Recent content by nikontos

I stopped using filter years ago, but I do use hoods when possible

You are right, still a good illustration of my argument. Besides I think it rather difficult to missfocus so often - the shooter would have to be quite inexperienced, don't you agree? There is mention of difficult light etc, but that alone would not explain it in my opinion. Take my opinion with...

Its been a while since I used my canon DSLR (given to my wife :)), but I remember being able to set the camera to use only one focusing point, say far left. If such setting was selected and forgotten about one would missfocus most of the time! Hope it helps to understand my logic!

Might be the camera settings are the cause, as you have shot with 3 good lenses with similar results. I can see that this is not the first time you used the camera, so I rule out the lack of ability to to focus the lenses properly :).

Besides stating my dislike for retailers such as amazon I would suggest buying second hand, especially as it is for a temporary use. Lots of lightly used bags on ebay :)

A pleasant surprise then! :) I am a bit in love with the old made-to-last cameras. I certainly wish Hasselblad remains among the leaders in quality as Leica is in 35mm format!

Aesthetically, at least, I prefer the old Hasselblad cameras made of metal rather than plastic. Maybe it is just me but for the price I would have preferred a better built/better looking camera! :)

I would also suggest Samyang 14mm f2.8. Fast, sharp and cheap. Zeiss options are better, but not as good value. I liked my zeiss 18mm but it costs nearly 3x more and is slower. The better 15mm f2.8 is very very expensive.

I hope you get to use your camera in there! Light will be the main problem I guess - the faster lens the better. If you have a telephoto prime it would be better than zoom in this situation as the distance will not change and primes are usually faster.

I like your approach - starting with light rather than expensive camera! However, before you know what equipment you will exactly need I would recommend not buying a whole lightning kit, well unless money is no object or you are buying a second hand quality kit that can be upgraded or sold...

I rarely use filters even though I have plenty of them scattered around. It is good to have one on an expensive lens though. Another option is to always have the hood on - helps in case of accidental bumps. Having bought a good number of second hand lenses I would recommend caution when cleaning...

Camera quality will be the least of your worries. Learn to shoot RAW and the basics of post-processing to get the most out of your pictures!

Good fast wide angles are a problem on the smaller sensor cameras like 550D. The 50mm you have becomes 80mm which is a bit long in confined spaces. Flash as suggested by Connor is a very good approach, especially if you invest a bit time in learning how to use it off camera (google strobist for...

Apologies to you Walter, as indeed proper use of auto iso is very helpful both for someone starting out and for pros in many situations. I suppose I provoked the discussion in the wrong section of the forum. Phil, I thought I explained in my post in detail that image quality (regarding...

Phil, I think you did not read my post carefully :), you might find we are not in disagreement. In fact I agree with most of you - in practical life for most of us pictures shot at ISO 400 are very much acceptable. But at the same time that is not contradictory to what I said - if picture...