Photo Discussion

[eatmon74]

Hi All,

I recently bought a new Camera and having snapping photos like a mad man. I am starting to look into other lens and thought that with all the photos we all as a group take here we should start a post about Photo taking in the parks. So I thought I would start one.
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Jason

[eatmon74]

Ok so here is a ? I Have a Rebel XTi with the 18-55 lens that came in the kit. I am thinking about getting another lens to use on rides. I was looking at a
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens to use for portraits and low light places like rides. Does anyone have any other ideas for a lens that would work well for these kinds of pictures?
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Jason

[MikeA]

I take alot of pictures, but Im anything but an expert on this. My theory is if I visit the parks as often as I can, and take lotsa pictures, I'll eventually get some good ones

I'll invite another professional photographer friend of mine to join in the thread. He and I went to Disneyland last year, but he's not a Disney Fanatic like most of us here. YET!!

[eriktank]

**sighs** you got me... I pondered this very thought myself When Mike sucker'd me into going to Disneyland for "business" - I brought way too much gear. I tried to use my nifty fifty (50mm f/1.8 canon lens) but I encountered two problems with it before leaving the hotel room... A) almost all my shots were too "zoomed in" with this lens... and B) the autofocus was very slow compared to my USM lenses. The Nifty Fifty is a great lens for portraits - don't get me wrong - but for action shots, the lack of a fast focus is killer in dark areas.

This is where you say "how much"? The next item I'd jump too in this scenario would be the Canon 50mm f/1.4 - which goes for a little less than 300 usually. THAT lens has USM (Ultra sonic motor) which snaps the focus ring back and forth incredibly fast, especially on primes.

Now, whether focus is a problem or not (some people really like manual focusing and I understand that) then the other problem (A) still exists. In most cases, in many rides, you'll want to catch the whole scene, or a lot more of it than 50mm will provide. In those cases I'd recommend a lens in the 24-28mm range. Anything wider than 24 will look fisheyed and anything narrower than 28 will feel too zoomed in.

Your XTi camera has a 1.6x crop factor which means the 35mm equivilent is whatever mm you're shooting at, multiplied by 1.6. IE 24mm * 1.6 = roughly 38mm. So if you're shooting at 50mm - that would be 80mm in terms of 35mm equivilency and that's why it makes such a great portrait lens. (85mm is considered a sweet spot for depth of field in portraiture).

So - overall, if I had to buy one lens to capture the action and stay wihtin a budget... I'd aim for the Canon 28mm f/1.8... it has the USM for fast focusing power, and a nice wide open aperture with a decent wide angle view to really capture all the action.

Now to save you a bit of research - Sigma makes a model similar to Canon's but it does not have the USM fast focusing power... thus, you will get the wider angle view (than the 50) but without the focusing speed, you will more than likely not be satisfied.

I can't express how useful the USM is for photography in the situations you are asking for...

There are lots of options out there - but you expressed interest in the prime lens - so that's what I tried to stick with.

Here's a picture I took with my 24-70 f/2.8 lens...
http://www.tanksdigitaleffects.com/gallery/3053175#166374121
The 1.8 would have made a world of difference... I believe I used -1 2/3 EV stop, ISO 1600, wide open f/2.8 and acheived a 1/200 shutter speed. That was pretty much the minimum for the just the slow speed the rides move to get a non-blurred picture.

When I got my first USM lens (Canon 100-400mm L) I absolutely could not believe how fast the focus was. I suppose it's one of those things you don't know about until you experience it - but they make USM for a reason - to focus on demand. It is worth the extra money for a HSM or USM (depending on the brand of lens you are looking at) as it really helps to capture what YOU wanted, not when the camera decided it was ready.

Sorry for rambling

[daguru]

Was he speaking english?

heh...
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Up or Down North, South, East, or West An Adventurer's Life is Best!

[WDWFan]

[eatmon74]

eriktank I want to thank you. This is the kind of info I was looking for. It was really informative. I have looked on sites like Fred Miranda and tried to figure out by reading posts about low light shooting and seeing if I could translate that into on ride shooting. It's nice to hear some one who knows what it is I'm trying to do.

MikeA thanks for inviting eriktank on to the site to answer this question..
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Jason

[MikeA]

That Erik is a bit of a Geek (notice the capitol G)
But he knows his stuff.

But I think he said: Buy the Canon 50mm f/1.4 because it has a real fast auto-focus. (USM)

Welcome aboard Erik... I hope this gets you started in the forum now.

[jahosifatz]

...and I've gone cross-eyed.

[eatmon74]

Ok so I bought a Cannon 50 mm 1:1/8 lens to try and take some pictures on the rides. I thought I would share them here. I have not tried to touch them up with photoshop yet as I am a novice at using the program.

Here is Spaceship Earth:
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 50.0mm (35mm equivalent: 81mm...
CCD Width: 22.28mm
Exposure Time: 0.050 s (1/20)
Aperture: f/1.8
ISO Equiv.: 1600
Whitebalance: Auto Exposure:
aperture priority (semi-auto)




Here is one from Gran Feista Tour:
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 50.0mm (35mm equivalent: 81mm...
CCD Width: 22.28mm
Exposure Time: 0.025 s (1/40)
Aperture: f/2.0
ISO Equiv.: 1600
Whitebalance: Auto Exposure:
aperture priority (semi-auto)





I was suprised at how well the Gran Feista pictures of the video screens came out. I was a little disapointed with the Space Ship Earth photos. I put up the details on the phots to see if anyone has any advise on what to try next time.
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Jason

[ltldeb]

All in all Jason, you're new camera takes great pictures!

I love the Gran Fiesta Tour one!
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*~deb~*