For the photographers… new affordable digital SLR

The Canon Dial, found on most of the EOS range and quite a few compact cameras too.

It has the famous “Canon dial” which means you can use it in full idiot mode or in varying degrees of manual modes, all the way to full manual operation. Most Canon EOS’s have this broad range of usage.:D

In other words, you can turn the dial to the green square and it becomes fully automatic (in combination with you switching the lens to AF). You can turn the dial again to one of the specialised auto modes, such as portrait mode, landscape mode, sport mode and macro to name but a few.

All you do in these cases is select the one appropriate for the shot and snap away. You can also select a host of semi automatic modes, allowing you control over shutter speed, exposure etc.

I was looking at the website posted about this camera and it says its “feature reduced”. Does that mean that a person without any technical knowlege of photography would be able to use the features of this camera easily? And is this camera and the current generation of digital cameras using USB2 or is firewire still dominant?

There’s a compatibility issue with Sigma lenses, which Sigma has offered to correct free of charge, whilst throwing in a general lens service at the same time.

AFAIK, Canon EF lenses are ok.

Regarding the issue of “early adopters” being used as guinea pigs for final testing of new technologies, I have to agree that it sucks, but it seems to be here to stay unfortunately.

I bought a DVD recorder a year or so ago, when they first came out. The problems with it were unbelievable, but by keeping a cool head and complaining “properly”, I struck up a good relationship with the manufacturer and have successfully received replacement models, keeping my unit up to date so far.:)

I am going to remain with my EOS-3 and film for another couple of years. Apart from financial side, it seems to me that these new DSLRs come on the market with the consumer being left to do the final testing and debugging. Browsing through the airliners.net forum and hearing around it is apparently not only Roger’s 10D which have packed up. Then there was something with lenses needing to be rechipped or “adjusted” to suit the 10D properly, and finally one gets to hear how terribly exposed the CMOS sensor is to dust (why didn’t they devise a technical solution for this problem)? This is just not tolerable for a €2,000 camera body.

Originally posted by A330Crazy
You should call them and make a complaint… you may get it a bit cheaper??? 😀

Someone has made a mistake somewhere along the line, and to be honest its not your problem, its theres and they should sort it and make your order a first Priority!

I did and they threw in the extra year’s warranty for free. They’re blaming the computer for the mix up, but then don’t they always ?

Looking forward to more of your pictures Roger.

Well, my 10D can be picked up this afternoon after repairs. It was ready for severall weeks, but the email telling I could collect it never made it to my mailbox. have it just in time back to shoot the large aircraft of the Aviodrome (Neptune, severall Fokkers) that will leave AMS tonight. They will be put on large boats to make the transport. Especially the Neptune is a special one, this former Dutch navy bomber is in full KLm livery. Might post some pics tomorrow. BW Roger

You should call them and make a complaint… you may get it a bit cheaper??? 😀

Someone has made a mistake somewhere along the line, and to be honest its not your problem, its theres and they should sort it and make your order a first Priority!

The annoying thing is they sent me an order confirmation by e-mail, it was only when I looked this morning I noticed all of the details were blank.

Doh !! It’s like Santa being late with the toys !!!:rolleyes:

Well look on the bright side ren… least you’ll still have it in time for LHR. 🙂

Dont seem to be able to get anything right in this country!:mad:

Well wouldn’t you know it… ?

They lost my order in the system and by the time I phoned up to query it, they’d sold out of EOS 10d’s. I’ll have to wait ten days to get one now !

Bah Humbug !!!!:mad:

Yes, I’ll have a try with some test prints this week hopefully. I’ll also tune into Flypast forum a bit more often, there often seems to be lengthy photo discussions going on there. 😀

Just give it a try Ren. If you have some more questions, just let me know. On the FlyPast (historic ) forum, there are a lot of 10D users, and there is a lot of digital photography knowledge there, so you can get things answered there too. BW Roger

Thanks again Roger, and might I say what a great looking picture that is.

I was in a local ASDA supermarket in Glasgow, and noticed they have one of those self service digital printing facilities within their photo lab area. You can insert your memory card or a CD and select/print your own pics on photo grade fuji paper. I might give it a go when I get the digi-SLR up and running.

Cheers

Not a big help I am afraid, as I don’t print normally. Last week I printed some big ones 20 by 30 and 30 by 40 as a test, just to see the difference betweeen slide/negative and digital. On all occasions, the print from the digital (Eos 10D) ws the best. Super sharp, good colours and absolutely no grain. they looked as if they came from a large format camera. To be honest, both slide and colour negative prints were made of 100 ISO film, while I shot the digital on 400 ISO, so if I put the DSLR on 100 ISO, the result must be even better.

One of the main drawbacks of printing yourself is the extreme high cost of the ink. So unless you can get them for free (the ink cartreges) I suggest to shoot digital, then give the shots some “cleaning up” (dust removing, sharpenning) and burn them on a CD. Then bring that CD to your local photoshop and asked them to print them for you. The result are good, and cheap prints (much more cheaper than on yopur own printer).

Here in Holland some photoshops have a small digital (Sony) lab. Here you can put your CF card in a machine, the images apear on a screen and you can print them yourself. Price for a 30 by 40 in Holland is around 3 P.St.

If you want to print on your own machine, buy a printer where there are seperate containers for each colour, so you only have to refill the empty ones. A friend of mine has a Canon printer that can print great pictures up to 30 by 40 cm.

Enclosed shot was taken with a 100 – 400 MM lens which on my DSLR became a 160 – 650 mm or so. I took the machine with 650 mm.

BW Roger

Roger S,

Can I ask you how you go about making your prints, in terms of what type of printers and papers you use and would recommend ?

Do you ever use specialist papers such as canvas or embossed ?

TIA 😉

There is no reason to wait untill something “better” will emerge in a year time. 6Mp is already an overkill for most. I bought a 6MP Canon DSLR a few weeks ago, and up to 30 by 40 cm prints, it wins from my slide prints, and is far superior to print/negative film. With a 6 MP camera you can photograph for years to come. Don’t forget that if you wait for an 8 or 10 MP one, this only is an advantage if you print 60 by 80 or so. The disadvantages are that you need a heavy computer also, and lots of CF cards.

In january I bought a digital DSLR, after shooting 27 years on slides. Since, 95% of what I photographed I did on digital, with only 13 rolls of slide so far.

Given the fact that shooting digital is cheaper (you can select only the good shots, so you can shoot what you want and select later), the smaller sensor enlarges your telezoom by 60 % ( so suddenly your 75-300 becomes a 110- 500), and you can “play” with your iso, depending on time and weather/light. all advantages that makes taking shots with a DSLR so much more fun. However, DSLR’s are so “sharp” that indeed if you work on cheap “glass”, they can be very unforgiving as all the “mistakes” in the lens will hit you hard. But setting your iso settings to eg 200 or 400, and working on a lenssetting of F8, the effect will be good aswell. BW Roger

Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. 🙂

once u hit 4MPs, u can do quite large prints without a problem….
anything higher than that is just for those last little details you would look for with a magnifying glass
and if you buy anything bigger than 5, ure really just wasting money…..
unless ure a professional, where u might even go for 6 (which i still think of as overly excessive)

It’s to do with the comparitive pixellation when you compare it with the grain found in traditional film. I’m not sure what the ideal pixel count is but it matters if you like making prints, just as ISO film speed does in this respect, particularly when it comes to blow ups. For web work it’s more crucial to have a good piece of glass on the camera than loads of pixels. IMHO 😉