hoym

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Everything posted by hoym

  1. On my older Canon Rebel, I used a canon 28mm f2.8 lens and it seemed to match up well with the .6 wide angle on my video camera. Because of the 1.6 FOV (Field of View) magnification factor on the 10D (and D60), I purchased a Canon 20mm f2.8 for about $400. (20mm x 1.6 = 32mm) Not quite as wide as what I'm used to but I think I can make it work. Be careful about non Canon lenses and specifically (at least from my experience) Sigma. My Sigma 28-70 f2.8 was not compatible with my new Canon 10D. Locked up the camera with an error 99 code. Called Sigma and they confirmed the incompatibility of this older lens. They said their newer model lenses would work. They offered me a $40 trade in for this older lens if I bought a new lens. I kept the old one for my old camera and bought a Canon 28-135 for my walk around lens. Another $400 or so. A long time ago, I had a Sigma 28mm that I had to return because it wasn't 100% compatible with my Canon Rebel. It worked for the most part but would lock up the camera if I tried to continuous fire the camera with the remote shutter release switch that I used for freefall. The Canon lens I bought worked great.
  2. I've already got this camera but I haven't jumped with it yet and so far have only taken ground shots with it. I've built a camera mount for it. Tonight I'm trying to build the new remote shutter release as it is different than my Canon Rebel 35mm. This camera is more than twice the weight than my Canon Rebel. 2.65 lbs. w/ 20mm lens vs 1.25 lbs with 28mm lens. I had already gotten the advice to get a CF Card reader and that's what I've done. It works well. I've never tried to download directly from the camera. I've also been using some freeware for downloading from the CF card to the computer. It seems to work very well. http://www.breezesys.com/products.html#downloader regards, mh.
  3. I've been looking at www.photoreflect.com. There are some substantial differences between PhotoReflect and Shutterfly. PhotoReflect will give you a web site/photo store with 'MyCompany.Photoreflect.com' where 'MyCompany' can be whatever you want it to be. They do not have an annual fee or monthly fee. They charge 18% of the order. (15% commision and 3% credit card service fee.) You only upload low resolution images to your on-line store/photo gallery. When a customer places an order, photoreflect collects the money and sends you an order confirmation and your money (sale amount less fees). They will send you a check every two weeks for the sales that you have received. You then have a choice of how to fulfill the order. You can use their software to upload the hi-resolution images to one of their partnered developers. They say it only takes a couple mouse clicks to submit your photos for developing. The developer will ship directly to the customer. Or, you can do the work yourself using your local developer. Whichever way you fulfill the order, you must pay the provider for the costs of deveoping and shipping. I think Shutterfly is the more simple solution but I wish they would offer a larger selection of enlargements. There are pros and cons to both. It just depends on which best fits the needs of the individual photographer.
  4. Another question about shutterfly. Can the photographer self-fulfill the order or are they required to use the shutterfly developing service?
  5. Does Shutterfly limit you to only those sizes? wallet 4x6 5x7 8x10
  6. I took a bit of time to look for this sort of service. I only found two. One of them was Shutterfly. The other was www.PhotoAccess.com. PhotoAccess has two programs to pick from as follows... One time setup fee of $500 No monthly fees $1.00 per photo printed service fee Prints sold to you at existing web site prices (for example, 5x7 - $0.95; 8x10 - $3.49) or $100 one time setup fee $19.95 a month $1.50 per photo printed service fee Prints sold to you at existing web site prices (for example, 5x7 - $0.95; 8x10 - $3.49) I think shutterfly might be the better deal.
  7. You were right about the adapter cable. I thought the other end of the cable was different than it turned out to be. Looks like I'm going to be doing some cutting and soldering. I think that there will be three wires inside of the cable after it is cut. Do you know which wires should be wired to which side of the switch? My guess is that one of the wires is a ground wire and if you close that wire with one of the other two, then that will activate the autofocus. If you close it with the other wire, you will activate the shutter. But I'm not sure how to determine which is what. Also, I don't think I need to remote activate the autofocus remotely for skydive photography. I've always used manual focus in the past. From what I've been reading though, the AI Servo mode setting of the autofocus on the 10D sounds like it would be interesting to try out. I don't know if this setting exists on the D60 or not. Any one have any ideas about auto/manual focus use for skydiving photos?
  8. http://www.adorama.com/skudooraid003925.tpl?sku=CARSAN3 Canon RA-N3 Remote Switch Adapter for EOS-1V/1VHS, EOS-3, EOS-D2000, EOS-D30, EOS-D60, EOS-1D, EOS-1Ds, EOS-10D This looks like an adaptor that you can buy for $43 that will do the same thing without any cutting, wiring, or soldering. I ordered this last week. It should be here in a day or two. I've jumped with a connector in the middle of the wire for over 5 years without any trouble. I use a hand switch that runs through my sleeve and I wanted to be able to disconnect quickly from the helmet. I simply put a connector at the back of the helmet and ran the wire to the camera connector. Works great.
  9. To all: Thanks for the ideas. Like I said, I'm just kind of looking for how other camera people manage the still picture side of camera work at other dropzones. While we haven't decided on a particular strategy yet, we're kicking around some different ideas. I'm looking to see what works for others who have been doing this for a while. In switching to digital this year, the results will be a better product, prints are immediately available, and better quality enlargements when people want them. A professional development shop is able to accept electronic submission of images for printing the enlargements and they will ship direct to the customer. The hard part about trying to offer a better product is that it cost around $3k in startup cost for digital. It doesn't really matter what token amount is charged to take the still pictures and it really doesn't matter that much how many prints are made. (Okay, it matters a little) I don't think anyone expects to make much money off of the initial set of 4x6 proofs. My hope is that a person could make a little money by selling re-prints and enlargements. It seems that you lose this capability if you give away the film or images on CD. I don't expect to get rich but it'd be nice to offset some of the cost of the new gear. It seems like it would be much easier to sell by the picture in the digital world than it was with film. With film your costs are fixed and with digital they are much more variable. With film you had to shoot a whole roll and you had to get the whole roll developed, so you might as well charge for the whole roll. We're not constrained by that with digital so why not let the customer pick the best picks and only pay for them? Just thinking out loud here. Anyone else given thought to this type of workflow? I really liked Cajones idea about setting up a web site for posting pictures from which pictures could be ordered from. I'll look into that. Anybody know a source for developing and hosting such a site? regards,
  10. hoym

    SCWHING!

    I looked up the weights of these camera components on the Canon web site. Canon rebel = 382 g Canon 28mm =185 g ------------------------ Total = 567 g Converts to 1.25 lbs Canon DSLR 10D = 790 g Canon 20mm USM= 405 g ---------------------------- Total = 1195 g Converts to 2.63 lbs.
  11. Quade posed a question asking about workflow of camera concessions with regard to tandem passengers, aff, etc. [http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=424141#424141] My interest is mainly for tandems because we don’t do much AFF camera work here. At our dropzone, I’m the only one who does stills. I’m switching to digital this spring and plan to offer on-site printing of still pictures. I’ll try to explain the price plan I’m working on. Maybe this is too complicated and it needs to be simplified a bit. I’d like any suggestions that you might have. And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear how it’s done at other drop zones. At our DZ, there is a set video price for tandem passengers. I am the only one who can offer stills, video, or both. My plan is to use the already established set video price for either stills or video alone. And then, offer stills and video both for some price greater than the set video price. (I don’t expect many people to select stills only, but who knows.) Question: How much additional $ for both? I was thinking somewhere between a $10 and $25 bump up in price above the set video only price for someone who wants both. With the digital stills, the base price (if they choose stills only) or the base price plus additional for both stills and video, entitles them to 5 still picture 4”x6” ‘proofs’. These are picked from the computer after they are downloaded and will be printed on site. Five pictures would typically give them an Exit, 2 Freefall, Landing, and Ending Pose w/ Instructor. If they want more, they can pick more pictures or duplicates or enlargements and pay for these a la carte from a schedule of prices. (Offering: 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 printed on site) (Offering: 11x14, 16x24, 20x30 printed off-site and shipped to the customer). I’ve made a schedule of prices for re-prints but I’m not sure if this is too much or not. It can always change. It ranges from $2 each for a 4"x6" up to $80 for a 20"x30". Comments or suggestions?
  12. hoym

    SCWHING!

    I've been jumping a Canon Rebel for the last 5 years or so. I know a lot of people just give the roll of film to the tandem passengers, but I preferred to keep the original work. (I know, that's a whole other thread.) Part of the cost of keeping the original negatives is taking the film to get developed, going to pick it up. Going to the post office to ship it and repeating for enlargements and duplicates when they were ordered. So, at the end of last season, I decided to investigate going digital. And so this spring I started buying what I thought I would need to get started in the digital world. I don't remember the prices for everything I've bought so far but following is a partial list. I keep thinking it is going to end. Canon 10D (arrived last Friday) $1500 Canon 20mm USM $400 Canon 28-135mm USM IS $400 (Not really needed but it's for ground shots, etc.) 2 x 512 24x cf cards $? spare battery $? remote switch adapter $50 cf card reader $20 epson 960 printer $? spare set of ink cartridges $? bunch of paper $? adobe photoshop 7 $? breezebrowser $35 Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. The biggest eye opener for me was how much more camera there is in the 10D/20mm compared to the Rebel G/28mm lens combo. Big difference. I bet it is easily twice the weight of what I've been using. I've just finished building a new mount for the new still camera. Looks like it will work well. Now I just need to learn how to work this camera. Quade, maybe you could share a bit about your workflow with regard to getting the pictures off of the camera and into the customers hands.