M E G A P I X E L . R O

A Real Fairy Photo Effects

2008-04-08T15:40:00.001+03:00

Learn in this tutorial how to make a special gift to a special person.

1. To start create a new file in Photoshop File > New with 1280х1024px and 300dpi. Save it with the name A Real Fairy.psd in File > Save as�

2. So, in this lesson you will learn how to make your girlfriend/boyfriend a personal wallpaper. Now you must find a picture of your beloved one witch you like the best, or think it's proper for this. It better be in high resolution.

Open it in Photoshop. Save it right away with the name Main elemet.psd. Chose the Polygonal Lasso tool from the tools menu (or just press L key). Zoom in good (hold down ALT key and scroll up the mouse wheel) and start tracing the figure. The more zooming you will do the fewer corners you will have in the end.

3. If you're not satisfied with the resulting selection you can always go to Select > Modify > Smooth and round up some unwanted corners.

4. When you're done with the selection, you have to get rid of the background. To do that just double click the Background layer to transform it into a simple layer. New layer dialog box will appear were you can even name your new layer, name it Main element and click OK.

To delete all besides your selection just inverse it Select > Inverse or press Ctrl + Shift + I to do the same thing on the fly. Now just press Delete key and voila� To deselect go Select > Deselect or press Ctrl + D.

Now to get the main element ready for the trace you have to make it monochrome. Go Image > Adjustments
> Channel Mixer don't touch any settings just check the Monochrome box in the lower left corner of the dialog box and click OK

To get rid of all this halftones a to make a nice a nice picture which will trace nice and easy in Illustrator go Image > Adjustments > Levels and drag the right and left handlers towards each other till you're satisfied. The result must be a nice clean Black and White picture with no minor elements.

5. Now just to be sure that the trace will go even better go Layer > New > Layer or just click on the New Layer button in the Layer Palette to create a new layer. Select the new layer you created and Ctrl + click the Main element layers thumbnail to select it's borders. Now go Select > Modify > Expand enter the value of 1 (or higher if your picture has a very high resolution) and click OK. Now press D key to select Black as the foreground color, and press Alt + Del to fill the selection with it. Press Ctrl +D to deselect.

6. Now drag the filled with black layer under the Main Element layer in Layer's Palette. Select both layers right - click on one of them and select Merge Layers in the appearing dialog box.

Choose Magic Wand tool in the tools menu or press W key. In Tool Option bar rise the Tollerance to 80% and make sure that Anti-alias and Contiguous checking boxes are unchecked. Now press in any white area to select all whites in the image and press Del key to delete it. Press Ctrl +D to deselect.

7. Now save Main Element file into a PNG format to keep the transparent parts. File > Save as� or press Ctrl + Shift + S.

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Palettes for digital photos: RGB, CMYK, and HSV - new

2007-10-19T21:59:00.001+03:00

Imagine drawing a picture using only dots. If you look very closely at a digital photo, you will see that this is exactly the case; the image is made up of millions of tiny pixels. Each pixel has just the right color and intensity to create the desired image when combined with all the other pixels. This is true of any digital picture, whether it be on your computer screen or printed on paper.

To get the right color, a pixel uses a combination of three or four base colors. Thousands of colors can be produced by combining these colors in different ways. The configurations discussed here are the most common choices for the base colors.

Red, Green, and Blue (or RGB) is the most commonly used color format because it is based on the primary colors you learned in grade school. (You may have had yellow in your first-grade crayon box, but green is actually the third primary color.) RGB colors are sufficiently different from each other that any other color can be made by mixing them. Computer screens often use the RGB format; each pixel emits a combination of red, green, and blue light. RGB is therefore an “active format,” or a color scheme created by mixing light.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (or CMYK) is another common color configuration. Instead of the primary colors (RGB), the complementary colors (cyan, yellow, and magenta) are used. Again, these colors are different enough that they can be combined into any other color. The most difficult color to make by combining other colors is black. For this reason, CMYK pixels also have a black component known as the “key” (the ‘K’ in CMYK). Most printed work uses the CMYK format, accounting for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black cartridges in your computer printer. Instead of producing light, the images are formed by mixing ink. For this reason CMYK is known as a “passive format” instead of an active one.

Hue, Saturation, and Value (or HSV) works differently from the other configurations. In this format, each color is described by its hue, saturation, and value. Hue specifies the color of a pixel, while saturation determines the shade of that color. For example, a color with low saturation appears light and faded, while a pure, distinct color has a high saturation. The brightness of the color is determined by the value, or intensity. A very bright color has a high value, while a dim color has a low value. These qualities are independent; any hue can take on several different saturations and values.

The HSV format is very commonly used in photo editing software, mostly because it describes colors using the same descriptors a human would use. Here’s an article on Photoshop for beginners. It is much easier for a person to choose a color using its color, shade, and brightness (HSV) than by specifying the percentages of red, green, and blue (RBG) or yellow, cyan, and magenta (CMYK).

While RGB is by far the most popular choice for digital images, it should be noted that any color can be described in any of these formats. Each color is represented by percentages of the base colors, and can be mathematically converted from one color system to another. As you have seen, some formats are particularly suited for certain applications. Conversion between these systems allows the image you have edited with HSV software on your RGB computer screen to be printed on your CMYK printer!

You can also gain more technical photography knowledge from Digital Photography Secrets. They’ll probably ask you to sign up, that’s OK though because you can unsubscribe straight away if you’re not happy. Moreover, it is full of researched and valuable information - I think you’ll be pleased. I know the owner and he’s a straight up person.

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Building a digital SLR system: Looking at the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Nikon D40, Nikon D80, and EOS 5D cameras

2007-10-18T11:04:00.001+03:00

by Philip Greenspun; revised April 2007

Digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras are the standard tool for serious photographers. With the introduction of cameras such as the Nikon D40 and the Canon Digital Rebel XTi the market for digital SLR cameras has expanded tremendously. A point-and-shoot compact digital camera can offer reasonably good image quality, but a digital SLR, which usually looks a lot like an old standard 35mm film camera and may use the same lenses, offers the following advantages:

accurate, large, and bright optical viewfinder
fast operation and large controls
excellent image quality in low "available" light situations when it is necessary to use higher ISO speeds
interchangeable lenses

With the digital SLR you have a good idea of what you're going to capture by looking through the viewfinder. When you press the shutter release the camera captures the image immediately. If you need to zoom or focus manually there are large rings that you can operate quickly by feel. If you see a beautifully-lit scene you can capture that beauty instead of using an on-camera flash to blast everything with harsh white light. If you need to make a specialized photo, you can buy or rent a specialized lens and attach it to the camera.

This article explains the different kinds of digital SLR cameras available, how to choose the right one for you, and what to do once you get it home from the shop. A digital SLR camera system, complete with lenses and accessories, can cost anywhere from $600 to $10,000. This article shows you how to choose and buy the basic items first and the more expensive and hard-to-use components later.

[If you don't want to read this article and are impatient to get started immediately, get a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, $700 (review) and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for Canon, $445; if you must have a zoom, the Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM, $1180 (review) is a good choice.]

What is a single-lens reflex (SLR)?

The single lens reflex (SLR) is most folks' idea of a serious camera. "SLR" means that the same lens is used for viewing and taking pictures. A mirror in the body directs the light from the lens up into a prism for viewing, then flips up out of the way just before an exposure is made. The standard photojournalist's Nikon from the 1960s or 1970s was an SLR with a roll of 35mm film behind the mirror. When the mirror came up the light passed through to the shutter, which opened to expose one frame of film for perhaps 1/60th of a second. A Canon Digital Rebel or Nikon D80 looks very similar and works in almost the same way. The only difference is that instead of a piece of film behind the shutter there is an electronic sensor.

The mirror and optical viewfinder are what enable a photographer to frame images more quickly and accurately than with a point-and-shoot camera. Regardless of what lens or filters you have attached to the camera you see what the sensor will see. The same can be said for the LCD displays on the back of a $200 point-and-shoot camera but those displays are difficult to interpret in sunlight. The typical digital SLR camera viewfinder offers additional information underneath the image, including all the most important camera settings.

The SLR is much larger and heavier than the point-and-shoot camera. If you are leaving the house to socialize and want a camera to keep in your pocket just in case an interesting photo presents itself, the SLR will seem cumbersome. If you are heading out specifically with a photographic project in mind you will appreciate how the SLR and its controls fit into your hands.

Because digital SLRs are more expensive than point-and-shoot cameras the manufacturers typically put in faster computers and better autofocus systems. This makes the cameras more responsive and you are more likely to catch the "decisive moment" as the baby's face lights up with a smile, the soccer ball leaves the player's foot, or the dog catches the frisbee.

A digital SLR may offer the same number of megapixels, individual image elements, as a high-end point-and-shoot. Not all pixels are created equal, however. Resolution is important if you intend to make large prints but dynamic range, the ability to capture detail within bright highlights and dark shadows, is more critical in many situations. The sensors in digital SLRs are typically much larger than those found in point-and-shoot cameras. The main advantage of a larger sensor is better performance in dim light. If there are 8 megapixels spread out over a sensor that is 4 times larger than the sensor in a point-and-shoot camera that means more photons of light will fall on any given pixel. If during an exposure 50 photons would fall on the small sensor then 200 photons would fall on the big sensor. If there is a small change in the light from one part of the scene to another the sensor in the point and shoot camera is trying to notice a single extra photon; the electronics in the camera with the big sensor have four extra photons that are much easier to detect.

First-time consumers of digital SLR cameras focus on the body. Long-time photographers, however, look at the system. An SLR system includes a body, multiple lenses, flash units, and various connecting cords. For most photographers the investment in lenses will come to dwarf the cost of a body. It is thus important to choose a system whose manufacturer makes the lenses that you need for all of your potential projects and, ideally, whose system is popular enough that you can rent special-purpose lenses for uncommon situations. Each camera system has its own lens mount design and a lens that works on, say, a Nikon camera cannot be attached to a Canon body.

Who makes digital SLR cameras?

The same companies that made 35mm film SLRs make digital SLRs. If you have a lot of Canon EOS lenses from your days as a film photographer, for example, you will probably want to buy a Canon EOS digital camera, because those lenses from the 1990s will work just fine on the new digital camera.

The market leader in the professional/advanced amateur photography world is Canon. If you don't have a major investment in lenses you will probably want to buy a Canon digital SLR. The number two spot is occupied by Nikon, which is also a reasonable choice. Fuji and Kodak have made digital SLRs that accept Canon- and Nikon-mount lenses. Once you get beyond Nikon and Canon it becomes very difficult to rent lenses and the companies that make the more obscure systems don't have a large enough market share to invest enough money to build competitive bodies. Leica, Minolta, Olympus, Pentax, and Sigma are the small vendors in the digital SLR market. Unless you have an enormous investment in lenses for one of these brands the only one of these worth considering for purchase is Olympus, due to its innovative Four-Thirds system, discussed below.

What kinds of digital SLRs are available?

There are three kinds of digital SLR systems being made as of September 2005:

big lenses, big sensor
big lenses, small sensor
small lenses, small sensor

We will discuss each in turn.

Big lenses, big sensor. Canon and Kodak have taken the most obvious approach to the challenge of transitioning from film to digital: build a digital sensor exactly the same size as one frame of 35mm film. The result is a chunk of silicon 24x36mm in size, which is vast compared to the sensor in a point-and-shoot digicam. The benefit of this vast sensor is reduced noise, which looks like grain, in low light/high-ISO situations. The drawback of a vast sensor is that manufacturing a flawless piece of silicon this big is very expensive. The only consumer-priced camera in this category is the 13-megapixel Canon EOS-5D ($2950; check amazon.com for the latest price). If you have a strong back and an unlimited budget, the 16-megapixel Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II ($7000; available at amazon), is a great choice. It is probably the best digital camera made and produces image quality that rivals medium format film (e.g., 6x6cm Hasselblad).

The only other full-frame digital SLRs made were the discontinued Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n and SLR/c bodies. The Kodaks were cheaper than the Canon, but not quite as functional and the fact that they were discontinued is a good illustration of why you want to buy a digital SLR from a market leader. I own a 5D and have written a full review of the Canon EOS 5D.

Big lenses, small sensor. In order to keep the cost of the body within a range of $700-1500 and allow photographers to use their old 35mm system lenses most digital SLRs fall into this category. The front of the body has the same lens mount as an old film SLR. The back of the body has a sensor that is smaller than the 24x36mm standard frame of an old film SLR. The result is a camera that looks the same as the old film camera but multiplies the magnification of all the lenses. Having a smaller sensor is like cutting the center out of a drugstore proof print. You don't capture all the information on the left and right and top and bottom of the frame. It is as though you took the picture with a telephoto lens. The viewfinder has been adjusted so that what you see optically is what is captured in the digital file. If you're coming from the film world you will need to do a mental adjustment. A 50mm normal perspective lens on a big lens/small sensor camera behaves like an 80mm telephoto lens on a film camera. A 20mm ultra wide-angle lens behaves like a 30-32mm slightly wide angle lens on a film camera. Nearly all the popular digital SLRs fall into this category and their various merits will be discussed below.

Small lenses, small sensor. The biggest problem with the "big lens, small sensor" situation is that photographers are forced to cart around lenses that are much larger, heavier, and, theoretically, more expensive, than they need to be. A big heavy Canon telephoto lens is big and heavy mostly because it is built to cast an image circle large enough to cover a 24x36mm frame but the Canon EOS 30D body's sensor is only 15x22mm in size. Any engineer would look at this "big lens, small sensor" situation and say "Why not come up with a standard reasonable sensor size and then make lenses that are just large enough to cover that sensor with an image?" That's precisely what the Four Thirds consortium did. Olympus and Kodak seem to be the originators of the standard but Fuji, Panasonic, Sanyo, and Sigma have signed on as well according to www.four-thirds.org. This seemed like a great idea at the time (2002) but four years later only three Four Thirds system bodies have been built, all by Olympus, and only a handful of lenses, all from Olympus and Sigma.

If you have a a robust checking account and/or a lot of Canon EOS film camera lenses an unlimited budget the "full-frame" Canon EOS-5D (big lenses/big sensor; medium weight; $2900) is the obvious choice. If you don't need state-of-the-art performance and value compactness above all, the Olympus E System is a reasonable choice (see my review of the Olympus E1 for more detail; the current best buy is a complete starter kit with the E-500 for $630 from amazon). More than 90 percent of photographers, however, will find that the engineering compromise of "big lenses/small sensor" fits their budget and needs. This has led to the introduction of lenses that have the big lens mount for a 35mm film camera but optically cover only the small sensor of a mid-range digital SLR. These are sold as "digital-only lenses" or "digital camera lenses" but in fact they won't work on a full-frame digital SLR--the corners of the image would be black. Canon denotes these lenses as "EF-S", Nikon as "DX".

Which big lenses/small sensor digital SLR to buy?

Canon is the strongest competitor in the digital SLR market. Their current (2006) big lenses/small sensor options include the following cameras:

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, $700 (review); 485g; called "Canon EOS 400D" outside the U.S.; introduced fall 2006
Canon EOS 30D, $1240 (review); 700g; introduced May 2006

These bodies are very similar in performance with sensors that are about the same size and 8-megapixels in resolution. The 30D offers better performance in low light, more responsive operation, and a rear control wheel that makes for faster operation in manual or limited-automation modes. The Digital Rebel is lighter and less bulky.

If you have a substantial investment in Nikon-mount lenses you might wish to stick with the Nikon system when buying a digital SLR. At many points in time Canon makes slightly more advanced bodies, but in virtually every photographic situation you'd end up taking the same picture with either the Canon or Nikon big lenses/small sensor body. Nikon's current (2007) options include the following:

Nikon D40, 18-55mm kit, $549 (review)
Nikon D80, $1000; 600g; introduced fall 2006 but based on the D70, which was introduced in early 2004
Nikon D200, $1700 (review); introduced in March 2006
Nikon D2Xs, $4600 (review); 1070g; introduced early 2005;

All of Nikon's digital SLR cameras use the same size 16x24mm sensor, which multiplies lens magnification by 1.5. The D2Xs is the heavy professional 12-megapixel model. The D200 is the advanced amateur 10-megapixel model. The D80 is the mid-range 10-megapixel model, much lighter in weight due to its plastic body. The D40 is a delightful light compact 6 MP camera with an intuitive user interface. The D40 is the only SLR camera that shows example photos to illustrate the appropriate use of different settings.

Before you consider buying anything other than Canon or Nikon, remember that a 300/2.8 telephoto lens, the standard tool of sports and wildlife photographers, will cost around $4500 to buy and $50 to rent for a weekend. You can rent lenses for Canon and Nikon, or a backup body, in any larger city.

Get a body and normal lens

Lenses are specified by focal length in millimeters and aperture, a ratio between the diameter of the lens and its length. The longer the lens, the greater the magnification. A 50mm lens gives approximately the same perspective as normal human vision. A 400mm lens gives a view like looking through 8X binoculars and a 20mm lens is a dramatically wide angle lens. Lens apertures or f-stops have the following full steps: 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22. Each step represents half as much light being admitted to the sensor. "50/1.4" is shorthand for a lens that is 50mm long and has a maximum aperture of f/1.4. Zoom lenses are specified with the focal length range followed by the aperture range, e.g., "24-105/2.8-4" is a lens that goes from a wide 24mm perspective to a telephoto 105mm perspective while the maximum aperture available goes from f/2.8 at the 24mm end to f/4.0 at the 105mm end. A "fast" lens is one with a wide maximum aperture, e.g., f/2.0. A "slow" lens is one with a physically small (though numerically large) maximum aperture, e.g., f/5.6. The slow lens will require a more brightly lit scene in order to deliver adequate illumination to the sensor.

You've bought, or rented, a digital camera.

It is rather unsatisfying to fool around with a camera unless you can form images on the sensor and therefore you need a lens. The cheap zoom lenses that come packaged with a Canon Digital Rebel or Nikon D50 kit are poor tools for building photography skills or making compelling images. The novice photographer who starts with a zoom lens typically uses it in lieu of backing up or stepping forward. An experienced photographer visualizes the scene first, chooses a focal length, then gets into the appropriate position to capture the scene with that focal length. It is much better to get a lens with a fixed focal length, learn to recognize scenes where that lens can be used effectively, and then add additional lenses once that focal length has been mastered. So even if you have the $1000+ to buy a high quality zoom and the muscles to lug it around it is probably a poor choice of first lens.

The $100-200 lightweight zoom lenses that come bundled with digital SLR bodies have some additional limitations. Being a good photographer starts with the ability to recognize a scene that looks attractive under its current lighting conditions. You need a lens with a wide enough maximum aperture, typically f/2.0 or f/1.4, to capture that scene even when the lighting is fairly dim, as it will be indoors or near the end of the day. An inexpensive zoom lenses will have a maximum aperture of between f/4.0 and f/5.6. At an aperture of f/5.6 you will need 8 times as much light to take a picture as you do at an aperture of f/2.0. Thus the cheap zoom will force you to use the on-camera flash, which casts an ugly flat light and in any case will render the scene completely different than it looked to your naked eye. Flash can be useful, especially with multiple strobes in the studio or as a fill-in light to reduce contrast outdoors, but mastering flash photography is a separate challenge.

The final problem with a cheap zoom lens is image quality. There is no free lunch in this world and when an optical engineer cuts cost and weight the sharpness and contrast are reduced. In fact, you might get a better quality photo with a point-and-shoot digicam than with a heavy expensive digital SLR with a cheap light zoom lens attached.

What you want for a starter digital camera lens is a high-quality "prime" lens with a fixed focal length. You want a "normal" perspective so that the relative sizes of objects in the image will be roughly what you experience with your normal vision. For a 35mm film camera or a full-frame digital SLR (Canon EOS-1Ds; Canon EOS-5D), the normal focal length is 50mm. For a Canon Digital Rebel or similar "big lenses/small sensor" camera the normal perspective is afforded by a 35mm lens. For a Four Thirds camera such as the Olympus E1, the normal lens is 25mm.

In the Canon system there are two kinds of autofocus motors available in the various lenses. The best kind of autofocus motor is ultrasonic, denoted by the "USM" designation on a lens. With USM the pure autofocus will be faster and it is also easier to let the camera do most of the focus work but manually change the point of focus if desired. For the EOS-1Ds or EOS-5D, I recommend the Canon 50/1.4 because it has the USM motor, unlike the cheaper Canon 50/1.8.

For the Canon small sensor DSLRs, e.g., the EOS 30D and Digital Rebel XTi, the Canon 35/2 lens is an economical lightweight choice, but sadly it lacks a USM motor. Canon makes a very fine 35/1.4L USM that lets you work in light only half as bright as the 35/2 (the "L" designation means that it is part of Canon's expensive lineup of lenses and will have superb optical performance and mechanical construction). This lens costs more than $1000, however, and, at 580 grams, is heavy. Generally speaking, "third party" lenses such as those made by Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina, are not worth considering compared to Canon-brand lenses. The remarkably cheap wide-range third-party zooms deliver terrible image quality. The high quality third-party prime lenses or fast zooms aren't much less expensive than high quality Canon- or Nikon-brand lenses. Sigma's 30/1.4 digital-only lens is an exception. Because it does not cast an image large enough to cover a 24x36mm film frame, the lens is much lighter (422g) than the Canon 35/1.4 and less than half the price (check it on Amazon now). It has an ultrasonic motor, denoted "HSM" by Sigma, and has delivered superb optical performance in magazine tests.

With Nikon, your choices are simple. Nikon doesn't make any full-frame digital SLRs, and they only make one 35mm prime autofocus lens, a 35/2. The Sigma 30mm f1.4 for Nikon, $420 is probably a better choice due to its extra f-stop of light gathering capability and ultrasonic motor.

Olympus makes very few prime lenses and none with a 25mm "normal" perspective. Olympus does offer a choice of three zooms, however. The best image quality and fastest aperture is a 14-35/2.0. The "reasonably good" mid-range zoom is the 14-54/2.8-3.5. The cheapest Olympus zoom for the Four Thirds system is the 14-45/3.5-5.6, only suitable for sunny days due to its small maximum apertures.

As noted previously, expensive digital camera bodies are often sold in kits with cheap slow zoom lenses that sell separately for a maximum of $100. If the kit is the same price as the body alone, by all means get the kit and put the included lens aside until you are letting a clumsy child experiment with your camera system. But also shop for a high quality lens of some sort.

Distilled shopping advice:

cheapest possible system: Nikon D40, 18-55mm kit, $549 (review)
basic family camera system: Canon Digital Rebel XTi and Sigma 30/1.4 lens (buy it from amazon.com: body; lens)
transitioning film photographer: Canon EOS-30D and Sigma 30/1.4 lens (buy it from amazon.com: body; lens)
technophile: Canon EOS-5D and Canon 50/1.4 lens (buy it from amazon.com: body; lens)

Get some accessories

Big digital SLR cameras take not-so-very-compact Compact Flash (CF) memory cards. Often the camera body does not come with a CF card or the supplied card will only hold a handful of images. A RAW photo from an 8-megapixel digital SLR occupies roughly 10 MB of space on the card, which means that a 2 GB card will hold approximately 200 images. The RAW files from the Canon EOS-5D are approximately 13 MB in size, which means that you can get 300 images on a 4 GB card. In addition to the size of the card, it is worth looking at the maximum writing speed. A card labeled "60X", for example, can theoretically read or write 9 MB per second or one RAW 8-megapixel image per second (folks who've measured the write times of various cards in real cameras never get more than 6 MB per second, even from cards that are supposed to support 20 MB per second). The camera has a memory buffer allowing you to capture 20 or more images in rapid sequence, and then it writes them to disk as fast as the card allows. Even with a large buffer, however, you want a fast card so that the camera is responsive to requests to review recently captured images. You don't want to leave your subjects standing around for two minutes while the camera writes to the card and then you figure out whether you've gotten the images that you need. The SanDisk Ultra II cards are nearly as fast as the fastest available cards and nearly as cheap as the cheapest available cards. Don't pay extra for Lexar "write-acceleration" cards if you're using a Canon body; Canon doesn't support whatever these cards need to write faster. You can buy Sandisk cards at Amazon.com: 8 GB; 4 GB; 2 GB; 1 GB. Serious photographers don't generally use cases for SLRs. If you're out taking pictures, you want the camera available for immediate use. If you're not taking pictures, you can stuff the camera anywhere. If you are going to be taking the camera out in the rain, however, or tossing it into a backpack with a lot of rocks, I like the Zing neoprene "action covers".

A "UV haze" filter, appropriately sized to fit the front of your lens, can be useful if you're taking pictures in a dusty or wet environment or if you're lending your camera to a careless person. For maximum contrast and image quality, however, don't leave the filter on the lens when doing a project in a clean environment.

As far as cleaning accessories go, the most useful is a microfiber cloth. Remember to drip the cleaning fluid onto the cloth and then wipe the lens; do not drip cleaning fluid directly onto a lens. Also never try to clean an SLR mirror yourself. Dust on the mirror will not appear on your images and it is very easy to damage the mirror surface. Zeiss makes some good lens cleaning products (buy a kit from amazon), including their pre-moistened wipes.

Where to Buy

In the old days you saved a lot of money by buying camera equipment from one of the big New York City retailers. These days, however, prices for digital cameras are about the same all over the Web. You'll get about as good a deal at amazon.com as anywhere else, sometimes better. The main problem with buying digital SLR cameras and digital camera lenses at a non-specialty store is that they won't have the serious lenses. You'll be able to get the cheap popular zooms but not the prime lenses, the professional-quality zooms, or unusual accessories.

Get some knowledge

Please take a moment to read this article on photographic light (written for the film era but still valuable). Read the owner's manual that came with your camera a couple of times.

Project: Friends and Family at Home

Set the camera to ISO 400 or ISO 800 and learn to make satisfactory images with available light indoors. Since you will usually find people indoors, you might as well include them in your pictures. The normal perspective lens is wide enough to show a person plus some part of the activity in which he or she is engaged.

If you got your digital SLR camera as a kit with a cheap zoom lens this would be a good time to compare the utility of the slow zoom lens with the fast prime lens. Try the same portraits indoors with the kit lens and the 35/1.4 or 50/1.4 lens. See if the small maximum aperture of the kit lens forces you to use either very slow shutter speeds (blurry due to camera shake) or very high ISO speeds (lots of digital noise in the images when viewed later on a computer screen).

Get some image editing software

On the computer side, you need to come up with a plan for storing and selecting photos. My personal strategy is to start with directories named YYYYMMDD-subject, e.g., "20050813-newport-jazz-festival". Prefixing with the date in that format ensures that the directories, sorted by name, will appear in chronological order. The really bad photos I move into a subfolder called "rejects". The better photos I rename to something more descriptive than the camera-generated serial number. All of this can be done within the Windows XP file explorer, even for camera RAW images, if you download the free "Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for Windows XP". The latest versions of Macintosh OS X also provide support for viewing RAW images.

The Picasa system, which was purchased by Google and is free (Linux/Windows-only), does almost everything most people want for image organization and editing. Picasa works with RAW-format files.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 is a great system but it is more of a professional graphic artist's tool than a photographer's tool. If you want software that can handle all of your requirements as you gain experience, Photoshop is it. I personally do all of my browsing, renaming, and editing in Photoshop and have developed scripts for processing camera images into JPEGs with copyright info for the Web.

Project: Shadows

Set the camera to ISO 50 or 100 (the lowest numerical setting, which will be the highest quality) and walk around on sunny days looking for interesting shadows. Photograph the shadows either by themselves or in conjunction with the objects casting the shadows. One of the goals here is to train your eye to look for interesting shadows.

Project: Low-angle

Set the camera to ISO 400 and walk around on an overcast day looking for interesting pictures that you can take with the camera no more than one or two feet off the ground. People tend to make nearly all of their photographs while standing erect. It is good to train yourself to experiment with crouching or even lying down to get a different perspective.

When photographing dogs and children, it is particularly important to consider the effect you'll have on the picture by standing over your subject.

Get a tripod

Many interesting pictures require keeping the shutter open for several seconds, much longer than human beings are capable of holding still. A tripod will enable you to fix the camera in a compositionally satisfying position and take 30 second or longer exposures.

Read our tripod primer and buy whatever fits your budget. Rest assured that as you get serious, you'll probably end up with another tripod or two.

Some good tripod choices for typical digital SLRs:

reasonable quality: Bogen/Manfrotto 3001 legs and Bogen ball head with quick release
high quality: Bogen 190MF3 legs and Bogen ball head with quick release

More expensive tripods are either lighter or provide better dampening of vibration or both.

Project: City at Night

Drive to the nearest city with interesting buildings that are illuminated at night. Set the camera to ISO 100 (the relatively slow speed is irrelevant now that you have the tripod) and bracket your exposures. In addition to learning about low-light metering and the use of the tripod, you want to see the aesthetic effect of differing exposures. There really isn't a correct exposure for night photography. Do you want the building to look sort of dark and mysterious? Bright and inviting? It is your choice with a flip of the shutter speed dial. Note that none of your slides will record the full range of tones in the original scene. Some parts of the building that you could see with your eyes will register on film as pure black. Some parts that are close to street lights will be blown out into pure white.

Get a wide-angle lens

You should be comfortable with the normal lens now and have a pretty good idea of when you can successfully use it. The uninteresting and obvious thing that a wide-angle lens does is capture more of the surrounding scenery on film (something that you could achieve with the normal lens, simply by backing up). The non-obvious thing that a wide-angle lens does is change the relative prominence of objects in a scene (see the image at left, which was taken with a 14mm extreme wide-angle lens on a 35mm film camera).

As a growing photographer, whenever you're using a wide-angle lens, you have to learn to look for interesting objects to fill the foreground. If you don't find one, you'll end with a flat postcard-like image. If you do find an interesting object, move in close so that it fills at least one-third of the frame. The interesting thing about the resulting image is that your viewers will get a good look at the object you've selected but will also see a wide swath of background.

In the image at right, note how the foreground log and ferns are the main subject but you can still see a lot of the background forest. This was taken with a 20mm lens on a film camera (and a tripod, in the rain, with a towel over the lens, exposure for almost 1 second).

For comparison, below right is an image that was not taken with a wide-angle lens. In fact, it was made with a telephoto (narrow-angle or high-magnification) lens, about 200mm long on a film camera. Note that foreground and backgrounds trees all have roughly the same relative prominence. That's because the foreground trees aren't much closer, percentage-wise, to the camera than the background trees.

How wide a lens to get? Technically 35mm on a 35mm camera is wide but it is the same focal length as most point and shoot cameras so I don't recommend it. If you're going to lug an SLR around you want something at least a little bit dramatic. I recommend starting with a lens that is gives a 24 or 28mm perspective on a film or full-frame digital camera, which means a 16-18mm lens on a mid-range Canon EOS or Nikon D80 digital SLR. After you've made a lot of images with which you're happy (i.e., where you successfully found a good object for the foreground), then consider widening out to 16 or 20mm, which translates to 10-14mm on a "big lenses/small sensor" digital SLR.

In practice it is difficult to find reasonably priced ultra-wide prime (non-zoom) lenses. There isn't a very large market for a 14/2.8 lens and therefore they are built almost by hand. It therefore makes sense to buy a wide-angle zoom lens. A good place to start experimenting in the Canon small-sensor world is the 10-22/3.5-4.5 zoom lens. This is unfortunately a little bit slow, with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at 10mm and f/4.5 at 22mm. However with a digital camera you can always push up the ISO when the light gets dim and compensate for the lack of lens speed, albeit with an increase in noise. In the Nikon line, I recommend the Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED IF Autofocus DX, $935. Olympus makes a 7-14mm lens for the E-system.

If you're using a full-frame Canon EOS 5D, the professional choice is the 16-35/2.8L (amazon).

Wide Project: People in the City

The most common example uses for wide-angle lenses are all dramatic landscapes. I don't like this for learners, though, because (a) it is time-consuming for most people to have to drive to a dramatic landscape, (b) photojournalists make frequent and brilliant use of wide-angle lenses to illustrate people interacting with each other or with their environment.

So get out there with your new wide-angle lens and get up close to your subjects. You need to learn how to stick a camera 12 inches from your subject. Remember that the ruder your personality, the better a photojournalist you will make. Here are a few examples to motivate you.

Get a telephoto lens

With the wide lens, you've explored the possibilities in showing a subject plus its environment. With the telephoto lens, you must learn to find good compositions where you isolate your subject from its environment. Telephoto lenses accomplish this isolation first by having higher magnification than a normal perspective lens. So without you having to move forward, the lens will record a smaller portion of the scene on film. The telephoto lens compresses perspective. As in the tree image above, foreground and background objects won't be given dramatically different prominence. However, if you don't stop the lens aperture down, background objects may be so out of focus as to be imperceivable by the viewer. With the image at right, taken with a 300/2.8, the viewer's eye is immediately led to the subject because everything else is out of focus.

Note that depth of field, or what is in and out of focus in the scene, is a function of the absolute length of the lens and the aperture used for exposure. Thus to get this kind of background blur with a mid-range digital SLR you would still need to use a 300/2.8 lens even though the same magnification and subject scale could be achieved with a 200mm lens.

It is probably worth buying a prime telephoto lens equivalent to 100-150mm on a film or full-frame digital SLR. This is short enough to be cheap and long enough to be noticeably different from your normal lens. Note that 100mm was typically considered the ideal lens for portrait photography on a 35mm SLR. An excellent lens for the Canon EOS system is the 100/2 USM. If you must have a zoom telephoto, restrict yourself to the L-series, the cheapest of which is the Canon 70-200/4L USM. Although this lens is a full f-stop faster than the cheap zoom telephotos, which are usually f/5.6 at their long ends, it is two f-stops slower than the 100/2 prime lens and that is going to hurt if you are taking portraits in natural light. Most people don't look their best in contrasty bright direct sunshine. In the Nikon system look at the 85/1.8D AF lens. There are no high quality lightweight medium-speed zoom telephotos in the Nikon line as of December 2005. Your only optically reasonable option is the standard professional workhouse 70-200/2.8, which is an incredibly large and heavy lens. To experiment with telephoto photography on a sunny day, and wait for the day when Nikon makes better lenses specifically for their small-sensor cameras, spend $250 on the Nikon 55-200/4-5.6. Note that, due to its small maximum aperture, this lens will not produce a blurred background for portraits.

Telephoto Project: Portraits

Park your subject near a window, traditionally north-facing, that provides indirect sunlight. Get a piece of white cardboard to reflect light back from the window onto the side of your subject facing away from the window. Put your camera on the tripod. Take pictures. When you're done, you'll be a "window-light portrait" expert. Here's some inspiration (only one of these was taken by window light).

Get a camera bag

You now have enough stuff for your first camera bag. Read the photo.net camera bags primer. Go to a good camera shop and see which bag comfortably holds all the stuff you've got plus maybe one more small item. Don't get a bag that is too big. Even as your system expands, you'll still want a bag that is just right for a body plus three lenses.

Take a breather

You've now got a comprehensive digital SLR camera system. Stop buying stuff. At this point, you need only buy or rent stuff in the context of trying to realize a particular photographic project. Remember that no matter how much equipment you lug around you will never have the right lens for every picture at every moment. One needs to accept that some great photos will slip by without being captured.

If you feel that you have to buy something new, here are some good project-based excuses.

Macro lens project: Think Small

If you want to explore the world up close (real close) then you need a macro lens. Read my macro photography primer and get a lens that suits your desired working distance from the subject. Then head out into a flower garden with your tripod. An overcast day is probably best. Below is some inspiration from my Hawaiian flowers exhibit and my page on Joshua Tree National Park.

Some good macro lenses for digital cameras:

small sensor Canon: EF-S 60/2.8 USM -- will not work on a full-frame camera (amazon)
full-frame Canon: EF 100/2.8 USM (amazon)
small sensor Nikon: AF Micro 60/2.8D (amazon)

Wide-to-Tele Zoom lens project: Photojournalistic Wedding

If you care about quality, zoom lenses are heavier, more expensive, and never quite as sharp or contrasty as fixed ("prime") lenses.

If you're rich and lazy, you can get professional zoom lenses simply to avoid having to change lenses. The cost is $1000-2000 per lens and the quality loss is small. If you're poor and quality-conscious, you're much better off sticking to prime lenses.

When does a zoom lens help you accomplish a photographic objective? Event photography. The one constant of photojournalism is that your subjects probably won't wait around for you to set up a tripod or change lenses. It helps to be fleet of foot and unencumbered by a huge camera bag full of lenses. It helps to be ready with the right focal length lens on your camera instantly.

Anyway, if you're going to take pictures at your cousin Shlomo's wedding, that's a good excuse to buy a zoom lens covering 24-85mm (full-frame digital SLR or film perspective) or so. If the official wedding photographer is delivering images in color, you can really impress Shlomo and the rest of your family by delivering all of your images knocked down to black and white. Unless your family is very chic, their mutual color coordination will probably be ineffective. They'll look better in black and white and remember that you'll be free to take pictures using incandescent and fluorescent light sources without worrying about adjusting the white balance.

For the Canon EOS-1Ds and 5D, the 24-70/2.8L USM (amazon) is the lens of choice. For the Canon EOS 20D and Canon Digital Rebel, the 17-55/2.8 IS USM (amazon) is a high-performance lens offering roughly the same range of perspectives. For a Nikon "big lenses/small sensor" digital SLR you want the 17-55/2.8 lens (amazon).

SOURCE

How can I prevent users from using USB removable disks (USB flash drives)?

2007-10-17T22:25:00.000+03:00

I have seen this question several times at different message boards, so I've decided to write an article about it.

USB removable disks (also known as flash drives or "Disk on Key" and other variations) are quickly becoming an integral part of our electronic life, and now nearly everybody owns one device or another, in forms of small disks, external hard drives that come enclosed in cases, card readers, cameras, mobile phones, portable media players and more.

Portable USB flash drives are indeed very handy, but they can also be used to upload malicious code to your computer (either deliberately or by accident), or to copy confidential information from your computer and take it away.

Whenever a new USB device is plugged-in to a USB port, the operating system checks the device and hardware id to determine if it's a storage device or not. If it determines that it is indeed a mass storage device it will load the appropriate driver, and will display the device as a drive in the Windows Explorer tree view. This is done by using the usbstor.sys driver.

If the device does not have a drive letter, you will need to assign one to it by using the Disk Management snap-in found in the Computer Management tool.

If you disable the ability of the usbstor.sys driver to run on the computer, you will in fact block the computer's means of discovering the flash drive and loading the appropriate driver.

Note that this will only prevent usage of newly plugged-in USB Removable Drives or flash drives, devices that were plugged-in while this option was not configured will continue to function normally. Also, devices that use the same device or hardware ID (for example - 2 identical flash drives made by the same manufacturer) will still function if one of them was plugged-in prior to the configuration of this setting. In order to successfully block them you will need to make sure no USB Removable Drive is plugged-in while you set this option.

Note: This tip will allow you to block usage of USB removable disks, but will continue to allow usage of USB mice, keyboards or any other USB-based device that is NOT a portable disk.

SOURCE

Canon EOS 40D Preview

2007-09-14T19:45:00.001+03:00

Phil Askey, August 2007

The EOS 40D becomes the sixth Canon 'prosumer' digital SLR, a line which started back in 2000 with the EOS D30, and how far we've come. It's been eighteen months since the EOS 30D and although on the surface the 40D looks like a fairly subtle upgrade there's a lot that makes this an even better camera. Of course we expect a step up in megapixels, and so the 40D comes with a ten million pixel CMOS sensor with the same sort of dust reduction as the EOS 400D, an ultrasonic platform which shakes the low pass filter. Other improvements bring the EOS 40D closer into line with the EOS-1D series, these include a move to the same page-by-page menu system, both RAW and sRAW (2.5 MP), 14-bit A/D converter and 14-bit RAW, cross-type AF points for F5.6 or faster lenses, a larger and brighter viewfinder, interchangeable focusing screens, a larger LCD monitor (3.0") and faster continuous shooting (6.5 fps).

UPDATE 25/Aug/07: We have just added a gallery of sample images from a pre-production EOS 40D.

Model line history

Model	Announced	Effective pixels	Auto focus	Continuous (JPEG)	LCD monitor
EOS D30	Apr 2000	3.1 mp	3 point	3.0 fps, 3 frames	1.8"
EOS D60	Feb 2002	6.3 mp	3 point	3.3 fps, 8 frames	1.8"
EOS 10D	Feb 2003	6.3 mp	7 point	3.3 fps, 9 frames	1.8"
EOS 20D	Aug 2004	8.2 mp	9 point	5.0 fps, 23 frames	1.8"
EOS 30D	Feb 2006	8.2 mp	9 point	5.0 / 3.0 fps, 30 frames	2.5"
EOS 40D	Aug 2007	10.1 mp	9 point	6.5 / 3.0 fps, 85 frames	3.0" (Live view)

Canon EOS 40D vs. EOS 30D feature and specification differences

	Canon EOS 40D	Canon EOS 30D
Weatherproof	Battery door and storage compartment	No
Sensor	• 10.1 million effective pixels • 5.7 µm pixel pitch	• 8.2 million effective pixels • 6.4 µm pixel pitch
A/D converter	14-bit	12-bit
Image sizes	• 3888 x 2592 • 2816 x 1880 • 1936 x 1288	• 3504 x 2336 • 2544 x 1696 • 1728 x 1152
RAW files	• CR2 format, 14-bit • RAW full resolution • sRAW (2.5 MP)	• CR2 format, 12-bit • RAW full resolution
Image processor	DIGIC III	DIGIC II
Dust reduction	High speed vibration of filter	None
Auto focus	• 9-point TTL CMOS sensor • Points cross-type for F5.6 or faster lens • Center point additionally sensitive with lenses of F2.8 or faster	9-point TTL CMOS sensor
Metering range	0.0 to 20 EV	1.0 to 20 EV
Spot metering	Approx. 3.8% at center	Approx. 3.5% at center
Auto ISO	ISO 400 to 800 / 100 to 800 depending on exposure mode	ISO 100 to 400
Kelvin WB	2500 - 10000 K in 100 K steps	2800 - 10000 K in 100 K steps
Viewfinder	• 95% frame coverage • Magnification: 0.95x • Eyepoint: 22 mm	• 95% frame coverage • Magnification: 0.90x • Eyepoint: 20 mm
Focusing screen	• Interchangable precision matte • Two other screens available	• Fixed precision matte
Viewfinder info	Now includes ISO sensitivity, B&W icon
LCD monitor	• 3.0 " TFT LCD • 230,000 pixels	• 2.5 " TFT LCD • 230,000 pixels
LCD Live View	Yes, including mirror-drop AF	No
Main LCD settings display	When changing settings such as AF mode or White Balance	No
Tilt correction	Yes	No
Opening CF door	Warning message shown	Power down, loses images
Mirror lock-up	Single or multiple exposures	Single exposures
Mirror mechanism	Motor up / down, quieter, faster	Spring up / motor down
Playback modes	Exposure line at top in single image view	No exposure in single image view
User modes	Three custom user modes on mode dial	No user modes
High-speed continuous	• 6.5 fps • Up to 75 JPEG Large/Fine images	• 5.0 fps • Up to 30 JPEG Large/Fine images
Portrait grip	WFT-E3/E3A, BP-E2N, BP-E2	BP-E2
Wireless connectivity	• WFT-E3/E3A • Integrates as vertical hand grip	• WFT-E1/E1A • No grip
Menu UI	Same as EOS-1D series	Sames previous xxD series
Menu languages	18	15
Custom functions	24	19
AF-ON button	Rear 'under thumb'	None
Rear buttons	• Direct print • Menu • Play • Erase • Jump • Info • Picture Style	• Direct print • Menu • Info • Jump • Play • Erase
Top right buttons	• Lamp • Metering / WB • AF / Drive • ISO / Flash comp.	• Lamp • AF / WB • Drive / ISO • Metering / Flash comp.
Dimensions	146 x 108 x 74 mm(5.7 x 4.2 x 2.9 in)	144 x 106 x 74 mm (5.6 x 4.2 x 2.9 in)
Weight	• No battery: 740 g (1.6 lb) • With battery: 822 g (1.8 lb)	• No battery: 706 g (1.6 lb) • With battery: 785 g (1.7 lb

technorati tags:photography, digital, canon, eos, 40D, CanonEOS40D, news, release

Notes on a few inexpensive Canon EF Lenses`

2007-09-14T19:25:00.001+03:00

http://photonotes.org/reviews/ef-lenses/

First off, the main reason I put this information here is because when I was shopping for second-hand lenses I couldn’t easily find a lot of the information I actually wanted to know. Like whether a given lens had a distance scale, or a plastic or metal mount, or internal focusing or zooming. Hopefully these notes will be handy for somebody.

Now, I have used a bunch of pro Canon lenses, such as the 28-70 2.8L, the 70-200 2.8L, the 135mm 2.0L. But I don’t review them here because I don’t feel I have as much to say about them. They’re absolutely fabulous lenses. And they’re also extremely expensive. If you can afford them and don’t mind the weight and bulk, go for it and don’t waste your time with cheap consumer lenses like those reviewed on this page. But if you’re on a budget you may want to read on.

Next, this document consists of a listing of factual information about each lens (focal length, aperture range, number of diaphragm blades, etc) and some subjective personal opinions. There are no objective ratings (MTF numbers or whatever) here, nor are there any cross-lens test results. I did some general testing with each lens (shooting the same subject with different lenses using a tripod, etc) and these informal tests helped form my opinions, but my tests weren’t controlled enough to be particularly rigorous. If you want hard numerical data have a look elsewhere. Photodo is one site that provides such less subjective test information.

Finally, if you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms used in this document - such as prime versus zoom, focal length, aperture, etc., please consult my online dictionary of photographic terms.

Categories of Canon EF lenses.

Canon officially divide their EF-mount (EOS compatible) SLR lenses into just two categories - the “L” class lenses, which are heavy, expensive, professional lenses with red rings painted around the ends, and all the others. However, there are several basic unlabelled quality categories within the non-L glass as well. So here’s my summary of EF lens categories.

Category 1 - cheapies.

At the bottom of the consumer line are the cheapies - ultra-low cost, low-quality, slow lenses with plastic mounts and no distance scales. Most of the kit lenses - 28-80 and 28-90 lenses with typical aperture ranges of 4.5 to 5.6 - fit into this category. These lenses are built to be sold as inexpensively as possible and don’t have very good optical quality. The only exception to this basic rule is the 50mm 1.8 II - plastic lens mount - which has excellent optical quality despite its cheap build quality, because it isn’t a zoom lens like all the others. The cheapies are easily recognizable by their all-plastic construction and straight, parallel-sided lens barrels. Most of the new cheapies have a silver (chrome) ring around the end for looks.

I don’t deal with any of these lenses in this review because, at risk of sounding like a snob, I don’t believe most of them are really worth buying. As noted, Canon optimize them for cheapness. They want products to sell for peanuts in shopping mall camera shops and department stores. This market does not, it seems, place a great deal of value on image quality - cheap prices for impulse buys are everything. That’s great for Canon, but frankly, if I’m going to be dealing with the hassle of carrying around an SLR camera I want at least half-decent optical quality for the attached lens. Otherwise I think it’s a lot easier just to carry around a cheap lightweight point and shoot camera.

So what if you’re on a budget? Obviously, there’s no point commenting on how these cheapies don’t produce photos as good as an L series lens - one lens costs 1/10 or 1/15 the cost of the other. That’s true, but don’t forget there are many other options. You can buy a 50mm 1.8 lens, for example. This gives you crisp sharp photos and the ability to shoot in low light levels without flash. If you really miss the convenience of a zoom you could pick up a used 28-70 3.5-5.6 II for nearly the same price as a new 28-80 cheapie. You don’t have to put up with shopping mall quality just because you’re on a tight budget.

Category 2 - midrange zooms.

In the midrange are better lenses with improved optics, sturdier build quality, metal mounts and distance scales. These often have ring USM motors. The 24-85, 28-105 and 100-300 USM are typical examples. They’re decent consumer lenses but don’t have the optical clarity of the pro lenses. However, they generally cost a fraction of the price of the top of the line stuff. These lenses are generally fairly elegantly designed, with slightly rounded and tapered lens barrels.

There is also a number of older low-end zooms with decent optical quality, such as the aforementioned 28-70 3.5-4.5 II, which don’t use modern USM drives but which nonetheless offer good value for money on the used market.

Category 3 - inexpensive primes.

Canon also build a number of prime (ie: non zoom) lenses with acceptable optics and average build quality (usually with noisy motor drives, metal mounts and distance scales), such as the 28mm 2.8 and 50mm 1.8 (metal lens mount). Despite their low cost and pretty unremarkable construction they nonetheless can provide quite decent photographic results. All lenses in this category are mostly normal or near normal lenses - no super wide angles and no long telephotos. These designs generally date back to the early days of the EOS lineup, so they tend to look a bit old-fashioned, style-wise. Canon just haven’t seen the need to update any of them.

Since it’s technically much easier - and cheaper - to construct an optically decent prime lens than it is an optically decent zoom lens you’re usually going to get much better optical quality for the same amount of money if you buy primes. Prime lenses also tend to be faster (larger maximum apertures) than zooms for the same reason.

The tradeoff is, of course, in convenience - you have to “zoom with your feet” and move around more when taking photos. But if you want optical quality a cheap prime is something to keep in mind if you’re on a limited budget.

Category 4 - good primes.

This is a group of prime lenses which offer excellent optics and decent build quality, but which don’t really need and thus don’t use ultra low-dispersion glass or calcium fluorite crystals or other hallmarks of L-class lenses. Remarkably good lenses like the 85mm 1.8 and the 100mm 2.8 macro fit into this category. Most have ring ultrasonic motors. They generally resemble the category 2 lenses - slightly rounded and tapered lens barrels. These are professional lenses in all but the name, though they’re usually not quite as heavy-duty as the fancier L lenses.

Category 5 - L series lenses.

Finally, Canon make a number of expensive lenses which they designate as L for “luxury.” These are intended for professional heavy-duty use by photojournalists, studio photographers and so on. The 16-35 2.8L USM, 28-70 2.8L USM and the 70-200 2.8L USM are popular lenses of this type.

All the L series lenses today are made of metal or heavy plastic, have ring USM drives and are identified by the characteristic red ring painted around the end of the barrel. Many, but not all, L lenses are painted an off-white colour rather than black. This is done partly because white lenses don’t get as hot in the sun and partly because it makes them easy to recognize at professional sports events and the like. All L class lenses have one technical design aspect in common - at least one fluorite (rather than glass) or ground aspheric (rather than moulded/replicated aspheric) or ultra-low dispersion lens element.

I don’t discuss most of the L series lenses for the reason mentioned above - they’re mostly great lenses but highly expensive and very heavy. The 100-300 5.6L reviewed here is one exception. Since it’s one of the first generation EOS lenses it’s of a considerably cheaper construction than the current lineup.

Category 6 - specialized lenses.

Canon also make a handful of expensive specialized lenses for unusual applications which I’ll just lump into this category for lack of anywhere else to put them. These include their tilt-shift TS-E lenses, the MP-E 65mm macro lens and the new DO (diffractive optics) lenses.

Roman numerals:

This lens categorization sometimes gets very confusing. For example, Canon release newer versions of lenses all the time, numbering them with Roman numerals. Sometimes the new lens is an improvement. Other times it’s not.

For example, the EF 28-80 3.5-5.6 USM isn’t a bad lens. It has a metal lens mount, similar build quality to the EF 28-105 and fits into the second of the six tiers listed above. However, the EF 28-80 3.5-5.6 II USM is an all-plastic cheapie which fits into the first of the six tiers above. (all 28-80 3.5-5.6 lenses from marks II through V are plastic cheapies, in fact) The EF 50mm 1.8, as noted below, is generally considered to be a better lens than the EF 50mm 1.8 II.

Sadly there’s no easy way to know the difference without a lot of careful research. Note also that the first version of a lens is often casually referred to as the mark I version, though Canon never identify lenses as such. Only post-I lenses (II and up) have the Roman numeral designation.

Canon also release updated versions of lens hoods using Roman numeral designations. Quite often the mark II version of a hood will fit the same lenses as its predecessor but will have a black flocked interior lining to reduce lens flare.

Motor types.

Canon employ a number of different motor technologies in their lenses. These are the basic types:

Arc-form drive (AFD). Generally used in a number of older lower-cost lenses, AFD motors are simply little electric motors which drive a geartrain. They’re somewhat noisy - electric buzzing and grinding of gears - and not terribly fast. This isn’t a big deal on smaller lenses since the distances the motors must move the focussing elements isn’t very far. However, telephoto lenses with AFD motors can be quite sluggish.

Micromotor (MM) drive. Generally used on a few older lower-cost lenses. Similar to AFD - slow and noisy and based around an electric motor driving a geartrain.

Ring ultrasonic (USM) drive. The kind you want. These motors consist of two metal rings which vibrate at a very high frequency, causing ultrasonic vibrations inaudible to humans. (have a look here for photos of these rings) Ring ultrasonic lenses are great because they focus quickly and silently and also support full-time manual (FTM). This means you can touch up the focus manually without first having to switch the lens from autofocus to manual focus mode. The majority of L series lenses use ring ultrasonic motors, as do most of the lenses in categories 2 and 4 above.

Micromotor ultrasonic (USM) drive. This is the kind you generally don’t want. It’s a form of USM motor that Canon designed for their cheapie lenses so they can bill them as ultrasonic for marketing purposes. However they lack most of the advantages of ring USM lenses. Micromotor USM lenses are moderately fast and fairly quiet, but (with two notable exceptions - the 50mm 1.4 USM and the 28-105 4-5.6 USM mentioned below) do not support full-time manual focussing.

Also, a couple of points here. First, all lenses with “USM” in the name contain an ultrasonic motor. Canon do not, however, distinguish between ring and micromotor USM drives in the name - you have to look up the specs for the individual lens to find that out. Second, all non-L lenses with USM drives have striped gold lines painted around the end of the barrel. However, all L lenses have red lines painted around the end, whether or not they use USM.

Image stabilization (IS). This is not a lens focussing technology, but I mention it here since it doesn’t fit conveniently anywhere else. IS is a Canon-developed technology that stabilizes the image optically. In other words it uses a complex system of gyroscopic sensors, computers and servomotors to compensate for camera shake. IS lenses therefore let you take sharp photos with handheld cameras at shutter speeds you couldn’t ordinarily use - typically up to a couple of stops slower. Canon make a number of midrange to high-end lenses with IS technology. I don’t review any such lenses here.

Third party lenses?

I only look at a few Canon EF lenses. EF stands for “electrofocus” and is Canon’s technical designation for the line of lenses they sell which are compatible with EOS cameras. Virtually all of the EF lens range is autofocus (AF) capable with the exception of a few unusual and specialized lenses, so you sometimes see EF lenses referred to as Canon AF lenses.

I don’t deal with third party lenses, such as those made by Tamron, Tokina and Sigma. These third party makers build a wide range of lenses designed to work with EOS cameras, but I’ve chosen to stick with Canon for compatibility reasons. Canon sometimes redesign new cameras in such a way that third-party lenses no longer work with them, but to date all Canon EF lenses work with all Canon EOS cameras. (though to be fair, it should be noted that Tamron have an excellent track record to date and all Tamron lenses work with all Canon cameras, unlike some Tokina and Sigma lenses)

I’m sure there are many decent third-party lenses out there but you’ll have to look elsewhere for information on them since I have no experience with them.

Lenses reviewed:

Mainly lenses in the second and third categories above. I don’t own any of the rock-bottom Canon lenses. I owned a 28-80 3.5-5.6 II cheap zoom for a few days, but the quality was rather depressing so I quickly took it back to the shop.

Prime lenses:

Canon EF 20mm 2.8 USM
Canon EF 28mm 2.8
Canon EF 50mm 1.8

Zoom lenses:

Canon EF 28-105mm 3.5-4.5 USM
Canon EF 100-300 4.5-5.6 USM
Canon EF 100-300 5.6L

The idea was to try and cover the basic shooting range (20mm to 300mm). I want as many prime lenses as I can, since prime lenses invariably offer higher quality than zooms at the consumer level - the obvious tradeoff being convenience.

My next planned lens purchase is the 100mm macro lens, since it’s said to offer both excellent macro capabilities and also sharp general-purpose performance. It’s quite a bit more expensive than the other lenses I own, however, so it’ll be a while before I pick up one of those.

EF 20mm 2.8 USM.

I bought this lens for a number of reasons. I do landscapes a lot and I wanted a super wide-angle so I could get in sweeping vistas and the like. Wide-angle lenses also have good depth of field, so you can do interesting near-far photos. And finally I wanted to try making QuickTime VR panorama photos on my computer. This lens isn’t as dramatic as a 14mm one, but it’s also within my budget.

I liked it. It was pretty sharp, had very low distortion, had the quiet USM motor with full-time manual focusing. It was reasonably big for a consumer lens, particularly when the petal-shaped lens hood was attached. I didn’t get the 20-35 USM, even though it costs basically the same, mainly because I didn’t see myself using much more than the 20mm end. I already have a 28mm prime and a 28-105 zoom. The 20mm is also said to have less flare and distortion. It used rear focussing, so the end did not extend or rotate. It had a floating group and so its near focusing is pretty close.

However, you’ll note that I’ve been using the past tense here. My house was burgled and this lens stolen.

Here’s a photo that I took with this lens. Note the huge depth of field. A bunch of my QuickTime panoramas were taken at 20mm as well.

Canon EF 20mm 2.8 USM
Focus drive type.	USM (ring ultrasonic motor with full-time manual).
Diagonal angle of view.	94°.
Groups and elements.	9 and 11.
Aperture range.	f/2.8 - f/22.
Diaphragm blades.	5.
Maximum magnification.	0.14x.
Close focus distance.	0.25m or 0.8'.
Filter diameter.	72mm.
Hood type	EW-75 bayonet-mount “perfect” (petal-shaped) hood.
Length.	71mm or 2 13/16".
Weight.	405g or 14.3 oz.
End rotates when focussing.	No.
End extends when focussing.	No.
Distance scale.	Yes.
Metal lens mount.	Yes.
Other features.	Full-time manual, rear focus, floating group.

EF 28mm 2.8.

I bought this lens primarily because it was pretty cheap. As noted above, I do landscapes a lot, and 28mm is useful for that. It isn’t really wide enough to give trippy wide-angle effects, but is quite a bit wider than a normal 50mm lens. It uses a slow and noisy arc-form drive for focusing, but since I tend to use it on a tripod for landscape purposes, that’s rarely an issue. The end does not rotate, which is convenient for polarizing filters, but the lens does extend during focusing. (about a half centimetre from near focus to infinity)

However, I find I don’t use it very much these days since I end up just slapping the 28-105 zoom on my camera out of laziness. When I do more landscape stuff in the summer I’ll hopefully find more use for it, since I’ll then have more time to exchange lenses at leisure. Landscapes don’t run around the way people do.

The 28mm 2.8 has a 52mm filter thread. I use the EW-65 II clip-on hood, which fits fine, though it’s intended for the 35mm 2.0. The only difference between the EW-65 and the later EW-65 mark II hood is that the II has some black flocking on the inside surface to reduce reflections.

This lens was one of the earliest models released when the EOS lineup was introduced. It uses, therefore, a more-dated feeling type of plastic for the lens barrel and design-wise looks a bit old-fashioned. Newer lenses like the 28-105 use a different type of plastic which feels a bit less brittle and slightly more resilient and better able to absorb blows.

Canon EF 28mm 2.8
Focus drive type.	AFD (arc form drive).
Diagonal angle of view.	75°.
Groups and elements.	5 and 5.
Aperture range .	f/2.8 - f/22.
Close focus distance.	0.3m or 1'.
Diaphragm blades.	5.
Maximum magnification.	0.13x.
Filter diameter.	52mm.
Hood type	EW-65 II clip-on hood.
Length.	42.5mm or 1 11/16".
Weight.	185g or 6.5 oz.
End rotates when focussing.	No.
End extends when focussing.	Yes.
Distance scale.	Yes.
Metal lens mount.	Yes.
Other features.	Aspherical lens element (probably moulded glass; possibly replicated).

EF 50mm 1.8.

I bought this lens because optically it’s an amazingly sharp lens that costs virtually nothing. Sure, it’s a modest 50mm focal length, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s relatively easy for manufacturers to make a 50mm lens, since that focal length is quite close to the diagonal of 35mm film (42mm or so) and the optics are thus less complex. And this example is really quite crisp and sharp optically. Good colour and contrast. Like the 28mm 2.8 the end does not rotate during focusing, but it does extend outwards a half-centimetre or so. Unlike the 28mm 2.8, however, it has a very deeply recessed lens. You could probably get away without using a hood if you wanted, assuming you weren’t using a filter.

Mechanically it’s a pretty ancient design with a noisy slow micromotor drive, but I don’t usually find that to be a huge hindrance. Lack of full-time manual focusing is a minor inconvenience, though. Basically I find myself using this lens in low-light conditions a lot, when the slow 28-105 (at f4 or whatever it is at 50mm) isn’t much use.

The ES-65 clip-on hood was sold for use with this lens, though I just use the same EW-65 II clip-on hood as my 28 mm 2.8. The EW-65 isn’t quite as deep as the recommended hood, but it’s compatible with my 28mm lens as well, so I went for that. Actually, the ET-65 II clip-on hood that I use with my 100-300 USM 4.5-5.6 fits onto the 50mm 1.8 as well, though it’s rather oversized. I’ve heard that it doesn’t vignette despite the size, but I’ve never tried it. You could also use the hood designed for the newer 50mm 1.8 II, but I don’t see the point - the newer hood is a clumsy screw-on design that requires you to install an adapter on the filter threads.

Note that this lens is no longer available. It was superseded - or downgraded to - the 50mm 1.8 II lens. The mark II has a plastic lens mount, no distance scale, cheaper build quality and a crappier lens hood design. Optically it’s said to be identical, though its focus speed is slightly faster. Because the first version of this lens (the non II one) has better build quality it tends to command ludicrously high prices on online auction sites - often more than the price of a new mark II.

Canon EF 50mm 1.8
Focus drive type.	MM (micromotor drive).
Diagonal angle of view.	46°.
Groups and elements.	5 and 6.
Aperture range.	f/1.8 - f/22.
Close focus distance.	0.45m or 1.5'.
Diaphragm blades.	5.
Maximum magnification.	0.15x.
Filter diameter.	52mm.
Hood type	ES-65 clip-on hood.
Length.	42.5mm or 1 11/16".
Weight.	190g or 6.7 oz.
End rotates when focussing.	No.
End extends when focussing.	Yes.
Distance scale.	Yes.
Metal lens mount.	Yes.

EF 28-105mm 3.5-4.5 USM.

This lens is generally held as being a very convenient all-purpose decent lens. So I bought one. But I have to say I was not overwhelmed. Though not as execrable as a cheap 28-80, its optical quality is visibly much weaker than the primes. It’s nowhere near as sharp and the colour saturation and contrast are quite poor. Oh well. It’s still an okay lens when you consider how inexpensive and convenient it is. The build quality isn’t bad - the lens feels nice and solid compared to the really cheap lenses. It’s got a USM drive with full-time manual focusing. It’s large compared to the dirt cheap lenses, but isn’t as awkwardly large as an L lens. Here are some photos of the inside.

It has a two-touch zoom (ie: the zooming is adjusted by turning a ring - it’s not a push-pull design) and does not use internal zooming - the lens extends outwards as you zoom out. This design means air and dust get sucked into your lens and camera each time you zoom in or out. However, it does use internal focusing, so it doesn’t extend outwards or rotate when you focus.

It’s fine as my general-purpose wander-around-with lens. Useful for snapshots of friends at parties, etc, though admittedly it’s a bit big for that, particularly with the hood on the end and extended out to 105mm. Ultimately I’d like to replace it with the 28-135 IS. Image stabilizing would be nice for low-light conditions, and I often find the 105mm end to be too short for snapshots of friends and the like, since people generally don’t like having cameras shoved in their face. (though the 28-135 IS is much bigger than the 28-105, so perhaps I’d be no further ahead in terms of not intimidating camera-shy friends)

There are three versions of this lens. There seem to be two versions of the first generation (non II) 28-105, and in late 2000 Canon definitely replaced them with the 28-105 3.5-4.5 USM II. The version II of this lens is apparently only cosmetically upgraded - the plastic barrel has been modified slightly but the internal optics supposedly remain unchanged.

As noted, there is allegedly a notable difference between the two versions of the first edition of this lens. The earlier version is said to have the flower macro icon printed on the barrel and has a 5-blade diaphragm. The later version, which is the one I have, has instead the word MACRO printed on the barrel and has a 7-blade diaphragm. With a 7-blade diaphragm out-of-focus highlights appear has near-circles, whereas with 5 blades they appear as pentagons, which can be distracting. All things being equal, I prefer 7 blades. Note that this information is based on info I’ve read online - I can only personally confirm that my lens has the word MACRO and has 7 blades.

To confuse things somewhat, in autumn 2002 Canon announced two new lenses with the 28-105 focal length and discontinued the 3.5-4.5 lenses. The new lenses are inexpensive lenses targeted at the low end of the consumer market rather than the advanced amateur/upper end of the consumer market like their predecessors. The new 28-105 lenses are optically slower and not as sharp (ie: they’re in the “cheapie” category).

The new lenses are the EF 28-105 4-5.6 and the EF 28-105 4-5.6 USM. The latter of these lenses has a cheap micromotor USM focus drive and the former has an even cheaper non-USM motor drive. (though interestingly enough the USM version has full-time manual focussing even though it uses a micromotor drive)

So when you specify a Canon EF 28-105mm lens it’s vitally important to get the maximum f-stop (lens aperture) for the lens correct, as this is the only way to differentiate between the earlier lens design and the newer, less expensive and cheaper design. This review is of the 3.5-4.5 lens only, not the 4-5.6 lens.

Finally, note that not everybody shares my not entirely positive opinions of the 3.5-4.5 lens. Check out Russ Arcuri’s Photo.net review for a different point of view (he loves the lens).

Canon EF 28-105mm 3.5-4.5 USM
Focus drive type.	USM (ring ultrasonic motor with full-time manual).
Diagonal angle of view.	75° to 23° 20'.
Groups and elements.	12 and 15.
Aperture range.	f/3.5 - f/22 and f/4.5 - f/27.
Diaphragm blades.	5 or 7 (see above).
Maximum magnification.	0.14x.
Close focus distance.	0.5m or 1.6'.
Filter diameter.	58mm.
Hood type	EW-63 bayonet-mount “perfect” (petal-shaped) hood.
Length.	75mm or 3".
Weight.	375g or 13.1 oz.
End rotates when focussing.	No.
End extends when focussing.	No.
End extends when zooming.	Yes.
Zoom control type.	Two-touch (zoom ring).
Distance scale.	Yes.
Metal lens mount.	Yes.
Other features.	Full-time manual, internal focus.

EF 100-300 4.5-5.6 USM.

I bought this one since there are times when I want to shoot in the 200-300mm range. Unfortunately it’s not particularly impressive optically, particularly at the longer end. I don’t know why Canon don’t make 200mm or 300mm primes in the consumer range anymore. (They used to make 200mm and 300mm non-L primes back in the days of FD mounts.) This lens has the same decent build quality and is made of the same type of plastics as the 28-105, but optically isn’t that great. Still, I bought it since it lets me take photos I wouldn’t otherwise be able to take.

The 100-300 4.5-5.6 does not have internal zooming - it extends outwards as you zoom. As noted above, this design means dust gets sucked into the lens. However, it uses two-touch zooming (ie: a zoom ring, not push-pull), it uses internal focusing and the end does not rotate or extend during focusing. The USM autofocus drive is wonderfully fast and precise, and it was great having full-time manual.

This was actually the second Canon lens in this range that I’ve bought. The first was the 75-300 II USM. It didn’t really suit me, however, since it lacks a distance scale, has a rotating end, lacks fulltime manual focusing (it uses a cheaper version of USM, not the ring USM) and has a lower build quality than the 100-300. Optically the 100-300 seems very slightly better, but not by much. They’re both pretty weak lenses, especially at 300mm. However, this lens was also stolen from me, so I no longer have it.

The recommended hood is the clip-on ET-65, though I’ve found that the EW-65 clip-on I use for my 28mm 2.8 and 50mm 1.8 lenses fits the 100-300 also. Which is convenient, since the EW-65 isn’t a small hood. Even when reversed onto the lens it sticks out a bit. Though of course the smaller EW-65 is much more shallow and thus affords considerably less protection.

Canon EF 100-300mm 4.5-5.6 USM
Focus drive type.	USM (ring ultrasonic motor with full-time manual).
Diagonal angle of view.	24° to 8° 15'.
Groups and elements.	10 and 13.
Aperture range.	f/4.5 - f/32 and f/5.6 - f/38.
Diaphragm blades.	8.
Maximum magnification.	0.26x.
Close focus distance.	1.5m or 4.9'.
Filter diameter.	58mm.
Hood type	ET-65 clip-on hood.
Length.	121mm or 4 3/4".
Weight.	540g or 1.2 lb.
End rotates when focussing.	No.
End extends when focussing.	No.
End extends when zooming.	Yes.
Zoom control type.	Two-touch (zoom ring).
Distance scale.	Yes.
Metal lens mount.	Yes.
Other features.	Full-time manual, internal focus.

EF 100-300 5.6L.

I replaced the stolen 100-300 USM lens with an older lens with the same focal range - the 5.6L. This is actually quite an elderly lens by EOS standards. It came out in the late 1980s and represents a typical EOS lens for the time. In fact, it’s barely an L series lens. It may have a fluorite element, a low-dispersion (UD) element and decent optics, but its construction isn’t anywhere near as good as any modern L lens. It uses the older-style hard black plastics and just feels kind of clunky.

The 100-300 5.6L design is basically of the same era as the 28mm 2.8 and the 50mm 1.8. It’s got an all-plastic barrel, a noisy and slow AFD (arc-form drive) focus motor and has a poorly damped manual focussing ring. It’s nothing like the hefty metal and silky smooth 70-200 2.8L, say. It’s also optically slow, with a maximum aperture of only f/5.6. It has a three-position focus mode switch - manual focus, autofocus and autofocus limiter. In regular autofocus mode the lens will focus across its full range. In limiter mode the lens focusses from 2 metres to infinity only. (ie: it doesn’t try to focus any closer than 2 metres) Unfortunately this switch is very stiff, isn’t raised very far above the lens barrel, and is generally irritating and fiddly to adjust when the lens is mounted onto a camera.

The lens is also of the push-pull design. This means that you simply slide the outer tube back and forth to adjust the focal lens. Unfortunately it does not have the more convenient rotating ring setup of a two-touch zoom lens such as the 100-300 4.5-5.6 USM. Push-pull zooms suck in a lot of air and dust every time you zoom by definition. The lens also suffers from zoom creep if it’s tilted up or down - the weight of the lenses causes the lens to slide, zooming inadvertently. The lens isn’t compatible with Canon’s teleconverters - they physically do not fit.

The recommended hood is the clip-on ET-62 or ET-62 II, which are included with the lens along with a strange-looking lightweight ribbed soft lens case. I don’t know what the difference is between the ET-62 and the ET-62 II, as the latter does not have a flocked interior, which is common with mark II lens hoods. Note that the lens ships with an unusual removable rubber ring at the end, and this ring must be removed for the lens hood to fit. Disappointingly, no tripod mount is included with the lens nor is one available from Canon. This is a real shame, since the lens is just long and heavy enough to benefit from a tripod mount on the lens rather than relying on the one on the camera body.

In short, this lens is kind of annoying to use, particularly if you’ve spent any time using any similar lens with an ultrasonic motor and full-time manual focussing. When the lens can’t achieve focus, which is often, it racks back and forth quite slowly, making high-pitched buzzing noises. Grm. However, it’s the only 100-300 EF lens which Canon has ever built which offers half-decent optics. And, since it’t discontinued, you can buy used examples of this lens for about as much as a new 100-300 USM.

So your choice basically comes down to convenience versus image quality. Since I generally try to use an inconvenient tripod with a lens this long and slow anyway, I’ve opted for image quality.

Canon EF 100-300mm 5.6L
Focus drive type.	AFD (arc-form drive).
Diagonal angle of view.	24° to 8° 15'.
Groups and elements.	10 and 15.
Aperture range.	f/5.6 - f/32.
Diaphragm blades.	8.
Maximum magnification.	0.26x.
Close focus distance.	1.5m or 4.9'.
Filter diameter.	58mm.
Hood type	ET-62 II clip-on hood.
Length.	167mm or 6 5/8".
Weight.	695g or 1 lb 8 1/2 oz.
End rotates when focussing.	Yes.
End extends when focussing.	Yes.
End extends when zooming.	Yes.
Zoom control type.	Push-pull (no zoom ring).
Distance scale.	Yes.
Metal lens mount.	Yes.
Other features.	Focus limit switch, nice red ring painted around end.

Links:

The Canon (Japan) Camera Museum page is authoritative, though some older lenses are missing:

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/ef/f_ef.html

Canon USA maintain a site with marketing information:

http://www.usa.canon.com/eflenses/

Swedish site Photodo have a list of MTF curves (lens testing data) for most Canon lenses. I wouldn’t make a lens purchasing decision solely on the basis of MTF data (there are many other factors to consider), but it’s interesting to look at:

http://www.photodo.com/

German site Photozone.de have a useful Canon lens FAQ:

http://photozone.de/2Equipment/canonFAQ.htm

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