People into photography, your opinions would be welcome here

[Adam.M]

Now you need to get a 50! the 50 1.8, cost about 80 quid and that'll really teach you photography.

It's kinda funny, all my favourite band shots have been with the 50 1.8 on my Canon 1D MK II, can't wait until i have a 35 and a 85!

Begone, zoom lenses!

If anyone wants to check out my mugraphy, http://lugerman.deviantart.com/gallery/ there ya go!

P.S, i find that a +20 to +30 on hue/saturation before exporting to jpeg really works with canon images, at least with my 1D. Though this camera is meant for press work and thus by it's nature creates quite flat images, not sure how the 350's handle it.

[_tom_]

I take it you're talking about lenses? I have no idea what the difference is between them all hence why I just got a kit :lol:  Johnny, still cant find the light meter function, the only thing I can find that seems similar to what you mean is the custom white balance which allows you to set a custom shadow, highlight and mid tone I think.

Had a go at taking some night photos today, a lot of them came out pretty cr@p due to not having a tripod and needing a longer exposure, meaning the photos were really blurry. I think this one turned out allright though

[Johnny Mac]

Tom here is a pdf file of the manual for your camera, the 350d.

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/pdf/EOSDRXT350DIM-EN.pdf

Page 77 covers metering modes.

The spot meter is called partial metering, which is basically the same thing as spot metering from what I can tell by reading their gumpf.

So have a go at that in manual mode.

Nice night picture. Motorways at night look good for long exposures. Get a tripod you wont regret it! A carboot sale should be good place to get one as there is tonnes of second hand stuff out there. The screw thread is a 1/4" whitworth thread and is a standard fit for all cameras. If you haven't got a cable shutter release use the self timer.

[chrisola]

Nice photo's so far Tom!

I took some random ones the other day...i think it's a pity i don't have a good camera or any real talent as the scenery won't be there much longer, and it's pretty interesting! =

Car -


Flood plain -


And again -

[Adam.M]

Spot metering is something you wont have on your camera, but partial metering is the closest you will get, it being 8-10% of the frame while spot being about 3% i belive.

Only pro/higher end canons have spot metering, it's the reason why i went for a 1D MK II, as in concert photography it's very usefull but in the general real world Center Weighted metering is what i use for general shots, though i use it in complete manual mode and judge it myself...

Looks like im going back to college for photography, i need to study _something_ heheh!

[_tom_]

Ah I see, cheers. I may give it a go, but so far I've been fairly happy with the results (though a lot of the time they do need sprucing up in photoshop a bit for me to be happy).

What improvement would that 50 1.8 lens give me? I see its not a zoom so I guess not quite as versatile but if the quality of the photos will be a vast improvement I'm all for it.

[noodleplugerine]

Ah I see, cheers. I may give it a go, but so far I've been fairly happy with the results (though a lot of the time they do need sprucing up in photoshop a bit for me to be happy).

What improvement would that 50 1.8 lens give me? I see its not a zoom so I guess not quite as versatile but if the quality of the photos will be a vast improvement I'm all for it.

An aperture of 1.8 will mean much quicker shutter speed to the 3.6 or so that you're probably used to. And fixed lenses generally make much better shots than there zoom equivalents.

Ideally you want fixed lenses of sizes you use most - 50 for the typical snapshots, somewhere between 80 and 120 for portrait shots, and then a bigger one for nature stuff.

Zooms are generally a neccesary evil for their versatility.

[Adam.M]

I'll say this much about zoom's : the cheepest one worth having for me, is £800.

The only zoom lens i've ever used professionally has been the 70-200 2.8 L IS, which is £1300 or so (not what i paid ;) )

With fixed/prime lenses, you gotta take that 1.6x crop factor into account. Basically take the MM, say 50mm and multiply it by 1.6, so that makes a 50mm's effectively and 80mm lens, which is good for portraits as i'd use a 85mm lens on a full frame camera.

The 35mm F/2.0 would be the closest you could get to a '50mm' range, it'd be 56mm. Sigma also do a 30mm lens for digital only camera's but i've never used it.

Of course this is all going a bit advanced and probably more than most people require but anyone who's getting into photography in any semi serious mannor will have a few prime lenses in their kit bag.

[_tom_]

Ahh I see, cheers. Do you think the 50 1.8 will work for what I usually use my camera for? If you look through my flickr album you can get an idea of what its like at the minute - http://www.flickr.com/photos/22023945@N06/

I'm not exactly specialising in anything yet, I just like taking photos of things that look good to me :lol: Tbh I dont actually use the zoom much on my lens, I usually leave it in the middle on the dot just past 24 on the little dial thing (sorry I dont know what its called :P)

[Johnny Mac]

Tom I'd stick with your zoom for now. If you want to upgrade to better lenses then go for f2.8 ultrasonic zooms from 16-35mm 35-70mm and 70-200mm. Although these are expensive they are a lot more versatile and cheaper than individual ones and take up a lot less room in a kit bag.

Also shooting a with a wide open aperture isn't such a good idea as focus becomes critical.