Chili, Lou, Okie, Carlo, Dave, Jim, et al ...

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biglou

Those are great. I've debated posting a couple shots over there for critique. "Brutally honest", I believe, are the words Chili used to describe them over there. Which is fine with me!
 

Tony Eeds

Godspeed Tony.
N. Texas SP
Jun 9, 2002
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I'm going to try and be a sponge over there for the next couple of months and hopefully practice a bunch at DW.

I'll post a few from DW, if they work out. I am really looking forward to seeing what the IS lens will do for me. In prior years, I have always been that little bit off that keeps the photos from being as tight and crisp as the ones sxdirt posted up. I really like the panned shots and know of a couple of places where they would work at Cooperland.

We need to all get together and toss around ideas about where to stage goods shots while we are there.

I am planning on bringing my 400 gig external drive that holds my photos. If I try and keep up with Chili's production, I will need it.

Photoshop is my next "big" purchase ...

UGG, Go to Sports Corner Resource and check out the NOTES.HTM ... $34,000 worth of equipment!!!! :yikes:
 

Okiewan

Admin
Dec 31, 1969
29,550
2,238
Texas
I've been reading a lot over there (thanks Lou)... although seems to be mostly shots posted. Good for seeing what people are using for what and settings. I'd dearly love to have that Sigma 70-200 2.8; my kit lens is crap, but okay for general stuff (18-55) and the cheapo 70-300 4.5 won't get even remotley close to that guy's at 300m.

I also want a 10-20 in a bad way :( Seems to me that landscapes and architecture are awesome at 17mm or so. (Next to moto, architecture is my thing)

I'm bringing a laptop with a card reader and 1-1 gig card (I'm all spent-out!). Did get 3 more batteries and another charger with cig plug.

Speaking of PS, I've got PhotoShop CS2 and it rocks, gettng more into re-touching than creating these days; Fred makes a good sharpening plug-in for the 20D, spanks USM. That and Noise Ninja for high ISO stuff is pretty sweet, pretty amazing how little noise there is with the 20D even at 1600 though and virtually none at 800. Haven't messed with 3200 much at all.

Shooting in JPG alone is a mistake, RAW is sooo cool to work with. The Mac handles these 23 meg, 3500x2400 images really well :)

Tony, tell me about the IS... it's my understanding that the benefit is a couple, maybe three stops back without a tripod is the benefit? Not sure how that helps with moto-related stuff? Maybe zoomed-out? HSM/IS lens are large dollars!
 
C

Chili

Lifetime Sponsor - Photog Moderator
Apr 9, 2002
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Tony Eeds said:
I am planning on bringing my 400 gig external drive that holds my photos.
Click to expand...

I haven't checked out the shot's you linked yet as I still hit DRN first when I go online :) Will be there right away.

I'll likely arrive at DW (still positive things are going to work out for work) with 6 gigs of cards. I'll also have a portable cd writer with me that does not require a laptop, simply insert your memory card and hit backup and it burns the files to cd. It's rather slow but anyone that needs more storage at DW just bring some cd's and I'll back em your cards for you each evening or overnight.

The 10-22 Okie mentioned is on my list too but it'll be a long while now. I'll likely save up for the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 to replace the kit lens as my next purchase.
 
C

Chili

Lifetime Sponsor - Photog Moderator
Apr 9, 2002
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biglou said:
Those are great. I've debated posting a couple shots over there for critique. "Brutally honest", I believe, are the words Chili used to describe them over there. Which is fine with me!
Click to expand...

I actually posted some of my Millville shots over there and thought some of the experts would tear em down. In the end I got very little response other than the obligatory "nice pictures"
 
B

biglou

Bob-I think Wal-Fart has the 1gig cards for $85-90, maybe less. Sandisk brand. You guys are talking over my head some. I've got so many irons in the fire I can't keep up! Right now I'm just really happy with the results I've gotten given my limited shooting.

Bob-I read about the raw format. Using PS7.0 and good old XP, what could I realistically expect to see between raw and jpeg? Shooting the large/fine allows me enough shots. I think raw would just kill it, and I'd be card shopping too!

Tony-I really want to shoot that fixed 300mm at DW with the Rebel. I knew next to nothing compared to when we were at Dallas SX, and I was shooting your camera there too, so I was just pointing and clicking.

I expect some really cool photos this year at DW! Also, I want copies of all our stuff burned on a CD as JPEG or TIFF, rather than, or in addition to, a DVD. :cool:
 

Tony Eeds

Godspeed Tony.
N. Texas SP
Jun 9, 2002
9,535
0
Okiewan said:
Speaking of PS, I've got PhotoShop CS2 and it rocks, gettng more into re-touching than creating these days.
Click to expand...

Did you get just CS2 or one of the packages. I just looked at both CS2 and CS2 Standard on the Adobe website. Standard includes Illustrator with is vector based among other things. Twice the price though.

Okiewan said:
Tony, tell me about the IS... it's my understanding that the benefit is a couple, maybe three stops back without a tripod is the benefit? Not sure how that helps with moto-related stuff? Maybe zoomed-out? HSM/IS lens are large dollars!
Click to expand...

IS is supposed to be good for three stops. I got the lens almost a year ago and other than the SX and BBORR I have not really used it all that much yet. I went through a real downtime regarding photography this spring. I got real jazzed though with the jump to the 20D. Much better than my D30. My X has it and is using it for snapshots. I will have both at DW though.

At the BBORR, I was shooting cars coming at me at 120~140 MPH and I ended up turning off the AF and leaving the IS on. It seemed to react quicker that way on the D30 body. I still managed better than 50% of all the shots in perfect focus. I focused on a spot on the ground and used that as a guide. I am really looking forward to exploring the panning capabilities of the IS lens.

Y'all will have to test drive my IS lens. I have a 17-85mm IS USM F4~5.6 and the 300mm IS USM F4 that Lou mentioned. I also have a 20mm F2.8. I left the 28~200mm F4~5.6 Zoom on my D30.
 
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Tony Eeds

Godspeed Tony.
N. Texas SP
Jun 9, 2002
9,535
0
C

Chili

Lifetime Sponsor - Photog Moderator
Apr 9, 2002
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Lou FWIW I would stick to the faster cards Sandisk Ultra II or Extreme III and the Kingston Pro Elite Series. It can make a huge difference for shooting MX in the speed the card can dump the buffer. Tony I have been eyeballing a 300 F4 as I can usually find them used for just under 1K Canadian but I think I'll likely try to get the Sigma 120-300 That Zeke uses in the link you posted and then sell my 70-200 to try to help cover some of the cost. I'd be interested in trying your 17-85 though as I'm currently trying to find something to cover the short range and I've heard while it's a fine lens that it is not a great motorsports lens as far as speed of focus etc. Also another thought is from my understanding you end up having to disable the IS if your doing panning shots or at the very least have to disable one plane of the IS.
 

Tony Eeds

Godspeed Tony.
N. Texas SP
Jun 9, 2002
9,535
0
Chili said:
Also another thought is from my understanding you end up having to disable the IS if your doing panning shots or at the very least have to disable one plane of the IS.
Click to expand...

The 300 has two modes, one for panning and one not. The 17~85 has only one mode.

The 17~85 was purchased primarily for general photography, architecture, wildlife (my grandson), etc. It is a good all around lens to have when walking around in the pits, among people, while eating at Camp Tejas, at the big top, etc.

The 300 was purchased for motorsports and real wildlife.
 

acutemp

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Sep 4, 1999
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For storage I picked up a little unit called a Wolverine that is basically a small 40 gig portable hard drive with slots for all type's of memory cards. It is rechargeable and hooks up to your PC with usb. It has worked out really well and costs about the same as a 1gig of ultra high speed card.
 

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Okiewan

Admin
Dec 31, 1969
29,550
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Texas

That's pretty sweet! I could leave the notebook at home... except for the long trips when looking at the pics would be nice. Yeah, the 20D will plug into a TV, but, looks crappy. Still, thats a great little device to have. Chili's deal that burns diirectly to CD is pretty cool as well.

You said USB, would you know if that's USB 2? Or better yet a Firewire 800
:nod:
 
C

Chili

Lifetime Sponsor - Photog Moderator
Apr 9, 2002
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Those are sweet, I would have preferred a device like that but the cd-writer was the more cost effective solution for me at this point. The ultimate is the Epson P2000 which comes with a HD and kick ass LCD that you can use to not only store but review the pictures. Retails for something like $500 :(
 

Okiewan

Admin
Dec 31, 1969
29,550
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Texas
Damn, you can almost buy a notebook for that!
 

acutemp

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Sep 4, 1999
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I payed 180.00 for mine but I have seen them as low as 99.00 with rebate at Fry's. I mostly shoot supermoto races and at the last 3 day event I took over 5 gigs of pic's so it really came in handy by saving me time and battery life by not having to do any editing in camera to free up space.
 
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