is somewhat cheaper as well.



So those are the options in my mind at present, sadly I don't have a specific project or goal that would really help whittle it down into something more specific; they are all items that I can see a use for and have had an interest in for a good long while. However I might have missed some additional things that I could consider and others here might also have user input on the above options which could broaden my understanding and concept of their use. I'd welcome any input people have.

In Accessories | Page: 1, 2

I'll second the point made earlier that you will find macro photography a lot easier with a 60mm macro lens over a 40mm macro lens. The working distances for very short focal length macro lenses, such as 40mm macro lenses, is just so small that in practical terms they are not very usable for true 1:1 macro work. They are great for close up work, but with the tiny working distances at 1:1 its a challenge for any macro photographer just to get into position let alone try to get some light in there (because at the range they work at you will be fully shadowing your subject).

The 60mm will give you more working distance and be far more usable and its about the shortest good working focal length advised for people. 90-105mm ranges are around where most people are advised to start, examples such as the Tamron 90mm macro are popular choices.


Also note that if you get extension tubes and use them what you will lose with the lens you use them on will be the infinity focusing capabilities of that lens. You'll be trapped only able to focus on very close subjects, which can be an annoyance at times when shooting and you suddenly want to take a photo of something further away. Dedicated macro lenses retain their infinity focusing and thus have that added extra versatility.

In Lenses | Page: 1, 2

Quote: but for some reason it is not recognising my file formats when I search for the photos to add - they are Nef.
It may not support RAW...if so you'd need to convert to JPEG before processing

What I do is:

1. Make adjustments to levels etc to the whole batch using Lightroom.
2. Export whole batch as TIFF files. I find that there are fewer JPEG artifacts this way.
3. Feed the TIFFs into CombineZP

Hmm interesting, I'd always gone right to JPEGs as a first step, but you make a good point on the JPEg artifices which might even be a minor problem even at high quality first saves on JPEG photo. What might not be a problem for regular photo use can indeed be barrier to focus stacking!

In Computers | Page: 1, 2

The original plan was for 9 movies. Lucas basically started with the middle of the story with 4,5 and 6. So they can do 7-9 whilst following something of the original concept (maybe). After that who knows!

In Off-topic discussion | Page: 1, 2

The problem with any DSLR and infra red photography is that in front of the sensor itself there is an IR blocking filter. Now this means that if you use an IR filter on your lens (so that only IR light comes in) you have to take very long exposures to build up enough light to get a shot (the IR blocking filter does not block 100% of IR light).

This means that you'll need a tripod and scenes/shots which suit a slightly slower shutter speed.


You can use a DSLR for normal speed photography with IR light, however you have to have the sensor modified. The IR filter is removed and then replaced either with a clear glass filter or an IR only filter. If you go for the former, clear glass, then the camera works as normal, however you'll need an IR blocking filter on any lens to use it normally; but it also means you can use an IR only filter and take normal exposures with IR light.
If you go for an IR allowing filter instead of the blocking then you can use the camera only for IR photography; however it means that you also don't have to use any filters on the front of the lens itself.

In General Photography discussion | Page: 1, 2

And its by - DISNEY And I'm not joking it really is!

I'm -- not sure how to take the news myself - Disney can do some very good stuff, and they can do some fairly average and some rather bad stuff. It's big news for sure!

In Off-topic discussion

As said, if you trade to a shop you will get less money since the shop also has to make a profit with the sale themselves. You can always sell on the Classfields here, locally (camera clubs) or on ebay. Selling privately can net you more money for your gear (even if you pay ebay and paypal fees), but you've the backlash that it can take a little longer to make the sale (depends on the gear and the condition and how and where you sell - ebay is normally fairly reliable to sell on for speed, though remember for high priced items do consider setting a reserve price).

In Film cameras | Page: 1, 2

Actually I would have thought more companies pushing the boundaries to be far preferable over just one or two. When you've only a few companies not only is the job market potentially reduced, but you can also end up with them just countering or copying each other. You lose those niche market areas as the number of companies reduces and you can also end up with all kinds of backdoor agreements with running between them. Increase the number of companies and you increase the competition.

Whilst in theory competing companies should always be trying to better over the others, in reality they don't. Heck who recalls what happened a year or two back where the big chain supermarkets grouped up to agree to lower the price they paid farmers for milk.

In Lenses

From all I've read the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR2 stands up very comparably to the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS MII. They might have some minor differences, but otherwise perform very similarly so I would have no problems at all using a 2*TC on a Nikon 70-200mm VRII lens and I would expect it to give you a very usable image quality at 400mm.

Of course this combo is only any good if you also want a cracking good 70-200mm lens to use on its own without any other attachments. Also remember that Nikon does have a 300mm f4 lens which you could use with a 1.4TC or even the 1.7TC (Canon don't have a 1.7TC, but I've heard very good things of Nikons).

In Lenses

I used to have the original 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens and - sold it to get the MII. With the original I'd use the 1.4 without worries, but hardly ever used the 2*TC (I think I used it maybe 3 times). With the MII I'm happy to have the 2*TC bolted onto it at any point I want.

The quality you get is about equal to that of the 100-400mm - so both benfit from closing down a little to f7.1/8. That said the only thing that the 100-400mm has a tiny edge with is AF speed - the rest of the features are pretty much equal (the 100-400mm has a tiny bit of an edge optically, but after editing this is pretty much undetectable in difference).

In Lenses | Page: 1, 2

Violin and dance - and a beat!

In Light-hearted chat

What do you want to do with the camera itself? Camera gear purchases and choices need a criteria to fit otherwise its impossible to suggest ideas as to how to use the money (and also very hard for you to choose between options as well).

An idea of the subjects you like working with; the situations you shoot in; the types of shots you go for.

Also its a great time to list down any subjects/situations where you have trouble or where your equipment leaves you feeling like you're missing something to get the shot - or any situations where you've just not got the gear to allow you to shoot.

Once you've put your criteria on the table we can build from there with ideas - you've got lighting, lenses, camera bodies, support, accessories etc.. to choose from. With criteria we can narrow down which area(s) is best to expand into and what options there are within that.

In Digital cameras | Page: 1, 2 ...64, 65

Quote:
I assume you can just transfer the content from one to another, that is the only question I couldn't find the answer too, but think you must be able to though, anyone done that?

Just to expand on the answer given before to this - the books you purchase from Amazon are never tied to your Kindle, they are always tied to your Amazon account. As such you can always access your books on any new tablets, kindles, phone apps, computers provided that they will link up with Amazon.

I'm aware that there is a limit as to how many devices can locally store a copy of a book you have (I forget the number however), but otherwise you can easily run a couple of systems with local storing of books without any problems at all.


Oh course any books/text/documents you've added to the kindle from outside of Amazon will have to be transferred manually yourself. When I do this I use Calibre which is free, easy to use and auto detects connected kindles so you can easily use it to upload content

In Off-topic discussion

Quote: reader only with no bells or whistles

IS what I would get for reading. Honestly I think that once you start adding email and movies and all the rest to an e-reader you end up with the problem that you introduce so many easily accessed distractions that you can't just wind down and read. You end up wanting to check emails or surf the net etc......

Though there are a few things the kindles could do better (MP3 playing for example) I think that as a standard reader they are ideal options.

The new Paperwhite edition sounds great with the backlight whilst retaining the same battery duration of around 8 weeks on one charge. Most of the time its not too hard to read from since if you can read a book you can read a kindle, but in low light I can see it making things much more relaxing than straining your eyes to see the text.

The only downsides of the paperwhite I can see are:
1) No keyboard - it does not get a whole lot of use, but its handy to have for making notes or searching. You could do without it, but I'd expect using the store features or leaving notes would be a pain

2) only 2GB internal memory as opposed to 4GB in the larger keyboard version of the regular Kindle. A bit of a moot point for some as the white still stores up to 1000 books (which is honestly a lot of books) but more space is always nice to have esp as things like graphic novels are becoming more popular on e-readers (and images always end up taking up more space than text).



Ps I've yet to really work out the value of tablets in general. They do allow net connection and browsing, but most of that is fairly tame and you can't really post on forums or such without a keyboard. They also don't do much as a computer and honestly one of those mini-mac computers would be far superior.
They can play music, but are far bigger than any mp3 player; they can do books yes (without the 3ink sadly so its not the same); they can play films = actually I'll give them that they are half good at playing films save that you've got to hold the screen the whole time (no stand like on a portable DVD player).

Soooo the apps seem neat; save that most are either replacements for real world things or generally just "silly fun" apps to fill time.

In Off-topic discussion | Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Oh this is a blast from the past
Thanks for the compliments guys - and I think the Stackshot wasn't on the market when I wrote that up, but yes its certainly a very good option to consider if you've got the pocket for it! One day I will get a hold of one to use, stacking from a tripod is always a slow affair and there is nothing worse than ending up with a series of shots where you've missed out a frame. Plus you can use a sharp, but very creamy wide aperture with the stackshot and not have to worry about all the shots you'll need to get very accurately.

In Accessories | Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Thanks for the suggestions guys
I'll keep in mind the point about putting boxes around the trap and not just within the trap itself!

In Off-topic discussion

Sooo someone might have a shiny new mothtrap (Heath kind) and I'm curious about the placement of the eggboxes inside. Is it best to place them inside as full trays of 6 or to cut up the cup segments and drop them instead. I've done some searching and it seems the former is the preferred option, however I'm sure I've seen some traps using the latter (heck I think I even saw one with its own sold plastic eggcups).

In Off-topic discussion

There is also the Sigma 70mm f2.8 macro to consider as well. Both it and the nikon 60mm are fullframe compatible lenses (I'm certain that the Sigma is, I'm fairly sure the Nikon is as well, but I don't shoot Nikon so I could be mistaken) as well.

Either the 60mm or 70mm would be a good compromise between the 40mm which is too short for macro work and the 90mm which is too long for generalist work.

In Introduce Yourself

They are totally and utterly optional. You don't have to take part, heck unless you search for them you don't even have to look at them

I use flickr as my main host for my photos online - I also use the groups as well. There are loads, from generalist brand groups like Canon or Nikon; then there are even whole groups dedicated to single lenses or items (great for finding out a bit of info on specific products). There are even those dedicated around subjects (macro - landscape).

Some of these are lax and some can be pretty informative and in-depth (depends on who runs them).

There are even some good critique groups where instead of awards you give critique to others when you post your photo (And you get some in turn - and yes whilst its all Joe Average there are standards too).

Heck many interest groups also run flickr groups - I know a few forums use them and gaming clubs/companies (miniature armies).



Really the groups are totally user made - start your own; join the ones you want. They are very much like the groups EPZ has - the users make them and suit them to what they want to focus the group around. Run well they are a great asset - flickr just has a bit of an awards culture if you want to take part in it.

In General Photography discussion | Page: 1, 2

Wouldn't bother.

That's the short answer at least

Simply put the 18-200mm lenses cover a massive zoom range, by 200mm the lens is already suffering from a softer overall clarity. If you put a teleconverter onto the lens its going to magnify those errors a lot more. Further teleconverters reduce the effective aperture of the lens itself. Chances are you're already close to f5.6 at 200mm already; a 1.4TC would lose you one whole stop and on Canon that means no AF (and even on Nikon where you keep AF you'll notice it drop a lot in accuracy and speed).

A 1.4TC would increase the lenses focal length by 1.4 times, but it honestly would really only be any good for record shots. Most people would simply be unhappy with the results.

A 2*TC would double the focal length, but takes away 2 whole stops of light and would give you very soft results (in fact the only zoom most people will use a 2*TC on is a new 70-200mm f2.8 IS L MII or VRII from Canon/Nikon)

There is also the issue that pretty much all teleconverters have a protruding front element. You certainly wouldn't be able to fit a Canon TC nor a Nikon one to the lens (depending on if you're canon/nikon/other). I'd guess that even a Kenko pro brand teleconverter (which are good) which has the smallest front element protrusion would still have problems mounting to that lens (from what I've seen 18-200mm tend to push back quite a bit).


If you want you could consider a 70-300mm zoom, that would give you better image quality and the budget options on the market are likely going to cost you just as much if not a bit less than a teleconverter would.

The other option is to look a little higher for something like a Sigma 120-400mm zoom lens.

After that you're going to have to save a bit longer and start thinking about the £1K price point - Canon having a 300mm f4, 400mm f5.6, 100-400mm; Nikon having a 300mm f4; Sigma making a range of 150-500mm and 50-500mm zooms.

In Lenses | Page: 1, 2

Honestly I don't see how this says that there is no 7DMII possible. The only actual new feature is the expanded RAW buffer (which is likely just unlocking a built in limit rather than building in new features).

The rest of the features are actually just software and interface tweaks which have been available in lower end camera bodies for a fairly long while now. I'm actually surprised that Canon took this long to update the software side of the 7D to match that of the 60D or even some of the rebels.

A 7DMII can easily fit into the market if it boosts on the hardware side of the camera. That said Canon typically don't treat their cameras like computers with regular updates, heck they'd rather sell us another one. Thus I'm wondering if this means that the 7D line is going to do what the 5DM line did - a MII being released, but at around the £2K price bracket instead of the £1K. So they weaken the hit to the 7D owners and the market by making the 7D a little more up to date with software and then hit the market with the MII/

In Digital cameras

I've yet to see a soft macro lens - they are all amazingly sharp. The Tamron might lose the AF battle, but for macro that is moot anyway as its typically not used.

Also did you try the 40mm at 1:1? Ie as close as you could focus it?

In Introduce Yourself | Page: 1, 2

Quote: Makes sense to me, if your innocent, why do they need to know what you look like.

It's probably fine if you're innocent and your photo was just taken as part of an investigation, or you were just in the background of another shot. However its probably a nightmare for them if they are working on a case and things enter that grey area where they "know" you're guilty of something, but they can't muster enough evidence to "prove" your guilty of it.

That said I would expect that this guideline applies only to completed cases and not on-going, but I can see the police not liking if if they have repeat offenders/suspects who keep slipping the net (since if they were not convicted they'll have to destroy the photos)

In General Photography discussion | Page: 1, 2