rubiton

Kirislin - chezzyr has given you excellent suggestions to learn about how to control your camera. 1/4000th of a second is way too fast for cloudy conditions and 200 iso is way too low for cloudy conditions. However it does depend on the subject - if you are taking photos of say horses you want bright sunny conditions for the best result (horses unless light grey/white suck away the light). I took photos on Friday when it was freezing, dark and cold then a few of the same horses on Sat when it was hot sunny and 26 degrees. The Saturday results were far better. With the horses in dark conditions I will go to 640 iso or 800 iso with the aperture on 5.6 and speed on 1/1000th (I only use manual settings - will explain why below) - white balance is left on auto. This is with a 70-200mm or the 100-400m whichever im using at the time and checking the light meter in the camera often as that will indicate when cloudy days start to get darker. If you use an auto setting the camera will often choose settings based on the lightest object in the image often the sky and this will just make something that is dark turn into a brown blob. I prefer to get it right when taking the photo rather than relying on photoshop to fix my errors.

If its advertised at a certain price and the catalogue is in date how can they refuse to sell at that price?

NO t happy have to pay my photoshop user subscription adn the dollar free falls! And then kochie starts saying how great it is for exporters (yeah but not for the other 90 per cent of the country - note higher prices of everything coming in)

How cool is the picture of that cat! Small animals moving at speed at very hard to get a remotely clear photo of. Just the look on the face!

He would have to check the DVD player to see what it is compatible with (most listed everything either on the machine or in the manual). DVD and CD usually have it written on the disc what they actually are. A DVD holds 4.7 GB where as a CD holds 700MB (1GB = 1000MB)

What are your settings on the camera? Including focus setting

And this is why with something like horse photography getting lens that go down to F1.8 or whatever are of no interest to me. I need to go no lower than about F5 or the animal will look wrong. At F8 its a nice DOF. In lowlight the ability to push the ISO right up helps immensely before having to sacrifice speed (once down to F5.0).

As usual go to a camera shop and try the verious different models and see which one you feel best holding. If a camera is too big and heavy you wil have problems holding it. Then shop around the various reptuble camera sites - due to warranties best to shop in Australia - once you know which one you like. You can also try to get quotes and go back to the local camera shop and see if they will match what you have found (you save the postage and have camera instantly). Harvey Norman is one in particular that loves to barter and do deals if it means a sale.

In photoshop I copied the layer then change the setting in the layers pallete from normal to multiply and put it to about 25 or so. Then went to the shadow/highlights menu selection and pushed the highlights bar to 'darken' the image. There may be an easier way to do it but basically it is fixing a slightly over exposed image. Its only a suttle change but adds a tiny bit more colour to the white areas and slightly darkens the black areas of her face. Youd have to experiment with the camera but note the settings the camera has taken the photos on and just change the aperture up one so the image is slightly underexposed (according to what the camera is saying) and see if that makes a difference in the colour at all. Its quite tricky to get the photo right in the camera as most things are dark (like the leaves etc) but her coat is very light. But you dont want to go too far and darken her face too much. I have a black dog and even after all these years it can be tricky to get the light just right for her.

Hoefully the image works - if so is this how the dog should look?

I think its the pug is the same colour as some buckskins - unless you get the exposure right it looks lighter or a touch more washed out than it should. However if you dont know the original colour then the lighter image looks fine. Agree might be the monitor too - have the pics actually been printed?

No its just the difference between light and dark. In horse races if a white grey horse flies past all the brown ones and wins they end up over exposed (whiter) as you set for the darker horses. You just need to do a little touch up in photoshop (or similar). Now as for photoshop skills someone else would have to do the step by step (got a book with a couple of photos of mine in it the other day and wow the picture editor by simply lightening the shadows only a little has lifted the entire photo to have so much more detail than the web version).

You need to practice and practice. When I got my first zoom lens 2 out of 24 pics were any good. Wasnt the camera it was what I was doing. Anyway . First thing is read the manual that came with the camera. It will make it easier to understand when we all start taking about AI Servo etc. Now if it is on One Shot it will not be able to focus on a moving object and the pic look crap (I forgot to change it when I went from sales to races and couldnt work out why the focussing was so slow and out for the first race - then I realised I had it on the wrong focus setting). Now if you set it on AI Servo it will (well at least my camera and it does mention ths in the manual) only use the centre focus point to focus on the subject. In the second shot your centre focus point is on the water (which is perfectly sharp and in focus). You also have to pactice holding the camera perfectly still and slowly dpressing the button - pushing too hard or quick will cause camera shake. To focus without taking a pic depress the shutter halfway (this is how you can practice - try taking pics of cars on a road going by they are bigger and easier than dogs). As for settings try P - seems to be popular amongst photographers (I take everything on manual). Also stick to an aperture around 6.3 or F8 - anylower and you start to lose your focus depth of field which will result in blurry pics. I would also put the ISO on 400 so you get a nice high speed setting (around 1/1000 for running dogs).

The camera is exposing so it is correct for the darker dog. As a result the lighter dog looks lighter than it should be. To fix it you would need to know how to use the camera in manual and compensate. Or use photoshop and 'burn' the lighter dog a bit darker (burn was a darkroom tool used in film photography when you wanted to make a portion of the image darker than the rest)

Dont worry - Was talking to another photographer on the weekend about the 40D and we both think it can probably go out there and take the pics itself from the features that I've heard about but not come across as yet. And I've had this camera since last October with high usage every weekend (and more in March).

Answer to the older lens with different mount - probably not. Unless it fits straight on the camera then you cannot use it (they dont have adaptors). Apparently the newer pentaxs are better than the early pentax digitals as the early ones were not compatible with the older lenses. Personally I'd go for a slightly bigger zoom lens like 50-70 to say 200 or 300mm (eg I have a canon and use a 70-210mm lens and it is great for most things). It just gives you a little more rnage and less of the 'big head syndrome' that the wide angle/fish eye type lenses can give you (eg I have a 35-85mm or something lens how ever if I use anything less than about teh 50mm mark on a horse the horse ends up with 'big head' syndrome as you end up being too close to get the right angle on the subject)

If it was a jpeg image it would be fine at A3 so cant see any problem with amassive RAW (would check if it needs to be saved as jpeg) image at A3 size.

There seems to be two solutions (does it really need cleaning? Are you having problems with the images? - only asking as I took my older SLRS in all sorts of dusty conditions and never had a problem. Just ensure that when changing lens its inside or the cleanest area you can find. The newer ones have inbuilt sensor cleaning) One is to buy a kit and follow the instructions or take it to a camera place that will do repairs etc. A lot of the camera info on cleaning them said that if you touch the wrong part then you can stuff up the sensor but others seems quite happy to clean their sensors themselves. However if you take it somewhere for repairs see if it needs to be sent away or if repairs are done on site as you'd probably only want someone who is on site who has the skills to clean and not damage as opposed to a major repair.

Whichever is easier - CDs only hold 700mb of info whereas DVDs will hold about 4.5gb - assuming your computer burns both DVDs and CDs. I find Cds are easier as you just use windows and the copy to CD menu item whereas I have to go into Nero to set up a DVD (and DVDs take a lot longer as there is more info to burn). I do both DVD and CD and copy to an external hard disk which is probably overkill but I never know how long will pass before someone asks about a photo. I know what its like when the pics are from a really big days racing and after its been copied and burnt etc I still hate reformatting the card even though I know I have it copied in several places.

When you put the card back in the just re format the card - it may warn you that all info will be removed just go OK and it will show that you have the full space again. Don't worry about deleting the images they disappear when it is reformatted (although as has been said they technically exist on the card until they are overwritten but the camera nor computer will 'see' them without special recovery software). Whatever you find easiest for downloading - my computer has always had a card slot in the computer box for all different sizes so I use that, other people use card readers and others just plug the camera in. All ways works just whatever you find easiest to use yourself to transfer from the card to your computer to save them. Don't forget to also burn a copy to a hard disk drive or CD or DVD or something so you have a back up copy of the photos you want to keep in additional to your computer.

Really is an eye opener looking at the ingredients - one had 9% fat! In the end went with Optimum 4% fat (ID was 3%). Nature's Gift was similar to the ingredients of ID but was about 6% fat(as were most of them).

Is the 5D a studio camera rather than suited to say sports? (like how the cheaper of the top line models was better for sports whereas the mega top was suited more for studio stuff). Sometimes you suddenly do need that small flash when you hadnt thought you needed it. Thats the advantageof having the small pop up one. Not as good as the proper big flash but does the job if needed.

She loves her dry food but doesnt believe the meal is complete without a little bit of canned. No roo meat, pet mince, eggs, offal - were all on the do not feed list from the vet (along with obvious like sausages, cooked bones, etc). The info sheet was for dogs suffering or have suffered from gastro/pancreatitis and had info why not to feed each food (can't remember where I put it though). As an older dog he also said that to be careful as she may find it harder to go back to things she had previously and may become intolerant (the sandwich corner being something that proves this) and that we'd have to try each thing and see if she was OK or if she would not handle it (loose motions). Even her monthly heartworm chewable seems to still be causing a loose motion. After having her losing nearly a kilo or so a week when she was sick and when it got really bad having the dog need to go outside at 3am to produce several small amounts of brown liquid and blood drops (plus two weeks of medication) plus the reoccurance after the first week of treatment - only planning to get her back to the dry food and little bit of canned with slow introduction of treats and only then things going well eventually try her small pieces of human food she use to get (eg small piece of roast beef when making lunch). However am getting a good list for brands to go looking at when shopping. Thank you for your suggestions.

Agree with what Elkie said. In the gastro information the vet gave me when the dog was sick Egg was mentioned as something to no feed as it stop absorption and does not make a shiny coat etc. It was probably the most surprising thing to see on the list.

Thank you for the suggestions - will spend some time looking at the shops and comparing those and see what seems closest to the ID. We've tried in teh past (when we have run out of canned food) to add more to the dry food and while the dog happily cleans the bowl she will look for more later and carry on as if she hasnt been fed if no canned food is added. She doesnt do this with same amount of food but canned food is there even in small portions. She was the same when given just the ID canned food while still recovering and on medication - she was just so happy when she got a mixture of the ID can and dry food some days later.