Recent content by jefferybond

Good price, but let's hope it turns up after reading that guy's feedback! J

It has a larger LCD (2.5" vs 1.8"), 10.1MP vs 8MP, plus it has built in sensor cleaning. Probably some less important stuff also. 350D is still a good camera though, and you can get them cheap now. Jeff

Even with a fogged lens, the focus motor should wind the focus from one end to the other and back again, although if it can't actually get a focus, it won't take a picture. Maybe the actual USM motor is seized up? Jeff

Hmm, that distortion is pretty bad! Looks like pincushion distortion to me. Certainly it's much worse than I get on my Tamron 17-50 on a Canon 400D. Jeff

You're always going to have trouble in low light using that lens (not that it's a bad lens, i've just bought one!). Problem is that you need a fairly fast shutter speed with a long lens like that to avoid camera shake, and also the aperture is not that wide (f4). Also shooting a black dog...

On a similar subject, be careful when using Av mode with the pop-up flash on a 400d. Suppose you select a wide aperture, and the camera wants a shutter speed faster than 1/200th to get the exposure right. This is normally no problem, but when you pop up the flash (eg for fill flash), the...

Of course, if you have an APS-C sized sensor (eg 400d), which has a 1.6x crop factor, then you need to factor this into the shutter speed calculations. Duh, just realised all this has already been mentioned previously! 300mm x 1.6 = 480mm, which means ~ 1/500ths

How about the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 ? I've got one and I'm very happy with it. Nice and solid, good in low light, and quite sharp. Only downside is slightly noisy focus. I think you can probably get one for close to £250 if you shop around (eg, warehouse express). I'd be wary of the Sigma...

Another one to consider might be the Tamron 55-200mm f4-5.6. It's very cheap (£75-ish) and plasticy, but has really good sharp optics. Focus is a little slow and whiny though. Jeff

Just after a 450D is announced would be an excellent time to go for a 400D, since it's bound to push the price down. Jeff