Digital SLRs?

[koven]

quick review:

My parents bought themselves a 60D last week that I've gotten to play with. It's about as heavy as my D700, feels just as solid (I'm sure it's not, for the most part). Viewfinder is big and bright for a crop sensor camera (particularly in comparison to the T2i they were also considering), until you zoom out with the 18-135IS kit lens. f/5.6 gets dark fast indoors.

Usage wise, cycling through AF points with a button and wheel is kind of annyoing vs. the Nikon joystick I'm used to. The deeper Canon grip works better for my big hands, but overall ergonomics are about equal.

The articulating screen is interesting, but I'm not fond of holding an SLR at arm's length to shoot, it's too unstable. Probably a bigger deal for video users.

3200 ISO looks damn good, even printed large. I'll post a snapshot I took of their new corgi puppy while I was showing my mom how to use her new Rapid Strap. Five minutes in Lightroom 3 and I sent it to Costco to print at 20x30 on their Epson 7880 - it looks surprisingly good. I probably need more skill in sharpening for that size output anyway, but I was pretty happy.

River by celluloidpropaganda, on Flickr

d700 or d7000?

[milosz]

D700. I've never held the D7000

[(10chars)]

I decided to go with the Canon 35mm 2.0.. Should be in tomorrow. Most reviews made it seem sharper than the 28mm 1.8, and I don't want to take a risk with the Sigma 30mm 1.4 -- maybe if i could buy one locally.

Made this video last night.. All filmed with the Canon 60d and Tokina 10-17mm. I finally am figuring out how to handle this footage with Final Cut Express. Only being able to have 30fps timeline is quite shitty, as most of my footage was filmed with 24fps or 60fps.

http://vimeo.com/20269193

feel free to embed it for me -- or explain how..

[chantheman]

I decided to go with the Canon 35mm 2.0.. Should be in tomorrow. Most reviews made it seem sharper than the 28mm 1.8, and I don't want to take a risk with the Sigma 30mm 1.4 -- maybe if i could buy one locally.

Made this video last night.. All filmed with the Canon 60d and Tokina 10-17mm. I finally am figuring out how to handle this footage with Final Cut Express. Only being able to have 30fps timeline is quite shitty, as most of my footage was filmed with 24fps or 60fps.

http://vimeo.com/20269193

feel free to embed it for me -- or explain how..

[s wf]http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=20269193[/s wf]

[(10chars)]

today was like christmas.. got my canon 35mm 2.0, canon 430ex ii speedlight, 16gb memory card, and my cam caddie..

about to go out filming..

i really wasnt feeling the flip out lcd screen at first but now that ive been doing a lot of filming i couldnt imagine not having it.

[darkknight]

sony a55 or canon 550d as my dslr?

i care about both image and video quality.

i know people will say go with canon if you plan to upgrade and make photography a hobby, but right now i'm just looking for something to take dslr quality pics with upgrading from a p&s. if i get the sony, i suppose i can always sell it if i really get into photography and wanna upgrade to better stuff.

any thoughts or experiences? or anything in the same price range worth considering from nikon?

[mike lowrey]

well, that argument for Canon is legit, as a general advice I would always say go with the camera manufacturer instead of the generic electronic maker. of course, Sony already has plenty of experience with cameras, but still I would prefer Canon or Nikon for this reason. and I don't see any notable advantage with the Sony to be honest, if I remember right the price is nearly identical.

the 550D seems to be superior in terms of image quality, sharpness as well as high ISO performance. heres a couple of comparison crops from dpreview:

ISO100 + ISO1600 JPEG

ISO100 + ISO1600 Raw

[darkknight]

thanks. hadn't seen that before, i heard iq was the same.

the one thing that attracted me to the sony tho is the awesome video auto focus feature:

.

[(10chars)]

if you are serious about videography you will end up using manual focus most of the time anyways. canon ftw

[chantheman]

today was like christmas.. got my canon 35mm 2.0, canon 430ex ii speedlight, 16gb memory card, and my cam caddie..

/QUOTE]

does the 35mm come with a hood?

[FadedBlackSocks]

^Non L lenses from Canon have the hood sold separately.

If anyone's interested in immaculate EF-s 10-22, 24-105L, or BG-E7 grip (all with boxes), PM me.

[ubiquitous]

is it me or is the price of the nikon 35mm 1.8 kind of inflated now?

[16steps]

has anybody fucked with the d7000? my buddy picked his up with the 18-200mm vr and that shit is pretty crazy. Threw on my 50mm 1.8 and took some nice photos

time to sell my d80 and move on!

[milosz]

Think I've finally decided to sell my D700 and switch to the 5D II. I miss my 35L and I'm not sold on the 35G I rented (esp. at its $1800 street price). I'm getting requests to do some paid architectural work for some developers I know (I work in construction), so the 24mm TS-E II is a draw as well.

[joelz]

zubin - i have a d7000 - love it more than anything

[chantheman]

looking at getting a flash. any thoughts on a canon 420ex? i ask because i can probably cop it for 100 bucks

[alimenator]

do it

1234567

[home]

what's everyone's experience / opinion on micro 4 3s?

hardly dissatisfied with my lx3 but long for DOF.

[servealoha]

is it me or is the price of the nikon 35mm 1.8 kind of inflated now?

Nah bro. Amazon is still selling it for $199. It is just that lots of online stores are out of stock. Just wait for a restock on Amazon. I think its been probably a month now since.

I just got my 35mm from bestbuy. Awesome lens in an awesome price .

[(10chars)]

looking at getting a flash. any thoughts on a canon 420ex? i ask because i can probably cop it for 100 bucks

for $100, id say go for it.. if you havent shot with an external flash before, you will be very happy with the results.

[milosz]

what's everyone's experience / opinion on micro 4 3s?

hardly dissatisfied with my lx3 but long for DOF.

I helped my dad pick out an E-PL2 for himself this week. I'm impressed. the video is very good, even indoors at night, it's quick and responsive overall. Would like to try it with the electronic viewfinder, but he's not ready to drop another $220, since I told him to go ahead and get the Panasonic 20mm for $350.

The kit zooms is okay, given the internal stabilization of the Olympus cams, would probably be fine for travel where most shooting was done during the day. The 20mm f/1.7 is awesome. Light, compact, fairly sharp even wide open.

I wish the rear wheel were a little more robust/SLR-like for control, but it should work fine for aperture-priority. All the buttons get a bit fiddly if you have to go into the menus and there are just too many buttons for so little real estate, but that's the trade-off you make with a small camera.

[koven]

what's everyone's experience / opinion on micro 4 3s?

hardly dissatisfied with my lx3 but long for DOF.

Great for vacations and general street stuff, the auto focus is fast and the bokeh is really nice on the 20mm lens. I have a panasonic GF1 and I love it. I gotta admit though, since I got my D300s and Sigma 30mm 1.4.... I havent really picked it up.

GF1 is perfect for the times where its impossible to bring a huge DSLR. LX3 or any other point and shoot simply doesent compare to a micro 4/3. I dont mean to spam but here are some pics taken with my gf1.

street stuff by MrEllis, on Flickr

my eyes by MrEllis, on Flickr

yeah by MrEllis, on Flickr

batman (Explored) by MrEllis, on Flickr

The HD video is also great.

[chantheman]

would anyone agree that the canon 50mm 1.4 is 3x's as good as the 1.8 to justify the 3x's the price?

[koven]

would anyone agree that the canon 50mm 1.4 is 3x's as good as the 1.8 to justify the 3x's the price?

Everyone has different values but yeah I agree. I could never fuk with a 1.8 lens if the 1.4 is available. Its not even so much about max aperture but build quality and bokeh.

For nikon the 35mm 1.4 is about 10 times as much as the 1.8.

[vitasoy]

chan, have you ever considered sigma lenses? when i shot canon, i had a sigma 30mm 1.4 that koven recently got.. i used that lens the most, it was insane, i liked it more than the 50 1.4, but thats just my preference tho

if you dont mind the length, id highly recommend the 85mm 1.8, it was insane but i sold it cuz i couldnt handle the 1.6 crop

[chantheman]

i was looking at the 85 f/1.8 but since im shooting on a crop i think it might be too close for me

[(10chars)]

would anyone agree that the canon 50mm 1.4 is 3x's as good as the 1.8 to justify the 3x's the price?

ive used both lens quite a bit and yeah the 1.4 is worth the money. the build quality is 3x better, the usm motor is much faster and silent when focusing, the metal mount vs the plastic one, etc. for $400 its a great lens

[chantheman]

chan, have you ever considered sigma lenses? when i shot canon, i had a sigma 30mm 1.4 that koven recently got.. i used that lens the most, it was insane, i liked it more than the 50 1.4, but thats just my preference tho

if you dont mind the length, id highly recommend the 85mm 1.8, it was insane but i sold it cuz i couldnt handle the 1.6 crop

is it true that sigma lenses have issues focusing?

and ive read if you are going to get the 30 14 you might as well get the canon 28 1.8 for less money. thoughts?

[vitasoy]

the copy i had didn't have any issues, but of course you should check it out before buying it (if possible), sigma also has a long warranty i believe, 3 or 4 years?

i don't have any experience with the canon, so won't be able to help you there

[(10chars)]

filmed with my canon 60d. not a finished video in any way, just wanted to mess around with color grading -- hence the orange skin in the first skate clip