I lost the other message that was sent to Nikonian. Trying to make a decision on Canon or Nikon body and a lens in the 24-105mm, f2.8...... Heard that Nikon has the superior processing as regards noise suppression in shadow and background detail. I have had Canon DSLR for 6 years and am increasingly disappointed in Canon quality and consistency. I have around $3 grand to spend initially for one body & one lens. A macro would follow shortly.....so guys give me your recommendation please....thanks

I have an external drive that I have made from an 80 Gig laptop hard drive and a case that I bought on Ebay. "It shows up as "E" drive on my computers. I use it to keep current images on. I can plug this into my laptop, one of two PC's at home or my work computer and instantly have thousands of images available to me.

My question is this: When selecting the place to install editing programs such as Elements or Photomatrix, can I select custom and install the program onto my external "E" drive and then use it on all of my computers by simply plugging it into a USB port ???

I have been selling pictures I took since 1965; however I never depended on photography for a living. Mostly my sales consisted of portraits, weddings, industrial photography and product photography. My full time profession was in the computer field. I ranked myself between an advanced armature to just below a professional photographer because I never depended on photography to make a living, it was just something I enjoyed doing and other people enjoyed the fruits of my labor (for $). I have graduated from a photography school, but that was in the film days.

I don't even have to look up the prices of these lenses to know that I will never own one. When the camera is on the tripod, VR is off.

I wonder why every lens maker has to use a different term for the same thing: VR, VC, IS. And why does Canon have to use Av and Tv, instead of A and S? There's a lot to be said for standardization. Look at the costly mistakes that have been made with space telescopes mixing English and metric measurements.

Painting my camera: OK I know this sounds funny. But it seems that everyone has a black camera. They may not know how to use it, but it’s black.
My Rebel is silver, but the battery pack and the lens are black. Some times it makes me feel like the back cat with the white strip on it’s back.
I would need to do a good job of masking to cover up stuff, and then there would be the down time.
There is a bright red Pentex camera, but oh my, wear would I take it. I want to blend in.

So your thoughts are most welcome.

PS: You know Canon has not done anything for me of late. So why do I have there name, and the name of the camera all over my camera?

Very useful info. Thank you! I have read that a 3 stop ND filter is a good choice. So now I’d like to buy both a polarizing filter, and a 3 stop ND filter, which will give me two ND filter options, right? I may have more questions as I look into this more. Still struggling with whether there is any reason I shouldn’t buy the cheapest 3 stop ND filter of the three I mentioned. I’m a newbie, and my glass is not good, so I suspect I could go cheap at this stage of my photographic life.

I have a Canon 60D. My first DSLR, bought in December. Haven’t shot video with it yet. I will eventually shoot a little video when traveling, but nothing extensive. So I’m not concerned about filters for video at this point, since that’s just a footnote in my mostly still shooting world.

Love this website!