I finally done it!!

clawz

clawz

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Thats right!, some of you may have read my threads on buying a new camera... well ladys and gents, I took the plunge and purchased my self the Canon EOS 350D! :naughty: and i'm totaly in love with it! :love:
I got it out of the box like an excited school kid at Christmas and took photos right away, well i would have done but the posty arrived too late to deliver the memory card so i had to wait till tuesday to to pick it up cos of the bank holiday monday! :bang:
But she's all up and running now and i've got some cracking pictures already!:D

Quick question though, has anyone taken any steller pictures (as in stars in the sky) I tried last night and couldn't get the stars in focus along with a long enough exposure to get a decent picture :crying: any ideas folks? (mst add though, i've not FULLY read the manual yet! :LOL: )

Only thing thats pee'd me off now is that Canon have now anounced that the new 400D is due out this autumn :bang: oh well you win some you loose some! :LOL:
 
You won't focus on stars with autofocus (well you might but not easily) so switch the lens to manual focus and do it by hand turning the focus ring until you see it clearly.

You need a tripod as it will be a long exposure. Just experiment until you get something you like! Try Av mode at f5.6 ,iso 100 and let the camera work out how long to open the shutter. If it is still too dark try a lower fstop number and higher iso. I'd guess it has a noise cancelling option in the menu somewhere like the 20D does if noise (grain) is a problem.

Just experiment :) Once you decide you just must have that big lens for the moon it starts getting expensive :)
 
Well i did try the AF to start, then realised the camera weren't liking it at all! :LOL: so i switched to the MF and the larger 55mm-200mm kit lens and found that the focus point on the MF was JUST out of range at the end lens. it wouldn't quite make it, which is why i ask about is there any particular kit i sholud look to invest in at a later date?

I'm gonna be be concentrating on landscapes and i think maybe motorsports too, they suit my style of photography. I've found that my landscape photos can be quite moody. With the kit 18-55mm lens i can take pretty good ones, however i've seen one in the classifieds section, a 15-30mm lens. Is there any point in maybe gettin this? i mean focal length wise its only 3mm off of the one i have..... wil it make THAT much differance?

Have you done the Canon training course? is it worth it? it looks quite interesting. :thinking:
 
clawz said:
so i switched to the MF and the larger 55mm-200mm kit lens and found that the focus point on the MF was JUST out of range at the end lens. it wouldn't quite make it
Click to expand...

Unless you use a lens of the wrong make and an adaptor to fit it on your camera (eg a canon lens on a Nikon body) all lenses will focus at infinity. So your lens not being able to focus at infinity sounds faulty. If the lens barrel is marked with focus distances there will be a figure 8 laying on its side at the infinity setting.

The kit lens gets bad comments because it is a bit cheap and plastic looking but I think it is a good lens. I would wait at least a few weeks before rushing out buying more lenses. Read up on likely choices and try to borrow (or use one in a shop) to see if you get the angle of view you wanted.

I come from a manual everything SLR many years ago so I'm not interested in a course :) . It might help someone learn the basics - but equally you can do that here ;)
 
I agree with Robert. Wait a while before you upgrade your kit lens. Unless you've got a duff copy, they can be an absolutely fantastic lens.

With the stars thing, look for the infinity. Maybe your lens is getting stuck, or just not getting it right.

Try it in the daytime, Try manually focusing to infinity then and seeing if anything way in the distance goes out of focus. With the AF it probably couldn't lock onto anything, with it being dark.

With stars, you need a long exposure really to capture anything, which means there is little light available. And it's contrasty light that AF needs.

For stars I'd try something like f8, ISO 100, then like Robert says, let the camera work out the shutter times. A tripod is essential. Using the timer function and mirror lockup (custom function), would help too.

If you find that the camera isn't compensating enough, and it's still too dark, try increasing the exposure compensation by 2/3 to 1 stop and seeing how that turns out.
 
Well I looked on both lenses and as the focus ring goes round 18-55 & 55-200, the numbers just stop there, they dont have infinity on the ring like my olympus lenses. As i've not really read the manual i put the settings to A-dep and the camera set itself to a 30 second exposure, I had it on a tripod and when I veiwed the end results they seemed out of focus.

Oh well I spose it's my own fault for not reading the manual! I think I'll read it then ask more questions as to what i'm doing wrong. Not only that but i need to re-read up on all the theroy behind photography, I studied it at college but that was a long time ago! lol, all these f8's and f2.1 etc are confusing the hell out me again!, i wanna be able to get back into it and get the most out of the camera and not use it like a bloomin compact! :LOL:
 
55-200 is the focal length scale (how much zoom) the focal distance (how far away from you the subject is) is marked near the ring you turn for manual focus and is in ft or (m)eters.

The kit lens does not have the distance markings. Distance markings are sometimes inside a little window on the lens.
 
In that case then Robert I needn't bother lookin any harder :thinking: :LOL:

Can you suggest any website's/books that are more of refresher reading rather than a 'this is what a camera is' back to basics kinda thing? :LOL:
 
Search the forums for 'photography books' and you'll turn up some past reccomendations. The glossary (on the 'extras' menu at the top) has some good explanations of specific terms.
 
Excellent, cheers Robert. :D
 
Yup, the glossary is a minefield of what phrases and terms mean what :) Have a browse through and see what you think....
 
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