CXXVII

5/5/2009 1:27:11 AM

50mm 1.8...cricket through filthy glass in smithsonian. no post processing...straight outta camera

5/5/2009 1:35:49 AM

Anyone have any additional tips, besides googling, for ERR99 msgs on a Canon 30D? I tried replacing the batteries, cleaning the connections, swaping lenses, swapping cards, formatting cards and resetting menu options.

It made me really mad getting this message as I was on the other side of the world and of course my camera craps out on me. Luckily I have a decent Canon P&S for everyday pictures but missed some great picture opportunities.

5/5/2009 11:44:55 AM

Sorry, but that is usually bad news. Error 99 is a generic error message. I had a 30D and mine threw this at me and I was pissed. It was still under warranty so I sent it back to Canon. Turns out I had water damage that, while not being an issue at first, caused issues after a few months. The camera was a paperweight.


You best bet for an answer is to send it to Canon. Good luck.

5/5/2009 12:05:14 PM

Never gotten the err99 on the 30D, but of what I've heard, it's toast when you see this on the xxD bodies. There are tricks with the 1D bodies to cure the 99 code, I've gotten it four times on the 1D, but nothing really serious. Canon should really make more codes than the *all error code* code... Seriously, with all the engineering involved, you'd think they could do it better.

5/5/2009 1:02:50 PM

Or at least make it clear and say "camera broke oh no" or something. Hopefully you've still got some type of warranty.

5/5/2009 1:43:07 PM

Well I am wondering if the humidity in the area I was at caused it. I am going to see if I have any warranty left but I doubt it since I have had it for some time now.

Well I guess more the reason to upgrade. Now to convince the wife, maybe a good father's day present. :-)

5/6/2009 3:30:12 PM

maybe i'm expecting too much, but if humidity less than a rain forest is a problem for a camera that expensive, i'd chalk it up to poor engineering (though i'd make an exception if the working environment was incredibly humid on a regular basis and you used it daily, i guess)

5/6/2009 3:32:17 PM

anyone heard anything about the sigma dp2? i'm thinkin i could dump my d40 and my sd600 and just get the sigma.

5/6/2009 8:00:51 PM

^ i'd never heard of it and then i looked it up...i'm confused...how does it work? do you add lenses (no way!) or does it just not have any zoom whatsoever (what?)

5/6/2009 8:32:59 PM

it zooms I think.

it's just a baller point and shoot if i'm not mistaken.

5/6/2009 9:12:00 PM

Riddle me this:

some money is burning a hole in my pocket. I have a nikon d40 with 18-55 kit lens and 55-200VR lens. I'm only a bit over 6k shutter clicks in a year with the camera (a very busy senior year) so part of me wants to just wait and not buy anything and set a goal of X amount of practice before I spend some money on gear.

On the other hand, I take a lot of available light pictures in the house of my baby boy and often struggle to get results I'm happy with in low light. I'd like to buy either a fast prime or a flash.

so what would you pick given the choices of the new 35mm f/1.8 AF-S lens or an SB-900 (or 800) or nothing-and-wait-till-I-deserve-it?

5/6/2009 10:57:39 PM

No need for a super-expensive flash. Buy a fast prime. Learn to use available light before you start messing with flash. Even then, for your needs (pictures of a child in a living room) you don't need anything more than a middle of the road flash. You won't need nuclear light output, and simple is better if you're not really familiar with the technical aspects of using a flash.

5/7/2009 12:59:19 AM

^fair enough, so an sb-600 or even something older is a better comparison. but still, I think in terms of what all I can do with the piece of gear, a flash is more versatile. the question is, would i get more use out of the lens or the flash?

5/7/2009 10:38:14 AM

lens

absolutely, definitely the lens

5/7/2009 11:00:42 AM

started this blog a few months ago to which Ronny is a pretty usual contributor. but i'd like to get more people sending photos, so check it out and send what you've got!

http://photodeclamo.blogspot.com

5/7/2009 11:35:32 AM

u guys know ab the deals on the refurbished d90 body's for 699 correct? i'm thinkin ab finding a sucker to buy my d40 and jumping to the d90, the 720p video ability would be awesome to have.

5/8/2009 12:50:15 AM

buy a few Vivatar's flashes, pretty cheap as they are like 75 new, but you can pick them up for about $20 used. A pretty decent all manual flash with a simple sensor.

Anyhow, some shots of the Canes beating the Bruins.

5/8/2009 5:22:19 AM

Quote :

"the 720p video ability would be awesome to have."

i don't know how many true digital video recorders you've used, but the D90 pales compared to them...i'm saying this from experience, since i've been using the D90 for video as of late

the quality (both audio and video) is fine, but the absolute worst part about it is that you can't zoom/refocus once you've begun recording...for my purposes, this isn't a huge deal (my company bought the camera and they only need a stationary video camera that they can pan with, no zooming), but i wouldn't credit the D90's video capabilities as anything but a most basic bonus

my old FZ30 took amazing video, albeit not HD, and performed much better than the D90 in terms of complete functionality

my $0.02

5/8/2009 8:21:54 AM

hey can you guys tell me if this is a good/decent deal?

$350 for:

Nikon D70s, nikkor 17-55 lens, sunpack flash (non ttl), tripod, carry case, remote control (ir), filetr kit with 3 filters battery and charger

5/8/2009 9:36:46 AM

JBaz, I'm not much of a hockey fan, but that flying goalie picture is most excellent.

5/8/2009 10:42:48 AM

JBaz... i'm thinking of taking my xti with me tonight to get some shots, the best I can. What settings do you use in there as far as white balance to get the ice to come out that clear?

5/8/2009 3:04:15 PM

Correct exposure is 1/500 @ f/4 with an ISO 1250 setting. It's better to have the picture underexposed than over.

5/8/2009 4:24:44 PM

Quote :

"hey can you guys tell me if this is a good/decent deal"

Well considering the 17-55 is around 1500 by itself, I would assume thats a pretty good deal.



But I think you meant 18-55. Thats a good deal in my opinion. 18-55 is probably worth around 100 and d70 250. Plus the other stuff.... I would go for it.

[Edited on May 8, 2009 at 8:00 PM. Reason : 18-55]

5/8/2009 7:55:09 PM

One from this afternoon

5/8/2009 9:37:49 PM

^ i. love. that.

5/8/2009 11:26:24 PM

That is the Diablo Cow... lol, I like it, would be awesome if you printed it. I got some cool shots from tonight's game, but I have to wait 24 hours.

I got really pissed off during 3rd period. Some asshat canes fan started a brawl with a Bruins fan and I was in the middle minding my own business, shooting the game. I hear them yelling at each other and the two other photogs next to me also tried to calm them down, then the canes fan went livid and lunged at the Bruins fan across one of those temp tape fence and hit me initially. He started to throw punches and knocked me off my stool. I was yelling at the guy to back the fuck up and two security guys finally came over to break it up.

At that point I was pissed off and went over to the guy and security and told him in a calm notion that we can't have that kind of drama when we are working with expensive equipment. I told the security guys if they needed me to be a witness to what happened, I would. We just can't have people throwing punches around us.

I know, I know. We aren't suppose to get involved, but I felt that I got involved the second the guy pushed me off my stool and basically had a fight with me literally in their ways. Not cool at all.

[Edited on May 9, 2009 at 3:01 AM. Reason : fight]

5/9/2009 2:34:14 AM

alcohol is a hell of a drug

5/9/2009 9:27:01 AM

I'm writing some remote capture software for canon EOS cameras (ill post it when I'm done). But looking around I stumbled on this

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=252637

It acesses the live view feed of the camera and lets you capture movies. So for those of you who have the xsi, you can now record video. I took some of my neighbors cat 100 yards away with my 70-300 mm. Hopefully I don't look too sketchy with my camera set up in my window...

5/11/2009 12:25:41 AM

I've been out of inspiration lately. Haven't taken a pic in a couple months. hrmmm

5/11/2009 12:30:53 AM

This kid loves his fucking cookie

5/11/2009 9:11:25 PM

hey quit cussing around the kids

5/11/2009 9:23:22 PM

^^, he has nice eyes, I'd like to see a crop with more of his hands in the picture, partial fingers look funny.

very crisp picture though

5/11/2009 9:24:54 PM

5/11/2009 9:25:21 PM

Can this be real? What's the catch?

http://www.prophotonation.com/DIGITAL-SLR-PACKAGES/Nikon-Packages/D90-PRO-PHOTO-PACKAGES/Nikon-D90-12-4-MP-digital-SLR-camera-with-motion-video-p7.html

d90 body for $239.99

[Edited on May 12, 2009 at 4:34 PM. Reason : checked shipping-was free for ground...]

5/12/2009 4:29:38 PM

Kiwi, just give me the $240 because no way a D90 body is that little. A D+ rating with the BBB and a 1.43/10 with retail ratings... yeah... no way it's fake or a scam.

and wth is with the 2, 4 and 6 hour batteries?

[Edited on May 12, 2009 at 4:42 PM. Reason : ]

5/12/2009 4:40:14 PM

haha I figured they made their money on the packages so cut on the bodies or something, I really had no idea. I was shopping around and that grabbed my attention so I decided to let tdub investigate.

5/12/2009 5:01:34 PM

^,^^, the camera probably is that much, but I'm certain they wouldn't sell it to you unless you opted in for their ridiculously priced accessories. Go ahead and order it, you'll get a call saying that they are out of stock of just the body, but have it packaged with a battery and a lens. then you'll get billed about 2 thousand more.

5/12/2009 5:27:03 PM

Got real lucky today!

5/12/2009 10:06:38 PM

^ Nice!

what were you shooting with?

5/12/2009 10:20:59 PM

I just got a Mac....anyone know of a good/cheap photo editor? Is iphoto any good? Should I use Picasa? Anything else?

5/13/2009 1:45:45 PM

^^^ yes, very nice! WHERE were you shooting? also, i'm assuming you tweaked the vibrance/saturation?

5/13/2009 1:50:59 PM

^^^^awesome. You should send those into the NC Wildlife photo competition coming up.

Aren't you the same one with the fox squirrel too?

http://www.ncwildlife.org/contest/

[Edited on May 13, 2009 at 3:20 PM. Reason : link]

5/13/2009 3:17:28 PM

awww how cute
my mother had a fox as a pet when she was little

5/13/2009 3:52:07 PM

those fox pictures are awesome. i just wish there wasn't that giant bush/blob all out of focus and what-not in the foreground of the second picture. it's kind of distracting.


other than that they look really, really good. i'd like to know what you were shooting with too. were you using a polarizing filter? any post processing?

[Edited on May 13, 2009 at 5:12 PM. Reason : k]

5/13/2009 5:10:58 PM

Thanks for the comments

These where taken in northwest Ashe County. I was shown the fox den earlier in the day while at work and came back near sunset to get some pics. I shot this using a d300 with 70-200 2.8 with 1.7 TC attached. I got lucky with the light right at sunset when he came out. I shot in RAW and used NX to adjust levels (setting blacks, whites), unsharp mask, contrast, and used CS2 to mess with the shadows and highlights. No polarizer. I will definitely send these in to the NC Wildlife. I am supposed to have a pic in the June issue, of a Box Turtle, I posted in this thread a few months ago. Yea I was kinda bummed when I noticed the christmas tree blurred in the foreground. I tried to edit it but was unsuccessful.

5/13/2009 8:27:21 PM

Quote :

"I tried to edit it but was unsuccessful."

crop?

5/13/2009 8:41:28 PM

^ he can't crop the first one and the second wouldn't look right cropped, i don't think

5/13/2009 8:42:25 PM

second one is mad croppable i think

5/13/2009 8:47:09 PM

ah, yeah, on second thought it could be

5/13/2009 8:48:29 PM