Simba

sorry if it seemed a little rude, that's not the point. But I've got a 400D for almost 2 years now and I never used it in auto modes. Cause I took time to play with the settings of my old powershot and learned the basics of photography. Don't even consider buying a DSLR before knowing what means shutter speed, aperture, ISO, White Balance... that's just the basics. Owners of DSLR must love photography and have the will to improve and learn. Well I know that this is new for you so I guess what I wanted to say is just: Play around with the settings, don't waste your time with the lame auto settings I'm still learning some new things too. Photographers always have something new to learn. Even more if you consider the new technologies: improved and more complicated AF systems, Liveviews, Raw files Processing... Anyway the most important thing is: Having fun!

What??? You bought an EOS 40D to use it in freaking basic modes?? awww man this sucks... The 28-135mm IS could have got way better pictures than that only if you took the time to set the proper aperture, shutter speed and most important in this case: ISO. Really if you want a camera that will get you "nice" photos without having to play with the settings just buy a bridge... Right now you're just wasting the potential of the 40D and that's really sad...

Sorry it took me so long to answer but I've been really busy lately with photos and video editing. The 70-200mm f/2,8 IS is sure a really nice lens but really too expensive. If I had enough money I would definitively buy it. Actually I'm saving money to buy a Sigma 70-200 f/2,8 II DG Macro APO EX. I've read that its construction is not as good as the Canon's but you get really nice and sharp pics but it doesn't have an image stabiliser. I never really though of renting a lens, but you gave me the idea! I may try it soon. The Tokina 12-24mm f/4 is a really nice lens, the only thing I can regret is the 2mm difference with a Sigma 10-20 DC or Canon 10-22. It doesn't make this big of a difference but in some cases it does. Also it tends to produce Chromatic Aberration, but it's easily correctable with Lightroom. You can find the first photos I took with it at Disneyland Paris here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40382&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 --> http://magicvision.free.fr/TOTUGA/ Well you can't compare today cameras with older ones. Today each camera have it's own sensor on which the image quality depends a lot. The size of the sensor, its resolution, its type (CCD or CMOS mainly)... are to take in consideration while choosing a body. For example, Canon has 3 type of sensors: - APS-C, like the 40D, 30D, 350D, 400d... This sensor has a crop factor of 1,6x. This means that to have the equivalent of a focal length on a 24x36mm camera you have to multiply the focal by 1,6. Example: My Tokina 12-24 on my 400D is actually a 19-38mm. This is due to the sensor size cause the APS-C is smaller than a Full Frame one. - APS-H, it has a crop factor of 1,3x. This type of sensor is used on the 1D pro bodies: EOS 1D, 1DII, 1DIIn, 1DIII. - Full Frame, the sensor has a size of 24x36mm, that's the same size as the old 35mm film cameras. This type of sensor is used on 1Ds series (1Ds, 1DsII, 1DsIII) and the 5D. So this differentiate the "cheap" and expensive cameras. A bigger sensor always means less noise (just take a look at the amazing Nikon D3!) and sharper images. Expensive bodies have a LOT of settings, much much faster focusing systems, way better viewfinders... there are many differences. Due to the crop factor of smaller sensors the full frame always has a wider angle. Those are some of the reasons why I'm obsessed with the 5D! I had a similar problem while taking photos on Gemini. I accidentally hit the white balance button and changed it. The on ride photos are yellowish because of that... Well you got it right. Actually the photo of Mean Streak was taken from a moving car, it was kinda funny to race with the train. You just need to practice, this is not easy at first. Shot in continuous mode, aim at a point or something on the train that you follow. Put the camera in Tv mode to set your shutter speed. Set it to 1/80 or 1/100. Depending on your focal length you'll need a shorter or longer shutter speed. When the focal length is important the shutter speed can be faster. Just take a look at the Exif of the photos Use the Exposure Compensation: Usually cameras are set to underexpose the pics. If the weather is bad and the sky is grey, it's more likely that the photos will be really underexposed, in that case I always set the exposure compensation to +1 EV or more. To know if you have to set a higher ISO or not take a look at the shutter speed value that the camera gives you after measuring the exposure. If it's too slow, you may get motion blur. In that case set a higher ISO value. To know if the shutter speed is fast enough to get a sharp image, you have to know yourself, knowing which shutter speed is your limit. This depends on the focal length too (longer focal length meaning less stability). Of course you have to take into consideration the subject of your shot. If it's still or moving. I hope that my post was entirely comprehensible and helping. Once again sorry it took me that long to answer.

Yep, that's the lens alright.. So nice! And yes, you're right, I mistyped... I use a Rebel XT, not XTi. I had brain fart... Good catch! Well, thanks very much. I like your questions actually, I can tell you're probing to learn how to improve your photography. In my opinion, at least in the SLR range, digital is vastly superior to film. I'm glad I switched to dig, and hope to never shoot film again. Part of what I didn't like was the extent that other people had an influence on my results (ie, labs). And I always had to make the choice between potentially half-assed processing or paying alot for pro-processing. The shots of MF first drop were taken from near the first overbanked turn. If you go into the petting farm area on Frontier Trail, you can go behind it. You actually can go underneath the overbanked turn a little. That's where I shot from, and that's why it doesn't really appear that I'm 'looking up' at the lift hill. I used the 100-400 of course, zoomed to 400. The really close up ones are also cropped. They were not shot that tight. That would require a very long lens. Canons longest lens currently is the 800mm. Needless to say, 800mm lenses are not cheap! It goes for about $12,000. But, in order to crop tight like that, you must have a sharp image to start with. That means using a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate camera shake (the IS helps here) but also to freeze the motion of the train (not super hard at top of lift, quite hard at bottom of first drop!). My older consumer level lens (70-300mm) does not have high enough quality glass to accomplish this. If I had shot this same photo with the 70-300, there's really no way it would be as sharp. I used Lightroom for processing. All I really did was adjust contrast (speading the histogram towards the dark end really, really helps with making colors pop. I don't generally add saturation as a way to make colors vibrant, as this often is unnatural looking. And of course, I cropped the images. That's pretty much all the processing that went into them. Anyway, I hope that was informative! Thanks for all the compliments! Glad people are enjoying them! Hi! First of all thank you for all those wonderful pics, how lucky you are to own "The Dyson" it appears to be an amazing lens. I have the 400D (Rebel XTi) and I think they are pretty similar (except for the 10Mpx Sensor and the dust cleaning mechanism (which was the first on a Canon DSLR that's why it doesn't really work )) and I've got to say that I understand your willing to change your camera. But I don't think that there's a big difference between the 350D/400D and the 450D (Rebel XSi). Now it depend on your needs, do you really need all the little gadgets that were added to the 450D (Liveview, Bigger LCD screen, 12Mpx...). Considering my needs I would rather wait for the price of the 5D to lower even more and get one. This is an incredible DSLR having the advantage of a full frame sensor in a compact "cheap" body. The image quality of the 5D is now legendary even if some of the latest DSLR have a better image quality (particularly the Nikon D3). Well we may have different needs so I guess that a 40D may better suit you. It's better than the 450D (except for the 10Mpx, sensor which is totally sufficient) and their prices are pretty close. I think the most important thing before choosing a camera is thinking about your utilization. I was wondering also, what other lenses do you own? Cause if you own expensive EF-S lenses (EF-S 17-55 IS or EF-S 10-22) the 5D might be a bad choice since it's only compatible with the EF mount lenses. A little "photo geek fact" the longest (and biggest) Canon super-telephoto lens is actually the EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM, it's price is around 125 000$ and it's a very rare lens. Here's a photo of the beast: And one last question, are you shooting in raw or jpeg? Actually it is not THAT bad. Okay it's not great but once you know it's flaws you learn how to get the better of it. But you better take photo on a sunny day cause you've got to close your diaphragm (to approximately f/8) to get sharper photos this means that you need much more lights to achieve fast shutter speeds, that's why I usually move during the exposure to create motion blur effects. I had to shoot with it for a long time (before I bought the Tokina 12-24 f/4) and I got some pretty nice photos, here are some examples from my US trip last summer: If you're looking for a cheap and wonderful lens go for the cheapest of all the canon EF lenses: the 50mm f/1,8 II. I have one and it's absolutely amazing how sharp the images are and even more when you close a little to f/2,8.

I got stuck on Crush Coaster at the WDS about a month ago, I had to be evacuate, it was pretty cool to see what it looks like in there... I had time to take 2 pics before the castmember came to evacuate us.

Merci ça fait plaisir de voir une française dans le coin

Actually when I took those pics I was at the front row so I was able to lay my camera down the front of the cab. Other than that I can barely get a perfectly sharp pic with speeds below 1/60s (at 50mm) or 1/15s (at 12mm) or 1/200s (at 300mm) since none of my lenses have Image Stabiliser. Anyway, I went back to the park last thursday to test my new wide angle lense (Tokina 12-24mm f/4), if you want to see the pics just take a look at this gallery: http://magicvision.free.fr/TOTUGA And feedbacks are always welcomed

My Home park is Disneyland Resort Paris and it's not my favorite park. My favorites park are: - in Europe: Phantasialand (it may change once I have the chance to visit Alton - in the US: Silver Dollar City!

I went back to the studios on Sunday for the last day of previews. I took some more pictures http://magicvision.free.fr/TOTAvt1er_16_12/

You're welcome Somebody sent me a PM to ask me for the photos in higher resolution, so here it is: http://magicvision.free.fr/TOTavt1er/index.html

Glad you like it A friend who has a 16/9 (1680x1050) screen asked me for a wallpaper so I had to make a slightly different one:

I made a wallpaper for my desktop, if you'd like to use it too, here it is: (By clicking on the image you will get the Highres (1280x1024) version of the image)

Nope it's not weak at all! the only thing that would be really cool is if they change it to be totally random like in florida, I guess that in 2017 they'll make a TOT mission II

After watching an onride video of the DCA tower I can tell that this is the exact same drop sequence.

It will open on December 22