Talking Cameras

Considering I'm a professional photographer, talking about still cameras would very much interest me!

Canon 20D with a 70-200 f/2.8 and Nikon D200 with a 300 f/2.8.

I was borrowing the Nikon, otherwise I would always go with Canon. Nikon has the better user interface, but Canon's color reproduction is far better. Canon's also typically deal with high ISO noise much better than Nikons.

That's the great thing about old film cameras. They can put up with a lot more abuse than digital cameras can.

And I don't think I can help this time.

I have in film cameras an original Nikon F with a plain non metered prism. I have a 24mm 2.0, 50mm 1.4, 50mm 2.8 micro Nikkor, 105mm 2.5, 75-150mm series E (not as well made but really crisp). I've yet to see superior black and white digital photography to what this camera is capable of producing with TMax film and developer.

My digital system is a 40D Canon with a 15mm, 50mm 1.4, 300mm 2.8 (Tokina...slower focus but sharp and full of contrast and less than half the Canon). I also have a Tokina 19-35 which was given to me and is surprisingly good.

I have a Toyo Rail with a Red Dot Artar 8", Super Angulon 121mm, Fujinon 150mm.

I have a Kodak Wooden Portrait 8x10 with a 12" Commercial Ektar which produces the best images but is quite expensive to use today plus I have to drive quite a length to enlarge as I don't have an enlarger that big.

Before my stroke I spent 40 years in the photo business so I could tell you a lot of good and bad.

Thomas

I can go on for hours about the Panasonic CCTV cameras I sell...if...anyone's...interested...

Just wondering if any of you have used a macro lens for close-up photography.

We want to get a good digital camera that can be used for imaging polymers and tissues that are only about 1 inch x 1 inch in dimension. We narrowed down on the Canon 7D but we're trying to decide what sort of macro lens to use. I saw a demo of the Canon 100mm L series lens and it was great but pricey ($1k). There are cheaper brands for a 100mm lens (Tamron) at half the price. There's also a cheaper version of the Canon 100mm lens (EF) but I haven't been able to compare them all. Any ideas?

Thanks for the suggestions, Tom. The 50D has a max of 6 frames per sec, which is slow for our needs. We want to get about 20 fps since I will be doing image processing to track the motion of points in the sample which is being continuously deformed. The 7D seemed ideal because it is capable of doing 24 fps and 30 fps.

The 65mm lens looks cool. I need to look at which macro lens is ideal. It says that I have to get real close with the 65mm lens and that it needs a flash. I will be using the lens indoors on a table and I'm augmenting the lighting with fiber optic lights. I cannot get closer than 5-6 inches within the sample. Does that change things?

Yes, it's for research work at school. I went to the downtown Minneapolis store of National Camera and got a demo of the 7D. I think I'll use your idea of asking a Canon rep to contact us. And yes, getting a sample to check on our test bench would be the best test.

Thanks!

I am getting this babe here

http://www.plaisio.gr/Sound-Vision/Phot … 50K001.htm

Looks awesome!


About our camera needs... it turns out that we have an unused SLR camera and a macro lens that was purchased for a previous project. We have a Nikon D70s body with a Sigma EX 105mm 1:2.8D DG macro lens.
The latter will do just fine for our needs. However the D70 is only for photos and not video.

We're now looking at a cheaper Canon EOS camera body to use the lens with. The Rebel EOS T1i seems very similar to the Canon 7D and is cheaper. We were unable to find a Nikon SLR camera that can shoot video at 20fps and is priced around $1k or less. This present a small problem that we have a Sigma lens that has a Nikon 'F' mount. And we want to use it on a Canon EOS. We'll have a to get a Nikon F lens to Canon EOS adapter. That will mean we can't use auto-focus and auto-aperture. But that's ok. We anyway wanted the manual mode only.




That's a good point. But we're buying just one and it's just under $2k so I'm not sure if they'll think it worth. But I'll give it a shot.

Yeah, tell me about it! It's either that we wait for a few months to get the good Canon camera and lenses from a grant that will come later. Or we try to use what we already have with little out-of-pocket cost and use it for experiments right away. I really want something quick since that will help me for an upcoming conference and papers. Tough decision.

I've seen decent reviews for Sigma lenses. The one we have has been reviewed well here for it's sharpness with manual focus.

Manual focus is all we care about.

But as another twist to the story, we found that a group member has the Canon Mark II at home! He's bringing it to school tomorrow so that will make things exciting.

It looks like we will get a good Canon EOS for now and use the Sigma lens on it. Later, when we have more money we'll get a Canon lens.

I never liked converter adaptors either but you really have no money to work with.