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Why not archive to hard disk as well. Today 2TB hard disks are common. If you shoot 2GB per day, every single day , you would need almost 3 years to fill 2TB. I am sure most of us dont shoot so much so A 2TB had disk can easily last 5 years or more for most of us.

We should look beyond resolution while selecting a display to edit photos. I have seen some monitors with very good resolution but they really suck at displaying pictures neatly. That happens even if we calibrate them. When I bought a Dell laptop years back, I had an option to choose between a normal LCD and then LCD with "TruLife (TM)". I selected the later and noticed that this display was capable of showing the colors and dynamic range much better than the normal LCD ones, though I don't know what exactly is the difference technically.

I know some guys use monitors with IPS display for photo editing. The traditional studio guys still use CRTs :)

Guys,any suggessions before we go for a shoot in rainy season?How to protect our instrument?

Invest in a good quality camera bag that has weather protection - also called all weather shields/covers. Put in a few silica gel packets into the bag to keep the environment as moisture free as possible.

Very obviously keep the camera from getting wet - especially bodies and lenses that are not weather sealed. Make sure that you immediately wipe off any water that falls on the camera. Do not let it percolate down into the body or barrel of the lens.

You will run the risk of the lenses getting fungus in the rains and during times of high RH. Ideally store the equipment in plastic boxes with silica gel packets and exposed to day light. High humidity and darkness are ideal conditions for fungus.

Buy accessories based on your need. If you think you'll run into a situation needing a tripod, only then decide to get one. Otherwise you'll have things in your kit which are good to have but never get used.

Tripod: If you're into landscapes and may have long exposure shots etc. Get it! However, buy it based on what you see yourself doing in the long run. A medium load capacity tripod would serve better in the long term than just buying based on what you have now. Again, this costs more upfront but saves you the loss of selling used stuff and upgrading later. For starters, look at Velbon/Slik or Manfrotto with a load capacity of atleast 5-7kgs. The general deal is that buy a tripod that can support atleast double of what your gear weighs today or will weigh tomorrow. Also, buy a head with a ballhead rather than the 3 way pano since you'll have more degrees of freedom.

Macro conversion: You could try raynox or the extension tubes. But mind you that you'll need good light to do macro since there are light fall off issues with anything that gets added to your lens. Best way to know if you're a macro guy is to rent a lens and use it for a day or two. If you find shooting bugs interesting, then go ahead and invest, else you know what to do!

Teleconverters: Your current setup wont allow teleconverters. Usually best to be used with fixed lenses rather than zooms unless you have the fast zooms.

Free Advise: Give a thought to what you like to shoot. The SLRs are not do-it-all equipments and you need to choose your kit wisely based on your needs and not what's available in the market.



I would suggest a 550D over the 1100D if you can make the initial stretch. The 550D is VFM in my opinion and will survive longer than the 1100D before the itch for upgrade kicks in. The color contrast between the two cameras is very different and I've witnessed this myself when we compared images shot using the same lens. Again, I'm not saying 1100D is bad, but 550D is better!



Agree with your first comment totally, the ergonomics play a lot of part while you're shooting for longer duration. On your second point, I'm not sure how you'd draw that conclusion. The white balance is generally warmer on the Nikons from what I've seen (again this is my personal perspective) but I don't know whether saying Nikon does better indoors and Canon shines outdoors would be right. The white balance depends on whether you have simple lighting or mixed lighting in your scene. Most times when you have multiple sources of light, the WB temperature would be messed up and will need correction in PP. If you shoot RAW, the WB is immaterial since you can always define it during PP.


It depends on what software you intend to use. If you're not going to use PHotoshop CS package, then a standard config of 4GB Ram, i5/i7 processor etc should be good. But for Photoshop latest versions, you'd need 8GB+ on the RAM and some decent Video RAM if you also do video processing. Buy something with an LED/IPS panel since it has better colors and contrast, I dont think you get calibrated notebook screens but an additional display would help.



The IPS Panels are indeed helpful. Dell does have some good monitors for photo processing which are not very expensive and are apparently calibrated from the factory. Keep in mind that the calibration process is pretty dynamic and the pros would calibrate their screens based on the ambient lighting, but that's if you're too picky about the colors or are going to print big banners or hoardings.



Firstly, try not to use your camera in direct rain or you could invest in a good rain cover if you have to do that. Keep your equipment dry after use and preferably leave it under a bulb overnight or in sunlight whenever you can. That should help you keep fungus away by keeping moisture out. Use silica gels generously if you live in a place with high humidity, you could even get the reusable ones. Lastly, use your gear more often so that it sees light rather than sitting in the dark corner of your closet. :)

Thanks.
I am now keeping it in the bag provided by canon when I purchased the cam.I have put some 8-10 packets of silica gels.I do make sure,I click few times atleast once in 2 days.I hope this will do.How about covering it with polythene bags or cloths,when I need to take it out while raining?Will this help?

Thanks amol
Even i liked 550d it has better specs even though it was launched 2 years back.
But the price diff is like 10k which is tilting me towards 1100d. Since both are entry level only.

One point i found is 550d has some sensor cleaning system.
But still not convinced if i should spend extra 10k because i can get an extra prime lens in that and other accessories

Thanks a ton Amol. :) Long exposure shots are the very reasons that I am thinking of investing on a Tripod. Thanks for suggesting to go for atleast a 5-7 Kg load bearing tripod. I was looking at some smaller ones than those. Now will modify my plans accordingly. I understand your point in going for the good ones straight away rather than getting into the hassles of selling the used ones and upgrading later on.

Thanks a lot once again

Thanks for suggestion. macbook popular choice but too expensive. So want to buy a decent desktop instead.


Thanks for a detailed suggestion with explanation. Thanks again. I am looking for desktop. Already have a net book and mediocre laptop. So dont want to add another laptop and make me lazy.

I guess its wise to have a 500 GB HDD in desktop and another 1 or 2TB as backup.

Thanks amolpol,
I have plans to learn Adobe PS. So i was thinking of a 8GB RAM system with motherboard which supports upto 16GB (just to future proof for couple of years).

Mac Mini is NOT a laptop. Its all in one small square box with a full Apple system.
You buy your own display keyboard and mouse.


http://www.apple.com/in/macmini/

I have been following your queries. If i am not wrong, you are pursuing this as a hobby than a professional requirement.

To be frank desktops are thing of the past now. They occupy space and are not portable.

Two important things for image processing are
1. More and more memory, i.e RAM. for 32 bit OS, 4 GB is the max you can go, anything above that may not be useful(if you go for 64bit OS, yes you can stretch upto 8GB). Instead you can go for 4GB DDR3 with better speed.

2. Monitor: resolution is important here since we are talking about fine details

RAM is more important than the processing power i feel(unless it is video encoding which requires CPU as well, but then once you start the process it will be running in the background. So unless you are a pro who earns money out of it, you can always let it run a bit longer.

I am an opensource guy, and i use GIMP on linux(it runs on Windows too) GIMP is opensource and as good as photoshop

And i run a old Dell Latitude with intel core 2 duo and 4GB RAM. and its decent performance(because i have the 4GB RAM)

So if you can target a laptop with intel core i5 second gen and atleast 4GB RAM and good 15"+ monitor, you should be all set.(should be defnitely below 40K)

P.S : I am not a pro here. I just play around with graphics a bit with my old Core2Duo for my web projects. and felt the performance is adequate for hobby purpose

For the standard bodies/lenses, a very light drizzle wont harm your equipment and a cloth/handkerchief would do good to provide protection. The fully weather sealed bodies can take more than that without any worry. I wouldn't advise plastic bags since they would trap a lot more moisture inside which could turn worse than having a few drops of water that can be wiped off. Alternately you could use some covers that are made of the water resistant parachute material (used for umbrellas and rain jackets) since they can breathe unlike plastic.


I'd still say, think about it! may be drop into one of the canon pro shops and try out both bodies and get some test images to compare for yourself. There is virtually no resale value for the 1100d and you'd get a measly 8-10k if you decide to upgrade later. And BTW, is the 10k difference only on the camera body or with the 18-55 kit? AFAIK, the 1100d kit is without IS while the 550D is with the 18-55 IS kit.

1100D is with more latest Is II kit. And if i ignore the made in china ones which are retailing online for as low as 22500, i can still grab a Made in Taiwan one for about 26500 max.

EOS550D body only is 33K and on ebay i see some sellers giving away the IS kit for 35K(and non IS one for 32K) and Flipkart/JJ Mehta still charges around 38K.

Now for a budget of 35K, there is even Nikon D3200 which is latest launch.
I am again confused:uncontrol

One question for the gurus:

I liked the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm VR II lens immensely, but read somewhere that its good only with the older 6-8 megapixel cameras, not with the present ones.

Would it be a good combo to buy nikon D5100 along with this lens?

What is are you guys suggesting?

This is one of the best walk-around lenses for a DX camera. But a 11x zoom comes with compromises. They are not so great that you need disregard this lens. It is very similar to the 28-300 FX zoom.

If you are finicky and a pixel peeper so concerned about image quality and distortion, by all means go in for better lenses. But I dont believe you should. A compact DSLR like the D5100 + this single walk-about lens is a great match. You can travel light.