Canon 400D (Rebel Xti, Kiss X)

[boBQuincy]

I did buy one aftermarket battery (and charger) almost 4 years ago, from Mugen Power. The battery has always worked ok, as expected. Once it becomes too old to hold a charge I plan to disassemble the pack and see how it compares to a Canon.

I sold the Mugen charger a couple years ago, it worked ok too but it weighed a lot less than the Canon charger. That is similar to a PC power supply I have that was included with a PC case. The power supply is rated for 375 watts but it weighs about half what my 275 watt power supply does. Ratings are often suspect unless we know just how they are obtained.

I am a design engineer and it is my nature to be inqusitive/suspicious about marketing claims.

 

[handicap18]

I just ordered a sterlingtek extra battery. I am now equipped with a 2GB memory card, a canon battery, and the extra battery. I hope I am prepared to take enough pictures. This will be my first WDW trip w/digital. It was hard to give up my trusty Rebel film camera. I will probably take it as a back up. It's like a security blanket.lol

I would recommend more memory unless you are bringing a laptop to dump your pics to each night. My last 4 day trip I went with 3GB and the laptop. I tried to use the media cards as backup, but ended up running out of space and had to re-format 1 card for the last day. Luckily I was able to download the pics to the laptop. Next trip I'll be going for 7 nights/8 days and currently have 2 2GB cards and 4 1GB cards, plus the laptop. You can NEVER have enough memory. Especially at todays costs. My last 2GB SD card was $20.

You might also think about bringing the film camera with a few rolls of black and white film. True B&W might be nice for Frontierland and Tower of Terror also some area's of AK might be nice with the B&W film. Just a thought for some different looks on the same area's.

 

[JR6ooo4]

I did buy one aftermarket battery (and charger) almost 4 years ago, from Mugen Power. The battery has always worked ok, as expected. Once it becomes too old to hold a charge I plan to disassemble the pack and see how it compares to a Canon.

I sold the Mugen charger a couple years ago, it worked ok too but it weighed a lot less than the Canon charger. That is similar to a PC power supply I have that was included with a PC case. The power supply is rated for 375 watts but it weighs about half what my 275 watt power supply does. Ratings are often suspect unless we know just how they are obtained.

I am a design engineer and it is my nature to be inqusitive/suspicious about marketing claims.

When I raced RC cars we would grade the batteries with a charger that would charge then discharge the batteries and report all the numbers.
charge time
peak volts
discharge time
average discharge volts
and
an internal resistance number

the best batteries were taken for the remote control cars. The next industry in line for the second best batteries???

Medical grade - batteries....

But that was about 5 years ago, who knows how they test them now.

Mikeeee

 

[Boss Hogg]

I've found our 400D superb at night shots both in the "night-time" auto setting and when setting parameters yourself.
The first shot below is in one of the auto settings-

And is with an ISO of 400, and shutter of 1/6 at f4.5

The next is with manual settings -

This is ISO 200 with 30s shutter at f20.

Both are as the camera took them and have no post-production. The first is handheld and the second with a tripod. I took some fireworks with a tripod and some without, the latter ones had a better "trail" of the firework, so, if you want that sort of feel I'd say you'd want a tripod.

 

[boBQuincy]

"Auto" tries to make most photos look like they were taken on a nice sunny day. That's ok if that's the effect we want but in some cases an exposure adjustment can improve the photo. Canon dSLRs allow up to +/- 2 stops of exposure adjustment while still in "Auto", more than that and you will need to switch to some other setting.

The presets such as "Night Portrait" work very well in most cases but still may do better with some exposure adjustment. Fireworks are special, where the scene goes from mostly dark to mostly light very quickly. "Auto" will often give a good image but for the long "trails" you will need a longer exposure, either from "Manual" or "Tv", and some kind of camera support.

Fireworks are about as bright (or brighter) than daylight so ISO 100 works well, higher ISO can tend to wash out the colors, depending on aperture. My most recent photos of "Illuminations" were at ISO 100, 1-2 seconds, f/16. For "Wishes" a higher ISO may be needed to properly expose the castle.

 

[gruZ]

Boss Hogg, that first picture - handheld at 1/6??? Steady hands! Nice shot w/o a tripod!

 

[jann1033]

bosshogg what was the lens for shot number 1? both nice but truthfully i am impressed the auto does such a nice job. wondering if that setting would normally chose the largest aperture or a stop or 2 up..not sure how any of the auto work actually now that i think about it

 

[treynolds]

OK ukkatfan.... I am a newbie w/ all of this tech talk. English please. What exactly are you telling me?

So 2GB card is not enough?!? You guys are stressing me out! How many pictures can I get out of that. We will be there for 7 days. Don't have a laptop to download to. I pd $88 for a 2GB sandisk. Are there good cards that are cheaper? HELP

 

[Boss Hogg]

The first was on the "night" setting whatever it is, was trying all sorts of things and it took some nice ones. I really like the way it exposes the background.

Here are 3 more, all using the "night" setting (BTW it was Halloween hence the outfits!)...

Lens was the Sigma 18-125, which I used all holiday and was very impressed with.

 

[ndelaware]

You should get about 500 pictures on a 2Gig card at the highest picture quality. Last tine I was there for a week I took about 3000. It's the curse of digital. I would have never paid to develope all those pictures but looking at them on a PC is free.

If you go to Buy.com, they usually sell Kingston's brand of CF cards much cheaper than the price of a Sandisk in a store. I buy my Sandisk Extreme II 1 Gig cards at Costco for about $35

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

Yes I did it! Now I have to learn how to use it!

But, I have had it less than 48 hours and have already lost the lens cap! I took it to the store with me to try out camera bags and somewhere between here and there it is gone....

I will keep looking for it, maybe it will show up.

So when I have a picture suitable to post I will I know that you all do not want to see the family tradition of taking a picture of the hutch cabinet filled with cra..err... collectibles.

Debbie

 

[annie1995]

Congratulations on your camera! That is what I was given at Christmas time. You have yourself a great camera there!

 

[DVC Jen]

I am so happy for you! I hope you love yours as much as I do mine.

I am willing to bet you can get another lens cap for a few dollars at the camera store.

Can't wait to see some of your shots.

 

[ktulu]

Welcome to the Canon family!

 

[jann1033]

you can buy new lens caps but sometime the kindly camera store guys will give you one if they have one lying around ownerless( which is why i have an assortment of lens caps that have no relation to any lens i have ever owned )

 

[ndelaware]

Congratulations on the new camera!!

Oh, and they make these for new SLR owners:

 

[treynolds]

I am so excited---just bought a new Rebel xti!!!!! It is very similar to my old Canon T2. I have been reading through manual and feel pretty comfortable with the basics of the camera. However, I am a newbie to the whole digital world. Does anyone know of a good resource to help me learn a little more? Web sight? Book? I leave for WDW in 4 DAYS!!! I need a good fast tutorial to go with the manual.

 

[DueyDooDah]

Oh, and they make these for new SLR owners:

Do you mean we seasoned SLR owners cannot take advantage of this promotion?

 

[DVC Jen]

The book Digital Photography by Bryan Peterson is awesome.

I would check several of your local bookstores (call them so you don't waste time) and see if they have it in stock. If not you can probably get it overnight from Amazon.

I also know Wolf or Ritz camera carries several different books in their stores.

 

[DueyDooDah]

I agree with Jen. Peterson is the way to go. He also has Understanding Exposure which covers much of the same material. The difference in the two books is that the latter does not go into too much about the camera itself, just learning to "see" the scene and get the best out of it. I have both and am glad I do.