[Wasserpest]

After many, many years of slide photography, and several years with a pretty good P&S digital, I finally moved into DSLR territory.

Finding myself mostly shooting baby pictures, here and there I slip in a shrimp or two:

Couple of things I noticed, compared to my previous camera...

Pros:

Image seems smoother, less blown-out highlights and dark-as-hell shadows (due to bigger/better sensor)
More natural looking color, better white balance
Reduced depth of field
More detail (8MP vs 4MP) at good quality
Much faster autofocus, no shutter lag

Cons:

Spent about a grand on body and lenses
MUCH heavier to lug around
Reduced depth of field

Here is a crop of the image above, thanks to the many pixels there are amazing details to be discovered (even this image is still resized to fit the screen!!)

Overall I am very happy with my purchase, although the years maxing out the P&S camera are not wasted, still gave me many good shots.

 

[Dr.Nick]

very good photo
what camera is it?
i have just bought a canon EOS 400D and i love it

Nick.

 

[Wasserpest]

My new gear consists of a Canon EOS 20D, along with a Sigma 17-70 and a Sigma 70-300.

I was torn between the 400 and the 20D for a long time, and finally went with the 20D 'cause it feels so much better in my large hands. :smile:

 

[eklikewhoa]

Sweet!!

I am actually about to take posession of a 30D

 

[Dr.Nick]

Good cameras them :] i also got the sigma 17-70mm lens lol
ye the 400D was abit small for my hands but i bought a battery grip to make it alot better to hold.

Nick.

 

[Wasserpest]

Yeah, good lens. I like the sharpness and the macro capabilities. Drawbacks are price (somewhat), weight and size. For close-ups, the large diameter of the lens makes the pop-up flash useless. I got a Speedlite 380 to work around that.

 

[bigstick120]

Nice shots! I have been thinking of replacing my kit lens with the Sigma 17-70, I have heard a few examples of it back focusing and that made me a little nervous. I may have to pull the trigger on that glass soon!

 

[Dr.Nick]

ye the close ups do mess with the flash and make a shadow of the lens,i need to save for a flash gun :icon_roll over all a good nice lens i think.

 

[original kuhli]

Oh, its not reduced depth of field, now you actually have one! Indeed that's the biggest adjustment, point and shoots have such a deep depth of field that you forget about it, now you have to pay attention to aperture/fstop...

 

[Wasserpest]

Nice shots! I have been thinking of replacing my kit lens with the Sigma 17-70, I have heard a few examples of it back focusing and that made me a little nervous. I may have to pull the trigger on that glass soon!

Yep, I heard that too. Could be a few bad copies floating around, hope mine isn't one of them. Need to do a little focusing chart test.

 

[Wasserpest]

Oh, its not reduced depth of field, now you actually have one! Indeed that's the biggest adjustment, point and shoots have such a deep depth of field that you forget about it, now you have to pay attention to aperture/fstop...

For macro shots, the gigantic DOF of P&S cameras can be a great advantage... but careful composition, and closing the aperture helps with the larger sensors. I found my 17-70 lens is at it's sharpest at f13, so that's what I usually use as my default aperture.

 

[paradise]

I used 20D for a couple of years, and love it. Re: Lenses, You will eventually "Want" to buy the top lenses, like the 24-70L (best canon lens ever) and the 100 mm 2.8 macro. They are head and shoulders over the other lenses.

If you are serious about shooting your tanks, macro and other, I suggest to concentrate on a wireless flash setup first, which for Canon is either 580ex master flash and another Canon compatible slave, or STE2 controller and a Canon compatible slave. My setup is STE2, 580ex as main slave , and 420ex as fill flash. I upgraded to 5D recently, for non-fish related reasons, and love it, but 20D is more than capable. Here are a few shrimp shots from 20d, ste2 and 580ex flash:

 

[crazy loaches]

Looking good. I'd love to get a dslr, actually I just had a choice, was looking at either the rebel xti or a laptop. I had to go with the laptop (and cheaper too). Maybe next year I'll get the dslr. But for now my ol 3.2MP point and shoot still takes great pictures, has awsome zoom, great close ups (despite not even having a 'macro' feature) and does one more thing I realy like, 30 fps 640x480 video. Eventually I'd like to have a HD hard drive cam along with dslr. Might be a couple years though. Setting up a completely automated 240G and 150G tank right now isnt helping finances either.

 

[Wasserpest]

Thanks for chiming in Ed, great pictures... Took me probably around a year to decide on the body, it will be several years before I invest in any "L" glass. For now, the Sigmas are enough to play with. At some point, the gain in quality isn't worth the $$$$, at least for me as a hobbyist. Serious... maybe. :smile:

Just came back from a day on the beautiful Pacific coast, took many pictures, I'll post some tomorrow.

 

[xt0rted]

Nice pictures. Mine never come out this nice.

I have a Canon 350D (Rebel XT) and I've been looking to get a macro lens for this type of stuff. I was looking at the 60mm (Canon claims this is equivalent to a 96mm on the 20D & 350D) and the 100mm, is there much of a difference between the two?

 

[Wasserpest]

x, here is a great source for lens reviews:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/