Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am currently using a Canon G1 and want to move way up. I had a Canon EOS A2E which I sold to get my G1.

I primarily shoot ball pythons (www.ballpython.ca) and would like to know what set-up you would recommend? Lenses (make), Flash etc. I find that to capture the true color of my animals is difficult at times.

My wife and I also love to travel so I also want a lense that is of general use as well.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

MJ
Markus Jayne Ball Pythons

I just bought a 10D about 10 days ago. I already had the Canon EOS system, lenses, flashes, etc. I was using and EOS3 film body and had an Elan IIe for a backup.

The lenses I have are:

28-80 f2.8 zoom
55mm f2.8 macro
75-300 f3.5 zoom
170-500mm f4 zoom

For flash I use a Canon Speedlight 550EX, and I have a 420EX Speedlight for a slave flash.

For general travel photography, I would probably just take the 28-80 and the 75-300 and leave the rest at home. I would also just take the 550EX flash and a tripod and release cable.

For photographing snakes, I normally use the 55mm macro. You will need to play around with lighting techniques to find what gives you the best results, but I found that using the ETTL flash and bouncing into an umbrella or off a white surface gives me good results.

The good thing about digital I'm finding is that you can do an awful lot of color manipulation, cropping, exposure manipulation, etc. in Photoshop (or Elements) in the computer. Elements 2.0 comes with the camera and is really a very powerful program. It may negate your need to spend the $500 for the full Photoshop 8. The other really, really good thing is that you can check composition in the camera immediately after the shot. You really can't tell a lot about color balance or exposure with the on-camera display, but being able to see the composition is worth it's weight in gold.

What I'm finding so far about the 10D is that is it a workhorse camera and will absolutely do everything I need it to do. If you are familiar with Canon EOS cameras, it is very friendly and easy to get used to. The controls are very similarly placed. One extremely valuable feature that the 10D has, but the Rebel Digital doesn't is a mirror lockup (Custom function 12). This feature is a necessity for macro.

So far, the only complaint I have is the placement of the button to activate the built in flash (a much more useful flash than it would seem).

I would suggest buying at least a 512mb Compact Flash Card. I bought two of the Lexar 40x Professional 512mb cards (about $180.00 each). If you are recording in large JPEG or RAW, you can expect to get about the equivalent of seven 24 exposure rolls of film on one card. I would also suggest buying an extra battery. If you don't use the built-in flash or the review display a lot, you may get a day of shooting in with one battery. If you do use them a lot (like I do), you will get about 150 to 200 shots in before you drain the battery.

One thing that you will notice is that there is a big difference between using your lenses on a 35mm film camera and the digital camera. You will have a magnification factor of 1.6. That means that if you are using a 100mm lens, it becomes a 160mm lense when you put it on the digital body. That is because the image sensor in the digital camera is approximately 2/3 the size of a 35mm film frame. This is only a problem if you are shooting wide angle. or shooting macro, it is a benefit. It means that I can be further away from my subject and still get the same image size without loosing light.

another accessory that comes in very handy for macro work is the Angle Finder C. It will save your back and neck.

You mentioned that the rebel Dig, does't have a mirror lockup that is nessesary for macro pic's , I'm very new to this, could you explain a little more please. Are you saying that the rebel Dig cantbe used at all for macro?

thanks Doug H.

Sure, no problem. It's not that the Rebel Digital EOS can't be used for macro, it certainly can. It's just that having a mirror lockup function is a VERY big help to getting clear, sharp macro images. Here's why:

When you are looking through the finder of an SLR camera, you are actually looking out through the same lens that takes the picture. You are looking through the finder and through a prism that bends the light that is coming in through the front element of the lens. This mirror reflects light coming through the lens upward through the prism and to your eye. This mirror, when it is in the viewing position, blocks light from reaching the shutter and film plane. When you press the shutter release button, this is what happens:

1. The lens aperture stops down to whatever aperture setting has been selected. The aperture normally stays wide open (at it's largest setting which corresponds with the smallest f-number) to allow more light in to assist you in composing and focusing.

2. The mirror flops up out of the way of the shutter and film plane.

3. The shutter opens and closes, exposing the film (or the image sensor in the case of a digital camera).

4. The mirror flops back down.

If you watch when you take a picture with an SLR you will notice that as the shutter is firing, the finder is "blacked out". That's because the mirror is now blocking the travel of light through the prism and finder.

In step number 2 in the above sequence of events, a small amount of vibration is caused by the action of the mirror. If you are taking photos, using a lens with extreme magnification, such as a long telephoto or a Macro lens, the vibration is magnified along with the image.

The way around having that magnified vibration show up in your images is to have some way to lock the mirror up out of the way before you make the exposure (and use a tripod and cable release).

What you do is this:

1. Set the Custom Function that allows mirror lockup. In the case of the EOS 10D that is Custom Funtion 12.

2. With the camera on a steady tripod and a remote release attached, compose and focus your image as you normally would,

3. Press the shutter release on the remote. This will lock the mirror up.

4. Wait 2 or 3 seconds for the vibration from the mirror action to settle down.

5. Press the shutter release button a second time to actually release the shutter. The mirror lockup will time out in 30 seconds. If you have not pressed the shutter release a second time within 30 seconds, pressing the shutter release will lock the mirror up again.

After the shutter fires, the mirror will return to the normal viewing position again. Mirror lockup will stay active until you turn Custom Function 12 off.

My only reluctance now is going out and buying one and next week Canon releasing a much improved version (my life story).

Have you heard of any new models coming out soon?

MJ

I doubt it. The 10D is only less than a year old and they just released the Rebel Digital.