HauteHippie

To be honest, they're not as bad as I thought they'd be... Let me get one off my blackberry here in sec...

Very nice. I really like the 5004 and boy did that one turn out nice. Looks great on that DiModell strap too!

I would never shoot professionally because, honestly, I'm never satisfied with any picture I take and wouldn't feel comfortable selling my work... Bottom line: I just don't think I'm that good. But I am interested in taking good quality pictures of my children that you only have one chance to take. With the crop bodies there are two main things I'm dissatisfied with: ISO noise and dynamic range. And as far as ISO noise go, the 5D MKII is simply out of this world. No prosumer level body even comes close. Dynamic range is still an area that needs to be improved with all bodies/sensors, but you do get something there for your money as well. But it's a lot of money, which is why I still don't have one. Eventually I will, though. I have a nice set of lenses already.

Definitely an improvement. There are some nice EF-S lenses for the 1.6X crop bodies. I'd definitely get a couple if I weren't considering an upgrade to full frame. Take it easy on the sharpening, though.... I fall prey to the same thing myself. ;-)

The one in the pic (1 month old) is available at $4900. But I keep hearing bad things bout the 3313... so I dunno.

Oh it's not mine.... I'm just posting some pics. They're the first I've seen. I'm just lusting after it is all.

Normally I don't like changes to a classic watch, but this one I do... It's sweet! I guess they've just started shipping these to ADs, although they were unveiled at Basel in 2008. Pretty sweet looking in-house movement, date at 6, and artesian fired ceramic dial (I don't even know what that means). Retail $8000 *gasp*. Here's the specs and some pics lifted from TZ: 37 Jewel Omega Exclusive Automatic Movement 52 Hour Power Reserve Column Wheel Switched Chronograph Coaxial Escapement Free Sprung Balance with micro adjusters on the balance 100 Meter Water Resistance (twice more then current and previous Speedmasters) AR coating on Sapphire Crystal’s inside, not outside! Sapphire Display back

Haha. Well, not when the subject might run or fly away when you get closer. Or if the subject is on the pitch or baseball field or football field, etc.

It's a very versatile lens. And the picture quality is fantastic. Once you get in to the longer zooms to 400mm and beyond, the good ones get very spendy, very fast. And the cheaper ones aren't worth their weight in sand. This price point of $1500 represents a lot of value, all things considered.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Lots of bang for the buck in that one. I love it.

Nice shots Pug. The 50/1.8 is indeed a fantastic bargain. I have the 50/1.4. The main differences are the 1.4 focuses faster, obviously is a ~half stop faster, and has a much smoother bokeh. That first pic would really illustrate the smoothness in the bokeh. If you look at the trees in the background behind the fence, that bokeh is rather harsh in that shot, whereas with the 1.4 it'd be smooth and creamy. For the difference in price, though, these differences don't matter to some people.

Heheh. Very common noob reaction to his first DSLR shots... "This thing sucks!! My P&S was better!!" Your DSLR is not going to do the in-camera sharpening, contrast enhancement, color saturation, etc. That handheld P&S pic of the Rolex you showed is definitely oversharpened. With the DSLR, images come out a little soft, dull, and neutral. This is desirable, and is where post processing comes in. You will find that different images will always require different levels of sharpness, and brightness/contrast, levels, curves, etc. There's no one generic group of settings that is ideal for every images. So post processing gives you the freedom to get each image right. But if you want the camera to do it all for you, P&S might be a better option. Or, alternatively, you can use the auto settings in the camera. You can do things like boosting color saturation, sharpness, and contrast. I prefer to keep those settings at 0, and adjust them myself rather than using camera presets which are never ideal.

So, this didn't end well. No Moonie for Chiefy. Paid the guy, received the watch, loved it, wore it around for half a day... then while staring at the dial under the bathroom halogens I noticed that the dial face was marked up. For whatever reason (I still don't think it was photoshop) I couldn't see the marks in the seller's photos. But they were there and it was clear that somebody had at some point used a tool to remove the sub dial hands and didn't use anything to protect the dial. Thought it over for a day, and decided that I have no problem with a little character... Exterior scratches, wear and tear from 20 years of use: no problem. Yellowed tritium, dial patina: even better. But the dial itself just can't be scratched. It has be perfect other than signs of natural age. So back it went. Just goes to show that no matter how many references a seller might have, no matter how active he might be on prominent forums... this can happen. The good part is that being the upstanding guy that he is, he agreed to take it back and issue a full refund upon arrival. He claims to have never noticed the marks on the dial. This I find hard to believe, but at this point ... whatever. A big disappointment for sure, but another one should be by sooner or later. Oh well.

+1 ! ! !

Reset cookies and browse to rwgforum.com. My old bookmarks stopped working. T, maybe you could redirect rwg.cc/members to rwgforum.com ?

I would be very hesitant to buy on EBay. But I have bought and sold on fredmiranda. Here you can be very assured of what you're getting. People sell used lenses a lot. Sometimes to buy a different lens of a different focal length, or other equipment, or whatever. Or because it isn't as useful as they thought, etc. I have a 35L/1.4 and 50/1.4. I hardly ever use the 50. I bought the 50 first and then got the 35, and now rarely need the 50. It's in like new condition. But I should sell it. That's usually how it goes.

The 100mm/2.8 macro is an excellent choice for both macros and portraiture. In taking portraits, typically, you'll have enough light to hand hold without IS. Figure you only need 1/150s or 1/200s of shutter speed. And this lens is very sharp even at f/2.8, so you can use its speed without sacrificing much. It'd be awfully dark for a portrait if you couldn't get there with ISO 200 or ISO 400. And remember IS is only really good for about 1 stop anyhow... until you get in to the super expensive long lenses. Also, you can often use a tripod. If you want to do stuff with very subdued "mood lighting" then a tripod is your friend. Heck even a monopod might be useful. Anyhow, the only thing to keep in mind with this lens is that it is slow to focus (relative to a non-macro lens). So tracking fast moving subjects with it can be difficult. But for macro and portraiture this is not going to be an issue. And you can also alter the minimum focus distance when not shooting macros in order to lessen the total focus range and make it focus a bit faster. Check the sales section of fredmiranda.com. There are lots of like new used lenses at good prices there, sometimes with warranty cards. It's a very active forum with a lot of pro photogs that contribute. $450 to $500 is about right. B&H is my favorite online retailer.

LOL! That's awesome.

No IS on the macro lens. It wouldn't really serve any purpose. When shooting macros you'll be using a solid tripod, mirror lockup mode, and a cable shutter release. In general, too, I find it's a rare occasion where I can't get 1/(1.6*focal_length) on shutter speed even with long lenses. ISO 400 on the XTi will be very usable with a little noise reduction in PS. ISO 800 marginally useable with good PS noise reduction, but not good for full size crops. So fast lenses are often more useful than IS. The usefulness of IS is very limited. When the need to shoot inanimate objects handheld in low light arises, that's when IS helps. Moving objects require a high enough shutter speed to freeze motion which is also high enough to eliminate any minor shake when hand holding usually making IS useless. Very rarely would the extra stop from IS come in handy. Give me 2 or 3 stops, and then we can talk! PS A very nice "walk-around" lens for the Canon is the 24-105mm L with IS. Since it's a slower lens (f/4) the IS can sometimes be useful. But I think after using it for quite some time now, I'd honestly prefer f/2.8 and no IS. I do think IS softens the picture just a bit.

One thing to keep in mind, assuming you plan to insure the shipment (and to ever collect you would need to produce purchase receipts of some kind), are the international indemnities. For example, if you ship Global Priority the indemnity is very low. And even the postal workers don't usually know what they are in my experience. Once I was offered $5000 insurance when I knew the indemnity was less than $100, for example. So, bottom line, just make sure you know the limits and choose the appropriate shipping method and amount required.

Big blue SA today...

Send it to Canada per usual protocol of "broken timepiece for repair and return to sender" and don't worry. Because unless you've already got an established local smith that you know does good, honest work then you wouldn't want anyone else touching it anyhow.

This is a neat piece. Like Ubi, I've never understood the HBB appeal either. Recently, though, I received the SS version for crystal removal and AR... And now I get it. It's a very nice watch up close and personal.

Sounds reasonable. Lightly used XTi bodies with presumably little to no remaining warranty are selling for about that also.

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