DSLR cameras - great toys

[Bernardo]

Hey Bernardo i've just got the latest issue of what digital camera and your toy gets a 5 star rating.

I'm glad for that...
Actually, reading information before buy this camera, it make me clear some tips:

- is a D90 evolution, great and reliable,
- More tech in some aspects than semi pro D300 ( like a twin memory slot)
- some of the best capacities of D700 (aluminium body)
- far away from the super expensive and heavy D3.

Today feel I was right, fortunately and thankfully to all the people that posted reviews on the web..

I think all cameras in this segment are very good, Canon, Pentax, Sony, Fuji and others, technology let to designers to improve every day.

[motorbikez]

No - I'm not quick out of the blocks, in fact just very slow and somewhat of a fool.... I have the K7... I got confused over model names and thought surely the K5 is earlier.... I guess they are leading up to the K1...

No BMW beat pentax to the K1 20 odd years ago .On a serious note K7 is identical to K5,K5 just has more up to date internals from what I can see.

http://www.bmbikes.co.uk/photos/photoph ... nablue.jpg

[badger]

Always thought they look like the Battlestar Galactica

[mattb]

Well I'll drag the tone down a bit. I bought a Canon D-10 a couple of years ago because I read a review in a South African bike mag and it said this was the best bike touring camera!! It's totally waterproof, scratch proof and drop resistant. As I got through the door having just bought it my youngest took it out of the box and promptly dropped it onto the tiles - no damage!! We (or rather the wife does have a DSLR) but I tend to use this little beauty all the time - fits into riding jacket pocket and you can treat it bad
Here's a few shots from Mauritius:

Taken from land -





Pictures from the water -








Pictures under the water -










As it fits in your pocket (not leathers though) it's way easier to stop, point, shoot and go again than having to get camera out of a pannier. Works for me anyway!!!!
PS - apologies for family pics but couldnt find any bike shots readily to hand!!

[Drifter1]

I went with the Canon EOS Rebel T2i body and lens kit and I had a left over 70 - 300 mm zoom from a prior purchase a few years ago for my 35 mm that I still have but never use. This Pic taken with a Fujifilm JZ 14 m pixels. The Canon is a fantastic beginer camera and the Fujifilm is a nice pocket camera. I am already looking closely to upgrade to the GH1 or GH2

[thebigblue]

I´m on skiing holiday at Trysil (Norway) these days, here´s a frame with some star trails, made out of 40 individual picture blended together in Photoshop.
Sorry about the lens flare upper left corner, did had then lens hood on, but the full moon eventually got into a position where it reached the glass.


(Canon EOS 5D MKII, 17-40 mm. f/4.0L zoom lens, 30 sec. @ f/4.0, ISO 400)

[motorbikez]

Lovely stuff as usual Blue keep them coming

[badger]

I´m on skiing holiday at Trysil (Norway) these days, here´s a frame with some star trails, made out of 40 individual picture blended together in Photoshop.
Sorry about the lens flare upper left corner, did had then lens hood on, but the full moon eventually got into a position where it reached the glass.


(Canon EOS 5D MKII, 17-40 mm. f/4.0L zoom lens, 30 sec. @ f/4.0, ISO 400)

That is very nice. Great technique. I'd never have thought of that, but would have gone for super low light and super long exposure! Great stuff. 40 shots over how much time??

[thebigblue]

40 exposures of 30 sec. The same picture made with only one loooooong exposure would result in some heavy digital noise

[Frisky]

i am a Canon man, got a 400D which I started with, then found it wasn't fast enough(ISO and fps) so I upgraded to a 1D Mk3, very heavy but a great bit of kit
A winter shot,



My main subject is the Newcastle Eagles, one of the best(if not the best) basketball teams in Britain.
I am team snapper and the local press use my offerings


indoor shooying with no flash is a challenge for sure.

[badger]

40 exposures of 30 sec. The same picture made with only one loooooong exposure would result in some heavy digital noise

Sorry - 40 exposures of 30 sec each? Or 40 OVER a period of 30 seconds? I'm guessing the latter, but not sure how much post processing you may have done. If the former, what exposure? Did you way under expose?

Sorry for all the bugging questions, but I love that shot!

[Bernardo]

Nice shots Guys!

Friski, your Canon is an very good camera, and 1D excellent

Big, what a patience you have to take and process one of this...

[thebigblue]

The Canon 1D series are great cameras for shooting sports with its 10 fps., but the 1,3 crop factor on the sensor makes the 1Ds and 5D MKII superior regarding noise and image quality.

The night photo of the bridge is one Great frame, silent night with no wind and hence calm water Well done!!!

The star trails are made of 40 exposures, each picture with a exposure of 30 sec., so each individual frame has a correct exposure. The 40 pictures a imported into photoshop, each photo in a separate layer, then the layers are blended together using the "lighten" blending mode, so just the brighter part of each photo are blended onto the picture, so it is important that all settings in camera are set to manual, even the white balance (WB).

There is a window program "startrails.exe" by a German that does the same thing http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html, ii´s actually faster than the photoshop way, but I´m on a Macbook Pro.

[badger]

The Canon 1D series are great cameras for shooting sports with its 10 fps., but the 1,3 crop factor on the sensor makes the 1Ds and 5D MKII superior regarding noise and image quality.

The night photo of the bridge is one Great frame, silent night with no wind and hence calm water Well done!!!

The star trails are made of 40 exposures, each picture with a exposure of 30 sec., so each individual frame has a correct exposure. The 40 pictures a imported into photoshop, each photo in a separate layer, then the layers are blended together using the "lighten" blending mode, so just the brighter part of each photo are blended onto the picture, so it is important that all settings in camera are set to manual, even the white balance (WB).

There is a window program "startrails.exe" by a German that does the same thing http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html, ii´s actually faster than the photoshop way, but I´m on a Macbook Pro.

I'll try that. Thanks for the explanation plus the photoshop tips!
Plus I'm meaning to learn a bit of HDR photography as the camera does it "in body" so should be pretty easy to play with....

[SHIVA]

PENTAX Recall:
Pentax is offering a free service to users of K-5 DSLRs that have been affected by the widely reported 'stained image sensor' issue.

http://support.pentaximaging.com/node/1214

[r1 Convert]

Ill respond fully later but i reckon if we we're playing poker, i might win

Canon EOS 1DS MK III
3 x L series IS USM Lens's

Never get the bloody thing out, too frightening about dropping it !

To be honest, offers accepted

[r1 Convert]

(Canon EOS 5D MKII, 17-40 mm. f/4.0L zoom lens, 30 sec. @ f/4.0, ISO 400)

Wow!!!! I did the north star 9 hour exposure at college (managed to get 3/4 circles on the surrounding stars) but it wasn't anywhere near this standard.

Frisky, fantastic lighting on all you're photo 's !!

[badger]

Well I said I was going to spend some energy looking at HOW to carry a DSLR on the bike.

I've looked at this before over the years, and tried a lot of different things.

The only real way to get decent photo's without hassle is a tank bag. I've tried back-pack (remove gloves, take off backpack, get camera, etc..). It does not sound like much, but I always found removing a backpack to be a absolute pain for some reason.

I also tried a top-box approach, but this was even worse. Either you have to get off the bike completely, or near break your lower spine in twisting around to access it.

I even had a brief try of a DSLR chest pack. Terrible; don't try this!!!

So the conclusion was a tank-bag.
I'm protective of my camera gear, so wanted something specific to cameras, water-resistant, and also room for non-camera items (like money, passport, smokes, etc..)
I have a Kata holster, and LOVE it - quick access, incredibly good quality, and has been BRILLIANT over the last couple of years. Highly recommend these. You can get a massive amount of kit in these bags!



I was planning on combing it with this generic tank harness from Kriega - I use their other bags for touring, and just love them and the quality. It is a general fitting "tank-bra" that you can clip in other components. I was planning on rigging some quick release buckles to the Kata camera bag, and hey presto!





BUT what I ended up with though was a bit unplanned - a touratech camera tank bag. They were not on my radar as are £200!!!! But I found an ebay special - ex-shop-demo, for only £60.
I'll let you all know how I get on with it.....

[Bernardo]

Good research job Rick

another option is the bmw rucksak with the optional vario insert, no big (Nº3 in the pic) really waterproof and useful, only cost a little fortune....

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10737

tankbag.jpg (143.97 KiB) Viewed 3979 times

I don't like tank bags but I think is a good choice, Today I carry my camera in the rear bag, in the center, between the soft clothes. I know I NEVER will fall of the bike, but........

[badger]

I don't like tank bags but I think is a good choice, Today I carry my camera in the rear bag, in the center, between the soft clothes. I know I NEVER will fall of the bike, but........

I know what you mean. I've never gotten on with tank bags, so we'll see how this one goes.... it really does seem the only conclusion for good carrying and access to a SLR though.
The BMW bag looks nice, gives the touratech a run for its $$$$$....

I still think my "tank bra" and normal photo bag idea was a winner!....

[ssduc]

I've given up on easy access to my DSLR while riding and gone to a high quality point and shoot for those times when I want to grab a few shots. Really, it is the rare circumstance when a camera like my S90 can not come close to or even match my Nikon DSLRs. If fact, it is often much better because I am much more likely to take pictures when all I have to do is pull a camera out of my pocket and can use and LCD for composing the shot.

Often times I'll take a DSLR on a ride and never take it out of it's bag. Where DSLRs come in very hand, and why I still bother to carry one, is when a filter is needed. In fact, I'd say 90% of my DSLR shots from rides are taken using a 35mm prime (it's too much wory for me to worry about the stress of being on a bike resulting in damage to an expensive zoom so I usually don't bother) loaded with 2 stop ND gradient filter for cloudy days or a polarizer for sunny days.

[badger]

I've given up on easy access to my DSLR while riding and gone to a high quality point and shoot for those times when I want to grab a few shots. Really, it is the rare circumstance when a camera like my S90 can not come close to or even match my Nikon DSLRs. If fact, it is often much better because I am much more likely to take pictures when all I have to do is pull a camera out of my pocket and can use and LCD for composing the shot.

Often times I'll take a DSLR on a ride and never take it out of it's bag. Where DSLRs come in very hand, and why I still bother to carry one, is when a filter is needed. In fact, I'd say 90% of my DSLR shots from rides are taken using a 35mm prime (it's too much wory for me to worry about the stress of being on a bike resulting in damage to an expensive zoom so I usually don't bother) loaded with 2 stop ND gradient filter for cloudy days or a polarizer for sunny days.

Snap - the same here, and a common story I think! I gave up with the SLR, and the times I'd take it were infrequent, a hassle, and it usually stayed in the backpack/topbox without use.

But like a few of us (BMW riders & photography hobbies go together eh) I enjoy the photography side of things, especially with a DSLR. I had a couple of Canons - G9 and G10 but while very good they are just not the same.

Like you I often (usually?) use primes, 70mm being my current favourite. I need to buy some filters now I think of it. My old ones don't fit these wide pentax lenses, and I've been fudging it with paint.net (photoshop type) for too long (and often don't get around to much post processing). I have figured out for me the enjoyment is in the taking, not the sitting for hours at a PC tweaking it!

[ssduc]

I've given up on easy access to my DSLR while riding and gone to a high quality point and shoot for those times when I want to grab a few shots. Really, it is the rare circumstance when a camera like my S90 can not come close to or even match my Nikon DSLRs. If fact, it is often much better because I am much more likely to take pictures when all I have to do is pull a camera out of my pocket and can use and LCD for composing the shot.

Often times I'll take a DSLR on a ride and never take it out of it's bag. Where DSLRs come in very hand, and why I still bother to carry one, is when a filter is needed. In fact, I'd say 90% of my DSLR shots from rides are taken using a 35mm prime (it's too much wory for me to worry about the stress of being on a bike resulting in damage to an expensive zoom so I usually don't bother) loaded with 2 stop ND gradient filter for cloudy days or a polarizer for sunny days.

Snap - the same here, and a common story I think! I gave up with the SLR, and the times I'd take it were infrequent, a hassle, and it usually stayed in the backpack/topbox without use.

But like a few of us (BMW riders & photography hobbies go together eh) I enjoy the photography side of things, especially with a DSLR. I had a couple of Canons - G9 and G10 but while very good they are just not the same.

Like you I often (usually?) use primes, 70mm being my current favourite. I need to buy some filters now I think of it. My old ones don't fit these wide pentax lenses, and I've been fudging it with paint.net (photoshop type) for too long (and often don't get around to much post processing). I have figured out for me the enjoyment is in the taking, not the sitting for hours at a PC tweaking it!

Canon in camera software does a poor job. With my S90, I shoot RAW then do a quick Sharpen in PS (always using the same parameters), then save as JPG. I do 100% agree with your last point but the effort is minimal and the results worth the small amount of time.
The new Olympus XZ-1 looks very promising. I may give that camera a test run.

[Bernardo]

Often times I'll take a DSLR on a ride and never take it out of it's bag. Where DSLRs come in very hand, and why I still bother to carry one,

It's true, I think we must agree that DSLR are not practical to use when ride in bike, also it's no quite practical to carry the kit in a long trip, even car or plane.

But I love them , settings, possibilities, quality, almost perfect pics, only damaged by the photographer!


To use in bike, I think is good to follow the excellent recomendations in this forum "best compact digital cameras" viewtopic.php?f=51&t=3953
Adding many new cameras with excellent resolution, video capabilities and cheaper than DSLR,.....

[throttlemeister]

They may not be practical, but I always stuff my 5D and lenses in my luggage. I rather leave other stuff home than my camera gear. I couldn't use a compact, even though it is much more practical. I'd be kicking myself in the head for ages coming home from a great trip and watching the pictures knowing that good shots could have been great shots had I bothered to bring the big kit.

So I basically end up sacrificing 1 of the sport cases for camera gear, leaving the other for clothes. Though now that I have a Sargent seat with storage pod, I may leave home the battery pack/grip and put the camera there.

But in the end, the best camera you can buy is the one that you take with you and actually use. For me it is my trusty 5D, but for a lot (most?) people that will not be such a big camera.