The 20D has finally arrived! (pics)
Discussion
After getting stung for import duties and some international detective work on my part to find out where the hell it was (at the local ParcelForce depot!), the Canon 20D is finally in my hands.
For anyone thinking of buying from abroad whilst the eschange rate is good, I would definitely recommend it! For £1200 including all duties and the dreaded VAT (yet to be claimed back
) I have managed to get a Canon 20D with the 18-55mm lens kit, a Tamron 28-75mm F2.8, spare battery and 3 year international warranty.
On the downside the battery is not a Canon one (despite being promised otherwise) and I guess only time will tell if the warranty really is worth the paper it is written on.
Still, buying abroad is great for a bit of excitement. Faxing over complete copies of credit cards and passports, not knowing if your expensive toy will ever arrive, or if it will work when it does arrive. Also seeing a never ending list of people calling the store you entrusted "con-men" and advising others to "avoid at all costs" tends not to help!
Here is the obligatory first pic (100% crop of a crash cymbal using the Tamron lens stopped down to 2.8 for some very sharp focal range!)
Expect to be bored stupid with pictures and questions now I have a camera once again!
For anyone thinking of buying from abroad whilst the eschange rate is good, I would definitely recommend it! For £1200 including all duties and the dreaded VAT (yet to be claimed back
) I have managed to get a Canon 20D with the 18-55mm lens kit, a Tamron 28-75mm F2.8, spare battery and 3 year international warranty. On the downside the battery is not a Canon one (despite being promised otherwise) and I guess only time will tell if the warranty really is worth the paper it is written on.
Still, buying abroad is great for a bit of excitement. Faxing over complete copies of credit cards and passports, not knowing if your expensive toy will ever arrive, or if it will work when it does arrive. Also seeing a never ending list of people calling the store you entrusted "con-men" and advising others to "avoid at all costs" tends not to help!
Here is the obligatory first pic (100% crop of a crash cymbal using the Tamron lens stopped down to 2.8 for some very sharp focal range!)
Expect to be bored stupid with pictures and questions now I have a camera once again!
Nice one Phil (though I did hear of someone who sent off £600 for a 10D and never got anything! Mind you it was advertised as an unwanted gift and the seller claimed he couldn't take phone calls as he was mute 
)
Would that be 'opened up to f2.8 for shallow depth of field'? sorry :-)
) Phil S said:
using the Tamron lens stopped down to 2.8 for some very sharp focal range!)
Would that be 'opened up to f2.8 for shallow depth of field'? sorry :-)
simpo two said:
Would that be 'opened up to f2.8 for shallow depth of field'? sorry :-)
Blast! Should I be upset or quietly pleased that I clearly don't know any photo lingo?!
Anyway, here are some more apperture tests (with a Christmas theme!):
F7.1
F2.8
I can tell a big difference already from shooting JPEGs on my old 300D with an 18-55 EF-S to taking RAW with the Tamron lens.
It's a clear sky so I will try some moon pictures later - I just looked outside and I can't find the bloody thing so it will have to wait anyway.
Glad everything went well for you with the import and more importantly getting if off royal fail.
I was playing with a 20D yesterday when I took my 17-40 L back for replacement.
It's a change i'll be thinking about once canon stop the rebate on the 300D
I'm somewhat
by this...
"I can tell a big difference already from shooting JPEGs on my old 300D with an 18-55 EF-S to taking RAW with the Tamron lens."
Why didn't you shoot RAW on the 300D?
I was playing with a 20D yesterday when I took my 17-40 L back for replacement.
It's a change i'll be thinking about once canon stop the rebate on the 300D
I'm somewhat
by this... "I can tell a big difference already from shooting JPEGs on my old 300D with an 18-55 EF-S to taking RAW with the Tamron lens."
Why didn't you shoot RAW on the 300D?
Can anyone suggest some quick night sky settings for me to start with? Testing a few ISO and apperture speeds with a 30sec shutter gives me a horrible noisy mess!
LB, cheers again for the advice, it is a seemingly top lens and saved me a lot of money over a Canon 'L' equivalent!
As for pics, no idea yet ut I will have to get round to ordering more than the 512mb high speed CF I have currently!
P.S. Manual mode, lower quality image and a quick enough shutter = constant shooting of 5 frames/sec (or something like that) until you run out of space on the CF... Crazy!!!
LB, cheers again for the advice, it is a seemingly top lens and saved me a lot of money over a Canon 'L' equivalent!
As for pics, no idea yet ut I will have to get round to ordering more than the 512mb high speed CF I have currently!
P.S. Manual mode, lower quality image and a quick enough shutter = constant shooting of 5 frames/sec (or something like that) until you run out of space on the CF... Crazy!!!
1. Try 30 seconds, in Tv, and if the Aperture value blinks, that's not long enough, so up the ISO one notch, from say 100 to 200, and try again.. Think that's right.
2. By the way, 30 seconds should be long enough to capture loads of light. So try and pick an aperture of around f8, and let the camera do the rest.
3. For the moon, you need a pretty fast shutter speed (considering its night time), as the movement will cause significant blur very quickly. Go for something less than 10 seconds, and use whatever aperture and ISO are required to achieve that.
Anyone feel free to modify the above suggested settings, as they're off the top of my head, on stuff to try.
Have a play and report back
LB
2. By the way, 30 seconds should be long enough to capture loads of light. So try and pick an aperture of around f8, and let the camera do the rest.
3. For the moon, you need a pretty fast shutter speed (considering its night time), as the movement will cause significant blur very quickly. Go for something less than 10 seconds, and use whatever aperture and ISO are required to achieve that.
Anyone feel free to modify the above suggested settings, as they're off the top of my head, on stuff to try.
Have a play and report back
LB
Nod - I normally set ISO at 100,200 or 400 and then use TV to get the exposure correct (as per the exposure meter) and let it sort the rest out.
The alternative is to go AV mode, set an f-stop around 8 as LB says, and let it work out what the shutter time is.
Remember to get the camera steady, small amount of camera shake can introduce stuff that looks like noise when I've played around.
J
The alternative is to go AV mode, set an f-stop around 8 as LB says, and let it work out what the shutter time is.
Remember to get the camera steady, small amount of camera shake can introduce stuff that looks like noise when I've played around.
J
OK, definitely no moon out tonight (I thought that was a scientific impossibiliy!)
But after actually stepping outside instead of trying through an open window I finally have a sort of result! I'm amazed at the colours picked out in the trees as it really was pitch black outside and the camera saw a LOT more than I could!
That is after a resize, despeckle, sharpen and then ruin (save for web) in Photoshop.
Picture settings were:
ISO 400
Tv 30
Av 5.0
and WB on Tungsten in DPP.
But after actually stepping outside instead of trying through an open window I finally have a sort of result! I'm amazed at the colours picked out in the trees as it really was pitch black outside and the camera saw a LOT more than I could!
That is after a resize, despeckle, sharpen and then ruin (save for web) in Photoshop.
Picture settings were:
ISO 400
Tv 30
Av 5.0
and WB on Tungsten in DPP.
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