Tom

I don’t think that in this type of image barrel distortion will be that apparent if at all, like Gradient said strong horizontals and verticals will emphasize it, especially at frame edges where the frame is straight and barrel distortion is more visible.

Landscapes will show it less than most subjects, as there are seldom defined lines.

Don’t forget, that close work done with a wide lens will make it look more visable.

One last thing I would mention, barrel distortion is sometimes mistaken in vast wide scenes (say looking out to sea) where the horizon can be several miles wide on the frame, where you actually see the curvature of the earth as opposed to distortion.

Dust Bunnies! lol never heard that expression before!

Some older cameras used batteries like this one.

http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/index.htm?http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_cr2.htm

Have a look what type it is and Google it.

Threes nothing strange about a non rechargeable lithium battery for an old film camera.

I have an old camera that uses them

Dust on the mirror shouldn’t be a big problem.

Yes its worth tying it out, if only for curiosity sake.

I can’t say how that price compares as I am in the UK, so if you are in the US I guess you are the best judge of that.

I would have doubts about the usefulness of the wide angle converter, as some can produce pretty poor image quality.

I would strongly advise you to check the trigger voltage of any non Canon flash gun, and check with Canon what the hot shoe trigger voltage maximum is. There were issues with the 10D and 300D (Rebel) only rated at 6v on the shoe, this however may be different on later models.

Not really up on Sigma lenses, the designation for Sigma’s pro range is EX, theses don’t look like EX lenses to me.( one lens states pro lens) Not having used sigma lenses for a long time I can’t offer any opinion on them, I’m sure others here can.

In general it looks a pretty good kit.

Many issues about w/b, I think it is probably a good idea if you are shooting Jpeg, but if shooting raw it seems a little redundant.

Also one more gadget to fumble and drop lol, doing a custom w/b isn’t a big problem for many people, you also need to custom w/b when the light changes, so that means digging this gadget out of your bag again. So probably no easier than using a white card.

Quite expensive too.

Anyway not to be all negative and all that, I think this gadget would be useful for some people, although I feel that the type of people that are seriously into photography wont generallyhave w/b problems and will be quite happy to do it their way and save the money for something else.

As I understand it the cornea is the clear membrane over the pupil and iris?

Photographing that would be a challenge! Not sure how possible that would be, never tried that! I guess you would need to photograph the eye from an angle so it could be seen, the detail that can be seen in the iris can be impressive.

Oh Ok time out lol

Firstly I would like to say that I did NOT take any offence to what you wrote Margana, maybe not surprisingly I get a few comments along those lines, my reply was merely to add the there is more to the name Enola, and I apologize if it caused a rumpus.

Enola Gay was also a song in the 80’s “trivia”

I did not see the deleted comment, so I can’t comment on that, although leaving it in may serve to be a good lesson on how fragile text based communication can be. It lacks the finesse of real conversation.

Ilona

I currently have two images in my gallery so not sure why you can’t see them. The top of my equip list is company owned, so no outlay on my part, I can’t afford all that nice stuff! (shame)

Anyway the best camera in the world can still capture poor images, who is behind it is what makes the difference.

I haven’t got a personal web site, and with the amount of gallery sites etc I’m not sure I need one.

Only my personal work can be used as my employer owns the copyright to anything I do on their time. None of which is available online. The guidelines are strict.

Valouchufy

I don’t know if I know Simon_P, I knew a photographer called Simon a few years back, and he encouraged me to take up photography professionally, and taught me a few good lessons/techniques with the camera etc,(stuff you don’t learn at university) not seen him for some time. So who knows the web makes the world a lot smaller.

Anyway places like this are R and R for me a sort of escapism form the real world lol, so I can upload images that mean something to me rather than technically perfect or for money.

I might even get round to scanning some negs in time!

Margana

I think you will find that Enola predates the plane used to drop an A bomb, the origins are native American and literally translate to magnolia (flower) of course the name Enola Gay is steeped historically and is the subject of much controversy.

TwoPynts

I understand your comment about the bit of red on the sheep’s back, and maybe it does detract from the shot a little, depending on your point of view, for me coming here is to post some of my personal work and to share. Perfection isn’t paramount and would rather have images that are realistic rather than images that are touched up to perfection, that is something that I have to do professionally, so not having to do it is a breath of fresh air.

Sorry if you think I am being a little obsessive about the postwork thing, sometimes I just like the images the way they were seen on the day.

Anyway thanks to all that have joined this thread, and that have commented, I will try to have a wander through the galleries (time is the enemy I’m afraid)

That is right to a certain degree, however there will still be more distortion with a 35mm lens than with a 50mm lens because of the way the lens is constructed (the lens elements in a wide lens are more convex) that said because of the conversion factor (small sensor only using part of the FOV) it will be less noticeable.

The DOF will be the same with any lens, it is the perspective that changes, for example if you shoot a subject with a 200mm lens at a given aperture, then shoot the same subject with a 50mm lens at the same aperture but move closer so that the subject is the same size in the frame, the DOF will be the same. Don’t forget that the DOF is also relative to distance from subject as well as aperture and focal length.

I have to confess I know little about the Nikon cameras, but expect that their metering is pretty accurate, a hand held spot meter probably isn’t exceptionally more accurate and they can be expensive, maybe not worth a great outlay unless you are really going to get a lot of use from it, at the end of the day all it does is set the aperture and shutter speed.

If all else fails there is always the sunny sixteen calculation lol

The Canon spot is 2.4% and multi spot on their pro DSLR's and 9% partial on the 20D and the like, with a 3.5% on the 30D and 5D, I suspect that the larger spot is one way they keep their prices competitive.

Kind of off topic a bit now, so better just bid you good luck with your photography ventures.

Thanks for the welcome and gallery comments (those of you that popped in)

And the comments on my equipment list (unfortunately most of it isn’t mine just goes with the job)

And remember the most important thing isn’t whether you are professional or amateur/hobbyist, professional only means you get paid for it and has no bearing on your technical/artistic abilities, I have seen both  amateur and professional work that I envy.

Gradually finding my way around, I assume from some posts the site has or is going through a major upgrade, so I probably find it easier than all you regulars :lol:

Just for a point of note since metering seems to be a big topic, the gallery shot was incident metered with a hand healed meter, that was possible because it was overcast with very even light (mother natures soft box) so the possibility of getting hotspots was minimal, if the light is constantly changing a reflective  TTL meter is probably the better option as it is metered at point of capture.

If you have static subjects (say a rose) incident metering is always the better option over reflective metering, there are always exceptions, like wildlife especially birds always on the move as they may go into a bright area of the sky so incident metering is at best flakey.

Yeh the door dose look a little odd, people don’t pay much thought to the poor photographers, fact of life I'm afraid.

Picking the best light is all part of the job, sometimes its just right, but often in situations like this the sun is in the wrong place (too high/too low or even non existent etc)

Sometimes you just have what you have, so have to decide to take it or leave it, from a personal point of view I would take it if it was about capturing a moment.

Professionally it may be more of a business decision, but you would be surprised what people may or may not like, just because you think that an image isn’t very good, doesn’t mean its poor it just means you don’t personally like it, someone will think its fantastic!

I will have to talk to the boss nicely lol, don’t think he will stretch to one of those, oh well lol

Yeh not really an action camera, it’s a large format digital, best suited to landscapes and the like. Don’t think you will see many of thse (or their film counterparts) at the Grand Prix.

If you are looking for a machine gun, the canon 1D MK II is what you need!

If you are on a budget there is always the H2 at a mere 22 MP :D

Purely speculation but even at 20MB per second write, you will be looking a 4 seconds (maybe more)with the write speed sustained transfer rate drop off, the 20MB p/s is a best case scenario, in reality unlikely to be the actual speed.

Lovely piece of dream kit though, will be cheap as chips in 18 months or somthing lol technology waits for no one.

Ideally, you should take an incident reading from on stage, that is not always possible especially if the stage in inaccessible, the next best option would be to spot meter if you have a spot meter (expensive) or your cameras meter has one, failing these two options you can use a partial meter. (not as accurate) A work around is to use a partial meter with a long lens for the meter reading, this will effectively reduce the percentage of coverage in a wider scene, so when you zoom out/mount a wider lens, you will get an effect closer to a spot meter.

Confusing maybe, but think of a wide landscape with a 9% partial centre, then the same landscape with a 300mm lens with a 9% partial centre, now fit a 24mm lens and think about the size that the 9%  was with a 300m lens, you now have something like 3% centre, don’t take my word for it go out and try it!

You have to use the settings that the reading with the long lens was for the shot (yeh a lot of messing about but cheaper than £3-400 for a spot mertr)

In a situation like this amount of light from highlight to shadow is quite different, I would think about 1 ½-2 stops looking at it, so you are faced with the possibility of getting either burnt or close to burnt highlights or deep shadow (especially with digital) for a commercial job the emphasis would most likely be on the band and therefore a compromise of slight over exposure in the foreground may be necessary. For personal or competition work you may feel that this is an unacceptable compromise.

I would probably use film as it has a much wider (and forgiving) exposure latitude.

A general rule is to use an incident meter where possible, as this is generally more accurate than a reflective meter (what TTL metering is) not always practical or possible (perfect world scenario)

Whilst on a stage subject scenario, if you are photographing, say a gig where there is a lot of blue light, you will need to over expose, as blue light has a lower luminosity than red or green, the human eye reacts in the same way, but the brain is able to compensate for it better.

Remember that the mid tone is 18% gray! (or is it really?) Some speculation about that too. Another story!