Just sold my 40D...

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi folks,

The speed at which one can sell merchandise on the Internet is truly amazing. This afternoon I have decided to sell my 40D plus the battery grip and have advertised for it. After only three hours, it has been paid for and picked up by its new owner. You might remember that I have bought this 40D as a stop-gap camera last June after selling my 5D. I wanted to get the 5D Mk II, which was of course not even announced back then. So now I can go back to shooting with film using my EOS-3 or digital with my daughter's G9. Hopefully, when 5DMkII becomes readily available, the prices normalize and the reserve batteries are in stock, I will go out and buy one. One can hope, can't he?

Cheers,

[Kathy Rappaport]

Cem,

Mine is at the camera store....waiting for me to pick it up tomorrow when the additional extra batteries will be in stock as well!

And the good news is that I also have a shoot of a marriage proposal on Saturday. I will of course two camera shoot just in case and Frank will do a back up shoot with his 20d from a different angle.

Shhhh..don't tell...it's going to be a surprise proposal...I helped plan it so the setting will be pretty nice. He picked the time so pray for a few fluffy white clouds.

Congratulations on the quick sale. The G9 is pretty decent and I am really thinking I ought to buy a few rolls of film tomorrow when I pick up my new toys.

[Cem_Usakligil]

Originally Posted by Kathy Rappaport

Cem,

Mine is at the camera store....waiting for me to pick it up tomorrow when the additional extra batteries will be in stock as well!

And the good news is that I also have a shoot of a marriage proposal on Saturday. I will of course two camera shoot just in case and Frank will do a back up shoot with his 20d from a different angle.

Shhhh..don't tell...it's going to be a surprise proposal...I helped plan it so the setting will be pretty nice. He picked the time so pray for a few fluffy white clouds.

Congratulations on the quick sale. The G9 is pretty decent and I am really thinking I ought to buy a few rolls of film tomorrow when I pick up my new toys.

Wow Kathy, double good news! :-) So you are not only a photographer but are also getting into the territory of wedding planning, LOL.

The prices here are still way too high, we pay some 2500 Euro (3291 USD) for the body and an extra battery (which is nowhere to be had) would cost some 85 Euro (112 USD). Outrageous! That, plus the fact that I am looking for a job right now, stand in the way of getting myself one soon. But my time will come ;-)

Cheers,

[Kathy Rappaport]

Cem,

There are some good buys on the 5d in the used market since a number of people are starting to the the 5d2...and perhaps the exchange rate will be favorable when you are ready to buy the next one or if the economy recovers enough for me to cross the pond again.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think the 40D really offers a lot of bang for the buck right now. Reports on the 50D are that despite the larger pixel count, overall image quality is less than the 40D due to increased noise with the greater pixel density, but meanwhile, people are selling off their 40D's anyway, so you can find them for about $500-600.

It was interesting that at Photoplus this past year, while a lot of the buzz was about the 5D MKII, a lot of people were looking it as an opportunity to pick up a 40D for cheap. I'd been considering the 5D MKII, but some other expenses came up, so I got a 40D at a great price and had cash left over for the wireless file transmitter also at a good price, a Widepan EOS->4x5" sliding adapter, and some new glass.

[Asher Kelman]

I'm going to be selling my 5D soon. However, not today!

Asher

[Cem_Usakligil]

Originally Posted by David A. Goldfarb

I think the 40D really offers a lot of bang for the buck right now. Reports on the 50D are that despite the larger pixel count, overall image quality is less than the 40D due to increased noise with the greater pixel density, but meanwhile, people are selling off their 40D's anyway, so you can find them for about $500-600.

It was interesting that at Photoplus this past year, while a lot of the buzz was about the 5D MKII, a lot of people were looking it as an opportunity to pick up a 40D for cheap. I'd been considering the 5D MKII, but some other expenses came up, so I got a 40D at a great price and had cash left over for the wireless file transmitter also at a good price, a Widepan EOS->4x5" sliding adapter, and some new glass.

I think this is absolutely true. Just look at the speed at which this camera has been sold, amazing. I haven't had any IQ issues with the 40D, which was very good, although I have learnt to not shoot above 400 ISO or to be prepared for some noise reduction in the post. The guy who bought mine has already a 50D but wanted to get a 40D as a second camera. I think he had a good deal.

Cheers,

[Cem_Usakligil]

Originally Posted by Kathy Rappaport

Cem,

There are some good buys on the 5d in the used market since a number of people are starting to the the 5d2...and perhaps the exchange rate will be favorable when you are ready to buy the next one or if the economy recovers enough for me to cross the pond again.

I know, I know! And it is very tempting but I am really going to sit tight till I can get the 5DMkII. Otherwise, I will have sold my trusty 5D for no reason in the end ;-). No more 5Ds for me (repeats this as a mantra)


Cheers,

[John Sheehy]

Originally Posted by David A. Goldfarb

I think the 40D really offers a lot of bang for the buck right now. Reports on the 50D are that despite the larger pixel count, overall image quality is less than the 40D due to increased noise with the greater pixel density, but meanwhile, people are selling off their 40D's anyway, so you can find them for about $500-600.

If money is not an object, the 50D is a much better choice. Better LCD; better review image and Live View, same noise, except slightly lower at low ISOs. The pixel density thing is a myth. There are a lot of people who don't know what it means to look at an image. They look at pixels, thinking they are looking at an image. With a moderately sharp lens, the 50D may look slightly softer at 100%, but that is not representative of the image per se. The 50D has a weaker AA filter than any previous APS-C Canon except the XSi, relative to pixel pitch. With a very sharp lens and steady technique, the 50D's potential pixel-level sharpness is higher. That means less sharpening in software, and therefore, less sharpening of noise. My 50D and my 20D and 30D have almost exactly the same RAW noise at high ISOs, with both resampled to the same size, which is all that matters, unless your intention is to print or display higher MP images proportionately larger, automatically. Some comparisons with the 40D I've seen, and the noise I've measured in 40D RAWs suggest that high ISO noise was slightly higher for the 40D than for the 20D, 30D, and 50D, at the image level. And, while Canon has failed to curtail banding noise in general amongst their cameras (ironically, the XSi has the least at low ISOs out of all the newer Canons), it seems to only occur at high frequencies in the newer cameras, which means that it weakens at a better rate with downsampling or small display sizes than the broader banding of older cameras like the 10D and 5D.

To generalize high ISO noise at the image level, the 20D through the 50D have almost exactly the same, with the 40D possibly having a small amount more, with any optical/resolution concerns favoring the 50D over the rest.

[John Sheehy]

Originally Posted by Cem_Usakligil

I know, I know! And it is very tempting but I am really going to sit tight till I can get the 5DMkII. Otherwise, I will have sold my trusty 5D for no reason in the end ;-). No more 5Ds for me (repeats this as a mantra)

I thought I was going to have to wait forever to get a 5D2, but Adorama had them listed "In Stock" two weekends ago while they were closed for the Sabbath. I forgot all about it on Sunday, and on Monday morning I looked at the Website after I decided not to go to work, and it was still listed "In Stock". I called to see if it was still in stock, and after waiting on hold for a while, was transferred to an agent and only got voicemail. I hopped on the bus, went to Adorama, expecting a long line of people getting 5D2s if they did indeed have any, but the store was almost empty, and the salesman told me that they had both the body and the kit, but I didn't believe it until I saw him come to the counter with it. A miracle, I thought! A 5D2 purchased in a store, in person, like it was any old camera.

I got a little bit of charge into the battery as I sat in a Thai restaurant with my chicken soup and Pad See Ew, but when I came out it was snowing pretty hard, and it was very annoying watching big flakes fall on my brand new camera, and the battery was very low, so I went home early without much shooting. I looked at the website again, and it was out of stock.

Well, I am not terribly excited about the low ISO performance, as banding (especially vertical) is visually stronger than 2-dimensional random noise in the shadows, limiting the DR somewhat, but the performance at high ISOs is incredible. I am used to looking at my P&S and APS-C images fullscreen in irfanview to cull and review at home, and with the 5D2, I don't really see much difference between ISO 6400 and ISO 100, unless there are flat, dark areas where I can see a small trace of horizontal banding at ISO 6400, but not always (depends on background color, WB, and exposure). Even some high-key ISO 25600 images show little or no obvious noise resampled to 1050 pixels high on my LCD. I am still startled when I hit 'e' to see the EXIF, and see high numbers when I expect low ones. Even the highest ISOs have optically crisp appearance full-screen, and when I resample the image to screen height and sharpen it repeatedly in irfanview, the details sharpen long before the noise does. And that's just from the embedded JPEGs.

There are a lot of things I hate about this camera and Canon, but there is a lot to love about it, too, and I plan to have a lot of fun with it after dark in the city (NYC) when the weather gets a bit warmer.

[Mike Shimwell]

Originally Posted by Cem_Usakligil

I know, I know! And it is very tempting but I am really going to sit tight till I can get the 5DMkII. Otherwise, I will have sold my trusty 5D for no reason in the end ;-). No more 5Ds for me (repeats this as a mantra)


Cheers,

Cem, you know you want another 5D (and mine's available for only...) The smooth creamy files, the knowledge that youi've got the whole frame (sorry Doug) the...

Actually, you'll have a blast shooting film for a bit - try some Portra and Ektar - I'd promised to only do black and wehite, but the colours can be lovely. How are you going to scan?

Mike

[Cem_Usakligil]

Originally Posted by John Sheehy

I thought I was going to have to wait forever to get a 5D2, but Adorama had them listed "In Stock" two weekends ago while they were closed for the Sabbath. I forgot all about it on Sunday, and on Monday morning I looked at the Website after I decided not to go to work, and it was still listed "In Stock". I called to see if it was still in stock, and after waiting on hold for a while, was transferred to an agent and only got voicemail. I hopped on the bus, went to Adorama, expecting a long line of people getting 5D2s if they did indeed have any, but the store was almost empty, and the salesman told me that they had both the body and the kit, but I didn't believe it until I saw him come to the counter with it. A miracle, I thought! A 5D2 purchased in a store, in person, like it was any old camera.

I got a little bit of charge into the battery as I sat in a Thai restaurant with my chicken soup and Pad See Ew, but when I came out it was snowing pretty hard, and it was very annoying watching big flakes fall on my brand new camera, and the battery was very low, so I went home early without much shooting. I looked at the website again, and it was out of stock.

Well, I am not terribly excited about the low ISO performance, as banding (especially vertical) is visually stronger than 2-dimensional random noise in the shadows, limiting the DR somewhat, but the performance at high ISOs is incredible. I am used to looking at my P&S and APS-C images fullscreen in irfanview to cull and review at home, and with the 5D2, I don't really see much difference between ISO 6400 and ISO 100, unless there are flat, dark areas where I can see a small trace of horizontal banding at ISO 6400, but not always (depends on background color, WB, and exposure). Even some high-key ISO 25600 images show little or no obvious noise resampled to 1050 pixels high on my LCD. I am still startled when I hit 'e' to see the EXIF, and see high numbers when I expect low ones. Even the highest ISOs have optically crisp appearance full-screen, and when I resample the image to screen height and sharpen it repeatedly in irfanview, the details sharpen long before the noise does. And that's just from the embedded JPEGs.

There are a lot of things I hate about this camera and Canon, but there is a lot to love about it, too, and I plan to have a lot of fun with it after dark in the city (NYC) when the weather gets a bit warmer.

Wow, this is some great story John! Thanks a lot for that, I have enjoyed reading it :-).

Cheers,

[Cem_Usakligil]

Originally Posted by Mike Shimwell

Cem, you know you want another 5D (and mine's available for only...) The smooth creamy files, the knowledge that youi've got the whole frame (sorry Doug) the...

Actually, you'll have a blast shooting film for a bit - try some Portra and Ektar - I'd promised to only do black and wehite, but the colours can be lovely. How are you going to scan?

Mike

Hi Mike,

OK, then the question is: which film? I was thinking of either Provia or Velvia but I am all ears for your recommendations.

I'll scan them using my trusty film scanner, Canon FS4000US coupled to VueScan Pro. It does a native 4000dpi and also IR dust and scratch removal if I need it. The picture you've received from me (the knitting ladies) was scanned with that scanner from a KodakChrome slide.

Cheers,

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Cem, I've been shooting colour neg(!) alongside black and white. I've promised myself a couple of rolls of kodachrome in the next month or two also and might try a roll of Velvia and Astia some time as well. In fact, given the current grey weather and lack of time a roll or two of velvia might brighten up my day!!

Anyway, these and the next post are all straight scans (not even dusted or descratched) from Kodak Protra 160NC (natural colour), which for some reason i was using in the evening.

I've also shot some Fuji Reala 100 which seems nice and less warm than the Kodak. Finally, I'm just waiting ona couple of rolls of the new Ektar 100 to be returned, the stuff I've seen on the web looks really nice and on the way to slide film.

Mike






This is scanned at 4000dpi and I actually printed it at 18 by 12 to see how it looked - much better than I expected and very different from a 5D file.

[Mike Shimwell]

A couple more from the same roll

[Rachel Foster]

Major 5dII fan here.

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Mike,

I wanted to order some color negative film and have discovered that it is impossible to find anything on stock nowadays. So I bought the first one I could get hold of quickly, the Fuji Pro 400H film. See here for the specs of it. I am also looking forward to testing the Kodak Portra 160 as well as the Fuji Pro 160S/C films. I have read that they deliver very good results when scanned.

Cheers,

[David A. Goldfarb]

Portra 160NC is a great film particularly for skin tones. If you want more saturation and even finer grain, try Ektar 100.

I've posted an Ektar 100 sample here--

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum40/5...tml#post722711

And I posted some tests with the Portra films when the new versions came out in this thread (read to the end to see all the samples)--

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum40/3...tml#post408192

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Originally Posted by Cem_Usakligil

I am also looking forward to testing the Kodak Portra 160 as well as the Fuji Pro 160S/C films. I have read that they deliver very good results when scanned.

I liked scanning Portra NC, but I exposed it at ISO 125. My all time favorite CN film was Kodak Supra 100 until it was discontinued in favor of a consumer version of it. I'l check, maybe I still have some in the fridge. For slide film I liked Fuji Provia, except for the occasionaly occurrence of "Pepper grain".

Bart

[Mike Shimwell]

Originally Posted by Cem_Usakligil

Hi Mike,

I wanted to order some color negative film and have discovered that it is impossible to find anything on stock nowadays. So I bought the first one I could get hold of quickly, the Fuji Pro 400H film. See here for the specs of it. I am also looking forward to testing the Kodak Portra 160 as well as the Fuji Pro 160S/C films. I have read that they deliver very good results when scanned.

Cheers,

Hi Cem, I missed this. I shot a few rolls of Fuji 160S and liked it too. I should probably try it again, but I'm enjoying Portra at present and am also looking to keep things reasonably simple.

Mike