Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
Tonya and I took a trip to San Gregorio Beach on our BMW R1150GS. We stopped at the intersection of 92 and 35 to take some warm up shots (they are in the gallery). Then we went to Alice's Restaurant for coffee to warm up. We then headed to the end of 84 where we stopped at San Gregorio Beach. After filling up the compact flash we went to dinner in Santa Cruz. Home was a cold quick trip over 17.
We took pictures with both cameras and both lenses on the Rebel 350D. I was definitely more impressed with the 18-55 F3.5-5.6 today. The wide angle at 18 was really fun and useful. I can definitely see getting a wider angle lens. There are still things I don't like about the 18-55. The focus ring is really small and hard to use, the zoom tends to creep, 24mm is the shortest physical size for the lens, etc. However, the thumbnail at the upper left corner is at 18mm, I like the color and the textures. It is also pretty shot. It is hard to argue with success. I do want to replace it with a general purpose lens (~24-70) and a super wide angle lens (less then 18mm). The 75-300 was still a lot of fun. Unfortunately, some of the longer shots did not hold their color well. The image on the right was taken at full zoom. Up close it produced good images even at full zoom. Normally, a macro lens would be used but the 75-300 worked in a pinch.
This image was taken at 300. The images are a little soft and that was made worse by the fact that the day was a little hazy. I think part of the problem is depth of field and part of the problem is not knowing all the tricks to get a good picture out of the lens at distance.
This is one of the few distance shots at 300 that had good color. There are a few more mid-distance people shots where the color wasn't washed out. It seems that color was only washed out in the long distance shots. Which when you think about it isn't too bad for a consumer grade zoom lens. One of the things I'm going to try to fix this problem is shooting in RAW and doing the color adjustments on the computer rather then automagically on the camera.
If you want to seem more pictures here is the gallery. The EXIF data is in all the images (thumb nails, scaled, and full size). That should let you know more then I know about what the camera was setup for in each shot. Sample EXIF data for an image is in the extended entry...
EXIF Viewer for the mac.
File name: IMG_0515.thumb.jpg File size: 22241 bytes (3456x2304, 0.0bpp, 1074x) EXIF Summary: 1/500s f/10.0 ISO200 140mm Camera-Specific Properties: Equipment Make: Canon Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT Lens Size: 75.00 - 300.00 mm Firmware Version: Firmware 1.0.1 Owner Name: unknown Serial Number: 0320146512 Image-Specific Properties: Image Orientation: Top, Left-Hand Horizontal Resolution: 72 dpi Vertical Resolution: 72 dpi Image Created: 2005:04:17 18:00:24 Exposure Time: 1/500 sec F-Number: f/10.0 Exposure Program: Normal Program ISO Speed Rating: 200 Lens Aperture: f/10.0 Exposure Bias: 0 EV Flash: No Flash, Compulsory Focal Length: 140.00 mm Color Space Information: sRGB Image Width: 3456 Image Height: 2304 Rendering: Normal Exposure Mode: Auto Scene Capture Type: Standard Exposure Mode: Easy Shooting Focus Type: Auto Metering Mode: Evaluative Sharpness: High Saturation: High Contrast: High Shooting Mode: Full Auto Image Size: Large Focus Mode: AI Focus Drive Mode: Single Flash Mode: Auto Compression Setting: Fine Macro Mode: Normal White Balance: Auto Camera Actuations: 440532995 Color Matrix: 0 Other Properties: Resolution Unit: i Chrominance Comp Positioning: Co-Sited Exif IFD Pointer: 196 Compression Scheme: JPEG Compression (Thumbnail) Horizontal Resolution: 72 dpi Vertical Resolution: 72 dpi Resolution Unit: i Offset to JPEG SOI: 9716 Bytes of JPEG Data: 6856 Exif Version: 2.21 Image Generated: 2005:04:17 18:00:24 Image Digitized: 2005:04:17 18:00:24 Meaning of Each Comp: Unknown Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec Metering Mode: Pattern Focal Plane Horiz Resolution: 3954 dpi Focal Plane Vert Resolution: 3958 dpi Focal Plane Res Unit: i White Balance: Auto Base Zoom Resolution: 0 Zoomed Resolution: 0 ISO Speed Rating: Unknown Digital Zoom: None Self-Timer Length: 0 sec Canon Tag1 Length: 92 Subject Distance: Unknown Flash Bias: 0 EV Sequence Number: 0 Canon Tag4 Length: 68 Image Type: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT Actuation Counter: 3 Actuation Multiplier: 6722 Canon Tag93 Length: 32 Color Temperature: 5200 K Canon TagA0 Length: 28Posted by pqbon at April 19, 2005 12:22 PM