Ripley

OK, I've been in the UK for a week and haven't taken the 17-70 off my camera yet. I've climbed up high in late afternoon sun to the top of Arthur's seat in Edinburgh with it to take a shot of the view (pretty steep climb too with camera), I've taken photos of Edinburgh castle with it and one more castle ruin and today I took a shot of Beatrix Potter's cottage at Hilltop Farm with it (no cameras allowed in Ms Potter's cottage as everything is how she left it before she fell off the perch). I cursed myself repeatedly (until OH told me to shut up about it) today as I wanted to travel light and as we have a room safe in our B&B in the Lakes District, I decided that as the weather is crap and rainy, I'd only take one lens and one camera didn't I? Well this gorgeous robin redbreast perched on a fruit tree right near me and tweeted at me and my 17-70 wasn't quite long enough to fill the frame with the little fella. Got off a few shots, but only at 70mm zoom - dammit. Note to self: Carry all lenses and quit whinging about sore back on walks next outing. I also spotted 3 wild pheasants driving around the winding roads of the Lakes, in fact OH nearly hit one and had to swerve, but my camera was in the boot wasn't it.

You lose a 2 stop of light with the 2 x extender. The 1.4 will give me 280mm, that should do for travel photography.

What were the settings for the second head shot Shutter speed, ISO, Aperture? I can't get the histogram from the picture for some reason? I shot it in AV mode as I was in a hurry so: f/4 at 1/125 seconds. Hmm, seems I have steadier hands than I thought. ISO 250.

Hi Luke - yes it's the 70-200 but the f/4 and it doesn't have image stabilisation in it. I couldn't afford the faster one. Those shots were taken hand held.

It's the Nature Trekker, chezzyr. This one. OH is not taking his Olympus. I am taking my little compact though. The Panasonic with Leica lens - fits in my handbag. OH has made it clear that if I want to hike with a tripod, I'm the one who has to carry it. I think I'll leave him at some art galleries in Edinburgh and go off on foot myself. That could work. He is not interested one bit in taking photos. Funny that last trip it was me who wasn't interested and he took all the shots and carried the camera everywhere.

OK, I'm packing tomorrow and have decided on taking all this gear. We are going to some very scenic locations. Scotland, Lakes District, Yorkshire Dales and London and surrounds. 30D; sigma 17-70, Canon 70-200 + 1.4 telecoverter, 1.8 lens (it's so small and it's plastic so why not). Filters: 1 x graduated ND filter and holder for it, 0.6 ND grad screw on (just so I can blur water if necessary), polariser. Cable release Lightweight tripod - it's a Manfrotto but not designed for DSLRs and yet it holds up to 3 kilos. I've tried it out with my gear and it's fine with even the longest lens. It has its own bag so it can go in the cargo hold. PLUS! I bougth a Canon film camera off ebay for the bargain price of $65. It's a 3000N I think. Has settings just like the 30D. Want to try out some film shots too. They all fit in my camera backpack, can't believe it. ETA: All my lenses fit the film camera too!

I don't think you'll need one if you just want it for mainly portraits. You have the 70-300 IS lens, that's a very good lens indeed. The 1.8 is a great lens too.

I find it heavy, especially on my 30D. I have the 70-200 f/4 so it's lighter. I'm only a slip of a lass though but I'm tall so have long arms and long fingers to hold it all with. ruthless, if I were you I'd get the cheap 50mm 1.8 and see how you feel about that. To put this up again, here is a shot taken with my 50mm 1.8 fixed lens, not my telephoto one. ETA: I wanted to blur the background as it was very distracting but with dobes, they have long noses so I should have used a higher f stop but at least her eye is sharp. ETAA: Yes I know I should have cloned the pole out but who has time?!

True, chezzyr. I sent my OH off on an introduction to digital slr photography course and paid for it too. The bugger still takes everything on P or Auto mode.

Camera shake? Try and keep yourself as still as possible when taking photos and don't jab the shutter button either. I had a 350D and twin kit lenses (the same ones that come with the 400D I think) and took it to Europe 2 years ago, leaving it on the AUTO settings - Sports, Potrait, Landscape etc the entire trip as I knew nothing about photography then. My photos came out fine so I don't think it's the camera/lens combination. That cheap lens isn't great, but you can still take some perfectly good photos from it. Ok, here is an example - taken with the same lens you have (pretty sure it's the same lens, they still sell it with the 400d) and using Sports mode (as I had no idea back about taking photos back then but the 350D did the trick).

Ruthless, my 70-200 doesn't have IS in it unfortunately. I couldn't afford the one that did. Your Canon 70-300 IS is a very good lens, do you have a problem with it? Have you got the 50mm 1.8? That is a great portrait lens. It's very sharp and stops right down. It's fast too.

I buy everything from B&H New York now. Although now the AUD has fallen to under 88 cents, I won't be buying anything for some time! I bought my 30D there and Canon 70-200 and have bought accessories there too. Fantastic service. I got a 3 year int'l warranty on my 70-200 lens.

Congratulations Monelite and Divani. You look like the biggest dag in that first photo with your bike helmut on and your little blue bib. :rolleyes: Divani looks like she is going to eat that ribbon! Love the last shot of her with it.

Got you. There is no bit that pops out the bottom like with a 50mm macro lens when you focus so I didn't notice any magnification.

Oh, ok. I tried it out on my african violet at home near the window with lots of natural light and ... nothing. No difference. I must be doing something wrong. I used M focus and then tried AV and then even damn Auto and then P (!) No difference that I saw.

Dumb question alert: how do you use the macro facility on the 17-70? Do you use it at 70mm? I can get mine to work. OK I'm blonde.

He has the most gorgeous face. I hope he is feeling better since his operaton the other day.

I don't have IS with my new 70-200 lens as I couldn't afford the IS one (I wish!). I have to make sure I try and be as still as possible as I hate hate hate tripods as I'm too darn lazy to assemble and mount my camera on one. Plus when you are hiking they are a pain. If I'm not taking a shot at sunrise or sunset, I won't bother with one. Oh to have hands of steel. :D I also have a teleconverter that is a 1.4 to add to it so it's almost a 300mm then (well 280mm, that'll do me atm). Try it on shutter priority, clover. I used TV mode for this shot of monelite and choc dobe, Divani - first try at something called panning. Some shots with my new Canon 70-200 lens I got in May. (have only used it twice :p ). It helps if you are photographing one so handsome Just a wild lorikeet I feed in the backyard, light wasn't great. Love my new lens and can't wait to try it out on holidays next month, haven't tried it on landscapes yet.

The Sigma 17-70 is a real improvement on the Canon kit lens (not sure about the one you have). However, I wish I'd now bought the sigma 10-20mm as I enjoy taking shots of landscapes more than anything so a wide angle would have been great. It's a lot cheaper than the 10-20 though, which is why I bought it (well, got OH to buy it for me for Christmas). It's under AUD$500. Shop around though.

Depends what type of travel photography you are looking to do - mainly landscapes or architecture/people? I upgraded my kit 18-55mm lens and the 70-300mm. Bought a sigma 17-70 and a Canon L 70-200mm and am off to Europe in 5 weeks (which is why I upgraded). I'm not sure about Pentax lenses, sorry but ashanali on this forum knows about Pentax.

Lovely doggie shot there. Well looks like I will use it before the trip as I've booked in for a pelagic sea bird watching trip in a few weeks. Want to photograph the beautiful wandering albatross while there are still some around, poor bloody things have had their breeding no.s reduced dangerously on Macquarie Island They come in so close though that the boat captain says to pack your standard lens as well.

I'll use the ones the graphic designers use and put it on A3.

Thanks, Luke. What I'll do is when my friend (a DOLer) chooses which one she wants to enlarge, I'll do a test run on our colour printer at work and scrutinise it. I haven't done much PSing on it, just converted from RAW, cropped and sharpened a little. I find that my new good lens is so good, images don't need much work. Yeah!

I love B&H. I ordered my 30D off them, Canon 1.4 teleconverter too. Just last week I ordered 'skin' cover for the 30D's screen so it won't get scratched, a graduated filter (not a crappy Cokin either) and a cable release for the 30D and the price was just over AUD$100 and I received it in 3 days from New York.

Just a few questions: What's the best quality for printing if, say, someone wanted to get a photo you took enlarged? Should I send them a 16 bit image instead of the default 8 bit (I took photos in RAW so can give them 16 bit) and should I covert it to LAB colour in photoshop? The enlargement won't be printed at crappy high street photo booth store either. For an enlargement I'd like a best quality print job so if anyone knows a good place around Sydney, that would be fantastic. How large can a Canon 30D's print be - it's an 8.2 megapixel camera so how large can it be printed whilst retaining the quality? A3 size? My 30D is pretty new and I've never printed an image larger than your standard snapshot with it yet. I took the photo using RGB channel, not Adobe RGB.