New camera

[Rossluck]

I just bought a camera (Canon EOS 30D) so I should be able to start uploading a few photos soon. But what is fascinating about these new digitals is how much they pack into them. The last SLR I used was about 20 years ago, and that was a "state of the art" Nikon FA.

The most obvious thing is you don't need film, and you have around 450 shots with a 2GB falsh card. Now this is an easy thing to get used to (although I can't imagine how I'm going to process the flash card in my dark room: what chemicals do I have to buy?)

The next thing I've noticed is that when it's on fully automatic it produces pretty good shots, and if you tweak it by getting a light reading from a middle range area, and then lift and shoot, you can over-ride it without having to set aperture or shutter speed priority.

But the most impressive feature is the auto depth of field setting. The camera will actually try and achieve maximum depth of field by selecting a close and distant object and trying to have them both in focus. Those Japanese.

The only problem I have is that I'm not sure I have a program on my PC capable of reducing the size of an image so I can upload it. At the moment they're around 3.5 mbs.

I took a whole lot of photos on the weekend that I wanted to share. My FIL gave me his whole workshop of tools. He is 80 (last weekend) and has emphysema. He hasn't been in the shed for about ten years and it's full of dust and cobwebs and a wood lathe and chisels and a table saw and a bandsaw and Makita tools and so on. I loaded up my truck and brought the whole lot home. Perhaps the most interesting thing is about four wheelbarrow loads of turning blanks of a range of timbers. We're still sorting it out. :U

[Gingermick]

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=36666&highlight=resize+photo

If you have MS office that comes with photo manager or you could get photoshop or

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=photo+editors&meta=

hope that helps

[Big Shed]

You could get a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements for about $90 from memory, $125 with Premier Elements if you want to do video editing as well.

Great program, will do everything you can ever think of.

[jow104]

To reduce the picture size for uploading I always go to the RESIZE option in image software and reduce to picture down to a 6x4" @72dpi. and then use the export option (this is the email option in most software )

Pictures should then be under 100KBs.

Surely your camera came with some imaging software?

[Rossluck]

Surely your camera came with some imaging software?


Now that you mention it....:B

[keith53]

Rossluck,

You should be able to change the size of the photo file on the camera by changing the image quality. e.g. I've got a Fuji Finepix 7000 and if I set the image quality up to 12 megapixels, I get a huge file size. If I set it down to 1 megapixel, it considerably reduces the size of the file and Elements has no problem re-sizing the photo for upload to the board.

Good luck with the new toy.

[joe greiner]

For pics destined for uploading, I just set the camera to a coarser image and all is well; no blood, no sweat, no tears.

The film cost is hard to beat. But the savings is offset by battery cost. Better to use re-chargeables. The only chemical you need is a beer or two.:D

Semi-automatic colour balance is another nice feature. No need for filters for tungsten vs daylight vs fluoro, etc., especially fluoro that don't have a well-defined colour temperature.

Joe

[Harry72]

Ross your canon should've come with ACD photo programs and Digital Photo Professional 2.2, zoom browser.

[Stringy]

I don't worry about what size the photo is. Right klick on the photo you want to post and send it to mail recipient, when asked do you want to make photo smaller click Yes then copy and paste it back from outlook to a different folder, they are always under 100mb and consistent quality:2tsup:.

[jow104]

I don't worry about what size the photo is. Right klick on the photo you want to post and send it to mail recipient, when asked do you want to make photo smaller click Yes then copy and paste it back from outlook to a different folder, they are always under 100mb and consistent quality:2tsup:.

I've had a computer 8 years and I didn't know that!! thanks.

[Grunt]

Get the free Google Picassa program which is a photo browser that has the simplest image manipulation and fixer around. It's very good.

I would always take my photos at the highest quality. Otherways, one day you'll take a pearler of a picture and you won't be able to print it because it's of too low a quality.

Chris

[Peter57]

Ross,
I have a Canon 350D and there was a program included with it called Zoom Browser EX. It's found in the Canon utilities that were loaded on the machine with the Canon software. It has a function that both reduces the physical size and file size of the images. It's dead easy to use.
The attached file was 3.5Mb in it's original form. Resizing and reducing file size was done with the Zoombrowser EX program in about 30 seconds.

You may want to check your canon software and see if they provided you with a copy.

PM me if you have other questions about that software.

Cheers,
Peter

[scooter]

I would always take my photos at the highest quality. Otherways, one day you'll take a pearler of a picture and you won't be able to print it because it's of too low a quality.

Chris


Second Grunts words, I reckon with computer storage space so cheap, the go is to take high quality pics all the time then resize to post on the forums, email, or whatever.

[jow104]

Peter your photograph, is that an hairy lady laying in the grass at sunset?

[Peter57]

Nah,
just Mount Kembla at sunset. Good thing about digital cameras is that you never seem to run out of things to photograph.

[Angus]

Ross your canon should've come with ACD photo programs and Digital Photo Professional 2.2, zoom browser.

Version 3.0.1 of DPP has just been released (It is a free upgrade to the version that came with your camera) and should do all that you require Ross. Combined with Adobe PhotoShop Elements (or Lightroom 1.0 if you shoot raw files) it will give you all that you require to get the most out of your 30D's images.

Go to the Drivers and Downloads tab at the link below to get DPP 3.0.1 and the latest versions of EOS Utility and Zoom Browser:
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=12929

[Rossluck]

Thanks eveyone for your responses. I've loaded the software that came with the camera and I'll try post some soon.

The funny thing is that when I first started using the camera I was impressed with the "film speed". That is, I thought that the digital technology was producing the equivalent of a fast film speed in the old chemical film terms (which meant that you could buy 200 iso film and close down the aperture for a good depth of field ot take fast "sports photos at a high shutter speed, and so on).

But after showing SWMBO the photos that I took indoors "without a flash", she pointed out that a flash had popped up on the top of the camera. I have to admit that I didn't know about it and had spent $500 on a flash.:-

I'll get there....

[bitingmidge]

Hehe, don't worry, the external flash isn't wasted. The onboard jobbie is powerful, but doesn't bounce!

You can turn off the camera flash and try again at something stupid like ASA3200 equivalent.

I'm looking forward to seeing the shots!

Cheers,

P:D

[woodbe]

Rossluck,

Just a quick note about software. The programs that came with the camera are quite good enough to do anything you might want. A lot of people never use anything else, so give them a try. Rest assured that if you don't find them to your liking, there are a lot of alternatives out there and you are sure to find something that suits. You don't have to spend a bomb on it, but you can if you want to... :)

woodbe.

[Harry72]

Hehe, don't worry, the external flash isn't wasted. The onboard jobbie is powerful, but doesn't bounce!

You can turn off the camera flash and try again at something stupid like ASA3200 equivalent.

I'm looking forward to seeing the shots!

Cheers,

P:D
I went from this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v725/ST170ish/before.jpg
to this after playin with some settings!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v725/ST170ish/after.jpg
and from the same spot... just swung around on the tripod
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v725/ST170ish/widowshot.jpg

Not bad considering its off the balcony of our hotel room, Picton Sth island NZ

[ptrott]

I have the 350D canon also, and what a great camera they are. I could not afford a Macro lens for it yet so I bought a threaded ring so I can screw a 50mm lens off my old Olympus SLR onto the face of one of my 350D lenses and this is the result.
This is not a cropped image. The depth of field is however very small, just a few milimetres.
I am looking forward to getting to know how to drive the camera properly when time permits.

[ciscokid]

I have the 30D and agree that it is a fine camera. I simply use Windows viewer to shrink my photos. Right click on the .jpg and select 'edit'. Use the 'image-stretch/skew' command and take it to about 25%. No real loss of image quality and the files shrink considerably.