newbie summing up

[Francesco]

I will soon buy a 10D and I have been readin all these forums for about a week long. This is what I have learned and I'd like you to correct me if I am going wrong.

Start buying a 28-135 IS from Canon to get a good tool to start learning how to use this camera without spending thousands of bucks

Later on, try to buy a very fast 28mm or 35mm, to have the equivalent of my old times loved 50.
Later buy 3 primes in the following ranges: 50, 100, 200 the faster the better.

Buy immediately a Hoya 72mm circular polarizer. This is something I have learned through my experience with my Sony 505v. I will later on buy some ND stops for waterfalls/waves.

Buy immediately an extra battery and maybe later buy the grip with 2 batteries.

Start shooting at Medium JPG (to be able to store many many pics on the 1GB Lexar 32 that I wanna buy) and gradually move forward to High JPG and eventually buy more Lexars and switch to RAWs (NB: my target for pictures is web/video display, not printing yet)

Please advice if you can.
--
---------------------------------------------
Francesco Gallarotti

Some of my pictures: http://www.pbase.com/franz1999
My website: http://www.gallarotti.net

 

[Laurie Sokoloff]

Greetings Francesco - It sounds like you've gotten a good handle on things, and have done your homework. All sounds pretty sensible to me. I would add, get (and use) a UV or glass filter for every lens you buy - go for the best quality you can afford. Seems expensive, but it's a cheap way to protect an expensive piece of equipment. Also, I started by shooting JPG's too, learning RAW later on. But you may want to start with the lowest compression. Yes, it will use up more storage space. But you'll be glad you did when you find all those beautiful "keepers" on your flash card. And I suspect you'll be surprised by just how many excellent shots you'll get. Remember that higher rate of compression doesn't just mean smaller size - it can also mean less detail. And detail can be very important, even with just web display.

Enjoy!

--
Best,
Laurie

I will soon buy a 10D and I have been readin all these forums for
about a week long. This is what I have learned and I'd like you to
correct me if I am going wrong.

Start buying a 28-135 IS from Canon to get a good tool to start
learning how to use this camera without spending thousands of bucks
Later on, try to buy a very fast 28mm or 35mm, to have the
equivalent of my old times loved 50.
Later buy 3 primes in the following ranges: 50, 100, 200 the faster
the better.

Buy immediately a Hoya 72mm circular polarizer. This is something I
have learned through my experience with my Sony 505v. I will later
on buy some ND stops for waterfalls/waves.

Buy immediately an extra battery and maybe later buy the grip with
2 batteries.

Start shooting at Medium JPG (to be able to store many many pics on
the 1GB Lexar 32 that I wanna buy) and gradually move forward to
High JPG and eventually buy more Lexars and switch to RAWs (NB: my
target for pictures is web/video display, not printing yet)

Please advice if you can.
--
---------------------------------------------
Francesco Gallarotti

Some of my pictures: http://www.pbase.com/franz1999
My website: http://www.gallarotti.net

 

[jim powers]

Be sure to buy the lens hood for the 28-135IS. A flash will help too. More hard drive space. A faster computer. Photoshop 7. Nice monitor. Spyder for color calibration. Zoom16 to carry the camera and IS lens. Extra CF card (IMO, better to have several smaller ones than one big one, just in case). Get two extra batteries (just in case). LCD protector. Neat Image (it's a must have). Fred Miranda's actions. Scott Kelby's book on Photoshop for the Digital Photographer. Hmmm... There must be a few more things to add to the list.

I will soon buy a 10D and I have been readin all these forums for
about a week long. This is what I have learned and I'd like you to
correct me if I am going wrong.

Start buying a 28-135 IS from Canon to get a good tool to start
learning how to use this camera without spending thousands of bucks
Later on, try to buy a very fast 28mm or 35mm, to have the
equivalent of my old times loved 50.
Later buy 3 primes in the following ranges: 50, 100, 200 the faster
the better.

Buy immediately a Hoya 72mm circular polarizer. This is something I
have learned through my experience with my Sony 505v. I will later
on buy some ND stops for waterfalls/waves.

Buy immediately an extra battery and maybe later buy the grip with
2 batteries.

Start shooting at Medium JPG (to be able to store many many pics on
the 1GB Lexar 32 that I wanna buy) and gradually move forward to
High JPG and eventually buy more Lexars and switch to RAWs (NB: my
target for pictures is web/video display, not printing yet)

Please advice if you can.
--
---------------------------------------------
Francesco Gallarotti

Some of my pictures: http://www.pbase.com/franz1999
My website: http://www.gallarotti.net

 

[Francesco]

Be sure to buy the lens hood for the 28-135IS. A flash will help
too. More hard drive space. A faster computer. Photoshop 7.
Nice monitor. Spyder for color calibration. Zoom16 to carry the
camera and IS lens. Extra CF card (IMO, better to have several
smaller ones than one big one, just in case). Get two extra
batteries (just in case). LCD protector. Neat Image (it's a must
have). Fred Miranda's actions. Scott Kelby's book on Photoshop
for the Digital Photographer. Hmmm... There must be a few more
things to add to the list.

Are you trying to scare me? LOL

Anyway I think i should be alrite with my computers (2 Pentium 4 with total 1GB RAM and 280 GB HDD + DVDR).

I have photoshop 7 and I already downloaded some actions for sharpness. i will take a look at what is Neat Image and somebody else suggested instead of buying several CFs to buy a 40GB portable device. What do you think of that solution? sounds cheaper and more comfortable to me.

 

[bonedoc1]

I've never shot in anything less than high quality JPEG. I never use more compression. Just buy an extra card. I can fit over 200 high quality JPEG on a 512 card. Once I got comfortable with the camera, I've started to use RAW more.
--Diane L

I will soon buy a 10D and I have been readin all these forums for
about a week long. This is what I have learned and I'd like you to
correct me if I am going wrong.

Start buying a 28-135 IS from Canon to get a good tool to start
learning how to use this camera without spending thousands of bucks
Later on, try to buy a very fast 28mm or 35mm, to have the
equivalent of my old times loved 50.
Later buy 3 primes in the following ranges: 50, 100, 200 the faster
the better.

Buy immediately a Hoya 72mm circular polarizer. This is something I
have learned through my experience with my Sony 505v. I will later
on buy some ND stops for waterfalls/waves.

Buy immediately an extra battery and maybe later buy the grip with
2 batteries.

Start shooting at Medium JPG (to be able to store many many pics on
the 1GB Lexar 32 that I wanna buy) and gradually move forward to
High JPG and eventually buy more Lexars and switch to RAWs (NB: my
target for pictures is web/video display, not printing yet)

Please advice if you can.
--
---------------------------------------------
Francesco Gallarotti

Some of my pictures: http://www.pbase.com/franz1999
My website: http://www.gallarotti.net

--
http://www.bonedoc1.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~bonedoc1/galleryindex.html

 

[jim powers]

The portable HD would be good. My concern has more to do with a CF card failing or getting lost etc. than storage capacity. I've had one CF card that went bad. Also had to buy image recovery program as on occasion one other card will get some "corruption" on it. I prefer to have mulitple cards so all my eggs aren't in one basket.

I wasn't trying to scare you, just to let you know that it doesn't stop when you buy the camera and lens. There is always something else on the list. Whether it be dual flash, strobes, macro lens, new improved L glass, new improved camera body, new improved software, new improved printer with new ink systems, paper, etc. etc.

Good thing you've got a lot of the major purchases out of the way.

Download the demo of neat image at http://www.neatimage.com and then do a test shot at 1600 ISO. Here are a couple of samples:

This was taken last night while the boy was taking a bath at ISO 1600. I was testing the MK1 50mm F1.8 to see if it worked any better on the 10D.

http://www.pbase.com/image/20745771

Here's a couple of before and after test crops:

http://www.pbase.com/jimbobp/test_photos

I love the 10D (said the samething about the D60) and VISA loves me.

 

[joe mccabe]

Congrats on your upcoming purchase!

I've got 4 comments:

1) You may want to buy a 50mm equivalent lens first since you already are familiar with and apparently like the 50mm focal length. Why wait? Caveat - I'm learning that I'm a prime lens kinda guy so maybe I'm a bit prejudice Also, why not spend a very little amount on the Canon 50 f/1.8 - a great, sharp, sharp lens.

2) Buy 2 extra batteries

3) Buy more CF cards - you'll need them.

4) Don't start off shooting Jpegs!!! Shoot RAW. Always. That way you'll always have a nice digital "negative" with which to work. Jpegs really limit your ability to process the image. RAW format opens up a world of possibilities. One day, you'll end up regretting that all those wonderful photos you took when you got the camera were Jpegs. I know, in an effort to save Jpeg space, I used only Jpegs druing a week long trip to a cabin with some buddies and I really regret it. I only shoot RAW now. You'll also need to try out some RAW conversion programs like C1LE and Breezebrowser.

Have fun with your new toy!

I will soon buy a 10D and I have been readin all these forums for
about a week long. This is what I have learned and I'd like you to
correct me if I am going wrong.

Start buying a 28-135 IS from Canon to get a good tool to start
learning how to use this camera without spending thousands of bucks
Later on, try to buy a very fast 28mm or 35mm, to have the
equivalent of my old times loved 50.
Later buy 3 primes in the following ranges: 50, 100, 200 the faster
the better.

Buy immediately a Hoya 72mm circular polarizer. This is something I
have learned through my experience with my Sony 505v. I will later
on buy some ND stops for waterfalls/waves.

Buy immediately an extra battery and maybe later buy the grip with
2 batteries.

Start shooting at Medium JPG (to be able to store many many pics on
the 1GB Lexar 32 that I wanna buy) and gradually move forward to
High JPG and eventually buy more Lexars and switch to RAWs (NB: my
target for pictures is web/video display, not printing yet)

Please advice if you can.
--
---------------------------------------------
Francesco Gallarotti

Some of my pictures: http://www.pbase.com/franz1999
My website: http://www.gallarotti.net

 

[Greg M]

I will soon buy a 10D and I have been readin all these forums for
about a week long. This is what I have learned and I'd like you to
correct me if I am going wrong.

Start buying a 28-135 IS from Canon to get a good tool to start
learning how to use this camera without spending thousands of bucks

This is still my most used lens.

Later on, try to buy a very fast 28mm or 35mm, to have the
equivalent of my old times loved 50.
Later buy 3 primes in the following ranges: 50, 100, 200 the faster
the better.

Buy immediately a Hoya 72mm circular polarizer. This is something I
have learned through my experience with my Sony 505v. I will later
on buy some ND stops for waterfalls/waves.

Buy immediately an extra battery and maybe later buy the grip with
2 batteries.

I don't know how much shooting you do in a day but when I had my D30 2 batteries were more then enough. I used a grip but with only one battery at a time. This is because the camera uses both batteries at the same time. By using one at a time I knew exactly how much battery power I had left and I knew if I had to conserve power.

Start shooting at Medium JPG (to be able to store many many pics on
the 1GB Lexar 32 that I wanna buy) and gradually move forward to
High JPG and eventually buy more Lexars and switch to RAWs (NB: my
target for pictures is web/video display, not printing yet)

Shoot RAW from your very first shot. How many pics do you want to take before you download them to your computer? You can get the equivalent of several rolls of film using RAW on a 512 card.

Please advice if you can.
--
---------------------------------------------
Francesco Gallarotti

Some of my pictures: http://www.pbase.com/franz1999
My website: http://www.gallarotti.net

--
Greg M
http://www.mocanu.com/gallery/index.php
http://dslr.mocanu.com

 

[thomas molnar]

Dont forget a Dual Powermac G5 with a 20" widescreen Apple LCD

 

[Francesco]

Well guys, thank you so so so much for all your comments and suggestions.

Today is an important day because I have bought the 10D. It is here on my table and the battery is already charged. I am a little intimidated by the size and weight of the camera. It looks so good that I am almost scared to touch it... just kidding!

I bought it after a long search and lots of price comparisons in a local store in Long Island (Amityville). I ended up paying 30-40 bucks more than buying all the stuff online probably but a 2% more on such a big expense (big for my wallet ) sounds reasonable compared to the risk of buying things online in different places. The guy at the Berger Bros store sounded very competent and he tried to lower the prices of every single item as much as possible to make up the fact that I had to pay NY state taxes.

I do agree with having more than one CF card. At this moment I only have one 512MB but I hope to be able to buy one soon online, maybe next month. I will then try to buy one of those 30-40 GB portable storage gizmos, just to make my life simpler and to leave my laptop at home!

I started buying the 28-135IS which looked like a reasonable good first zoom lens, and in the next christmases and birthdays and any kind of celebrations I will expand my lenses kit a little (I was thinking of a 50mm too but 50x1.6=80 which sounds a little too much for me... I might think about a bright 35... I'll decide later after some practice with this one ;-))

I also bought one extra battery. I am concerned about that because the store didn't have original Canon batteries, so they sold me a CTA BP-511, I hope it is not bad.

Well I am off to start trying to understand all those buttons and menus... LOL.... wish me luck!!!!

A very happy Francesco

 

[Francesco]

Shoot RAW from your very first shot. How many pics do you want to
take before you download them to your computer? You can get the
equivalent of several rolls of film using RAW on a 512 card.

My experience with the Sony 505v tells me that when I am in the mood and the day/subjects/weather are interesting/good I can shoot 200-300 pics in a single day. That is definetely too much for a single 512 MB in RAWs... high quality JPGs were my choice until I expand my CFs kit. OR I might try to shoot less, I know, I know ;-)

 

[Francesco]

1) You may want to buy a 50mm equivalent lens first since you
already are familiar with and apparently like the 50mm focal
length. Why wait? Caveat - I'm learning that I'm a prime lens
kinda guy so maybe I'm a bit prejudice Also, why not spend a
very little amount on the Canon 50 f/1.8 - a great, sharp, sharp
lens.

Yes I did had experience when I was younger with a Minolta 300d (35mm SLR) and a 50mm lens. I also had a crappy Tamron 70-210, but the 50 was most of the time my primary choice. Now here I understand that I should get a 35mm to have an equivalent of the 50mm right?

 

[Francesco]

I've never shot in anything less than high quality JPEG. I never
use more compression. Just buy an extra card. I can fit over 200
high quality JPEG on a 512 card. Once I got comfortable with the
camera, I've started to use RAW more.

I agree with you Diane, I think I will skip the medium JPG and I will start with high quality JPGs... RAWs would complicate my first approach with this little jewel. My digital experience in retouching and digital darkroom is very limited at this moment.

 

[Francesco]

Thank you for your help and suggestions. I appreciate every little help here in this delicate moment from all of you ;-)

Thanks for the demo picture. I can really see clearly the difference. thanks for taking the time.

F.

 

[Curt Terpstra]

the camera and learning all about it

I got my 10D about 8 weeks ago..... and until I had a mild heart attack, I was playing with it almost everyday........... Threw away a lot of shots, but also have learned a lot too

I am a subscriber of to learn something, you must use it... so I play a lot.... Used a lot in green mode for a little while, and now playing with the programming mode

and tomorrow, I get to try my hand out at shooting my step sons football game....... with three lenses, its going to be fun, but I think that my 80-200 2.8L is going to get the most use

Have fun.... digital is a lot of fun and you get feedback a lot faster with it... IF I do extended shooting, I bring my laptop with me, and transfer during the shoot...

Have fun and get out there and snap up a storm!!

Curt

Well guys, thank you so so so much for all your comments and
suggestions.
Today is an important day because I have bought the 10D. It is here
on my table and the battery is already charged. I am a little
intimidated by the size and weight of the camera. It looks so good
that I am almost scared to touch it... just kidding!
I bought it after a long search and lots of price comparisons in a
local store in Long Island (Amityville). I ended up paying 30-40
bucks more than buying all the stuff online probably but a 2% more
on such a big expense (big for my wallet ) sounds reasonable
compared to the risk of buying things online in different places.
The guy at the Berger Bros store sounded very competent and he
tried to lower the prices of every single item as much as possible
to make up the fact that I had to pay NY state taxes.

I do agree with having more than one CF card. At this moment I only
have one 512MB but I hope to be able to buy one soon online, maybe
next month. I will then try to buy one of those 30-40 GB portable
storage gizmos, just to make my life simpler and to leave my laptop
at home!
I started buying the 28-135IS which looked like a reasonable good
first zoom lens, and in the next christmases and birthdays and any
kind of celebrations I will expand my lenses kit a little (I was
thinking of a 50mm too but 50x1.6=80 which sounds a little too much
for me... I might think about a bright 35... I'll decide later
after some practice with this one ;-))
I also bought one extra battery. I am concerned about that because
the store didn't have original Canon batteries, so they sold me a
CTA BP-511, I hope it is not bad.

Well I am off to start trying to understand all those buttons and
menus... LOL.... wish me luck!!!!

A very happy Francesco

--
Real men show that they are bald: