Any photographers in here?

i have a canon and have owned nikon's in the past. they are both good makers. quite honestly, you can't go too wrong with a recent entry level SLR from either company. the 18-55mm is a pretty standard kit lens and will do just fine to get you started. once you get more familiar with the camera there are a lot of options for other lenses depending on your shooting style. the lower level cameras typically take SD cards, which are fairly inexpensive so you can easily increase memory. if you are buying used, ask how many actuations(shutter releases) are on the camera. gives you a good idea how much the camera has actually been used. on the lenses, just be sure to inspect the glass for damage and make sure the auto focus and aperture are working. technology changes fast, so try to get something as new as you can so it will last you as long as possible...
 
Also, I made a trip out to the airport yesterday after work. Here are some of my first 50d pics:

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Here is what I am finding so far:
1. I am consistently underexposing my photos. Not sure why since it wasn't too much of a problem with the XTi. I will investigate further.
2. I would say that at a 100% crop, noise is on par with my old XTi, but since I am underexposing the photos, I can't say for sure. I am hoping that it will get better when I figure out the metering. I will say that a properly framed photo has way less noise because of the much higher resolution though.
3. I am still in love! I was out there with my 55-250 attached and a dude asked me if I was a pro. I was like "no I just like taking pictures."
 
oh, and also, the pictures don't seem to have as much contrast as I am wanting, but that might be due to the weird hazy afternoon that we had yesterday. nothing I couldn't fix in post anyway.
 
The colors on the shot of the Cessna 206 are awesome man, definitely want a 50D now...

On the other hand, from a technical point of view, I would have underexposed the Gulfstream (G450 I think) and the F/A-18 a bit more to accentuate the light a bit more. What is the fog/dust/?? on the right hand side of the Hornet picture anyways?



@SeminoleMan - Very nice shots dude!!
 
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Man, I played with the exposure on the hornet for so long trying to get it to look right. That was the best I could come up with, but it looks so flat.

The blurriness on the right side is the chain link fence that I had to shoot through.

I was super lucky to catch that cesna flying directly over me. Even with the 50d on slow continuous shooting (I found out there are two continuous modes, slow and fast!), I still popped off twice as many frames as I would have gotten with the XTi.

It might seem like a small thing, but in quiet places, I was always slightly embarrassed to take pictures with the XTi because the shutter was so loud. The 50d is probably half as loud and it just sounds like a click rather than a "ka-chink."
 
The colors on the shot of the Cessna 206 are awesome man, definitely want a 50D now...

On the other hand, from a technical point of view, I would have underexposed the Gulfstream (G450 I think) and the F/A-18 a bit more to accentuate the light a bit more. What is the fog/dust/?? on the right hand side of the Hornet picture anyways?



@SeminoleMan - Very nice shots dude!!

Ya I found that the camera has really flat images. Lacks contrast. It's all good.
 
so I'm not doing anything wrong? whew. yeah, I just bump the contrast slightly in post and it's all good. I'll make it part of my PP template and I won't even have to worry about it. After a year of looking very technically at my XTi photos, I had a PP template that ended up requiring almost no additional input from me. it was pretty cool to be able to shoot in raw and then export directly as jpg without fussing about every little thing (unless I wanted to). It will take a bit before I will be able to do the same with this camera.
 
Here's an airplane shot I got last winter (I think)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25174230@N03/4269435260/" title="CJ1 N800GW by flyinhawaiian071, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4269435260_77bd3834da_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="CJ1 N800GW" /></a>
 
And I've been waiting to post these shots. I agreed to wait until the new year in order to protect the identity of those involved and the event itself. Guy lost it at a very weird place on the course (designed to be going straight) and I just happened to be tracking him at the time. Luckiest sequence of photos I've taken I think, especially since they came out sharp! I think they tell the story pretty well:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25174230@N03/4268693403/" title="Supra Crash 1 by flyinhawaiian071, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4268693403_90d5b5b345_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Supra Crash 1" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25174230@N03/4268694395/" title="Supra Crash 2 by flyinhawaiian071, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4268694395_e66c01f764_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Supra Crash 2" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25174230@N03/4268693601/" title="Supra Crash 3 by flyinhawaiian071, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/4268693601_1d74212edb_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Supra Crash 3" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25174230@N03/4269435780/" title="Supra Crash 4 by flyinhawaiian071, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4269435780_4a9cc7345c_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Supra Crash 4" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25174230@N03/4269436058/" title="Supra Crash 5 by flyinhawaiian071, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4269436058_914a49a2ee_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Supra Crash 5" /></a>
 
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OUCH !!

good tracking on that event for sure

And I've been waiting to post these shots. I agreed to wait until the new year in order to protect the identity of those involved and the event itself. Guy lost it at a very weird place on the course (designed to be going straight) and I just happened to be tracking him at the time. Luckiest sequence of photos I've taken I think, especially since they came out sharp! I think they tell the story pretty well:
 
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depends on the camera. a higher end camera that has been taken care of can easily go through tens of thousands of actuations. think about it like miles on a car. it's good to know how long some one has had a car, but it's more important to know how many miles they've put on it.
 
lol @ chucking his helmet out of the car


nah, I would have been crying.

Actually, considering I was holding the trigger down as the event happened, I don't think he has his helmet strapped down (look at Pic 4 near the front of the car) and it came off as a result of the collision.

The kid was an idiot and refused to have an instructor with him in the car, hence why a boot-full of gas was the WRONG reaction when he started to lose it (on a straight section).
 
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