"I am convinced that the extra money that the better lenses cost is well worth it, and that if you are serious about trying to take good pictures, you are going to end up upgrading anyway, so you might as well just go ahead and get the good glass in the first instance."

I agree, Chris. I spent a few years chewing my nails about the price of lenses, and made a few inappropriate choices. My only consolation is that I learned something from each occasion. If I had greater resources, I probably would upgrade from the lenses I own now, but as I don't, I remain contented that I have a pretty good selection. Any gaps in my modest collection are filled by the excellent lenses which my wife has bought. We share a bit, and to get her off my back, I bought her a 2x teleconverter recently so that I will no longer have to share hers with her :D (our first 2x belongs to her, but I commandeered it).

John

Jambo and Thanks again to all of you.
John and Chris, I completely agree with you about trying the camera b4 hand. The only problem with that’s i'm on the other side of the globe and we don’t have them in this part of the world. The camera shops have minimal selections and are way over priced e.g. the canon body would cost me about$2000.
As for the safari cost I’m not too worried cause I drive myself.
Advice on getting a canon lense - I'm with you on that too, I’m still kinda curious about the Tamaron lense cause all the websites have it on at a throw away price. If anyone has the costing of a good canon lense ( 300mm ) please let me know.
Thanks again for all your help.
Asante sana.
Imraan

Go to www.amazon.com and search for Tamron and there a few user comments, they like it. Goes for $118 at Amazon using 47th Street Photo. Don't know what the return policy is if you don't like it.
A photo business named KEH, www.keh.com, specializes in selling used equipment, they have a large selection of used lens and are well thought of as reputable place for used equipment.
regards - tom

OK, Imraan, considering your circumstances, have you tried browsing at B & H, New York (www.bhphotovideo.com) for prices and customer reviews? I've mail-ordered some lenses from there because retail prices in Australia are too high, so our situations are similar (except that I can try out the products in Australia before ordering from B & H).

The Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM autofocus lens is listed at B & H for not much over 1000 USD. I notice one reviewer considers this price is too high because it's not an L series (pro) lens. About half that price is the EF-300 4.5/5.6 IS USM AF. There's also a 300/f4 prime for about 1100 USD I think, but I imagine you'd be looking for zoom flexibility. The online catalogue also lists B & H's price and customer reviews of the Tamron 75-300, but if you decide to go ahead with the deal which includes this lens, then you won't need to buy from B & H.

Hope that helps a bit; to give you some ideas, if nothing else. And BTW, not a boring question, Imraan.

John

That should read "About half that price is the EF 70-300 4.5/5.6 IS USM AF"...I accidentally left out the 70.

John

Tom and John, u guys are champs. Thanks guys. Kinda like the look of the Xt1 (400d) and I have about a month b4 my next trip to Mara so I’m gonna do my homework on the lenses. I know Nikon is highly recommended but they did me in quite badly a couple years ago in Canada on a warranty, so made a promise never to buy anything from them again.
I might have to save up a little and get a proper lense instead of buying a junk, so till then guess i'll be sneaking up on the lions ..hehe..

I do not have the xTi myself (waiting for next gen announcements which should be coming in a few weeks), but the below link, which is on the theard, "chris's Rwanda/Uganda report--long," shows, nicely I think, what the xTi with 100-400 mm lens can do, esp. in difficult lighting conditions. I was very impressed (quality of photos AND the amazing gorillas), esp. since the xTi is relatively cheap and can be bought as a kit with a basic lens that would probably be okay for all around shooting at the wider end.

www.pbase.com/cwillis/amahoro

A question for the digital experts here. I've read a couple of times about the care required to clean the sensor and the possibility of damage. One person (can't remember where or who) would rather do the dust speck elimination through software because of his claim that it's so easy to cause damage. Comments?

Jim


Jim
Jim

Jim, thank you for the kind words on our photos. In favor of the Rebel XTi I would also add that it is our first DSLR, and we found it remarkably easy to operate. The controls are laid out in a way that makes intuitive sense and it is an all-around easy camera to use, very appropriate for someone just learning how to use a DSLR.

To respond to your dust question from my perspective, I use the Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly, and I ended up cleaning the sensor on our camera about every other day on our recent trip. The Arctic Butterfly is a brush with specially-designed fibers just for sensor cleaning, and it is very easy to use and works like a charm. I cannot imagine the hassle of removing all the dust spots during post-processing. I would recommend the Arctic Butterfly to anyone -- B&H sells it for about $75.

Chris

Wow! Tbanks for the quick response, Chris. I love Fodor's!
Jim

Hope y'all don't mind a bit of a hijack, but, Chris, how easy did you find, posting your pictures online at the site you are using.

I am using picasa, which is good in many ways, but since I am relatively new at posting pix, I am always looking for a better way. Don't care for the Kodak site cuz I haven't found a way to view the pix full screen.

Jim

Posting them on PBase is quite easy. Keep in mind you have to pay to post photos there ($23 per year for 400MB of space and no bandwidth charges), because they don't sell prints or anything like that. But essentially once you finish the post-processing, you batch them out into a smaller, lower-resolution and more compressed JPEG (I shoot for 250k per picture), then put them in a zip file and upload them all at once. It picks up the camera and exposure information from the EXIF data, and then you can arrange them in whatever order you want, provide keywords to help people find them, and enter captions if you like. I found it very easy to use. The real time investment is in the post-processing!

Smugmug is another one that I have seen people comment favorably on -- you may want to check that out as well.

Chris

Im-
A way to "make" a telephoto lens is to crop your digital photos. That is, with a sharp clean photo taken at say 135mm crop it in half and it becomes like it was taken with a 270mm lens. A really good, easy to use, versatile and FREE program to do this is IrfanView,
http://www.irfanview.com/
IrfanView gives you easy cropping anyway you want, resizing, color correction, contrast and gamma correction and more. It is very easy to use, play with it for an hour and you will be an expert :-) (This unlike PhotoShop where you play for a year and are still struggling :-) ). And it is FREE, just download and install.
regards - tom
ps - yes I know cropping losses pixels, but if you are printing small or just web view, you won't notice it.

I would go with the Canon Powrshot S3 IS. I used it on my safari to Tanzania in 06 and people were impressed with the quaility of the photos. I used the highest reosultion and got great 8 x 10" prints at the Wal-mart. At that setting I got about 725 shots on a 2 GB. It will take up to a 4 GB card. They're selling from reputable dealers on ebay for about $325. The camera also takes great video clips. It uses 4 AA batteries. Make sure you take a good charger and several sets of rechargeable batteries. There is a 4x digital zoom that gives a total of 48X zoom. Not the best pictures but it came in handy when we saw the rhinos way off in the Crater. I think the camera is easy to use on auto setting. Practice with the video before hand. You can also put audio captions on the pictures so you know what they are when you get home. Any ? email me at [email protected]

Thank you all again for your help.
Sorry for the delay had the chance of a last minute dash to Amboseli and was well worth it. There was a Km stretch of more the 150 elephants, and we got a good sighting of a mother cheetah with cubs, have taken a snapshot with the video cam but am not too sure how to work it yet but will post it as soon as I figure it out. Have ordered the canon package, will hopefully have it in a couple weeks.
Thanks again for everyone's help especially Tom and John
Rgds
Im

Hey Guys,
Hope you’re all well.
The camera has finally landed.
Got the standard lense with it so have been snapping pictures of whatever i can in the back yard.
It's nice have given the wife another reason to complain other than golf. :)
Looking for a lense now so hope you guys can help.
Thanks again
Best regards
Imraan

Imraan - you got the Canon 400D, right? Super. And lens is? Now you need a telephoto zoom, right? I still would go with a Canon if you can. If not then check out, you know, Sigma, Tokina, Tamron. Here is a web site that tests lots of lenses
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html
And practice/try all those in camera settings. They are great but can also cause more problems than they are worth sometimes. I'm doing this now with a new Nikon D40X that is my back my back-up body. At a nearby small lake and shooting ducks.
regards - tom

Hey Tom,
Actually I picked up the camera withthe std lense ( 55mm ) from Dubai, the extra lenses there were a lot more priced then if I was to order it from the states. i did actually get some really nice photos over the weekend. We also saw a mother and baby leopard but they were to far away to get a pic of. I wil try and post them sometime tday or tomorrow. Tom would you by any chance have prices on lenses B & H seem pretty good.
Thanks again
regards
Imraan

Imraan - Three USA camera gear web sellers popular here are:
B&H Photo Video
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
Adorama Camera
http://www.adorama.com/
Roberts Imaging
http://www.robertsimaging.com/

I have purchased from all of these, mail order, on line. And they are well regarded in the USA. The best local (to me, Los Angeles area) camera shops are Samy's Camera and they also have a web site - http://www.samys.com/
But if buy from them I get hit with 8% sales tax.

Finally I have to mention Amazon.com, probably my favorite. I just got my new Nikon D40X back-up body from them. But Amazon does not have the wide variety of camera kit that the other stores have. And, a word of caution, if Amazon does not stock the item they refer you to another store. Here is an example - http://tinyurl.com/2tag3x
It is Amazon but being sold and shipped by BlueProton. I always buy only directly from Amazon, free shipping, no sales tax.

Have fun - regards - tom

Thanks Tom,
Will have a look at the websites.
Have just finished uploading some photos from the weekend. If you want to see them pls send me a blank email and i'll fwd you the link.
[email protected])
tc and thanks again.
Im

FWIW the above amazon link, 2tag3x, now shows the item being sold by amazon. Stuff changes.
regards - tom