20D; Camera equivalent of God?

On 27 Apr 2005 15:05:36 -0700, "Scott W" wrote:


james wrote:
In article ,
Alan Browne wrote:


james wrote:


I wonder how an 11x17 print from a digicam compares to an 11x17
print
from a Linhof (all in skilled hands), for instance, being
subjected to
10x loupe scrutiny by a judge in a gallery competition?

Meaningless.

Meaningless in an aesthetic sense, but not in a technical one.
Has digital photography converged on silver photography, or has it
not?

Here where I sit, it certainly has. But what about for medical,
surveillance, and that sort of application?

Medical is very rapidly converting to digital and I believe most
surveillance did some years ago.

In part because of the "portability" of digital and the extended
infrared response of an unfiltered CCD. My Panasonic CCD surveillance
camera (actually bought for astronomy) can see an entire room lit up
by a couple infrared LEDs.
-Rich

"KO" wrote in message
...

"Skip M" wrote in message
news:YxLbe.1$6f3.0@fed1read07...
"Musty" wrote in message
...
snip

The problem I have with the 20D is the lack of a true spotmeter that is
linked to the focus point, and changeable.
My A2 and 1n film cameras had spot meters that you linked to the focus
point, whichever one you were using. So, if I was shooting a full
length
portrait, the end focus point, now the top one, often was right about
the
eye or forehead of the model. I could meter off of that, but with the
20D,
I'm stuck with a much larger metering area that is linked only to the
center
focus point. It is probably the only thing that I'd change about the
overall operation of the camera. ETT-L II is another, sore, subject...

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com


At the risk of sounding too defensive of the 20D, my shooting is
typically
manual mode (will Av from time to time), so in this mode, I can point
the
middle-AF-point to the metering area of interest, then set my
shutter/aperture and then recompose (for example metering of the sky) -
this
is fairly easy to do. I am just a hobby shooter, so I probably havent
come
across the case where I need one of my 9 AF points to be the meter (I
can
just as easily move the center point is what I am saying) - to say that
the
20D cannot be improved would be naive, but for $1500 it is a damn fine
camera.


Oh, trust me, I like the camera, too. My wife and I both have one. But
I got used to using the spot meter with my earlier film cameras.
Focus and recompose can lead to focusing errors, though, if you're
dealing with small depth of field, or subjects with varying planes.
It's just an irritation, that a camera aimed at high level amateurs and
low level pros doesn't have a spot meter, but a camera like the D70,
aimed squarely at the amateur, has one.
BTW, I find 9 focusing points to be overkill. The five, in a row, that
my 1n and A2 have I found to be perfectly sufficient. The top and bottom
ones (side ones on portrait orientation) I find to be superfluous.

Not only that but the corner ones are quite hard to select with the
joystick. You might try splitting AF from metering using cf4-1. Then all
you need do is compose, focus, meter and shoot. This overcomes the
possible focusing error with the focus-recompose technique.



I've gotten pretty good with selecting the points with the joystick, but
mainly as an exercise...

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

"Fyimo" wrote in message
oups.com...
Skip,

I totally agree with your two points. If the 20D had spot metering and
a metering system that got flash exposure right I would be in love with
my 20D. I like it a lot and get good results with it most of the time.
These are the features I miss the most from my Canon 1N's as I shot
most with the spot meter and I always got great flash pictures.

If canon doesn't fix the flash exposure problem I probably won't
upgrade when they replace the 20D. If they fix the flash exposure
problem, add spot metering, and go to 10 or 12 MP I'll switch in a
minute.

Art

I'm with you...My A2 did everything I wanted it too, my 1n just did it
better...

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

Skip M wrote:



I've gotten pretty good with selecting the points with the joystick, but
mainly as an exercise...

Do you do that to music?



--
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-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.

"RichA" wrote in message
...
Based on review after review, pitting this thing
against everything in it's class, that is the impression
I've gotten. I'd love to know how long it took Canon to
develop it and how they decided to go with it's design
and features. I don't own one, but it's almost like it is as close to
perfect (for it's price) as a camera has ever been.
The other day, I read a review that gave the Nikon D70 a
"3 out of 5" for operations. The lowest I've seen the
Canon score anywhere is 4/5 for anything, as subjective as
that kind of a rating sounds. Canon also took the CMOS sensor,
which people laughed at 10 years ago as vastly inferior to a
CCD and turned it into the best common sensor in digital cameras,
in terms of performance. Only some very expensive CCDs seem to
offer better performance. One retailer told me it was the easiest
camera to sell because no one questions anything but the price.
When they do, he shows them the Rebel XT and the sale is made.
-Rich

If it had the metering and AF systems of the EOS 3 (similar to the 1Dmk2) it
would be near my perfection )

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
Skip M wrote:



I've gotten pretty good with selecting the points with the joystick, but
mainly as an exercise...

Do you do that to music?




Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey..." ;-)

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

Skip M wrote:

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...

Skip M wrote:



I've gotten pretty good with selecting the points with the joystick, but
mainly as an exercise...

Do you do that to music?


Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey..." ;-)

Good 'un!
;-)

--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 22:48:46 -0400, Alan Browne wrote:

To cap it, no DSLR, period, offers in camera stabilization other than
the 7D.

Cheers,
Alan.

Gee, Alan Browne. You called your camera better, now you are ****ed at the
fact that others disagree with you. Whoopee for you - the Minolta has
built in anti-shake. I guess we should all sell our Nikon and Canon ****
to take pictures as good as yours?

You are rapidly becoming a very big asshole on these groups. You probably
won't see this message, because like the other big assholes you killfile
everyone who sees right through your sticky pile of bull****. Too bad...

--
"My beef about digital is that you see certain images out
there, and things are so digital and retouched that you lose
the person in the process - lose the rawness and the
touchability because it is just too perfect." ~ Tony Duran