kja

Ebay cracks me up - some of the prices are so outlandish you wonder if the buyers even check around at all or just get caught up in the moment?!

The screen is gorgeous on the 400D. That is one slick camera, for sure! I really like the 400D and the images are sweet. One of my dive buddies has this as her primary and when she first got it it knocked my socks off :rolleyes: I was still shooting my 20D and couldn't wait to lay hands on my new 40D just for the bigger screen LOL The 400D is still on my list as a camera for hubby (third backup) for later in the year and I'm pretty sure I won't be swayed by the new 450D. At the current prices, the 40D is still the better camera for about the same money as the new model (though the new model won't keep it's high initial price for long!) You still have to zoom in to check critical focus on details, but even then those lcds aren't nearly as good as your computer monitor. Best best is to take several frames wherever possible to give yourself some safety net. Noise is handled much better by the 400D than the 350D. I think, just from personal use, the 20D and the 400D are very similar though I would still give the edge at 800+ ISO to the 20D, surprisingly. The 40D is better yet. For me, the 350 at ISO400 was just acceptable, anything higher and I wasn't that thrilled. The 400D is acceptable to me at 800 and if you're really careful, ok at 1600. I expect the new Canon range probably later this year or maybe next year to see a huge jump in noise improvement since Nikon made an incredible leap with their technology this year (still not quite the level of Canons, imho, but pretty darned close) - hopefully it will encourage Canon to stop resting on this issue! As has been said before, any of these models will be good workers - there isn't a dud in the batch. You just have to look at the features on the higher end models to see if they are worth the tradeoff in price to you. Any money you do save can then be put towards fun holidays or more glass

Thanks luck - that's what the vet (whom I like) said, too, but I always like to hear more opinions as I've always been told 6 months 6 months 6 months like some mantra!

Tilly was born on 08 November, making her about 22 weeks old. To get her desexed, we have to drive 5+ hours to the vet. We now have to take our other girl to the vet next week for an xray and the vet suggested we bring Til down and they'll do her surgery at the same time. Is this too young or is it OK?

The 30D is one of those cameras that some love and some think "eh" about. Mostly the people I know who have them are wedding/portrait, sport and/or commercial (magazines, corporate, advertising etc) shooters and the vast majority of them say don't bother - go with the 20D or the 40D. And those that have the 30Ds, that I know, are waiting to be able to afford to move systems - they have no plans to keep the 30Ds despite the 30Ds performing just fine mostly. It's not that it's bad, they aren't at all, it's that there were virtually no real life gains over the 20D and the 20D has a better lcd (go figure) and is a rockin little unit. They're still sought after and often will bring $500USD+ used still. The 40D is a marked improvement over the 30D and worth the extra bucks *if* you have them! The 30D is a fine camera body that will work well. If it were my $800, I'd find another few hundred and get the 40D with kit lens instead LOL But the better (much) AF, the better low light and high ISO performance is totally worth a few hundred to me and my wants. It might not be for you and yours. Camera stuff is always so hard. There are so many reviews and opinions on things and then new models are released twice a year! Oh and so much neat glass to buy! If my budget was really set, I'd save a bit on the body and sacrifice some of the benefits of a better body to have faster (better) glass. It's all a trade-off, but at least the glass will move with me.

I haven't read a lot of reviews on the 400D as it's not a camera I considered, but I have several friends who have them, three who also have/have had the 350D, and we spent a lot of time talking about this new rig (and the 40D that I have). No one that I know of has hands on with the 450D yet... Here's a little summary of what they have found (yes, I'm a geek - we talk about this stuff all the time LOL) 400D compared to 350D - AF much much faster and more accurate, especially in low light, but noticeable in "normal" conditions, too - clearly better details in the shadows and blues - significantly better at ISO 800 and above - excellent lcd screen - big, clear, easy to read settings on the lcd If cost isn't an issue, the first three items would be more than enough to push me to spend a bit more and get the 400D over the 350D. The 350D performs quite well, though, so is still a good camera body. There's no way I'd spend that $1400+ on a 450D when I could have a 40D for less than that, though

yeah, that live view is the new MP buzz word. I have used live view for aerial photography coz I stuck the camera out of the plane and could then line it up in the lcd, but other than that I haven't yet found a use I need it for. But I guess it's all what you're used to...

Just an update. She's been eating yoghurt each day since the 29th and we saw a definitive improvement in her urine by Monday morning. Talked to the vet on Monday (31st) and she Rx'd amoxicilian (sp?) up to the pharmacy so Dora's been on that since the arvo of that day. We sent the pee off for analysis on Tuesday (collected before we started the antibiotics - long story involving containers, couriers and multiple people!) - so hope to have the real results back todayish. All week she's been getting better and better, with the urine looking cleaner and with fewer little tinkles while we are out. Yesterday she didn't stop once for the little tinkles...just did a normal pee and that was that. Looking forward to hearing from the vet, though!

I wouldn't pay more than a couple hundred for the body. Would need to know which lenses they are exactly (there are several "kit" lenses) before I could guess. A brand new with warranty 350D is about $400 US and for about $100 more you can have the awesome 400D. Of course, it depends on what your overall camera budget is. If you have a finite amount to spend and can get the body and lenses for that, then it might be the way to go. My theory is that's it's better to have something in hand and get out there and start shooting! Just be aware that the resale value of the 300 is plummeting right now. If you can swing a newer body, I think the upgrades in these models is definitely worth it, along with the longer resale life.

That's crazy - you can get the 40D with lens for less than that!

Thanks! Nothing is open here until Monday but I'll head to the chemist first thing (the supermarket just looked at me blankly today when I asked about them)! For now, she's over the moon that she's getting a bit of yoghurt - even if it doesn't help, it won't hurt and she enjoys it so

She loves yoghurt - thanks for the tip. She's had a couple before but not for ages.

She'll be getting an appointment for the next vet visit for sure. Where do you get cranberry tablets? Can she have the juice instead?

Our poor girl Dora has blood when she pees again. We are getting in touch with the vet on Monday and will probably have some anti-biotics sent up for the suspected bladder infection, but were wondering what we could do between now and then? Would cranberry juice help like it does for humans? She does not seem to be in much discomfort most of the time, is eating well, playing, cuddling, napping, drinking water (just normal amounts). When we were on the beach for our walk this morning she would stop every couple of minutes for a little trickle and almost all of them had blood.,,then she'd bound off happy as Larry again. Is there anything we can do without going to vet (we don't have one here so we can't and the ones who come up once a fortnight are already closed for the day)

So much for that. She just walked into my husband's office and peed right in front of him. No warning, nothing. We're completely pulling everything out of there today and pulling up the carpet to ditch it. What a pain in the butt. We are very unimpressed and getting stressed about it. Nothing we seem to be doing seems to work. I know, I need to be patient...this is only day three. I cannot WAIT for the rain to bugger off.

ROFL I love this. She's not quite getting it yet, but we've only had one incident today. Of course, it was about 20 minutes after we'd been outside for a pee and congratulations and fun time...and more frustrating, right before she went BACK outside for another romp! GRRRR

It could be the cold - I think it was only 30C here today We just got so spoiled with our original Ridgie teaching our middle daughter how to behave! Now that she's gone, I don't think the middle child, Dora, has really figured out that she's the mentor now!

I guess we just need to be patient. We're romping and having a great time out in the rain. We're going out about every three minutes (no, not really, but it seems like it LOL). We're going out with the older dog when she goes. Tilly will pee and/or poop, we play some more and/or have some congratulations before coming back inside. Then just a shortish time later, another house incident. It's like she saves some LOL Sigh...we'll get there...

We don't often get rain but it's bucketing down today. Second time since we've had the new puppy - must be some sort of record for us for this time of year! Again, today she will not go outside to pee or poop. She did go to the door and poop on the towel we have there to control the water. We leave the back door open so the animals can go in and out at will. We take her out, she does her thing. A while later, there's some more pee or poop in the house. We're trying treats, taking her out a lot, taking her out soon after she's already been out just in case...gah! It's driving me bonkers. What can we try/do to get her to go in the rain? She has fun once she's out there and generally loves water falling on her head. Our older girl goes out no problem and Til will watch from the doorway, but won't go unless we make her.

Just double check to see that your images are sRGB when you put em up on the net as that's what "most" browsers use. And the colours will look a lot different if you are uploading RGB! In PS you can change it under the Edit menu at the bottom "change profile" (or something like that). Select srgb and you're good to go. Not sure if this is the problem but I know when I space that change off my uploaded images look blah.

This is a little oversimplified. There's much more to RAW than just tweaking exposures RAW or jpeg - both are just tools to an end. Each has uses and each shooter will find something to meet particular needs for particular results. There's no right or wrong way to do something in photography - it's one of the many things that makes it so much fun!

I haven't been through the whole thing, but a quick glance has already shown me a few things that look useful. A nice free, easy to read pdf file is always nice here's the link.

Such pretty dogs! Looks like you're getting that new old lens dialed in really quickly - beautiful!

Looks great!! The colours on these are really WOW! I love the mountains shot - just beautiful. I never touch my old Canon film cameras any more - there's no where to get slides developed here and I can't wait for sending it away! Ripley - I don't know what you're doing that's taking all this time with RAW! I'm lost. If you have the software, there's almost nothing to be done except hit a button RAW isn't the be all end all, but it is another tool that is useful to learn how to use. I hate that you're having such a hard time with it - it's stories like these that scared me off at first!

Did someone say red dirt?