Digital photography

Im gonna buy a Canon 550D on Monday. Just in case does anyone have one for sale or know anyone who wants rid of theres. Or does anyone have recommendations for good/cheap online/london based camera shops.

Can you use older SLR lenses on DSLR's? Something like this (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Nikon-Nikkor-35-80mm-f1-4-5-6D-Digital-zoom-lens-/190464558346?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN&hash=item2c5892850a#ht_500wt_1146) on a Nikon D40.

Yes, you need to look for manual lenses and the appropriate adapter ring. Lots of different ones some will allow certain automatic functions others won't.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/lenses/old_lenses_on_dslr.html
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=57023
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/10/dslr-lenses-on/
I've just got an adapter for my Olympus and borrowed some lenses from pops, working very well.

ok, so have decided to splash out and buy my OH a good camera for xmas. he works in teevee so want to get him a canon he can play about with and film on... now would i need to go the whole hog and get a loan, combine b-day and xmas presents for the next 5 years and get him the 5d? or do some of the lesser cameras have the same quality video....? am a nikon person so have no idea about canon.

I have a Nikon D90, and I'm looking for a 28mm prime lens for it. Suggestions?

Think the Nikon 28mm af-d isn't great.
24mm af-d is a much better bet and probably be able to find it similarly priced if you hunt about enough. Even if it was a toss up between a new 28mm and a used 24mm I'd go 24mm. Really regret selling mine.

i missed a fuji 6x7 for 20 pounds the other day :-(

Have read many reviews, want to get peeps some opinions from here. Might get some insurance money coming through for a stolen bike so...

canon 50d vs. 550d (with a 50mm 1.8)

Unless you are looking to become a pro, get the cheaper body and the nicer lens. Lens are away more important than body. I'd check out the Nikon equivalent too, just cause you can get some great deals on their sec

Unless you are looking to become a pro, get the cheaper body and the nicer lens. Lens are away more important than body. I'd check out the Nikon equivalent too, just cause you can get some great deals on their secOnd hand lenses. Aperature photographic is an awesome place, they really look after you and the coffee is good too.

Unless you are looking to become a pro, get the cheaper body and the nicer lens. Lens are away more important than body. I'd check out the Nikon equivalent too, just cause you can get some great deals on their secOnd hand lenses. Aperature photographic is an awesome place, they really look after you and the coffee is good too.

I was thinking that, but i'd heard so many good things about the 50d and can be found at ~£500 for the body second hand (only wanted 550d cos of vid option if i'm honest).
Any cheaper dslrs you'd recommend?

Video on a dslr is never that great, although you can get pretty good result with a decent lens, as long as you shoot within their limitations

I've been playing around with the nikon d5000, its nice as a stills camera and has ok video, best results always come when there is plenty of light and not too much lateral movement

Video on a dslr is never that great

it's very good on a 5dII if used the right way. and good enough to shoot commercials on.

Video on a dslr is never that great,

Whhaaaat???

although you can get pretty good result with a decent lens, as long as you shoot within their limitations

agree with some of this - specifically the mention of limitations, but all technology has limitations. I wouldn't shoot ENG work with a 5Dmk2 just like I wouldn't shoot a music video on Hi-8

best results always come when there is plenty of light and not too much lateral movement
As far as ensuring adequate lighting, surely that's pretty standard for all forms of recording video? As for the lateral movement thing, assuming you're talking about aliasing and rolling-shutter artifacts, that only affects certain cameras with certain chip sets.

At whoever asked, shop around, see what's most suited to the type of work you anticipate doing with it. It can be a big investment so make the right choice. See what will work the most fluidly with the hardware and software you already have access.

it's very good on a 5dII if used the right way. and good enough to shoot commercials on.

Quite.

Good enough to shoot all sorts of shit:

http://www.petapixel.com/2010/04/09/house-season-finale-filmed-entirely-with-canon-5d-mark-ii/

Editing 550D movies, someone please tell me there is a faster/better way of doing it than this? All I've got at my disposal is a 3 year old basic macbook and iMovie, because I'm cheap and refuse to spend my lunchtimes doing it properly in FCP at work.

1. Get video off camera and into iPhoto
   
2. Copy files on to desktop
   
3. Use mpeg streamclip to do the batch avid codec type thing (I don't really understand this bit, I've just been doing it because the internet told me to)
   
4. Open each file individually in mpeg streamclip and convert to DV
   
5. Import to iMovie
   
6. Edit together piss poor video that inevitably isn't worth the 2 hours of my time that its taken to get to this point.
   

I'm thinking of selling my D80, and the barely used 17-135 kit lens that came with it... whats a fair furum price for the like? Seems to be around £400ish with the lens on ebay.

Perfect condition, 2 years old. 2GB SD card.
Is missing the rubber eye piece bit though.

Surely yo can import the video from your camera directly into iMovie? That's how I've always done the few times in the past.

possibly down to your conversion settings.
i don't know the right answer but maybe res down to 720 and use the right codec (H264)?
maybe use quicktime pro to edit?

tynan or cyoa might know.

Really enjoying using my 5D at the moment. Such a great camera, the full frame is still mind blowing, I'd like to perhaps get a wider lens on there in future wider than the 28 I've got at the moment.

Editing 550D movies, someone please tell me there is a faster/better way of doing it than this? All I've got at my disposal is a 3 year old basic macbook and iMovie, because I'm cheap and refuse to spend my lunchtimes doing it properly in FCP at work.

1. Get video off camera and into iPhoto
   
2. Copy files on to desktop
   
3. Use mpeg streamclip to do the batch avid codec type thing (I don't really understand this bit, I've just been doing it because the internet told me to)
   
4. Open each file individually in mpeg streamclip and convert to DV
   
5. Import to iMovie
   
6. Edit together piss poor video that inevitably isn't worth the 2 hours of my time that its taken to get to this point.
   
   

Not touched a 550d so this is all conjecture but based on fiddling with others:

I know bringing stuff into and out of iPhoto can be a pain in the arse.

Do you have the EOS Capture Utility? One option is bringing it in through that. You can download drivers from here:
http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010834.asp

Alternatively have you tried Apple's Image Capture? It works in a similar way to iPhoto and there's also a way you can set it to pop up whenever you plug in your camera.

If you had access to an SD Card reader then you could just insert the card and drag it straight across to your desktop rather than having to proxy it through some other software like the above.

As for encoding the files. Presumably you're going from h264 to pro res or similar? I'm sure MPEG Streamclip can batch process so you shouldn't have to open every clip individually:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nclWam_NWkg

It is unfortunately always going to take time to convert to something that won't bottleneck your computers CPU. Unless of course you have a fully updated NLE (FCP/Avid etc) with some beefy hardware to boot.

Isn't the native bitrate for full 1920x1080p 550d .movs is something like 50mbps? That's pretty pokey..

Editing 550D movies, someone please tell me there is a faster/better way of doing it than this? All I've got at my disposal is a 3 year old basic macbook and iMovie, because I'm cheap and refuse to spend my lunchtimes doing it properly in FCP at work.

1. Get video off camera and into iPhoto
   
2. Copy files on to desktop
   
3. Use mpeg streamclip to do the batch avid codec type thing (I don't really understand this bit, I've just been doing it because the internet told me to)
   
4. Open each file individually in mpeg streamclip and convert to DV
   
5. Import to iMovie
   
6. Edit together piss poor video that inevitably isn't worth the 2 hours of my time that its taken to get to this point.
   
   
   

I've got a 550D

1 - no need.

2 - a good move, copy files from your SD card / camera to your computer.

1. no need.

2. bad move - DV is a standard resolution codec - you have just decimated your video quality !

3. nice

4. good !

What I'd do . . . take your clips off your SD card / camera.

Open iMovie - import movies, highlight to ones you want (hold down shift to add multiple files)

Turn off 'optimize video'

That's it.

Isn't the native bitrate for full 1920x1080p 550d .movs is something like 50mbps? That's pretty pokey..

About 48Mb/s (which is about 6MB/s) - depending on the scene (it's VBR rather than fixed).

If you had access to an SD Card reader then you could just insert the card and drag it straight across to your desktop rather than having to proxy it through some other software like the above.

Cool, this seems like the simplest way to do, will get a card reader.

As for encoding the files. Presumably you're going from h264 to pro res or similar? I'm sure MPEG Streamclip can batch process so you shouldn't have to open every clip individually:
YouTube - Mpeg Streamclip How to Batch Process

I've been transcoding (is that the right word?) in batches fine already, its converting the files to .DV from .MOV that I have to do individually (iMovie won't open .MOV). I don't know what pro res means, but I've been chaning from h264 to avid DNxHD, no idea if that does any good, but it does make the videos play more smoothly afterwards.

Isn't the native bitrate for full 1920x1080p 550d .movs is something like 50mbps? That's pretty pokey..

I really don't know what I'm doing at all with video. All I would like is relatively smooth video that's as sharp as the lens/compression allows, but at the moment I really don't know what settings to use to get that, total noob.

NTSC:

PAL:

@$100

Do you know by chance if this was edited in iMovie?

http://vimeo.com/1772793