I picked myself up a Canon 40D with the 17-85 IS lens, yes I know it's a kit lens but I am just looking to start out doing terestrial imaging and have got a lot to learn.
I have the 70-200 F2.8 L series on order.
I am going out today to have a play around with the settings so I am not expecting too much.
I am not doing any astro work with this camera.
I am not into birds inparticular pelicans as I think every pelican in Australia has been imaged by someone from this forum but I will have a go at bird imagging.
I may start with some landscape photo's.
I would love to get some nice images of the top fuel action at the drags and will look at long telephoto lens.
I know i havn't given you much to go on so I am really saying hi and hopefully I can learn and contribute to this forum again.
If Landscape is your goal, you need a good tripod, Manfrotto, Gitzo or one of the Tiawanese clone types would be fine. A mate of mine bought a carbon fibre clone with ball head from the US at less than half the cost of the Manfrotto/Gitzo equivalent and it's every bit as good. A ball head is nice and often the widest lens you can find helps, the Cannon 10-22 or Tokina 12-24 are both good lenses, the Tokina being quite a bit cheaper. If you're going to do waterfalls or seascape shots ND filters are handy to allow shooting a few stops slower.
Just go out and experiment. Try the different settings. I generally use the P mode at ISO 800. Digital film is cheap so just experiment. Try different modes with the same image and compare them.
I purchased the Mini Trecker Lowepro before I even got the camera....lol
Just took about 500 photo's if I am lucky I might post 1 as the target I was imaging was a Huge Jet powered R/C Plane moving at 200km/h imaging hand held....lol
I dont mind making it hard for myself.
Yes I played around with some settings most have now been deleted with about another 99% still to be deleted...lol
The plane was awesome and yes that's them blocking the ears starting up the turbines....wimps.
The public can't get close we can only observe from the viewing tower, I only have the 1 lens 17-85 and would loved to have the 70-200 2.8 or longer to take these shots.
Mainly used the burst mode with IS on thanks Phil...wont happen again.
Images are only cropped and resized nothing added or edited shot in Jpeg.
Most shots taken approx 75m away from the plane.
Average settings 1/1000 exposures
Aperture 6.4
Iso 400
For Canon lenses that have it, there is an IS mode applicable to panning shots, and that is "Mode 2". It disables IS on the axis of motion, allowing it to still function for the other axis. The 70-200 f/2.8 L IS is one of those that has it. I see you have the 70-200 on order, hopefully it is the IS version. It is very nice for tracking moving objects, especially those in flight.
I do have the 70-200 on order but it's not the IS version...I couldn't justify spending another $800 just for IS especially so early in this hobby...maybe later.
