Ripley

I love the one with the dead tree on the right of it. It leads you in to the rest of the photo.

I have a DLSR - a Canon 350D. But I'm curious about a good film camera. I had to send my 350D back to Canon as all the creative setting froze up. They have fixed the problem - and it was my fault . I activated mirror lock up and didn't deactivate it afterwards, so the mirror was in fact, locking up on all shots taken after that, even when I'd turned the camera off for days. Yes, I'm blonde. I've noticed on ebay you can pick up second hand film cameras for next to nothing. We took a good film camera away with us on a trip, years back, but I can't remember what it was. I'm pretty sure it was a Canon - it belonged to my husband who got it off someone else. It was a decent camera with a Tokina zoom that fits my DLSR but my husband sold the camera a couple of years ago to an acquaintance and then last year we bought the 350D brand new (just before the 400D came out). I am looking at buying a (used) Canon EOS 50 - which looks like my DLSR except it's a film camera that was made in the late 1990s. The one I am looking at also comes with a 28-80mm lens. My husband thinks I'm nuts but I think it would be good to take away both a DLSR and a SLR on our trip to SE Qld after Christmas. I am comfortable using manual settings. This is a photo from the Canon film camera husband had - I think it was an EOS, we used it to take photos in 1999 in Africa but after pocket digitals arriveda couple of years later, we put it away and then he sold it before we bought the DLSR. I pulled this out of my photo album and scanned it in using our scanner here at work. The photo has not been edited in any imaging program, it's just 'as is' after it was printed at a lab back in 1999. also this was taken, different time of the sunset. A wild waterbuck - not as great as a DLSR I've noticed but we were clueless about camera functions then and it was in the shade and a wild animal so taken with the zoom lens hand held. Should I buy this Canon SLR or is there a better film camera to buy for an enthusiast? I don't want to pay too much.

rakaaz, is that lake with the castle Lake Bled? I've seen a similar shot in a brochure. Is it in Hungary? I have a pocket Digital - a model that is the earlier one of your's I think. I took it to Europe as well as the DLSR. here are a couple of shots from my Panasonic. I think the Panasonic Lumix is one of the best pocket digitals around. It also has an image stabilizer and a motion picture feature. You can choose if you want the photo to be vivid or natural. Middle of the day shot Late afternoon shot Indoor shot with no flash (no flash allowed)

Yep, I learnt that too in the course. It wasn't run by TAFE, I was wrong. It was run by a local community college and was held at my local high school. I recommend people do a workshop if they are interested as it teaches you all that - all about apertures and corresponding shutter speeds, how to pan for motion blur, focal lengths of lenses, night photography tricks, fill in flash, metering etc. If you already know a little bit anyway, do an advanced course as I went in to the begginer one and the tutor sent me to the Advanced course for the next weekend as he told me I'd benefit more and that the beginner course was for people "too bloody lazy to read their manuals."

Generous OH, ruthless. I'm hoping my OH will buy me a wide angle lens for Christmas. Why are hobbies so expensive? My dive equipment costs a bomb too and I can't afford both hobbies I've discovered.

What lens did you get, ruthless? I can't afford a real good one at the moment. Don't use the auto setting as you won't have access to other controls. As tess said, shove it on P mode to start with

Here is a shot I took late this afternoon using the Canon 18-55mm kit lens (I want to upgrade). My Alexandrine parrot doesn't like the camera in his face but kept still long enough here. This was taken with natural light through the window and as I was just practising on Manual mode, I haven't altered it in photoshop. Think I might get that Canon 1.4 50mm I think.

edtied because I fixed the problem - battery was going flat so recharged it and reformatted CF card then restored default settings and then changed them to how I wanted them again. All fixed!

I'd go for a 400D too. I got a 350D just before the 400 came out. If you want to get serious about taking shots, skip the kit 70-200mm lens though, it isn't great at all and talk the sales guy into a discount on a better lens instead.

If you are a beginner to the camera, my husband took shots of our dog running flat out using sports mode and AI servo setting. They came out clear as a bell. I haven't taken any real action shots yet. ISO of 800 may introduce noise if you blow up the photo. Depends on the camera you have, I used ISO 800 when hand holding and shooting shots of a city (Hobart) at dusk and there wasn't too much noise but I've found my Canon to be ok like that.

Just a course at my local TAFE. It's an intro level digital photography course that runs for 2 Saturdays. Then I'm booking myself in for the more in depth one after that. Was cheap - about $130 and I'm literally 2 blocks away from my local TAFE.

Thanks for the advice. I had the ISO set to 400 because of the conditions. I guess I'll find out after my course why that happened.

For the first time today I took my camera outside to try and take a shot using Manual focus. The 2 lorikeets I feed were around so I moved away and used my 4.0-6.something lens. I set the aperture to about 5.6 and dialed the shutter speed until the focus indicator blinked in the middle. Locked the focus on the bird's face, pressed shutter half way and recomposed shot. But the shutter 'locked', ie, it was going to be a very slow shutter speed and I was handholding lens. This lens was on an old SLR camera but fits the Canon DLSR. The lens tended to hunt around and whirl whilst trying to focus as well. The conditions were overcast. So I then switched it back to 'auto' to see what would happen and and the flash popped up when I pressed the shutter. So does this mean that the conditions were simply too dark for my Aperture and Shutter combination I'd dialed in or is my lens just not fast enough? I also tried an aperture of f11 but same thing. I'm confused and I don't start my I am a clueless beginner weekend course until next weekend. I asked husband who said he doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about (he's an engineer but knows jack about taking photos).

The Tokina lens that fits out DLSR 350D was on husband's SLR camera. He sold the camera to a friend and kept this lens as it's a 300mm. It fits the 350D but sometimes it won't autofocus so I have to resort to manually focusing. It takes sharper pics than the kit Canon lens though, it's just so damn heavy you need to use a tripod, so I hardly use it.

That's a great lens, wagsalot. Hmmm, $900 is half my airfare to Europe next year if we can afford it so I have to pass on that. But I'd love that lens, your photos are great. I took the shots of the architecture and the flamingo with the Canon 350D kit 200mm lens and hand holding it. If you hold your breath before firing the shutter, might cut down on a bit of shake. I've tried this. I read that you need to use a faster shutter speed handholding the 200mm at its full zoom. I think the rule is use a faster shutter speed than the lens' length. I didn't pack a tripod as you have to pack your big suitcase light on a long trip and leave space for shopping. :D I'm looking forward to my next photos, taking them on full Manual mode, setting the apeture and shutter speed and seeing if they turn out

wagsalot, I was looking at the sigma 18-200 as well. Not the IS one though, it's out of my price range. I really don't know, is it better than my kit lens which isn't very good? Should I get the sigma 18-200 and buy the Canon 50mm 1.8 that you have? The kit canon 200mm lens I have is a bit soft and I've noticed it has trouble focusing in low light conditions. I wish we didn't pay the extra and get it when we got the camera now but we were in a hurry to get a good camera to take overseas with us, both not knowing anything about how to operate it (husband still has no idea). I took all my Europe photos using the dial settings like landscape and potrait back then. Now I try not to use those settings so I can force myself to learn, but a lot of times I use the 'P' (program) setting and fire away. I bought a neutral density (ND) filter just before we went to Cradle Moutain in Aug. I wanted to try it out on a waterfall. I took this shot late afternoon and it was dark in the rainforest too so I don't think I needed it, photo came out a bit dark. I haven't had time to try and make this look better in photoshop, haven't got the time on weekends yet. Anyway here is a waterfall shot I took using the kit 18-55 lens with ND filter affixed. This is with the Canon 200mm kit lens, hand held and taken just after sunset, you get some great light just after the sun sets. Look kids, Big Ben (sorry, I love Chevy Chase). Again, Canon kit lens 200mm hand held - we didn't take a tripod with us due to having to pack it and lug it around. Same kit lens and trying to track a wild flamingo flying above my head.

Thank you wagsalot. The lens used is just the crappy kit 18-55m that came with the 350D. The polariser made all the difference, plus I took the shot around 9.30am so before the midday sun was above. I nearly got run over by a bread van in the process as I was standing in the middle of the road. Thanks Helen. I've seen a few of those on ebay but with the good exchange rate to the USD now, on Amazon it's available there too. I have my eye on a sigma lens right now, more of a wider angle for landscapes and multi purpose. tess32 told me about the sigma 17-70 and I've been googling it and it gets good reviews. As I want a good multi purpose lens, I might go for that as I can't afford a Canon one and it's actually cheaper to buy this lens on Amazon than it is here in Australia with the exchange rate being so good. I can wait for standard shipping. I have the Canon kit 200mm but find I take more landscape and general travel photos than wildlife photos at present. We also have a Tokina 200 (or 300mm?) that I hardly use as it was on a film SLR camera we took overseas many years back but it fits our DLSR and auto focuses too It's just very heavy and best results are with a tripod which I don't always use - I'm lazy. Nice kitty shot too wagsalot.

I'm a beginner who likes taking photos and who is trying to teach herself, so I take a LOT of crap shots, but that's how you learn what not to do next time. I think it's all coming together now though, I kinda know what I'm doing wrong (I think) . Anyway, 2 weeks ago I bought a polariser. I used it for the first time last weekend up around mum's place. Cost was about $70, so not too steep. It's a Circular polariser which means you affix it to your lens and rotate it for the desired effect. I love it. Polarisers are great for landscapes as they cut through glare (and haze I noticed) and intensify colours. I think they also cut through water?? I also bought a neutral density filter, but I bought it so I can take photos of waterfalls etc on a slower shutter speed as it slightly cuts down the light that comes into the camera during a longer shutter speed, depending on the strength. I bought the average one. As for lenses, I only have the pretty cheap kit ones that came with my Canon 350D last year. I hope that husband will buy me a better lens for Christmas and have my eye on a sigma wide angle so I can fit more into landscapes. But I also want a decent 200mm (the kit one isn't that great) so I can't decide! Here are a few shots taken with the polariser affixed to my camera. I'm a total amateur at this, but the polariser seems to intensify blue skies. (photos taken mid morning).

The portable is a good idea IMO. It's always off unless I'm downloading photos. I have quite a lot on there and need to do a cull. I haven't even printed off ONE photo yet and all my European holiday photos are on there - too many to cull, I just look at the amount of photos, sigh, think it's all too hard and turn the drive off for another time.

Does it have a sports mode? That should freeze the action. ETA: Most pocket digitals have a few modes to use for different scenes that (bascially) do what their icon suggests. Sports mode will be good for dogs running as it uses a faster shutter speed. Use the Landscape setting if you are taking photos of scenery - this is usually represented by a mountain icon. Then there is Portrait mode for taking photos of someone. This icon is a face icon. Many other compact digitals have other settings as well, a flower icon is their macro setting for close up photos of a flower, for example. You can flick the dial on top of your camera which will bring up the digital screen, scroll through the menu to access the settings.

Same here. I have a portable drive to store all my photos, they aren't on my 'C' drive so if I want to view them, I have to turn on the portable.

She hasn't met my OH but she's met me before - at a show in Castle Hill some months back.

myszka, my OH was patting Divani at your party. He too has blonde hair. I looked at her face whilst he was doing this and she looked a bit nervous but she was letting him pat her below the head as well. He's very good with animals, my OH. edited to add that my OH has never met Divani before. She also let the 2 of us through the gate on entry to your property no probs.

The problem is a select few nutters, not you. My friend also was turned away from a rescue org. She eneded up adopting a pure bred pup from a registered breeder and this dog has the best life. Some rescues are just ridiculous with some of their rules.

and they wonder why foster carers for dogs are hard to come by? When I fostered, I rescued a chihuahua x puppy. She was so tiny and cute. Guess what? I had to work to earn a living. So I left her inside the house for 10 hours a day. Big deal, she coped very well and kept getting out of her puppy pen to play with my Burmese cat. At no time at all did I think geez, I should have had someone call around and see her. I do feel that it's no wonder some rescues have a hard time rehoming dogs when they won't rehome a pup to someone who works full time. Silly IMO. edited to add: I kept the puppy with me until she was 12 weeks old before rehoming her.