Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love you, Tomorrow. It is only a day away.
I am singing....woo hoo. Just ordered my 7D and my 300mm lens and the EF1.4III extender and spare battery and I get them tomorrow.
Fabulous as I got them from WEX and got a bundles deal which they have been awaiting stock on for the last fortnight and the stock came in today.
I have one question about my order. I know some people use a lens filter to protect their lens and some hate them. I want one just to protect the lens until I get used to it. It was really hard choosing one and I ended up getting this one as WEX had it on offer with the 300mm lens.
http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-kenko-67mm-pro1-digital-uv-filter/p1527988
If you guys think there is a better one that you recommend I shall order the new one. I have not got a clue on lens filters.
I am so jet lagged as we arrived home yesterday at 3pm after a 5 hour delay and 2 flights. It was such a fantastic holiday and as most of you know I did manage to get some quite nice shots of the local hummingbirds. I have to admit that I was pretty cheesed off with the Fuji as it kept overheating, would not focus, and it took an eternity to store pictures so I missed a massive amount of action with the hummers. Also my lens distortion was horrendous and every photo I had to edit to compensate this. I do wish that I had the new Canon gear with me as I know my photos would have been so much better but saying that the humidity was horrendous and it was so hot that I could only stand out for about half an hour before the heat got to me. Although Barbados is a very safe island I know I would have been too nervous with fabulous gear to stand in the isolated spot where I took most of my photos.
Hi Lolly sounds like you are having an exciting time, you lucky girl. I would start getting to know the camera by practicing on static objects first so you can really get used to the settings. The log for example is pin sharp the bird is just out of focus. Whatever you do I am sure we will see some great photos
Pat Adams - Flickr - BLOG
I'm sure it won't long. It's going to be so much fantastic fun for you. Sounds like amazing kit.
Grain can be a too high ISO on a normal camera, not sure if its applicable on your supa-dupa one.
I've had a look at your first two photos, Lolly, and they look really nice and sharp especially the one with extender on. The exif data shows that you had to use quite high ISO values because of the poor light but there's not much noise showing so that's good.
One thing you need to do is to set the date and time because it's set to a default of the year 2000. You do that from the menu button. I think it's the second little orange spanner.
Also my viewfinder is a bit grainy too but it doesn't affect the images.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Ye gods! Just caught up with this saga. Crikey Lolly, you have been through the wringer, (so have a few other folk by wot I have read). Anyhow, all systems go now, good luck with the new 'toy', looking forward to reading more, and seeing more pics, (when I have new glasses, these ones have expired after all this reading, lol)
One thing if I may advise. Select single point focussing, you will then be sure you are 'on the chosen area', if you keep the shutter button pressed half way, you can recompose the shot as you wish. A T B, Steve.
Take care all, Stich.
My gallery Here Flickr Here
Hi Lolly I've been following the saga since yesterday and I have to say this is one of the most enjoyable threads I've seen on here. Your excitement is almost tangible and I can't wait for the pics to come rolling in
Regards
Ian
Oooo a day of excitement! Running the camera without lens won't hurt it, but you might find it's not easy to fiddle with anything as you won't be able to alter anything & see what difference it makes immediately (if that makes sense!). Don't leave the camera without a lens or body cap attached though, or you'll get dust on the sensor.
If you haven't tried the IS yet on the lens, do switch it on and check - that's the only other test you need by the sounds of it. The IS does make a bit of noise as it engages and disengages, but you'll notice the image through viewfinder stabilise noticeably. The grainy effect through the viewfinder you've noticed is normal, it helps you when manually focussing.
Does it feel big & scarey? :-)
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Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
You'll be fine, honest. Yes, it will be a learning curve, but the terminology isn't much different to what you're used to, even if the camera is. The difficult thing is probably for us lot to not throw loads of advice at you, but let you play with it and discover stuff by yourself, referring to the manual. Start with it really simple. Stick it in P, Auto-ISO and One-shot AF. Take some pics. Try focus & re-compose. Change the AF type - to zone and single point. Move the AF point about, take some more pics.
Notice in the manual it talks about single point expansion and Spot - those are extra AF modes you enable from the menus. Enable them and experiment with them (they're very useful for birds).
Try AI-Servo instead of One-shot, see what the difference is.
Check some of the pics, see what ISO the camera has used on Auto, decide what looks OK to you. By default it uses up to 3200 (it'll go higher), but you can also tell the camera to not go above 1600, 800 etc by limiting Max ISO in Auto. So you don't have to set ISO at 200 - if 1600 gives you acceptable results, set Auto-ISO upper limit to that and leave it to choose itself! Remember, this is a different camera and sensor to what you had before, you'll get a lot more flexibility from the DSLR.
Try Av mode, use different apertures, try out the exposure compensation. Checkout Tv, even try M.
Basically, build the knowledge slowly by trying stuff out. If something's not clear, you know we're all willing to answer any questions you have.
And yes, I realise I've done exactly what I said we shouldn't do, which is throw lots of well-meaning advice at you! Sorry :-)
Sounds like you're having fun there, Lolly - look forward to seeing some more pics!
I'm surprised at Wex getting the original order wrong, especially as the 1.4x converter is not compatible with the 70-300mm lens. If you'd tried to use them together, you'd probably have damaged both pieces of glass!
All's well that ends well though. Enjoy!
R.
God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages - Jacques Deval
Photos on Flickr
Ah, OK.
Sorry - I didn't read all 13 pages thoroughly :-)
I recently bought an iPad, basically because I worked out how much printing was costing me! I generally print out a selection of the wildlife pics to A4 and put in a photo album for visitors to look through (I don't force them, honest!). Over time the iPad will be cheaper. The decision as to which tablet was simple - the Retina display on them is simply gorgeous and for photos seems nicest (to me at any rate).
Mind you, I agree with Bob, I don't really like Apple's "Our way or the highway" approach. I have access to various phones and tablets via work's test kit and Android is definitely more relaxed about things.
Canon's approach to wireless remotes always seems a bit odd to me - the receiver is on the front of the camera, so the most reliable use is for self portraits, rather than "putting the camera near a feeder and retiring to safe distance" kind of thing we'd like. Adding a second receiver on the rear would hardly seem difficult!
I've never worried about a screen protector myself, though a little microfiber cleaning cloth is definitely good to keep in the bag, it does an amazing job of polishing off fingerprints and marks from where you squash your face against the screen :-)