AusBonsai

Grant Bowie wrote:What about the f1.4 lense.

Any opinions?

F1.8 is only $149 new.

Grant

F1.4 has better bokeh and also much better built than f1.8. It just hurt you pocket more. At least it's still under $500. I think the f1.4 is great for what you may need as it is good enough for low light condition e.g. at a bonsai show. It will do very nice bokeh wide open (at f1.4) - may not be as nice as the f1.2 but the f1.2 will cost over 3 times f1.4 and you'll never need that large aperture for bonsai photography.
Cheers,
DK

The f1.4 is only half a stop faster than the f1.8 - you'd better have a really good reason for the extra money. Do they have image stabilisation? Very handy. A prime (fixed focus) lens is certainly going to be sharper than a complex zoom, but it is unlikely that you'll see much of a difference in anything under an 11"x14" print. Telephoto focal lengths can give a more "together" looking image - wide or "standard" (50mm equivalent) may exaggerate or emphasise features. The zoom will give you the choice.

(What's "bokeh"? I thought wines had that, or armpits.)

Gavin

kvan64 wrote:Welcome to the world of digital photography Grant. Canon does make great cameras. If you are going to take photos of bonsai trees, I recommend a cheap prime lens with reasonable large aperture (you don't need a zoom lens for it - zoom lens with large aperture are very expensive). It is suggested that taking bonsai without flash with make the pictures look more natural. This can be done by stop up the aperture. The result will be nice as the colour will be more natural and the tree will stand out from a nice background blur.
Cheers,
DK

you can get a canon 'ef 50mm f/1.8 II' prime for around $110 on a certain auction site and dont let the price tag fool you, this lense performs very very well for its price!! also i havn't read any reviews on the 60D yet but not long after the release of the 50D a lot of people were prefering the older 40D, i cannot remember the exact reasons why.. but in saying that you definitley have a bought a great camera!

however considering you still can't set the date you probably could have saved a few hundred bucks and bought a 450-550D which is an entry level camera but a camera still capable of producing some fantastic pics!! but of course you can progress and learn and eventually grow into that camera with some help, so i thought you might appreciate a couple of ebooks and an instructional dvd to help you understand your camera a bit better, they will definitley help you immensley! i should point out that they are for the 50D but will be relevant to your camera, i searched but there dosn't seem to be anything out about the 60D yet but it's only a mattter of time!!

in case you are not familiar with torrents and how to download them i will briefly explain: first you need to download and install utorrent (http://www.utorrent.com/downloads ), after you have done that, you need to download the 3 the torrent files (http://www.4shared.com/dir/2T2OkM3H/50D_torrents.html ) download the files individually (the download all files button requires paid membership) once the downloads starts select open, which will open the file in utorrent and automatically start downloading repeat this for all 3 files!!

the books should download within minutes but the dvd could take some time so everytime you are online just start the utorrent program to continue downloading the dvd, however just so you know the dvd is around 4.2GB so it is quite large, just make sure you have a big enough download limit so you dont end up with excess usage charges or bandwith throttling etc

hope this helps!! cheers

kcpoole wrote:I Do not have a Canon, but a Pentax K100

Nice Lower end camera especially for those that do not have too much coin floating round, but want to get into Digital with an SLR

Nice one Grant
Ken

the Pentax K100 is a great camera for it's price tag!! but i still love my canon

JayP wrote:

kvan64 wrote:Welcome to the world of digital photography Grant. Canon does make great cameras. If you are going to take photos of bonsai trees, I recommend a cheap prime lens with reasonable large aperture (you don't need a zoom lens for it - zoom lens with large aperture are very expensive). It is suggested that taking bonsai without flash with make the pictures look more natural. This can be done by stop up the aperture. The result will be nice as the colour will be more natural and the tree will stand out from a nice background blur.
Cheers,
DK

you can get a canon 'ef 50mm f/1.8 II' prime for around $110 on a certain auction site and dont let the price tag fool you, this lense performs very very well for its price!! also i havn't read any reviews on the 60D yet but not long after the release of the 50D a lot of people were prefering the older 40D, i cannot remember the exact reasons why.. but in saying that you definitley have a bought a great camera!

however considering you still can't set the date you probably could have saved a few hundred bucks and bought a 450-550D which is an entry level camera but a camera still capable of producing some fantastic pics!! but of course you can progress and learn and eventually grow into that camera with some help, so i thought you might appreciate a couple of ebooks and an instructional dvd to help you understand your camera a bit better, they will definitley help you immensley! i should point out that they are for the 50D but will be relevant to your camera, i searched but there dosn't seem to be anything out about the 60D yet but it's only a mattter of time!!

in case you are not familiar with torrents and how to download them i will briefly explain: first you need to download and install utorrent (http://www.utorrent.com/downloads ), after you have done that, you need to download the 3 the torrent files (http://www.4shared.com/dir/2T2OkM3H/50D_torrents.html ) download the files individually (the download all files button requires paid membership) once the downloads starts select open, which will open the file in utorrent and automatically start downloading repeat this for all 3 files!!

the books should download within minutes but the dvd could take some time so everytime you are online just start the utorrent program to continue downloading the dvd, however just so you know the dvd is around 4.2GB so it is quite large, just make sure you have a big enough download limit so you dont end up with excess usage charges or bandwith throttling etc

hope this helps!! cheers

Thanks for that but I was kidding about setting the time and date.

Sometimes my humour doesn't translate onto the website. I should use emoticons more.

Grant

Grant Bowie wrote:

JayP wrote:

kvan64 wrote:Welcome to the world of digital photography Grant. Canon does make great cameras. If you are going to take photos of bonsai trees, I recommend a cheap prime lens with reasonable large aperture (you don't need a zoom lens for it - zoom lens with large aperture are very expensive). It is suggested that taking bonsai without flash with make the pictures look more natural. This can be done by stop up the aperture. The result will be nice as the colour will be more natural and the tree will stand out from a nice background blur.
Cheers,
DK

you can get a canon 'ef 50mm f/1.8 II' prime for around $110 on a certain auction site and dont let the price tag fool you, this lense performs very very well for its price!! also i havn't read any reviews on the 60D yet but not long after the release of the 50D a lot of people were prefering the older 40D, i cannot remember the exact reasons why.. but in saying that you definitley have a bought a great camera!

however considering you still can't set the date you probably could have saved a few hundred bucks and bought a 450-550D which is an entry level camera but a camera still capable of producing some fantastic pics!! but of course you can progress and learn and eventually grow into that camera with some help, so i thought you might appreciate a couple of ebooks and an instructional dvd to help you understand your camera a bit better, they will definitley help you immensley! i should point out that they are for the 50D but will be relevant to your camera, i searched but there dosn't seem to be anything out about the 60D yet but it's only a mattter of time!!

in case you are not familiar with torrents and how to download them i will briefly explain: first you need to download and install utorrent (http://www.utorrent.com/downloads ), after you have done that, you need to download the 3 the torrent files (http://www.4shared.com/dir/2T2OkM3H/50D_torrents.html ) download the files individually (the download all files button requires paid membership) once the downloads starts select open, which will open the file in utorrent and automatically start downloading repeat this for all 3 files!!

the books should download within minutes but the dvd could take some time so everytime you are online just start the utorrent program to continue downloading the dvd, however just so you know the dvd is around 4.2GB so it is quite large, just make sure you have a big enough download limit so you dont end up with excess usage charges or bandwith throttling etc

hope this helps!! cheers

Thanks for that but I was kidding about setting the time and date.

Sometimes my humour doesn't translate onto the website. I should use emoticons more.

Grant

no worries grant i probably should have asked before i spent half an hour putting all that together lol! they are still a great reference though if there is anything you need to learn about the functions of you camera! cheers

No worries,

We have been using a Canon 1000D at the collection for a while now and I have seen leighs Canon camera in action and have become familiar with those.

I then saw one of the more expensive Canon cameras with the dial function on the back and this new model had just come out as sort of a halfway between entry level and professional so I thought I would give it a go.

all the advice is very welcome as it saves on making all the mistakes myself.

grant

i have the 50mm 1.4 and the 1.2

got the 1.2 first. broke it and i went and get the 1.4.

1.4 build is plastic. 1.2 is better built.

but the different in image quality is not much diff.

unless u are planning to blow the picture up to a billboard size.

if i have the money. i will choose the 1.2 but i have not been taking photos for a while. so 1.4 will do for me

i find best working on a lens more than 50mm. i think 60d has a crop factor of 1.4

usually if u take photo on lens less than 50mm. u get kinda like a oval look a little.

but if u are using a lens greater than 50mm. say a 70mm. u get less of the oval look.

usually for my still image i use a 70-200mm L series lens. and i will be using on the 200mm of it to take my photos. 70-200 Lseries is a very good lens

Dumper wrote:i find best working on a lens more than 50mm. i think 60d has a crop factor of 1.4

usually if u take photo on lens less than 50mm. u get kinda like a oval look a little.

but if u are using a lens greater than 50mm. say a 70mm. u get less of the oval look.

usually for my still image i use a 70-200mm L series lens. and i will be using on the 200mm of it to take my photos. 70-200 Lseries is a very good lens

good point mate i meant to mention the crop factor earlier! personlly i don't think it is a major issue and i'm glad you mentioned it because i wanted to emphasize my point earlier about the f/1.8 prime being a fantastic lense for its price and well suited to bonsai photography even with the crop factor!

it is quite in low light, really quite sharp and very lightweight, there are a few drawbacks for example, it has a plastic body, the auto focus is a bit noisy and isn't the fastest, however i don't think it's loud enough to scare any bonsai away and the autofocus speed.. well even if the noise scares them they won't be running away in a hurry

but all jokes aside it is a great lense for it's money and it is certainly the most affordable option, however if you can afford the dearer primes, they will definitley give you a better result but the $100 50mm f/1.8 gives you a hell of a lot of bang for your buck and unless you have deep pockets or happen to be a pro, i really can't justify the upgrade!!

rather than try to convince everyone, i did a quick google search and found some great pics shot with a 450d and the 50mm f/1.8, so this will give you some idea on how the lense performs, also bare in mind this isn't a full frame camera so it will also be subject to the crop factor! hope this helps

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daverodrig ... otostream/

well

lens are tools, it is up to us to take good photos

Dumper wrote:well

lens are tools, it is up to us to take good photos

i agree about it being up to us to take good photos and lenses being tools, that's just the point i was trying to make, that you don't need the best or most expensive 'tools' to take great pics! kinda reminds me of the chinese vs japanese bonsai tool debate personally i have japanese but i think could still produce nearly exactly the same results with chinese tools lol

Thanks very much for all the feedback.

Lots to think about and from people who know their stuff.

Thats what this website is all about.

Grant

Wow, the 50mm 1.2. A whole lot of lens for a whole lot of money.

50mm on a 1.6 crop Camera, like the 60D, puts it a near 'classical portrait' like a 85 does on a full frame (which is why the 85 1.2 and 1.8 are popular portrait lenses for FF - though 135 is just as good). Think about lens distortion, flattening of the features etc. 85mm on a crop is also recommended but space becomes a concern.

The 50mm 1.8 is a great portrait lens for a beginner, providing the 'studio' has enough room. He is not shooting pictures of kids here, the 50mm 1.8 has slow focus but I'm reasonably sure the bonsai will not move between takes.

The dpreview review can say it better than me: http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/can ... p8_ii_c16/ - read the 'Conclusion'.

Taking photos of fixed objects, distortion values are very important. A wide angle, the tree looks grotesque, a flatter angle and the tree is normal (I have pictures to illustrate this, and of trees no less).

DOF with a F8 or above aperture means pushing the bonsai away from your backdrop, outside of the focal plane. The 1.8 at F8 is comparable with the most expensive lenses.


Also, people mention 'bokeh'. Bokeh doesn't matter too much when you are shooting something against a backdrop. Good Bokeh is the way light looks when outside of the focal plane.

S.O.P wrote:Wow, the 50mm 1.2. A whole lot of lens for a whole lot of money.

50mm on a 1.6 crop Camera, like the 60D, puts it a near 'classical portrait' like a 85 does on a full frame (which is why the 85 1.2 and 1.8 are popular portrait lenses for FF - though 135 is just as good). Think about lens distortion, flattening of the features etc. 85mm on a crop is also recommended but space becomes a concern.

The 50mm 1.8 is a great portrait lens for a beginner, providing the 'studio' has enough room. He is not shooting pictures of kids here, the 50mm 1.8 has slow focus but I'm reasonably sure the bonsai will not move between takes.

The dpreview review can say it better than me: http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/can ... p8_ii_c16/ - read the 'Conclusion'.

Taking photos of fixed objects, distortion values are very important. A wide angle, the tree looks grotesque, a flatter angle and the tree is normal (I have pictures to illustrate this, and of trees no less).

DOF with a F8 or above aperture means pushing the bonsai away from your backdrop, outside of the focal plane. The 1.8 at F8 is comparable with the most expensive lenses.


Also, people mention 'bokeh'. Bokeh doesn't matter too much when you are shooting something against a backdrop. Good Bokeh is the way light looks when outside of the focal plane.

thanks for posting that link mate, a great review and a great site!