This is a photography Forum, I just made a major change in my equipment, I thought some people on here might find it interesting. If you felt it was too long you could have simply skipped it. I am tempted to make a sarcastic reply many times when someone asks the most basic question but I stop myself and remember that the purpose of this forum is to "talk" about photography. Maybe its time to look elsewhere for photography conversations.

:x

Welcome to Canon P.S I always wanted to be a Nikon guy to But I am very pleased with Canon

Nothing here to do with your sale and move to Canon. I'm sure it will work for you.

However, after ten years of both using, buying and selling on eBay, and also teaching eBay classes in Community Ed classes, my whole being just screams out one thing here:

GET YOUR MONEY OUT OF PAYPAL!!!!!

At least the bulk of it.

Transfer it to a dedicated savings account, at another real banking institution, with the account labeled "MY Photo Gear Rainy Day fund", or whatever you like to dedicate the money, but do not leave it in Paypal.

I'm sure you know Paypal is owned by eBay. With that in mind, one sad misstep or one cranky buyer who pays and then opens a safe harbor claim for whatever self perceived reason can cause Paypal to put a "hold" on your funds.

Now I support, for the most part, the whole eBay/Paypal self serving system, except for leaving money in Paypal. In fact, in my eBay class I teach people how to sever any internal banking ties between your other banking connections and Paypal.

I do use Paypal, and find it a real convenience for US and International transactions. I just don't think it's wise to use it as a place to pool funds, especially if you are actively selling on the system.

I don't blame eBay/Paypal for the rules and protocols they invoke to "save" buyers and sellers from themselves, but I do know that the reality of having your funds locked up for a time while some weird person out there gets his/her jockeys in a twist because of speck of dust or some "buyers remorse" situation.

Enjoy your new Canon and improve the access to all that money by getting it into a better place to set it aside.

And in the event you or others feel the need to pooh pooh my post, take this next advice with a grain of salt. It's a bit over the top, but visit the site:

www.paypalsucks.com

Look for the link in the blue shadowed box called "Paypal Balance Hold". PayPal can, and often does in disputes, hold for collateral more than the amount of a disputed transaction.

There's a lot more to the site about Paypal and the site has been around almost as long as Paypal....many years. Some of the people who set up and advise on the site are actually past employees of Paypal. So "biased" perhaps, but more than that, informative.

Yeah... those hundreds of fine quality Minolta lenses, plus the Sony G series, and the true Zeiss lenses available for Sony, and dozens of Tamaron and Sigma lenses made for Sony/Minolta over the years, just aren't enough to choose from... It makes me so sad to be a Sony owner that could fill the shelves of four walls of a spare bedroom with available lenses...

And, as has been said on here many times, it's too bad for me as a Sony owner that they INVENTED digital still photography in the first place, brought out the very first digital camera, and were the pioneers of this whole digital camera market. I'm not sure I grasp how that relates to the definition of "also ran"... oh wait... it doesn't!

Top that off with Sony manufacturing sensors for Nikon and most likely other brands, Sony bringing out the Alpha line with burst speeds and practically noiseless ISOs out in the stratosphere, and you have to wonder why anybody would call them an "also ran" other than ignorance of the history of digital photography.

I'm about 50 miles from the Canon service facility in Irvine and have been going there since switching to digital about 8 years ago. Can't say enough good things about their service. Couple of weeks ago I took a malfunctioning (shuttered during autofocus) 24-70mm lens to them. They said they would repair it and ship it back in 5-6 days. $269, plus shipping. The lens arrived 2 days later.

BTW, they always give you a price before working on your equipment.

I have posted several times that I use and love Olympus Pro series DLSR's as well as some of their better glass. I have from time to time contemplated making a switch to either Nikon or Canon for three very good reasons. First I "need" better high ISO performance than the Oly's can deliver. Second I "need" a camera that can shoot faster than 5 FPS for shooting sports. And last but not least I get tired of missing out on some of the other third party gear that only works on The BIG TWO. Problem was I am so invested in Olympus that I would need something to push me over the cliff to make the switch.

So that "push" came about a month ago in the form of a like new Canon 5D MkII. Its a long story but basically a young man whom I helped at a very bad point in his teen years acquired it (legally) and, knowing I am a photographer, gave it to me. He almost tossed it out thinking it was a cheap old piece of crap!!! It had a EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L lens on it to boot that was like a brand new lens. I downloaded some freeware and the thing only has 5995 shutter actuations on it which is nothing for that model. I looked inside and the mirror was cracked which worried me but the thing took great pictures so not too worried.

I called up Canon and asked where to take it and turns out they have a Service Center in Irvine CA which is not too far from my place (about 70 miles). I just drove over and dropped it off and they said no problem we'll get it all fixed up for ya. Three days later they call and its just a cracked mirror and the rest of the camera is in great shape. So $108.00 for a new mirror which also included a complete factory cleaning and tune em up and it was all ready to roll. I also had the MODE knob replaced with the new version that has a locking button in the middle that you have to push to move it. It makes it where the knob cannot be moved by rubbing on your body or your camera bag which is a pain in the rear. That cost $100.00 so all told $208.00 and she was all ready to serve.

OK so now what? Simple, I decided to simply sell all my Olympus gear, take the loss in stride, and buy all new Canon equipment and not look back. I was loosing faith in Olympus anyway while watching Canon and Nikon release newer and newer models while Olympus is going full tilt into the Micro 4/3rd's direction so this all has a silver lining I guess.

I put all my stuff on Ebay and let the games begin. I am still selling some because the total value was way over what us civilians can sell in a month on there. Overall I am simply letting the money fill up my PayPal account and when I reach a sufficient amount I pull the trigger on the next item. I started with lenses and made a list of "must have" lenses and worked on them first. I got the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM, then the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, then the 400mm f/2.8 USM (no IS), I had the 24-70mm f/2.8L USM so that gave me pretty much the same coverage and quality I had with my Oly stuff. All told I "almost" broke even loosing about a thousand or a little more on the deal (I considered myself lucky).

So given that I am primarily a Sports Shooter I realized that the 5D Mkii is not the best for sports. It does WAY better in low light/high ISO situations but its a slow poke. So I decided to add a couple of 7D bodies since they are almost identical in layout to the 5D2 and use the same batteries as the 5D2 which would make the chargers all work. The 7D is a fantastic body that does what I need and can shoot at 8FPS which is almost a 50% jump in speed and way good for me. I also liked the 1.6X Crop Factor of the APS-C over the 1.3X of the APS-H sensor in the 1DMk4 bodies (plus I could buy two for the price of one). I plan to use the two 7D's for the action stuff and the 5D2 for the before and after stuff as well as any other work I do such as portraiture and the like. I added battery grips to all three bodies because I like the feel better and I can shoot all day on a set of batteries, plus I got them brand new in the original boxes on ebay for a third of the cost from Canon. Then I had to add a pile of batteries (after a bunch of research I decided to just buy original Canon batteries since they are chipped and talk to the cameras), a few more chargers, and a 580 EX II speed light and I was back to ready to shoot.

I downloaded the Owners Manual for both models and the speedlight and actually read them cover to cover. I have been a professional photographer for over 25 years and I actually read even the most basic stuff AND LEARNED STUFF HAHA. I knew it had been many years since I was a Canon guy (I had a lot of Canon stuff including an F1 back in the days O de Film) and I know that you need to really know your gear when stuff is happening fast so I had to get up to speed quick. I really did read the manuals and I have spent a bunch of time practicing with the bodies to get my brain around where things are at compared to my Olympus cameras. Overall I am comfortable with the new cameras so we will see how that goes when I'm under the gun.

So there ya go, what happens when one wing nut decides to change systems. I am very much loving the Canon brand even though I have always really wanted to be a Nikon guy (no idea why I just like them). I was treated well by their Service Center (I am taking the 7Ds there to have their MODE Knobs replaced with locking versions soon) and I really like the features of these bodies. The lenses are "almost" as nice as the Olympus glass and overall the Canon stuff is really pretty cool. One small thing I like is the ability to "Micro Adjust" the focus. I bought a Lens Align Pro Plus setup ($160.00) and tested all these expensive super duper "L" lenses and they were all off a tiny bit. Most were back focused about 5 to 8 "clicks" and once dialed in the sharpness (especially on the long lenses) was really something else. I am looking forward to putting all this new gear through its paces and with Fall Sports coming soon ITS FOOTBALL TIME low light here I come :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

It's the same way with email, what the writer meant when written is not always what the reader took when read. Always look on the bright side and try not to "read" into what's written. If he had been complaining you would have really known it. Many of the members have a dry sense of humor and are quite funny... even if you have to think about it for a while.