It's my image...

"Springbreak" moments...

I got up early on Sunday and got the idea to go walk the dog in the countryside and see if I can capture some early bird action in this nice spring period.

It is really hard to get birds in front of the lens as they are so jumpy and see you coming miles away already...

Here are some spring moments:

A case of full moon...

Although I think that I can take a nice moon picture, this has undergone a bit of PS... I cut it free from the background and blew it up a bit. A set some negative vignetting to make the focus on the moon bigger and make it a bit more spooky.

well, that's all. Can't wait till the flowers in the garden come up again...

Too long ago but never too late...

I needed to get out and clear my head from work. I got out and walked the outerskirts of the Hoeksche Waard at het Hollands Diep near Tien gemeten. It was damn cold and even got a bit of snow and a gusty wind. Belle loved it and we had a true back to nature experience.

Here are some images:

Dramatic last moments of a frolic "brokje"

Hanging a frolicje (dutch dog candy) above your 17-40 gives these results on "release of frolic" ..

Remembers me of Moby Dick and the sailor that was in the stomach of the large Whale...

Als mozes niet naar de berg komt...

Dan komt deze berg wel naar Mozes.. opvallend hoe onze kat toch als een duikelaar of the matterhorn eruitziet.. Tja, je moet het fundament altijd goed neerzetten.. Hij is er zelf ook verbaasd over, of hoorde hij het net dat de hamsterweken er zijn?

Lighthouse, bad weather coming up..

Heavy weather on the Scheveningen coast..

Countryfair in the rain...

I went to a countryfair in Haarzuilens, near Utrecht. It is a very large one (approx. 30.000 people in 4 days).. The weather was cold and shitty so we did not stay too long..

The ISO 1600 on the 20D did her work very well again as you can see: Most of them are shot at F/1.8 - ISO 1600.. (canon 1.4 50mm)

Dramatic skies..

Skyline of Mijnsheerenland on a winterday...

Interesting Feed on batterylife in grip of 20D...

I already said that it seemed as of the 20D sucks up batteries really quick with a BG-E2 attached. I thought it was just a case of old batteries or half charged batteries. But here is an interesting feed from a guy called HENG from dpreview.com .. (I should have gotten the MarkII :-)

"I think this may be a design problem for using 2 BP511(A)s in the grip. In order to protect a short from one of them, a logic circuit (diodes) should be used to allow one-direction only current flows. The use of these diodes will further reduce the usable voltage of the BP511As in the grip. Thus, with just one BP511 in the camera (without the grip), you can take more than 1000 pictures. but with two BP511s in the grip, you can only take several hundred pictures.

I had done certain measurements with a lab power supply on my 20D. The following were the results:

1. A fully charged BP511(A) has a nonimal voltage of 8.4V.

2. The maximum current that a 20D with 80-200 f2.8L, 1 GB Sandisk CF card, shooting randomly and continuoulsy with Jpeg Large is over 1.1 amperes.

3. The 20D will not work when the lab power supply(PSU) is set to 7.3V and it will start working above 7.4V. With 7.4V supply and current limiting disabled, I encountered numerous lock-ups showing battery empty and one Err99 when shooting with conditions as in (2) above. Increasing the voltage above 7.5V or shutting down the 20D will not relief the lock-up. I had to switch off the PSU to reset the camera. The camera works normal again with 7.4V.

4. The camera works fine for voltages above 7.6V when shooting with conditions as in (2).

5. With a battery pack of 6 x fully charged AA 1500mah NiMH batteries (8.4V), lock-up occured just about 20-30 shots as in (2)( at this time the voltage had been instantaneously below 7.4V). But if shooting were halted after 10 shots, the same pack would work more than 100 shots.

6. With a battery pack of 6 x new AA Alkaline cells (9.8V), the camera would lock-up after 10-15 shots. Reset the camera and I could shoot another 10-15 shots for several runs.

My suspicion is that the NP-3E(12V) cell used in D1 Mk II would be more suitable for the 20D. In this case, I don't think the lock-up problem will ever exist.

But Canon wants the camera to be smaller and thus BP511A are being used and thus the lock-up problems. Furthermore, Canon likes us to buy the grip to get more money.

However, using 2 x BP511 with protection will reduce the shooting capability of the grip.

Would like you guys' opinions.

Heng "

I've you're registered, Here is the thread: >> http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=11025585

Bit by bit...

Unfortunately I am a bit busy and I am not able to testdrive my new 20D in daylight yet. The small things that I can tell you already are the following:

- The Noise at high ISO is very limited which is very nice.
- The built in Flash is very decent. Gives far better results as the 10D, probably a combination of all the new features..
- The smaller size has not been a turnoff yet, but Paris (when it does not rain) must be the ultimate test of that
- The batterygrip feels 10% less solid as the BG-ED3, so not too much..
- It am wondering if this 20D sucks more battery as the 10D..

I really want to see it in action when the autofocus is chasing my dog or a bird at high speed and some nice 17-40 shots of city or landscapes..

So I will keep coming back again with more experiences..