chezzyr

Sorry, I wasn't having a go at you specifically RF. Its just that so many people want to rush out and buy u-beaut SLR camera and u-beaut lenses and expect miracles straight out of the box

Good equipment will help but alot of it comes down to practice/technique. I don't know how much experience you have with that equipment or with the subject matter I see people running out and spending big dollars on stuff and still struggling.

Ripley, that is an excellent bird portrait and shows its 'personality'. Clean beak too, not gunky with seed or nectar

You can, if you are prepared to research re compatability issues, use an adaptor or live with limitations such as manual focus or only being able to shoot at a certain setting. I have successfully used non-ef lenses.

Might try later, went out to have a look and our experience was disrupted by some bats flying into a nearby tree. Never seen that before at home

FWIW I think the 1.8 would give you a good idea of a fast lense's capabilities but make a much smaller dent in the budget. If you find you are using it alot and enjoying it you can always 'upgrade' later. I have never owned a 1.4 myself so can't comment :wink:

I don't need to hotfoot it to HN Depends how much you want to use it also, if you want it to be your everyday lens you might prefer something built heavier etc. but if you get the 1.8 and its a good one (test it out at the store!) you will have alot of fun with it

What are HN asking for it?

If only more L lenses were black and not in "look at me, look at ME!!!" white/cream/grey

Gayle: if you mean Melb city I am afraid I found the same. Salesmen couldn't serve suits quick enough though. Thank goodness for online research and shopping. I only go to brick and mortar places if I need to feel/try something now it seems (unless I need something urgently or they have a super special lol).

Be an informed buyer! Like what Gayle said - research. And seriously you could even get yourself a second hand body then get some lenses to suit your needs. I know one guy who was always into Canon, then tried Nikon for a short time and I think he got fed up with the cost of the lenses and found it was going to be a huge chunk of change to change everything over. He is going back to Canon now

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Darned 'hunting' lenses. It happens with me occasionally, usually when I have a great flying bird shot in sight I am not thinking your camera or lenses are dodgy as youve posted some nice images. You do need to make allowances for less than ideal conditions etc. You will learn to work around certain things. edited for spelling!

Kirislin: the 50mm/1.8 (Canon) is little and light and some would think it looks/feels more like a toy than a real lens. Don't let the exterior fool you - it can take great images! I will let the others take the floor with techno speak but am happy to email you some samples (though you may have seen them already, I think I have posted some elsewhere) :cool:

In my situation I prefer to retain some quality control over the printing process and know what the prints are like before they go out to the person. If you don't get to see the prints how will you know the colour and everything is ok? Monitors vary, labs vary, photo paper varies. There are probably some online labs where you can set up a proof share system but cant help on those, sorry. Maybe just google or someone else might have a better idea.

I think with smugmug you can disable the pricing etc or so I have been told but you might have to pay for the pro level. Not sure. I am happy using my pbase galleries for alot of things and create private galleries for 'proofs' from photo shoots. I think I pay around US $23 a year for pbase and have been using it for a few years now. It's not Aussie though. I use it for displaying purposes, then they order direct from me.

Moon shot is nice, you can see the texture on the surface of the moon. Wonder what stage the moon is at? Took me a while to get to sleep last night as the moon was shining brightly in the window.

grab shot: well in my case, I just take a picture quickly without too much thought to composition and settings, simply because you don't have time in the case of a butterfly that alights for 1 second! This one was very flighty and I didn't have time to chase it around the garden

The other day I dropped one of my telephotos on its front end - BANG! Given the rough dirty environment I was glad I had a filter on. Lens fine, filter fine In a dirty, sandy, unpredictable environment I think Id rather risk "crap" photos.

Rome and all that...Rome Rome Rome

Your pictures look ok to me. I think there was an issue with some of these lenses, when some were being held vertically....hmmm But certainly try some of the things mentioned.

If you have a production line boring shoot with a stationary object you can atleast find out the best focal length/settings for the lens and try to apply them/some of them for future photography ie "I better not shoot at 5.6, 300mm, 1600 iso because the pictures look worse at those kinds of settings" (example only, may not apply to you). Hope this is not goobly gook - I need coffee and food! p.s just some things that might help you get more out of the lens rather than tossing it in the bin or something. Some people give up pretty quickly ;)

I would test it at different focal length AND aperture/iso combos using a stationary prop and maybe have the camera on a table/tripod with IS off. It can be boring and time consuming but can help you know what is best for a particular lens. Oh and try shooting something at 250mm or 290mm instead of 300mm and see if you notice difference in the clarity?

I am just getting you back for calling me a 'purist'. I will never forget that ;)

Could be the driver ;) Sorry Ruthless. Do take note of what Luke is saying about sweet spots and I have mentioned it previously also about some lenses being soft at their extreme ends.