[Little Paul]

Does any one know where I could get a Canon Eos 350D for about £350-£400?

[Bubba]

Doubt it - why not get a 300d?

[Jim]

singapore.... maybe

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Does any one know where I could get a Canon Eos 350D for about £350-£400?

Shame you are looking now not before the end of Dec, Mastercard were doing a £100 cashback offer on the 350D, http://www.canonmastercardpromotion.com/howtoclaim.aspx
My brother managed to find the cheapest online, get Jessops to price match it, claimed £100 back from Mastercard and claimed the VAT back on his business. Sweet. This kind of deal is known in the trade as a 'Cofe'.

They might repeat the offer. Otherwise keep an eye on http://stores.ebay.com/Canon-Outlet they do have some new models from time to time.

[Little Paul]

Doubt it - why not get a 300d?

Wouldn't mind but they weight more and are bigger and I want something smaller good suggestion though thank you.

[dave]

word of warning if you have medium/large hands the 350D can be too small. this summer was looking at all DSLRs for prospective purchase and wrote the 350d off my list pretty quick cos it just was awful to handle for me, particularly the right hand grip, was no room for me fingers, and every shop model i looked at had nail scratch marks on the side of the lens mount from people's fingernails. if you've got smaller limestone hands would be fine though, is rated as a good camera.

I was actually  going to get the 300d (with firmware crack - turns it into a 10d in a cheap shell) instead of the 350d as it was way cheaper. the 6MP to 8MP difference is negligable.

Eventually i was won over by the D70 which is well brown.

[saltbeef]

word of warning if you have medium/large hands the 350D can be too small. .

i think the clue is in his name

[Jim]

don't think that refers to his hands  :D
hence why I am often called BIG Jim

[andy_e]

don't think that refers to his hands  :D
hence why I am often called BIG Jim

Yeah, those size 13 feet eh?  :roll:

[Little Paul]

I'm not small were it matters!!!!

[dobbin]

Paul - I just bought a 350d and although I have yet to use it in anger I am very happy with it. I do think the lens that you can get bundled isnt that good so consider getting the body alone and saving up for a lens.

Dave - lots of people muttered about the size of the 350d and prefered the Nikon, I just thought of travelling and tramping up hillsides to take pictures. The smaller the better - for me at least  :wink:

[Jim]

don't think that refers to his hands  :D
hence why I am often called BIG Jim

Yeah, those size 13 feet eh?  :roll:

No, my feet are size 7.5  :

[saltbeef]

I just thought of travelling and tramping up hillsides to take pictures.

and then decided against it and went to the school eh beast?

[dobbin]

you knows it!

We need one of Dave 'Sir Egg' Parry's super 1,000,0000,0000,0000000,0000000 candle laser beam torch things to take pictures in the school - its so dark. Either that, or noone is allowed to move for three hours before taking some pictures. Pictures from there are either full of chalk dust or really dark. The only good still I have seen is that one of moony locking the pull up bar. that faces off to the big window, so thats how that worked.

Am already in scootland ready for the BBC tomorrow. I have noone to talk to - is it obvious?

[Bonjoy]

What about that awesome pic of Patta swung out on Pork and Beans, from the old S7 advert?

[dobbin]

dont think I have seen it mert. Had a quick google but nothing turned up...

except this :

[saltbeef]

tis indeed an awesome advert. obviously you won't want to come to the bowderstone then tomorrow then dobs?! good luck

[dobbin]

I wonder what state the best crag in the lakes is in? jealous! have a good time mert.

[Jim]

forecast looks good for tomorrow saltbeef so I recon the manchester crew are off up to thorn crag. Would like to get to bowderstone soon but can't justify unless its raining or summer!

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Blimey, anyone in the market for a 350D, EOS1 mkII etc should check out http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Canon-Outlet sharpish, never seen so much stuff on there, they must be having a clearout. Cofe and I got bargains from there previously, good service.

[Bowie]

What about that awesome pic of Patta swung out on Pork and Beans, from the old S7 advert?

just looking through this as i'm thinking about a D.
I took it on v fast film - 1600 or even faster maybe, on a tripod. we placed the lights low to make it look a bit more atmospheric - we were lucky with the results!
thanks
a

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

http://canon2006promotions.onlinerebates.com/

If anyone has picked up a 350D recently Canon are giving away 256mb cards (better than nothing!)

Also Canon-Outlet (see above) are going crazy again...120 digital SLR's currently on there ending in the next 4 days.

[Percy B]

Not having broadband for the last 4 months, I'm a little behind on post on here. My two pennies worth, I have very large hands - fingers on a par with Big Rons unfortunately, which makes fiddly camera equipment an absolute sod to work with. However, I have had a 350D with the extra grip attached to the bottom of it and I've had no problems at all. I think its one of the better digital cameras I've used. The grip makes it the perfect size for my tubby fingers, it vastly imporoves the handling but doesn't make it much heavier. The size and weight of the 350D was the thing that sold me on the thing in the first place, as Dobbin so rightly points out. Who wants to carry more than they have to to the crag? As regards quality of the images - more than enough for my meagre needs (and mags have no problem publishing shots from it nice and big either). After a year of pretty heavy use the sensor is still nice and clean, and it works as well as the first day I got it.

[dave]

For info the amount of crap you get on the sensor is proportional to the amount of times you change lenses, and in what conditions you change lenses, and how carefully you do it. If you buy a camera, put the kit lens on and then never take it off then theres nowt to worry about. If you change lenses a lot then you're going to get crap on the sensor - regardless of the make of the camera, its just a fact of life. In reality it aught to be no bigger inconvenience than keeping a slide clean though.

I'll repeat my original post that I personally opted against a 350d on the basis that i was too small to hold right and felt like a cheap plastic toy at the side of the equivalent nikons. OK a D70 isn't a metal battleship but it certainly felt a different league in build and size. I was actually favouring a 300d over the 350d cos although both built like toys the 300d was a better size and could be hacked to give the 10d features, and the 8mp to 6mp difference is nothing. All the 350ds I saw in shops had fingernail scratches on the plastic at the side of the lens mount cos theres not enough space there. It may be OK with an added grip on, but who wants to carry more than they have to to the crag? If it fits your hands though then its going to be OK. just felt wrong for me though.

[Johnny Brown]

If you change lenses a lot then you're going to get crap on the sensor - regardless of the make of the camera, its just a fact of life.

Unless you buy an olympus... shame the other makes can't come up with similar technology.

[Bubba]

How do Olympus do things?

You've got me worried now Dave - is the sensor easy to clean?

FWIW I love my 10D - heavy, solid and built to last

[Johnny Brown]

The anti-aliasing filter in front of the sensor has a gadget that can vibrate it at ultrasonic frequency. This dislodges dust onto sticky pads around it. By all reports it is very, ie completely, effective.

Had a play with plummonite's new 1dsmk2 at the fly's wedding. Now there's a sturdy camera. He also had a bag full of sensor cleaning gadgets... I think its easy enough if a little intimidating.

I've used a 20d a few times and didn't think much of it.

[Bubba]

That's jolly clever.

1DS Mk2 must be lovely, but £4500 is a lot of money.

Never used a 20d - I've always liked Canons though, my old T90 was a fine beast until it got stolen by some fucker in Thailand

[Johnny Brown]

Yeah the T90 was nice, I like the Eos 1 series but I just don't like the 'consumer' stuff. I need to get a proper digi slr at some point but I can't get excited about any of the options at the mo. Hopefully now the pixel race is slowing we might get some nicer cameras rather than just cheap vehicles for expensive sensors... though the 1dsmk3 is supposed to be out in sept with 22mp, followed by nikons answer. These are really medium format cameras whichever way you look -  pixel count is always going to be the easiest way to market quality.

[dave]

If you change lenses a lot then you're going to get crap on the sensor - regardless of the make of the camera, its just a fact of life.

Unless you buy an olympus...

I will be interested to see if other makes use a similar thing in the future. I dunno about canon but at the mo with nikons you can take a dust ref photo and then let the software use this to subtract dust off the images - not ideal but maybe once way around it, i've never actually tried it. Personally i just use a rocket blower to try and keep dust off shit and then clone out any dust off anything to print - i've not yet had any dust bad enough to show up on web-sized photos anyway. and if you're someone who shoots wide open all the time then chances are you'll never know you've got any dust anyway. For me the dust issue wasn't a deal breaker in deciding between camera brands.

bubba, the whole sensor cleaning thing is a massive internet vipers nest of information. I would say google till you're blue in the face. technically speaking it should be no more difficult than cleaning a filter, since that's what you're actually cleaning (not the sensor), the glass IR filter over the sensor. but then theres a lot of fear adn uncertainty out there. luckily i've not had to try it yet. Interestingly nikon told me they will clean sensors under warranty for free, but of course you're then going to be sans camera for a week or so.

[Percy B]

I change lenses a lot, and have never had a problem with dirt on the sensor. Mind you, i'm pretty careful i change lenses somewhere reletively clean, and only use the lenses with the rubber seals around mounts. If you use older or cheaper lenses which don't have a seal, then it cuold be a problem. As for the Canon v Nikon thing, I tend not to get involved. What ever floats your boat. 350D plenty robust enough for me, and handles pretty good too. Each to their own, and all that! Simmo has had endless problems with muck on the sensor of his 1dsmkII, but I think he's probably a little more sensitive to dirt than me. I loves it!

[dave]

If you change lenses a lot then you will have dust on your sensor, without a doubt. Afterall there is dust in the air everywhere, theres no getting away from that. Rubber seals round the mount make no odds to the dust that gets in when you change lenses, which is the main source of dust. Whether this dust has made a difference to your photos or not is a different matter, it clearly hasn't for you which is great. If you really want to see what dust there is on your sensor for reference then take a picture of a plain white sheet of paper at f16. Open it in photoshop and do "auto levels" on it. You'll probably be looking at a lot of dust, regardless of whether your camera is nikon, canon, pentax, minolta, whatever (olympus excepted JB).

As for the "Canon v Nikon thing" you're refering to, I think you must be reading a little too much into this. I was comparing the models open to me at the time, which were the D70, the D50, the 350d and the 300d.

I can imagine film shooters having dust problems with new digital cameras if they still change lenses like they used to with a film camera, i.e. take lens off camera hung round neck, put lens in camera bag, smoke a fag, operate a chainsaw etc etc, pick another lens out of bag, attach to camera!

[cofe]

...operate a chainsaw etc etc,

i've told you before it's a hedge trimmer - there's quite a difference...

[dave]

they all piss in the same pot, a hedge trimmer is just a gay chainsaw.

[Johnny Brown]

I change lenses a lot, and have never had a problem with dirt on the sensor. Mind you, i'm pretty careful i change lenses somewhere reletively clean,

Personally i just use a rocket blower to try and keep dust off shit and then clone out any dust off anything to print - i've not yet had any dust bad enough to show up on web-sized photos anyway.

Simmo has had endless problems with muck on the sensor of his 1dsmkII, but I think he's probably a little more sensitive to dirt than me.

Dust big enough to show on a web sized shot would be too big to be called dust. I think you'd call it hairs or skin flakes. If you aren't making prints up to the limits of the sensor then it won't be an issue. The jump from full-page to double page spread really shows the limits of both 35mm and consumer digital.

'Pros' have more problems because they change lenses a lot, and won't wait until they're in a 'clean' place to do it. But also they know what they're looking for and will find it and then gnash their teeth. You don't want to get a reputation as the guy who always sends in the dusty images...

gay chainsaw

Aren't you two supposed to be on holiday?

[SA Chris]

My sensor is reaching a point where I am going to have to do something soon, in spite of being pretty anal about trying to keep it as clean as possible, and avoiding changing lenses as much as possible. Sitting and farting around with a cloning tool all the time is proving to be a right pain.

Apparently it's best to turn the camera off for a few minutes before you change lenses, as if it's on there is a positive charge in the sensor when it is on, which attracts dust. Apparently.