rubiton

At a dog show once (that I had been invited to a breed group who later ended up with inly a few entries and apparently scratched) the lady in the 'office' refused to sell me a program becuase I 'had a big camera'. Nasty woman I came back after an hour as she insisted and she still looked at the camera and refused - I was simply taking a few snapshots on the day and would have been nice to identify some of the lesser known breeds. I was a member of the canine association and it was on their grounds and I was hardly taking posed pics or moving from the public areas or approaching anyone in regard to actually selling pics. Pity anyone who was there interested in a breed to take a few shots then id which dogs they liked to perhaps contact a breeder about purchasing stock or something.

I'll leave the images on there (will copy them to the hard drive) until I have the ones on the hard drive named and copied to the external storage (so I have two copies at least plus the cards). Then when I go out again I try to use the oldest card/s and reformat in the camera at the start of the day so they are ready when I get to the races or show.

Have you tried googling? Some manuals can be downloaded - not sure if that one is there but worth trying.

Yes read the manual and also go out and find some how to photography books that you can follow. To operate the SLR cameras you have to have some technical know how of how they work or they wont take the photos expected. As chezzyr said the manual will explain the settings above and how to use them and a 'how to' book is essential as you will need to know how to change them to take photos (as things will need changing if the subject ends up with the sun behind it (backlit) or it gets overcast, etc). 5D doesnt come with an inbuilt flash either so not really the best camera to buy first up as an SLR as its designed to be used with a professional flash/flashes such as in a studio not just a general camera like the 1000D, 450D and 40D. The 1Ds are also made for either studio or sports with two versions released in the early days (I dont follow so dont know what they have at the top of the range now).

I've done two major race meetings with the 70-300mm and it seems to be pretty quick with the 40D. The 90-300mm I had definately wasnt while the 10D and 350D were fine with the 90-300mm the 40D was very slow to focus and therefore I got less shots in the burst in race finishes. The 40D loved the 70-210mm lens in comparision and Im told that was once a top line lens back in the days of film cameras (I bought it second hand for $100 at auction - one of the best auction buys I've made) and its done the bulk of my stuff for the last 18 months until I got the 70-300mm recently. However I also only use the IS on the vertical setting not the panning - since I reckon I can handle the panning part after all this time - so that doesnt seem to kick in too much so far.

Tess - was it the older 70-300 DO IS lens or the 70-300 IS lens? The DO lens is twice the price and has been around a lot longer than the other one. Apparently the newer one is bigger and chunkier than the DO one.

I'd suggest it would be overkill since you can get close enough with a 70-300mm IS black lens which is easier to move and less than $1000. I have no problem with 'focus speed' with any of the newer lens I have purchased in the last two years - the only one was a 90-300mm which didnt like the 40D and was noticably slower to focus with that camera than the earlier models for some reason.

Its a brilliant lens but really unless you are deriving an income from it so it pays for itself or have money to throw away I wouldnt buy it in comparision to the black 70-300mm IS which is at least half the price. I planned to buy one 6 months before I actually purchased it and as a professional photographer of equestrian I had planned the exact things I would use it for (its too big and heavy for racing but perfect for Royal shows, dressage, showing and Aust 3DE).

Pretty good considering it looks pretty dark day for taking pics and those dogs would have been tiny targets to keep the centre sensor on. Dont judge the grain on the ones that are a little lighter like the first one as you'll find if you get prints the grain is not so obvious. Sometimes the image will look grainy if the image is still a little under exposed and will disappear if the conditions lighten enough that you are spot on or a tiny bit over exposed. On a couple that are a a little soft focus see how the dirt they are leaping out of is in perfect focus? Thats why its so hard to get good head on pics the auto focus sometimes cannot keep up. The photos of the black dog I put up before many were soft because the auto focus was being left a tiny bit behind. If you can take them side on the focus will keep up a lot better.

These were taken with ai servo - you must keep the sensor on the subject and not slip off. However head on is the HARDEST movement shot to do the side on is the easiest as it can track a lot easier. With head on shots the tracking can fall behind so the butt is focused but not the face. BTW the one above where she looks very nasty is an optical illusion - she just sucking in air to make the run at me!!!!! (think its the whites of the eyes that make her look evil!!)

You definately get used to the push pull zoom. I've found that after using it for a few months when I had that lens on the monopod it was automatic to use the push pull zoom but with the smaller one for racing easy to revert to the turn zoom. But it does take a while before you just do it rather than having to think about push pull and which is closer and further away. Thats the only big heavy lens I have as it is very difficult to use the monopod at the races so I go with the 70-300 black IS lens for that so it can be all hand held.

AH weird nikon talk !!! Never had a problem with the IS on either lens doing racing and horse sports with the two canon lenses. BUt with AI Servo you must keep the centre focus sensor on the subject - if it drifts off at all it will focus on the background and very quickly (like in amongst a burst of images).

Except it weighs about 10 tonne so you need to build up the muscles and technique to lug it and the stick around. Does take nice pics though once you get use to using the stick (though said monopod can be handy when you have to stand as a leaning pole too as long as you dont lean too hard on it).

If you want the horse in focus and the background blurry you have to move the horse away from the background HOWEVER the closest you can stand to the horse is so you can fit the whole horse in at 50mm on a lens (no less or you get big head short legs syndrome). SO you should have had Charm closer to you and further away from the background and you will have the effect you want. However being a horse on a slight angle try not to go below 5.6 aperture or not all the horse will be in focus as the DOF will be too short. Alternatively standing closer to the horse would also help if the ground isnt suitable over clser to you. Nowadays at the yearling sales I try to take the pics between the barns as you have a long way before a solid background.

Put it on THESE settings (and take pics with your back to the sun). Dial on M for Manual ISO 400 F8 Shutter speed 1/1000th Put focus on AI Servo Put the continuous shooting on hi speed (H with the cascading squares). Point at object and pan with trying to keep the centre of the viewfinder on the subject (if easier practice on cars on the road before say a dog). MOST of your shots should be close to what you want. If they arent check you settings again. If you cannot have the sun fully behind you drop the aperture to 7.1 or is very shadowy 6.3. I take everything on manual so cant help trying to 'make' it do stuff on other settings.

Batteries should be fairly cheap in the scheme of camera things. Quality Camera sales

Do you have a second battery? I like to empty the charge comp;letely (or at least down to the rapid flashing warning) on the 40D butg always carry a second battery to put in. Old habit as the current batteries apparently do not suffer from the 'memory' that the early mobile phone batteries used to.

I watermark everything that goes out without being purchased. The watermark is done in photoshop as per below They want it without they have to buy it and they will get a high res image up to 1mb emailed. That will print out to 4x6 or even 5x7 but after that will look ordinary. Proofs posted out are usually 20 to a page thru photoshop - sometimes one off up to 12 to a page but optherwise emailed. If they cannot decide with the watermark mark they either want a free unmarked copy or are too picky (I havent had a problem with this though but my customers would also see others photographers work also watermarked)

Agree with Luke its only worth the expsense if you are using it for very particular flash or lit photography (as in reflectors, lights, etc). If you are outdoors the in camera one is as good as anything (just point it at the grass not the general shot as it will read the sky) but then with digial SLRs you can take a test shot and check. Can't really see the use for an extra gadget if you are taking outdoor pics but then I've been taking pics for so long I can tell if its gotten that bit darker and change camera accordingly (though its still worth checking in camera just to confirm settings are fine). However if you are worrying about light then that must mean you are looking into using the manual settings which is fantastic to hear as the essence of being good at photography is knowing how to set up you camera for a shot rather than just living with whatever the camera chooses on an auto setting.

I was thinking that but then I start to think Im going mad after a while. Heres a couple of side on ones - I think the lower ones are more blue but that is probably the skylight fliter

I'd got with lighter but then I fold up things and the heavier paper has sharp corners when you fold and stick in your pocket then forget its there.

Just wondering if its possible to tell the difference between photos taken with my older lens or the new lens. Similar time of day, same location, same weather, same camera settings

Agree with Luke on this. When I changed to digital I had pentax film camera and lenses etc. The camera shop that I regularly went to for processing and equipment said dont wait for the pentax one go with the canon one that had been out for about 6 months. They explained that the old lenses I had would not fit the new camera (they wouldn't fit several of the new film cameras at the time) that was due for release a few months later. It meant I had to also buy new lenses as well as the camera but was definately the best thing to do. And from the experiences that a fellow equestrian phtographer has had with pentax cameras since Im very glad I changed over to the Canon system.

The shot of the little dog would have been with the 90-300mm lens and was cropped from a slightly wider shot. Depending on the camera when it comes from changing from well lit to back lit (which would happen as you follow them) the best thng to learn is to flip the aperture with your thumb on the wheel on the back of the camera (if its like the 40D with the 'wheel' on the back). However I don't like backlit photos unless the dog is actually white (and white dogs I take pics of with the f stop one higher so instead of F8 in the sun its F9) so when I use to do dog agility I would pic a number of jumps all that were well lit. Black dogs Id just drop an f stop and they defiantely need full light or you get no detail. Was fun but I dont do it anymore as people expect to pay the same price as they would in Big W for an enlargement and I was just too expensive - there are club members with base level SLRs who happily sell for just over that price these days and just snap away (no not nice crisp focus shots but better than your average point and shoot camera). And people would get hostile at the clubs that I went to as they thought their privacy had been breached by the club when I had found their addresses in the Royal Show catalogue which was freely available to the public for proofs to be sent to. And then the club would get hostile to me and say I shoudl have gone to lengths to advise where I had their info from etc.

Oh yeah - 400 ISO with a with aperture and 1/60th would have been nuclear blast overexposed!!