Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Not me, I'm mostly a point and shoot these days.

I might do it one day, for fun, but with digital cameras and digital processing as good as it is, I hardly see the point outside of being a hobbyist. And my digital camera setup weighs a good bit too - don't know how much, but 7 pounds is about what it feels like. With a big lens, vertical grip with extra batteries inside and a big old flash, that thing is HEAVY!

That's how I started. I got into photography in about 1996, and at that time there were digital cameras, but they were either crappy point-n-shoots or $20k rich-guy novelties. There were a couple digital SLRs, but they were insanely expensive and had limited accessories.

Growing up, we had a dedicated darkroom in our house. I used to sit for hours with my dad in the orange glow of a B&W safelight watching him work. Well, that's how I tell it. If you ask him, I wanted to come in and out every 10 minutes because I got bored.

So when I got into it for real, I was a sophomore in college. I bought an old Bogen enlarge off ebay* for $50, and I set up a room in my fraternity house for use as a darkroom. It wasn't used for that full-time, but I had my stuff stashed in there for a quick setup. I developed my own film and also made prints in there. Hell, I even bought bulk 250-ft rolls of B&W film and rolled my own film canisters.

About a year later, I joined the college newspaper staff, and they still had a huge fleet of Nikons (mostly F3s with motor drives) and lenses, and an absolutely SICK dark room. So after that, I just used the paper's darkroom (and their chemicals too!) late at night when nobody was there.

Good times! But yeah, digital totally owns film at this point. Film is sexy and I have a fond nostalgia for it, but the hassle of it I do not miss a bit.


* I do honestly believe that the rise of eBay was a big part in the proliferation of digital cameras across the consumer market.

I really wish I had taken advantage of stuff like that in school ... it would be nice not to be working on fundamentals right now, especially since in the digital realm the fundamentals are real, but they're also really abstracts of the film world and that disconnect sometimes works against me.

Still have my entry level film SLR - one of the original Rebels. Never had much instruction on how the hell to use it, had no access to a darkroom an would likely bar caused a hazmat call if I did, and since it was in the days before I had ready access to the Internet and of course the Internet wasn't what it is now anyway haha... I keep wanting to break it out if for nothing other than B+W.

Btw - film=analog

They were called "books", John.


If that is true, than my old F4 was the Binson Echorec of analog cameras.

Yup. And even with ready access to the library I was too damn lazy

Hey Nagoda, do you think that with the proper adapters I could hook up an SM57 to the T3i? I mean, I know I can do it physically, but I'm curious if there would be some kind of weirdo impedance meltdown. Probably not...but I just got this thing.

I've got the XLR > 1/4" cable, and also have 1/4" > 1/8" adapter. Might give 'er a whirl tomorrow and see what happens.

Funny. I was just thinking the same thing yesterday ... I solved the problem with money and picked up a Rhode boom mic, but - that doesn't answer you question. The answer I came up with via the power of postulizing (see, proof, I'm the son of a scientologist) was that it would theoretically work, but the sound would be horrendously bad. Never got around to try it, lacking the string of required adapters, but - yeah - I'm pretty sure the answer is yes it will work, plus it will suck.

You're probably right.


But now I'm annoyed. I just noticed that neither Photoshop CS4 nor Lightroom 3 can open the RAW file format form the T3i. And apparently they can't be updated to work with them either. No RAW = no fun.

There are third-party conversion programs ... Google will solve your problems. I recently had the same issue with my GH2 and Adobe CS3. I would love to say I remember the solution, but I don't. But it is out there - worst case, GIMP works. To be honest, though, you want CS6 and Lightroom 4. So Sweet.

For the short term, I'm going to go back to open source options. My first foray into RAW was with a program called UFRaw:
http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

Agreed... I have both. GIMP is nice but it aint CS6 / Lr4

Here's a few of mine...

Flowers in Carmel, CA (HDR)



McWay Falls, Big Sur, CA



Grand Wailea Resort Chapel, Maui



Grand Wailea Resort Water Volcano, Maui



Kahana Beach Sunset, Maui



Kahana Beach Sunset "a fire in the sky", Maui



Sunrays at Sand Harbor, East Lake Tahoe, NV (the Zeiss 21mm lens has 9 aperature blades which accounts for the 18 rays)



These three are images I "Van Gogh'd" in PS CS6



The blossoming Cherry tree in my backyard...





All images taken at various settings on my Canon 7D with a Zeiss 21mm Distagon T* f/2.8 lens.

What, were the Canon L series lenses too crappy?

Ha-ha... well actually the "L" glass is mostly for FF camera's and my 7D is a "crop" so 21mm = ~34mm FOV on my 7D. I am saving for a 5D MkIII though. The CFO (aka - my lovely wife) says if I'm good maybe next month... we'll see...

A lot of them are quite useable on crop sensors. The 17-40 is a perfect example. But yeah, for a lot of wide-angle applications, the L series falls short for the crop factor cameras. On the long end, however, they rock!

I've got the cheapest L: the 70-200 f/4

With the crop sensor, it's like a friggin telescope.

I have that same lens too. It has amazing IQ. I use it on a tripod most of the time for my grandson's ball games... the IS version is great too just too damn heavy... The Canon 70-200 f/4 L is one of the best bang for the buck lenses Canon makes. I'm also a huge fan of the Canon 85mm f/1.8, although kinda long for a crop, the IQ is on par with their "L" version.

Yeah, I love that lens. Here's one I did recently with it:

Nice stuff, guys!

Funny, I almost picked up that 70-200mm L lens the other day, but I am going to wait till I can afford the IS version. I like heavy, first off, and I love IS - it's like a free stop of light when shooting handheld since I can bump the shutter speed down lower than otherwise ... in the meantime I have the EF 70-300 IS lens and it's pretty good. Not up to 'L' par, but it shoots sharp pictures - good review here, and this can be found for $3-400 new (!) - http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/70-300mm-is.htm

Here it is in action:

For real fun crop-frame action, I use that 300mm lens on my GH2 - 600mm!!! Woo-hoo!

You have to wacked out on opiates to hand-hold a shot at 600mm

No way!!! Just lots of sun and you're golden. This is 400mm x 1.6


Eastern Kingbird by LITEFORCE, on Flickr

Well, yeah. Assuming perfect conditions in all aspects of the shooting environment, I'm sure it's not that hard. I just haven't had very many perfect days.

I still have hundreds of blurry photos to delete . I sold that lens though, just have the 17-50 now.

Killer pics.

We stayed at the Grand Wailea last year or rather we stayed at those condo's behind the hotel and then hung out at the hotel.