Re: Canon Camera Decisions

"Dirty Harry" <nothin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Is that with the 17-85?  I hate to say it but some copies can be really
bad, 
>I had a copy and I also borrowed a copy once and I'll probably never use
it 
>again.  

That IS a nasty thought.  I just automatically assumed it was my
stupidity, but
your suggestion is entirely compatible with the observations.  I will have
to
rig up a test, and investigate the matter seriously.  Thanks :-(

>With your flower shots are you stopping 
>it down at all?  

I seldom try to use the camera unless I have bright sunlight, so they're
mostly
at f/11 or f/16.

I get the feeling that there is something about the dynamics of the camera
in my
hands, and the speed of response, which enables me to get better results
with
the Nikon than the Canon.  Unfortunately it is hard enough to get myself
to many
of the places I go, without trying to take a tripod, and photographing
wildflowers in the bush with a tripod is a very slow process.  (As every
photographer will know, cameras are cloud and wind magnets, and tripods
even
more so, so if you really want good close-up photos you virtually have to
pick
the flowers and bring  them home.  And this, naturally, is usually
illegal.)

>I'd love to get my hands on some of those macro lenses, the 
>wishlist is so long though lol.

Unfortunately I try to do too many things at once (like designing fancy
web
pages!), and getting good quality lifesize photos is difficult, while
getting
any worthwhile photos with the x5 macro is extremely difficult, so I have
not
got very far with the macro lenses. 

At life size the pixels are separated by 5.5 microns, and the performance
is
diffraction limited at f/11.  At f/11 the depth of focus is about 0.05
millimetres. 

At five times magnification the pixels are nominally 1.1 microns apart,
the
nominal depth of focus is about 10 microns (0.01 millimetre) and the
performance
is always diffraction limited. If you want to get a photo which is
(moderately)
sharply focused all over you virtually have to prepare a microscope slide.

>Nice pictures and happy shooting.

Thanks.
James McNangle