It's my image...

You gimme fever...

I have a problem. Typically I have always had a hole in my hand that almost stretches to the edge of my palm. This has resulted in that I have always done and possesed almost anything that I really wanted (beside the unlimited E 55 AMG Kombi I want so badly). I am a materialist, not for the sake of it but because I like beautiful design, well built equipment or high tech goodies.

This said I must admit that there is a little voice in my head that says "... the 20D would further improve the easiness and performance of your photography Eelco... " And ofcourse, my 10D performes marvellously. I won't pad myself on the back but I was amazed what others have said about my 10 months of possesion of a DSLR and the pictures I took with it.

There are some things about the 20D that makes the little voice scream louder everyday:
- 0.2 Second startup time
- Lower noise at higher ISO
- 8.2 Megapixel does make cropping beter again.
- 5 frames per second
- Faster AF

These things interest me, and I think I will go into a shop and take a look at it. The thing that holds me back is the extra batterygrip that needs to be bought again. This makes it a 1600 Euro investment. Beside that, I hate seeing my camera degrade a mere 800-900 Euros in a year when I might sell it..

So, it has not been decided yet but with the upcoming bonus and tax return I would say.. Never say, never again..

If a DPreview guy says "baby MarkII" than you really got my attention..

We'll see. Corne, are you lending me a model to convince me? (special plice sil?)

Optech Pro strap

I just got my Optech Pro Strap in the mail from Cornevaniperen.nl. It is a joy as opposed to the regular strap that comes with it. It has a nice anti-slip grip on the inside of the Neoprene and the Neoprene neckrest is supported with elastic band behind it to make sure it can't tear and let the camera go to ground zero.

Beside that, the neoprene / rubberband combo gives your strap "suspension" and absorbs some of the shocks you get when you walk around with 3.5 Kg (7 pounds) around your neck. Furthermore, it has quickreleases so you probably can switch the strap on a second camera.

So for the heavier bodies or body/lens combo's I can sure recommend this $22 - €29,00 option depending on where you live.

Hot swappable and cool light..

I bought this 40 GB HD to back-up, swap and carry easily a lot of Giggeronies with me. It was not too pricy (€ 149,00 ex VAT), And the sole purpose why I bought it, is the adapterfree powersupply.

It doesn't eat Cf cards or all that but I always carry my laptop with me or have sufficient CF cards to spend the day. This is great to withdraw large videofiles or galleries from one computer to the other.. and it is absolutely plug and pray!

The new combo.. (For material fetishists)

Weighing in at +6 pounds it could be as heavy as the new to be born baby ... but not as cute :-)

Ouha! (Free interpretated after Al Pacino's Scent of a Woman)

The sound of a happy man! I have got my first L lens. I shot this photo right after I got it. No tweaking, straight out of the 10D...

I will get you all more info on it later but now I need to do other stuff... (like taking pictures)

tik tok tik, part II

UPDATE: Monday it should come in, so maybe I have it by tuesday.. (so I can order my 70-200 IS or 24-70 by wednessday :-)

I am waiting...

courtesy of TAXI images.

It is saturday and there is still no sign of a package from Cornevaniperen.nl for me... My anxiety grows.. It supposed to come in this week but had still no response.. cross you fingers for me.. the L infected will understand me.

Waiting....tik tok tik tok tik...

YES, I'M BACK FROM HOLIDAY!

On top of my holiday I thought I'd spend some extra cash on my camera. (Didn't they say? live rich, die poor :-). Before I left for France & Barcelona I ordered the 17-40 4L lens from Canon. It got such good results everywhere and it is a professional wide angle lens that gives me finally the real 28mm (27.2) after the corrected cropfactor of a digital SLR.

Secondly, it is my first L glass.. That means that the glass and built of the lens are from a professional level, you reckonize them by their red line around the end of the lens or because they are white. The autofocus should be faster, more silent. You can manual focus while it is on Autofocus and it should have less flare, etc..

It is a fact that the camera is subject to the lenses used, meaning that the lenses make up most of the images..and ofcourse your eye and skill to make the photo.

So when it comes in, I hope this week I will be able to already give some feedback if it comes in time..I ordered it in the cheapest store online with probably (forum reviews) one of the best customer experiences: www.cornevaniperen.nl . Let's wait and see..

Canon 10D internal flash vs 420EX

Hi Folks,

Today I bought an external Flash for my Canon 10D. I was not to happy with the internal Flash although I do not use it too often. It can barely flash over the lens and with my Sigma hood I sometimes forget to take it off and have a dark bottom of the picture.

In terms of wearability external Flashes suck. They are a kind of flimsy sitting there on the hotshoe. A 24-70L weighing in at 2 pounds is easier to carry around on your camera. Beside that, I hate things with batteries, they always go dead at the wrong moment.

So enough with the relevant irrelevant issues. I really wanted to get a bit more experienced on Flash photography. It is my nature (or bad habit) to always want the best (so I know for sure it was me that sucked :-) So I was looking at the 550EX. The extra 125 Euros ticked me off, especially after seeing an animated Gif where they showed the size of the 420 EX and 550 EX off and on. The 550EX is huge and no walk in the park to drag along.
I am not going into the differences of these two flashes as you can read it extensively on the web (Google it).

I am posting this pic so you can see my very first achievement. I use the automatic mode as I need to read the manual first. I bought a Stofen omnibounce to diffuse the light. I made this picture so you can the huge difference between the two. The omnibounce was pointed forwards so not even to the ceiling, making it a even better picture probably.

I will make some more tests with a tripod and the different modes. These you can already find on the web but I want to test it myself.

So far I like the Flash, It is not too huge, it looks a bit Flimsy (not very Canon). I am very curious how long the 4 duracells will last...

I will keep you posted.

Daddy's been bad...

And his little girls knows it.. :-) Yes this is a full size labrador. And yes, in this enormous cardboard box sits daddy's new toy: 80 pounds (36 kilo's) of ColourLaserPrinter...

I could not resist my urges and bought this printer. Always wanted it and got completely fed up with my Epson C70 who deliberately refuses to work for me (and yes, I have 15 years of computer driver experience :-)

I like laser cause it is instant dry, works superb on plain paper and is cleaner. Did I need a 45.000 pages a month capacity? No! But who cares, It's got 64 MB ram, USB 2.0, 14 ppm colour and B/W and can contain 350 sheets in the loader. It works great with envelopes and you can print stationary with logo easily on it...

So, as prices dropped, I whined another 75 Euros of it in the store I decided not to buy a lens at the moment but spend the approx. 625 euro's ex VAT on this baby.

Copies? Anyone, Anyone?

I did the right thing!

Hi people,

I just bought the present my wife promised me for my birthday. After a lot of reviews read on several websites I decided to buy the 75-300 USM IS Canon lens. The IS stands for Image Stabilizer. It is a Canon feature to correct the shaking from your hand a make sharper pictures. Well, it works great! I bought a Sigma 24-135mm as the first lens for my camera 2 months ago. I seriously regret the fact that I didn't know about the IS 28-135mm Canon when I bought the Sigma. It is a slightly more expensive lens but the feature is worth it.

Back to the 75-300mm... It is not much heavier (feeling) than my other lens. It is somewhat longer (180mm) than my Sigma lens. The IS system makes it a bit bulkier than my other lens too.

The sharpness of the pictures absolutely surpasses the Sigma lens. AF is as written in other reviews quite slow under low light conditions. It makes funny noises which annoyes me a bit but it is not really disturbing.

I did not make a lot of pictures yet but the zoom is really promising. I shot some signs across the road at approx. 150 m (450 ft) and they are very readable.

So to everybody who considers this lens and can live with the 4.5-5.6 range and the extra powerconsumption (get the BG-ED3 battery grip) will have a great lens.

Anybody want to buy my new Sigma lens?

Kind regards.

Eelco