Hi all - Well, I'm on day 5, somewhere around frame 600, and still grinning. Since I'm 53 and have been shooting one thing or another since I was 17 so I guess I've got a few weeks left. <g>
(As a reminder of the experience I'm bringing to it, I've shot FD stuff for my whole life, and for the last 5 years or so have had an Elan 7 (EOS 30) and a G2. Both of the latter prepared me very well for the control layout and menu system of the 30D. I also shoot a lot with the T-90 (my all-time favorite) and there are more than a few resemblances. After all, the Tank was the "original EOS" body.) This is my first DSLR, and I had been reading a lot about the 1D Mk II that I was going to buy 2nd hand before my laptop was stolen, somewhat altering my budget. That and the fact that I realize t is a very similar camera to the 20D will color my comments. My overall impression is very positive. The camera feels great, although I do wish there weren't so many lukewarm reports about the BG-E2, as my right pinky would like something a little more solid to grip. But I find the control layout to be superb. Almost too good as everything flows so easily and quickly that it's a real possibility to overshoot "Erase" and inadvertently hit "All" during review. The change from my Elan 7's seperate on/off switch for the QC dial to the 3-position one on the 30D I think is a good one. I do kind of wish that switching drive and AF modes was still a physical switch rather than what it is, but I'm already adjusting to it. I very much like the review zoom and scroll controls, although an idea for Canon would be to put a "return to full screen" as a center joystick push rather than having to move to the playback button. Or how about having brightness and RGB histograms included in the Info button cycle rather than having a separate menu choice. There should also be a Display off choice somewhere - CF? Info? - to maximize battery life. Speaking of which it would be interesting to see a graph of battery life at the various LCD brightness settings. In bright sunlight the brightest setting I find to be de riguer, but have not experimented with hoods or shades yet. The menu system is good and I like the CF summaries on screen. I never did fully memorize them on my Elan, and therefore used them less than I could. I don't know on what camera it was introduced, I don't think it's all that new, but the A-DEP mode using the FP array is so much better than the Elan's which required two AF readings and was in my book useless. I'll be using this mode. I also really like the placement of the diopter dial under the left thumb, and as luck would have it all the way to the - stop is perfect for me without glasses. I plan to paint or scratch a mark for where it goes with glasses. The large 2.5" LCD is wonderful, and gets oohs and aahs from people who see it. Combined with the extensive zooming it also makes for a pretty good tool in the field. That and spot-metering, which I have always used a lot, (although no multi-spot here) make me glad I waited. I am still exploring the Picture Styles, but they seem very good, and it's good they're customizable. I'm still finding the balance between in-camera sharpening and post, as the in-camera is pretty unsubtle at the higher settings, providing a kind of commercial sparkly look that is wrong for most of my needs. I haven't gotten around to understanding what the "Color Tone" scale consists of. Contrast and Saturation are self-explanatory, and although I like the ability to shoot Monochrome with Y,O and R filters I don't see much difference between them. Hopefully there are other settings - the manual suggests this - that could make this more of an effective control. I'm very pleased with image quality, although the addition of this camera to my "suite" is putting extra pressure on really getting my studio color managed. I've so far only done a little printing. The camera is giving me a great opportunity to rediscover my "Mk.I" 50/1.8. Now sort of an "80/1.8" and is making wonderfully sharp and rich images with this camera. The only other EF lenses I have are the 28-135 IS and the Tamron 90/2.8 Macro. I also have a Tamron 1.4xTC, and this is working surprisingly well with everything. For some reason I expected to lose AF by using it with the 28-135 (>f/5.6 max ap) but it didn't. Didn't even slow down much. I got some surprisingly sharp bird shots using this combo zoomed all the way out at f/8, as a sort of slow 300mm lens. Of course IS helped. Nevertheless, a 300/4L IS is my next lens purchase. Then probably the EF 10-22. A few things that I'm less enthusiastic about. Probably my biggest complaint is that in bright sunlight the viewfinder LEDs are almost impossible to see. It's much worse than my Elan or T-90. I checked it against one other 30D at the store where I bought it (decided to support a worthy local) and it was the same. I wonder if Canon Servioce can turn this up? Is it the same with a 20D? Maybe a deeper eyecup would help. I also wish for a few of the things that I had geared myself up for with the 1D Mk.II, like being able to save Custom WB settings. I also find the Custom WB procedure more cumbersome than on the G2, which is a one-shot process. There are 3 possible user-defined Picture Styles, it seems like canon could have included a WB setting in their parameters. As mentioned, I do wish it was possible to simply turn the LCD off, but I don't know how much of a battery bonus that would provide. But out in the field for hours at a time, every extra minute of battery life counts. I am glad that my G2 BP-511 batteries work in this camera, of which I have two. Even with their lower capacity, having three batteries will probably get me through most flashless shooting days. I also wish for a 2/10 second self-timer, without having to go into MLU. Way down on the list, but I also wish that, for nighttime shooting, the top button function labels were repeated in the top LCD. But I'm sure I'll eventually memorize them. Well, that's all for now. All-in-all a killer camera, and I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go on. Anyone know of a good online tutorial for using the extensive WB correction functions on this camera? Seems liek you'd almost need a colorometer, just like using CC filters. I'll be experimenting with the shiftable WB bracketing, but this is a whole world of control that is new to me. Oh, and I'm actually mildly impressed with the DPP software that came with it. ZoomBrowser is, well, ZoomBrowser, albeit better than the version that came with my G2. I'll be using DPP for a while, as it seems PS CS won't open, or even see, CR2 files. best Ken * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
