Getting a new camera

Get the Canon EOS-1Ds. It''s 11 megapixels. You''ll have to get some lenses for it as well. It''s a good camera.

Ahh yes... the Canon EOS''s. I''ll get one when I''m 30

No, not the EOS line. The EOS-1Ds specifically. Do you know about it?

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Original post by bishop_pass
No, not the EOS line. The EOS-1Ds specifically. Do you know about it?

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I don't really know that much about it. All I know is that its a nice canon dSLR...

[edited by - Xtremehobo on January 12, 2004 6:12:47 PM]

It''s not just a nice digital SLR. It is the $8,000 digital SLR.

I could get a car for the price of that camera

Yeah, but if you did, you''d still need a camera.

Back to reality: what are your aspirations with regard to digital photography?

Its just kind of a hobby of mine. I like to take a lot of pics of scenery outdoors while camping, dirtbiking, and hiking But I'm dissatisifed with my current camera's performance.
Here's party why:
This photo shows my camera's inability to reproduce crisp images.

This shows how small I have to make a photo before it looks somewhat fine...

bleh.

[edited by - Xtremehobo on January 11, 2004 11:16:51 PM]

What medium are you speaking of? Web? Print?

I just whipped together this page of thumbnails.

Obviously, resolution isn''t a factor here, although their original source was 6 megapixels. There are other things going on in those images which required other features in a camera that you might be totally oblivious to.

What do you want to achieve? What am I achieving in those images that you aren''t aware of yet, but with a little study, would be aware of?

What I want to achieve is a photo without any distractions or outstanding-screwups that lead ones eyes away from the main subject(s?) of the composition. More specifically, I want to be able to change the FOV (with zoom or an extra wide-angle or telephoto lens?) and be able to throw the background out of focus. One problem I''ve been having with my camera is that when I take a photo of something infront of a very cluttered background (ie lots of trees) the photo usually turns out very chaotic looking and often times the background over-exposes and I practically get a seisure by looking at it :/ My camera''s got some EV adjustment controls but I havn''t made very good use of them yet...

Might I suggest that it''s really well worth the extra cash to get an A70, over an A60.

I also looked into the A80, which is also very nice, but is quite a bit more expensive than the A70.

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Free Game: Yet Another Falling Block Game

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Original post by Andrew Russell
Might I suggest that it''s really well worth the extra cash to get an A70, over an A60.

I also looked into the A80, which is also very nice, but is quite a bit more expensive than the A70.

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I was originally thinking I''d get an A60 over an A70 because they have the same feature set, just one''s higher resolution which would be nice for prints, but I''m re-thinking it and more pixels = sharper image if I reduce it''s size a bit so I dunno, maybe it''s worth the extra $100

Look closely at my thumbnails. Notice the minimal depth of field - especially in the portrait of the man. This is achieved with a large aperture.

Now, where do you think you''re gonna get a large aperture?

Seriously, look at the background in this image: That is produced with a large aperture.

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Original post by bishop_pass
Look closely at my thumbnails. Notice the minimal depth of field - especially in the portrait of the man. This is achieved with a large aperture.

Now, where do you think you''re gonna get a large aperture?

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er... a camera with a larger physical aperture diaphram? (ie. expensive SLR?)

Basically, you need to be able to open up that aperture to about f/2.8 or greater (smaller numbers are bigger apertures). How badly do you want this?

Big apertures means big glass. That means money. A big aperture also means a 'fast' lens. A 'fast' lens needs less time for exposures. Everytime you double the aperture size, you halve the exposure time, because you're letting in light twice as fast.

Sports photographers need fast telephoto lenses. Why? They need to zoom in on their subject matter. They need fast exposures to capture the action. They only shoot with available light, which also means they need fast lenses. And, as a benefit, by opening up the aperture all the way, they blur the background, which isolates the subject.

I love my fast lens. It's an autofocus Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 lens. I paid about $550 for it used. It fits on any modern Nikon SLR.

I use a digital Nikon SLR.

How badly do you want to do this? Because to really do stuff, you want an SLR.

Go to Best Buy, or whatever, and see if you can really pull off classy blurred background imagery with a consumer digital. You can to a point, but because of the small format of the CCD, consumer grade digital cameras have short lenses. What they quote you is not the actual focal length of the lens - it's a conversion as if it were a 35mm lens. What does this mean? It means that consumer grade digital cameras have short lenses. What does that mean? Well, short lenses have fantastic depth of field, unless the aperture gets really big. Did you hear me? They have great depth of field. Which means it's hard to undo that great depth of field - which is what you want to do.

[edited by - bishop_pass on January 11, 2004 12:11:14 AM]

Aiight, I think I''m starting to get it. If I tried getting that effect with a Canon G5 (f/2.0 (equiv?)) would I get a better result than if I were to use one with an f/2.8 equivalent?

I suppose I''m not ready to shell out a few grand on a dSLR right now (nor is my bank account ) so I think I''ll be able to live without this. Thanks for the help though I think I''m going to pick up a book on it sometime this week.

I just recently picked up a 5.0 MP Sony DSC-V1 and it''s a beauty.

I''m a hobbyist photographer myself. Nothing major, just mainly social events and travelling etc.

It was a little pricey but I went in with the mindset that if I''m actually going to invest $$ into a digital camera I''m going to make sure I get a good one