New digital camera

[a454elk]

I've been looking at getting the new Canon Digital EOS 20D camera along with the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens. The lens has an image stabalization unit built in and the camera seems to be one of the better ones they make. Has anyone used this lens and camera and if so, how do you like it? I know Lou has one something like this but I forgot which one. Let me know the info on these units, thanks
Elk

 

[SpeedyManiac]

I don't have the camera, but I've checked it out at a local camera shop. It looks awesome! I'd go for it if you have the money. I've used a Nikon D70 and it was great, and the Canon 20D is supposed to be even better.

 

[oldguy]

You will love it if you can figure out 1/4 of its features. I have the canon EOS digital Rebel and am really happy with it.
That lens will be great for track shots but remember that the digital camera will make it approximately a 110 x 440mm. If you want to shoot indoors or closer in you should get a lens in the 18x50 range (30x75 after the digital factor)

Buy lots of media for it I like the 256 size as they hold plenty of shots (125 at the quality I shoot normally) but not so many that you loose pics on them.

 

[JPIVEY]

Carlo, a while back I had my Nikon in for service and they gave me a 10D with a 70-300 2.8IS ultasonic, I was totally blown away at how fast it was able to focus, which is a big advantage when your out shooting the races, If I didn't have so much invested in my gear I would switch to Canon in a heart beat, the image quality is no different, but having a lens with it own motor and not dependent on the body is worth every dime.

Also, Get a 1gb 40x cf card with WA ( write accelerator ) this speeds up the time it takes to write the image to the card and you can get about 300 pics at jpg fine ( 2000x3000 pi ), their down to around 100 bucks now, which pisses me off, I paid 300 ea. for mine 2 yrs ago.

Man, you are going to have a blast with that camera

 

[biglou]

I just got a SanDisk 1gig card from "Shop4Tech" for 79.99 shipped. I have the Rebel like Oldguy. It's just amazing. I forgot who was showing me in my Red Bud pics thread (when I had the old Mavica) but I hit the shots with a 10% sharpen filter in PhotoShop and they are just amazing. If you're looking at them on a larger flat panel monitor, the resolution will blow you away. It's like looking at a photograph. I've got one giant shot of the 450 I'll link you to when I find it...

Use these as comparison:
Old Sony Mavica 450 picture on middle size, "Fine" (highest) resolution
Rebel 450 picture medium size (2.19meg) "fine" resolution
Same picture with PhotoShop 110% unsharpen mask

btw-If you have IE set up to automatically resize pictures to fit the screen, turn that off! It won't do justice!

 

[snb73]

a454elk,

I jusy bought a digital cam too. I wanted something that can take action photos. I settled on a Kyocera Finecam M410cam. I takes 3 pictures a second with a high speed memory card. I bought it from Amazon for $365.

Check out this site for reviews. There is a forum there too.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

Hope this helps, Steve.

P.S. It's not my site, lol.

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Use these as comparison:

Wow, that'd be a great pic if the bike was RED!

 

[CaptainObvious]

Lou. I see that shop4tech has 1GB cards for $80 and 2GB for $155. I've heard that the 2GB micodrives can be slow. Have you ever heard that about the 2 GB cards?

 

[biglou]

I didn't look into it that far, but I thought there were 2gig solid state cards? I've heard not so good things about microdrives. Moving parts that small = bad, IMO. Where's Teeds? He's up on all this!

 

[a454elk]

Sounds good guys. I was going to pick up a 1 gig card when I get the camera. Costco has it for around 1450 clams, but I've heard that I own't ever need to get another one. I was going to get the Rebel, not that it was bad but for about 500 bucks more, I'd get one that I'll never have to replace. I found the lens for around 350 bucks on the E place and the camera comes with the smaller lens I think Oldguy was talking about. They say that with the image stabilizer, you can shoot at slower shutter speeds for lesser lighting to get a shot without using a flash. Does that sound correct Jim? I know it'll have features I'll never venture into but maybe a photo class may be in the future!

 

[Philip]

Elk I have a Canon D60 with that lens and it is great. What I like about it is a can borrow my friend's (who is a professional photographer) 300mm 2.8 lens when I go to the races. :yeehaw:

I have some good shots with the 70-200 I think you would like it.

 

[gospeedracer]

Make sure to get one that comes with a night vision option. :laugh: ;)

 

[JPIVEY]

They say that with the image stabilizer, you can shoot at slower shutter speeds for lesser lighting to get a shot without using a flash. Does that sound correct Jim?

That's sorta true, when you start using a slow shutter speed ( hand held ) you not only have to deal with motion, but also vibration from the shutter ( which the IS doesn't address ) and to get the correct exposure you have to push the ASA; The problem with pushing ASA is, most camera in this range use a CCD ( higher end and/or newer cameras are using Cmos )chip and when pushed above 400 ASA there tends to be a lot of background noise, noise that will be real obvious when enlarging over a 5x7.

Use a flash whenever possible, even in low daylight, it a good fill light and will actually bring out some color, the only downside is the write time tends to be slower.

 

[a454elk]

LOL Speedy

Jim, most of the shooting I'm going to use it for is indoors, ice rinks and gymnastics (the lil one is into some fun sports). It's also at least 50-150 feet away most of the time. I sat next to a guy that had the 20D and he took some shots using 800 speed with no flash and they were clear and bright. When I get this thing, I'm gonna rent you out for the day to help me use it!

 

[JPIVEY]

Carlo, I just looked up the spec on the 20D and it has the CMOS Sensor, this is cool, very cool, my nikon has the CCD ( old school ) rent me so I can use your gear :nener: :laugh:

 

[Tony Eeds]

Carlo:

The photographs I have been shooting at DRN events have been taken with my Canon D30 and a variety of lens. I have a 20mm F2.8, 28~200mm F3.5~5.6 zoom and just picked up a 300mm IS F4 lens.

The 20D is my next body, which I will be getting in the next few months. There have been a number of articles about the body over the last few months and the word is, this is the best camera on the market at the moment bar none. There are some features on that camera that put it head and shoulders above the rest. The camera comes with builtin filters for B&W photography which is what really got me!

Regarding cards get the biggest that you can afford. You will not regret it. You might as well consider getting an external harddisk for all your photography. With slightly over 14,000 images on my 160 gig drive, it is about 70% full.

Enjoy! :yeehaw:

Check out the March/April 2005 edition of eDigitalPhoto for a great article on the 20D.

 

[a454elk]

Thanks Tony, sounds like it's a great camera. Now, where's a photography tutor when you need one.

Sounds good Jim, I'll take you up on that!

 

[biglou]

If you buy a new Canon, you'll get free online access to lots of info. :cool:

 

[a454elk]

I found a memory card at Costco but I need to know if it'll work fine. It's the Lexar 1 GB 80x 12 meg per second for 100 bucks. Is that a fast enough card? The camera states it takes 5 frames per second, so if the shots are over 2+ meg, will it slow down the shot rate?

 

[JPIVEY]

That should be a good card, make sure it has WA and that Cannon supports a WA card, (check with a cannon dealer), I have a 40x WA and have not missed a shot @ 1.7 megs doing 3-5 shots per sec.

 

[a454elk]

Thanks

 

[ice_88]

you should get a konica minolta, eany model, 8 megapixels.

great little didgital cameras, more fatures than you could shake a sick at.

:yeehaw:

 

[a454elk]

Thanks but I already ordered the Canon, seemed to fit what I needed. The megapixel wasn't the deciding factor but the speed and usage seemed to fit right, thank you though.

 

[Tony Eeds]

Great choice Elk.

It dawned on me that I need to get mine soon, so I can get used to it before photographing Sqweeks and Roosta's wedding. ;)

 

[Chili]

Instead of starting my own thread I'll pop some questions in here. After using oldguys digi-rebel at the St. Louis SX my p&s digital isn't going to cut it anymore! I think I've developed OCD the last few days as I close in on spending a bunch of cash on a camera. Here's where I'm at, any advice related to this decision is welcome.

I figured I'd take advantage of the prices drops on the Digi Rebel 300D before it get's discontinued and completely replaced by the Rebel XT 350D. Once I started doing some research the Nikon D-70 crept into the picture and to further confuse me my dad says why don't you get a Minolta since I have 3 lenses that should work for it from my film SLR. Here's my current options, 1 of them is time sensitive as it's a used camera.

Buy a new Digi Rebel 300D with kit lens total taxes in $1070.

Buy a Used (less than a 1000 shutter actuations) Nikon D-70 with kit lens (far superior to Canons kit lens I'm told) with a Nikon SLR camera bag, wireless remote (not sure I'd use) and some filter thingy that I got to learn what it does :laugh: price shipped to me $1000.

Buy new Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D and make use of my dad's lenses (28mm f2, 50mm f1.7, 70-210 f4-5.6 I think?) Price taxes in $2160 :yikes:

All prices CDN $.

While the Konica Minolta price seems steep it is allegedly much more camera and if my dad's lenses are decent I don't have to add a 70-200 of some sort for shooting races that I will need to add to the cost of the Canon and Nikon.

I was really sold on the D-70 at the local shop today when I was comparing them, the build quality compared to the 300D seemed much beefier.

I'm starting to think I'm getting carried away and should just keep it simple since I'll likely never use 95 percent of the features of any of these cameras. Also thoughts on Comparative costs of quality lenses Nikon vs Canon. Budget is an issue as I'm not one of them rich highway patrol type guys :nener: