Topic: Ideas Or Advice On Your Current / Favorite SLR Camera Lens.

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,

Glad you are solving your lens problems Shauno

MB

Cheers Michael! It has been a little tedious but thanks to the great advice here I have overcome the worst of the issues with the kit lens. For now I'll just keep it locked down on my tripod to prevent blurring until I receive a new lens or two
Turning off the IS (image stabilizer) has done wonders lol!

Maybe Mike with his printers knowledge might be able to shed a little light on the dpi query?
I will also ask Russ what he thinks as he does most of our lightning prints. We may even try a few large comparison prints at some point, just out of curiosity? 72dpi JPEG vs 350dpi RAW prints ect. at say 20 x 30 inches.
I don't really think the human eye would notice the difference? Good question to be raised though Adrian.

I did a quick half moon test with my 75-300mm and picked up the craters on the terminator nicely even though the Moon was extremely bright due to it still being fairly low to the West. I had my thin tripod "tube" fully extended out of the top of the tripod so there was still some residual shake from my finger pressing the shutter even with a 2sec lapse, that's very easy fixed though. Once we have full moon phase I'll try it again, see how I do.

Cheers and take care,
Shauno


 

[Adrian]

Will leave it for others to comment about the 72dpi to 350dpi camera out puts..... as described below.

But am certain that the print difference of 72dpi and 350dpi @ 20 x 30" will be very noticeable, you will need a pretty serious photo to get a true print 350dpi @ 20 x 30".

From memory it is about 170dpi where the differences become a little less obvious to the naked eye.

But look forward to your results if you get a chance.

Cheers,
.adrian

[Shaun Galman]

Regardless of the 18-55mm being notoriously bad (as per your comments) I would be sending it back to canon and say FIX IT !!! regardless of the known problems.  If it is in fact a problem with the lens canon is certainly better than that; regardless of kit lens or not.

Anyway best of luck!

Cheers,
Adrian

Well, looks like that is my only choice now Adrian? I have a shockingly large dead pixel in the left hand corner that I only really noticed when I shot in RAW (350dpi) yesterday.
After several arguments over the phone with the sales people at the Good Guys, where I purchased it from, who didn't even know what a dead pixel was lol?! (I know most camera sales people are relatively knowledge-less when it comes to the finer details but, I mean, come on? My dad who's 71yrs old understood what it was and he's never even used a digital camera before?)
Apparently I had run 2days too long to get a new camera or my money back according to the Good Guys, even though I have only really had this last week to get time to test it well. So after a swift call to the Department Of Fair Trading, they explained I was well entitled to a refund or exchange for a new item, particularly as this camera/lens seem to have quite a few faults.
I'm just waiting on a letter to be signed by me, then the D.O.F.T. will take up my case. I pray they act fast!

I next rang Canon, mostly out of pure frustration, to see my other options and after explaining what happened to the tech guy there, he told me to send it back to them straight away and the auto focus not working, Image Stabilizer and dead pixel will be assessed and fixed. Even the tech guy said, and understood all too well that no new DSLR should have a dead pixel and the EF-S 18-55mm should give a fairly decent image quality, that isn't blurry! This work may take around the same time to fix as to just get my money back?

I would rather a refund and buy a brand new 450D that isn't a lemon, other than fix one that may continue to have it's moments. It's upsetting when I have looked forward to getting this camera for such a long time, only to have it go all pear shaped on me. I still have faith in Canon's (well.. only just) so I hope I can resolve this issue fast and get on with taking some decent photos!

I'll keep you all informed on what happens here.
Take care guys,
Shauno 
 

[Jason(pato)]

Gday Shauno,
Geez mate what a stroke of bad luck (or 3 lol). Hope this doesn't put you off Canons as they are a great camera. Can't believe the attitude of the staff at the Good Guys, guess they are just there to make sales and not offer after sale support . Good thing you went to the D.O.F.T, usually that puts the wind up stubborn companies. Hope this gets rectified quickly for you as I do enjoy viewing your pics on this forum. Good luck mate hope to hear a positive outcome from ya soon.

Cheers Jason

[Adrian]

Hi Shauno,

Damn....... that's really disappointing - nothing worse than having shiny new gear that doesn't work.

I had pixel problems on my 30D, which you could see when doing night time shots.

So would have to agree, if you can get your cash back this would be the best course of action.

Cheers,
.adrian

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,
Well after some very serious consideration, and a great talk with Russ about my issues last night, I decided I'd had enough of this bad luck and took matters into my own hands by sorting out these issues! I refuse to beaten that easily lol!

We searched the Canon forums for dead pixels and came across a thread that had one suggestion: Take the lens off, put the black plastic cover on, turn the camera on and activate the manual cleaning, leave it for 30seconds then turn it off. This remaps the pixels on the sensor! Low and behold I then took an 8sec exposure and the large white dead pixel was gone! Believe me, I almost shed a tear in relief lol!

As far as my 18-55mm lens is concerned, we did a few Auto Focus shots and determined that in a shot set to 18mm and focusing on an object set at about 1mtrs distance, the lens forward focuses about 15cm in front of the object. I am not really concerned with this matter at this point as you all know I will purchase a new lens in the coming days!

After we remapped the sensor late last night, I took a few "bench test" manual focus shots to show Russ the quality of the images I could attain using this, so called bad lens. I think they speak for themselves? I played with the Aperture a little on both shots.
[I apologize for the unsubtle lynx plug but I had nothing else here at hand with such a nice matte texture to demonstrate things lol]

Take care guys, the Canon Brotherhood Clan is still well ingrained in my blood! It'll take a lot more of a test than this to sway me away from Canon!
Shauno
 

EDIT: I should add that the, now very deceased, dead pixel was sitting loud and proud in the top left hand corner. 

[Shaun Galman]

Hi all,
I have a quick question about finding Infinity Focus with these SLR lenses. I wondered if you have any suggestions or advice on the best way to do this, particularly with dark-ish landscapes, storms etc. and so avoid returning home with the dreaded "Awesome storm but all I managed was a few hundred slightly blurry shots?" lol. I'm currently stuck using manual focus with the 18-55mm for the time being.

I finally tested my 75-300mm tele lens and the auto focus is superb! I couldn't manage to get it clearer with manual focus! I did a couple tests, one of a white paper page with black text which came out perfectly clear and another of my TV remote at at 300mm from a distance of 3mtrs that was clear also.

I'm finding it better to use the centre spot metering for auto focus as the 9point metering seems to favor the bottom few points and so leads to the front focus issue that I have.

Kindest regards,
Shauno (glad you all enjoyed the postcards! I still have heaps of them up for grabs!)

[Jason(pato)]

Hey Shauno,

Good to hear things are looking better on the camera front. Having had a 18-55mm lens I know how frustrating it is without an infinity marker. Now somebody may want to correct me on this. Roddy gave me a technique which may help you out. Put the lens on auto focus, then find something in the near distance to focus on (Rod suggested a nearby light for the occasion I was with him), then once you have achieved focus flick the auto focus to manual focus gently without bumping the camera then you should have the equivalent to infinity on the 18-55mm lens. Not sure what your night time conditions are like out there, in regard to finding something in the dark to focus on. If you are in an area that is dark with nothing to get a focus on its going to be hard to get a focus (have learnt this the hard way myself).Below is a photo using the technique Roddy showed me, before that my shots were blurry. Another thing to note is that you may have to repeat the process a few times due to inadvertent bumping etc. Anyway that is my experience with seeking infinity on that cursed lens, if anyone else has something to add I'd be glad to hear it.



Cheers Jason

[enak_12]

I usually use the distant light trick mentioned by Jason but have heard of another trick where you jut find infinity by auto focusing on a distant object in the daytime then marking the front ring and lens body with white out at that point. You can find infinity again jut by lining up these two dots.

[Shaun Galman]

Great suggestions!
I like the sound of marking the lens. Russ suggested this also.

I heard another from Russ whereas by blocking the lens or blacking it out by putting your hand close (1cm away or so) in AF it should automatically set to infinity? Works with his Olympus. Not too sure how I'll go with the 18-55's focusing reliability lol?

Sounds like a little trail and error? But hey, it's another good excuse for me to get out and do some more camera trials! :D I just wish it wasn't so freezing out at night! Roll on summer!

When we/I go out chasing it is at most times in complete darkness other than lightning most times. Not a lot out here in the way of distant lights.

Regards,
Shauno

[Shaun Galman]

I'm gradually getting the hang of manual focus "on the fly". I'm really liking the control that DSLR gives!
Bring on the storms now lol!

Cheers,
Shauno

[Mike]

Hi guys.

I agree with the tips given.  They have all worked for me and yeah I've been disgusted when finding out I've taken Cg shots and they turned out crap once downloaded. I would stress not to bump the lens also when changing over to manual focus and marking it or even taping it still might help.  Check and re check is my motto.  Sometimes you can focus on the interior light of your car for a target and work from there. I've found on my lens that there's a certain spot when rotating all the way to the left (almost all the way in) and it seems to be the inifinity spot, but of course you have to focus the outer ring to get it nice and crisp!

Other option is to upgrade to a larger or Sigma lens which have markers on them....all money,but hey that's why you take photos!

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd open this thread again to see if anyone has made any new camera or lens purchases for the coming storm season?

I have a new lens on the way for my 450D in the form of a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DG MACRO. I had originally planned to buy a Canon 24-70 f2.8L USM but as we all know paying near to $2000 for a lens is a fair outlay! The choice of the Sigma was not easy as I had wanted the equivalent to the Canon 24-70mm L which was a Sigma 24-60mm f2.8 EX (the 24-60mm has better contrast than the 24-70mm Sigma) but after many days of searching and ringing around I was informed this lens is now unavailable in Aus. (Amazon won't ship from the States due to the warranty issues) So I went back to the Canon forums and started researching, finally deciding on the Sigma replacement for my kit lens. It was 1/3 the price of the Canon L and the money saved allows me to finally purchase a new iMac to see and process my photos a little more professionally. The photos taken with this little lens look totally amazing, even with no PP! So I'll point it at some lightning when the storms come and see how it performs in the weather.

I have a job coming up at our Opal & Gem Expo (28th July to 1st August) photographing the models coming to display the designer opal jewelery, hence the choice of a nice fast lens for low light work. I will post a few test/comparison shots when it arrives. If it's anything like my 10-20mm Sigma it should be pretty awesome

Kindest regards,
Shauno 

[Jason(pato)]

Just a quick update on my kit....I've ordered the Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 Macro and should be in my hot little hands by Monday or Tues next week. Can't wait to get it and try it out and will post some pics once I get a chance to use it (prolly same day I get it lol). It was considerably cheaper than the Canon L series equivalent, and the quality is almost as good as far as I can tell from reviews etc. I think my kit is adequately equipped now as I have just about the full focal range that I've been aiming for.....Canon 50mm f1.8 Mark1 prime, Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM and shortly Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG MACRO HSM. Be interested to hear what other upgrades etc that others have got too.

Cheers

Jason
 

[Mike]

My own mind goes a little numb with all the lens information and camera use/techniques so i found this link which explains just about everything!  http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

and this for DPI.  http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html

I've just completed my second year re printing and we did not discuss this DPI much.  All I know is that it is how the dots join on an image of a certain size and how many dots you need to create a crisp image - it all depends also whether it is 2 color or 4 color to create the full image.  magazines have a higher/lower DPI whereas newspapers use around 125 DPI for images.  Generally the customer will ask what size the images or print job will be so the printer can work with the image - today's technology has really taken the manual finness from printers, the main thing printers look for - even with printing machines that are automatically adjusting everything is a rosette pattern of the dots on the image area, if any one color is not within this rosette pattern the image will be distorted or out of focus.

 There's things as dot gain etc etc which affect quality.    When you see a printed photo that is out of kilter it is generally the distortion of the dots' ability to create an image outline and this is noticeable when the settings aren't right - the dots can't create or substitute something that's not there.  If any one dot of each of the four colors is not correct you will see problems.  The primary colors for all images are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.  Transparent colors are printed last - such as yellow. 

Unfortunately DPI is something we have to cater for when taking photos and this is achieved by the settings we all discuss frequently and with lens types...

The main thing with DPI is that you can see this in large billboard signs.  The further you are away the crisper it is, the closer you get - in fact standing under it - the image is distorted, this is because the DPI is much less to obtain the image for that size or you don't need as many dots to make the image.  Smaller images require a large DPI area to create the overall package - so 6x4 images would have hundreds whereas a billboard may only have for example 50 or so...exaggerated of course.


hope that helps somewhat!