Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Gadgets, Computers & Software (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/)

-   -   The DSLR Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/11582-dslr-thread-231.html)

In general short (3x-5x) zooms usually have less distortion (barrel/pincushion) and are sharper than long (10x-30x) zooms. The canon S90 has a maximum aperture of f4.9 at the tele end and f2 at the wide end.

Given that Canon has not included Full HD video or stuffed too many pixels in this model, Rudra feels that maybe the S90 is targetted at people who are more serious about still phtography.

This is what I wanted to say, but didn't know these technical terms :D I'd have just just written 'sharper' :)

Dear friends

I'm going to Sikkim in a week for a holiday and I need tips to shoot landscape photos.

My kit comprises of a Canon 500D, a 18-55 IS and a 50mm 1.8. (and a 55-250 IS which wont be used I guess)

Im looking for:

1. What F value is the best?
2. Advantages of using a tripod? Is it required? Should I carry it with me?
3. Can the 50 mm 1.8 be used? Or should it be only the 18-55 IS?
4. Tips to shoot snow
5. Techniques of shooting starry skies

I really want to take some excellent photos. :) So please help.

@Proxima:
For landscape photography, you can use a narrow aperture. (higher f number)
There is an online DOF calculator by which you can get an idea about what kind of f-value you can use to get everything in focus for various kinds of shots.

Advantage of using tripod: It keeps the camera steady :)

No harm in carrying a 50mm if it doesn't occupy much luggage space

I've never shot in snow but I'd be careful not to overexpose my shots and probably I'd bring down the EV levels a bit & meter carefully.

Our long exposure Guru can provide tips on shooting starry skies - Tanveer. :)

While Gurus will give you the right gyan, here from what I learned so far.

I think Canon kit lens had F8 as sweet spot for landscape
Carry tripod, for, night pics, star trails, panos, long exposure for waterfalls etc etc

I think use 18mm as much as possible, but do not hesitate to try zooming, even 55-250 can be useful

when shooting snow, it is suggested to over expose 1 or 2 steps, because snows fools the metering system

For star trails, instead of shooting a plain sky, add a good foreground object to focus and try to compose the star trail around it

1. f5.6-f11 is ideal for landscape
2. yes unless u r an expert photographer, u need to use tripod for best sharper picture, u can buy a small ones (portable)
3. depending on what you shoot, 50mm standard might require, its not bigger in size, you better carry.
4. make ISO 100 and keep aperture low, shutter speed around 1/60-1/250 so it doesn't bleach. use cooling filers and polarizers and UV filters for the best pictures.

I thought the other way around, but you are right - I was reading on this. Thanks for sharing

With the 18-55 IS lens use F8, its the sweet spot. Do not go below F9.
If light is bad do not hesitate to use F3.5, only make sure that if you are shooting at 18mm focus on an object atleast 20 meters away.
50 1.8 is mostly a potrait lens, or to do flowers
Overexposose by a stop (set exposure compensation +1 when there is lot of snow in scene)
For starry skies you need a bulb remove.
Do not put any UV filter, if you want deep blue skies use a polarizer.

I think 500D is better.
550D is 18MP which I feel is too much for APS-C.

1050p High definition is sure shaky for speed moving objects. Its just 20 frames/sec in this mode.
720p mode is good. 30 frames/sec.
Canon has improved the 1050p in 550D though. It has option of 30f/s at 1050p.

Just a small note on metering of snow (or for that matter metering any other object). Try to visually find how bright or dark the dominant color of the object. If it's black color subject than you need to key in -2 to -1.5 stop exposure compensation. For snow it's most of the time +1.5 to +2 stops. Similarly for a Red colored object you may have to compensate with +1 stop of light and so forth and dark blue object will be around -1 stop. Keeping in mind that the metering is done using a spot meter(or partial metering). So try to think visually when you see a color tone as at which grey level it will be or how bright or dark the tone is and compensate accordingly. For evaluative or Matrix it may be slightly different depending on how dominant the color is with respect to the surroundings.
Another example, for sunsets, it's best to spot meter the bright orange color patch next to the Sun (without the sun being in the metering zone) and depending on the intensity, key in +1 or +2 exposure compensation. Otherwise you'll end up with a underexposed sunset picture.
Why is it so? Because the camera meter is built to meter for neutral Grey and any tone which is not neutral grey will fool the camera's logic. As the logic will always try to make the tone to be neutral grey. So for a black object will be tried to be rendered as grey and will be overexposed by 1.5 to 2 stops by the camera meter, hence you need to compensate with -1.5 or -2 stops to keep it black. Similarly on the other end, i.e. for Snow, it'll be underexposed by 1.5 or 2 stops (may be 1 stop too) by camera's meter and you need to compensate by adding +1.5 or 2 stops of more light.

And about the tripod, this is must. It's cumbersome but get used to it if you want a good photograph (specially Landscapes).
Another thing, as you are going to Sikkim (i.e. a cold place), keep more batteries than what you need. The batteries run out pretty fast there due to the cold. I had learned it the hard way and funnily that too during a trip to Sikkim only. 2 of my CR123 batts died prematurely due to cold and I was wondering what might have happened to them. Yeah, it was long time back. And keep the spare batteries in a warm place(better to keep it close to body).

I am not sure if this is the right thread for this question but a search on film scanners only brought this thread so here it goes:

I am looking to buy a film scanner to scan some print film I recently used. Actually I am OK even with a flat bed scanner if the results are good enough. Any one with any suggestions or pointers?

In the same boat!! I'm looking at picking either the Canon 500D or Nikon D5000. EOS costs more than Nikon, by about 4-5k. I'm leaning towards the Canon 500D though. Both are equally good and its just about how comfy you are with one.

If I remember correctly there was one Konica Minolta scanner which was pretty good for film scanning. It was around 13-15k (much cheaper compared to Nikon ones which were like 50k) around 4-5 years back and you can easily get a second hand one much cheaper now. Can't remember the model number though.

From the dpreview samples, 550D is better when it comes to noise

pramodkumar's new posession! (The lens)


Sorry for the crappy pics, its my 2MP cell phone cam.


It's a 100-300mm Minolta Xi F4.5/5.6 AF . Was used by some friend of him with the old Minolta film SLR.

Today we checked out the lens, AF works pretty fast, but it took us a while to figure out how the zooming was done - it is actually done by pulling the front element out! There is a button on the lens for MZ-Az (Manual Zoom - Automatic Zoom) If it is put in AZ, then I guess it can be worked with the camera controls if it has one.



The lens has pretty nice color reproduction and sharpness. The inner glass elements have some fungus and needs cleaning. But who's complaining, he got it for FREE!!!

I love Sony Alpha for this! Being able to plug and play these old Minolta glasses.

Pramod, waiting for some sample pics.