Gear Acquisition Syndrom and its contagious :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Lens snobbery huh? First off this guy is shooting Football in broad daylight which is child s play overcast or not. He was setting f/8 at ISO 500 which is nothing, you could use a kit lens just as well. If you take that same lens to a NIGHT game where you only have the stadium lights your gonna be a "fan in the stands". I have buddies that have the Nikon 200-400 f/4.0 which is a beautiful lens with the coolest lens hood on the planet that makes me sooo jealous. But when the lights go low that lens goes away and the f/2.8 big boys come out.

Its not snobbery its just a tool. Yea its a darn expensive tool but a tool none the less. I have a friend who is a machinist and he bought a CNC mill that cost over a hundred grand. Nobody has ever accused him of having "machine snobbery" they just say wow and move on. If you have people that are paying you for a shot of that soccer player that just did this or that, or that baseball player that did that whatever last night and is hot as hell they don't give one good damn what your technical problems are THEY WANT PICTURES. They don't care that the light is crap, that the backgrounds are cluttered, that the new FIFA rules won't let you anywhere but behind some advertising signs in the end zones THEY WANT PICTURES. And they don't pay for images of soccer players with blurry feet or a ball players big home run hit with a blurry bat, they want them tack sharp, full frame, and absolutely stunning ALWAYS. So to have the ability to do that under "normal" conditions you eventually end up with cameras that have great low light high ISO performance and can shoot fast as hell (oh yea just learn to time it right that's a good one too). They also buy lenses that can get those images in those conditions and the cost is the cost. They don't like it but as they say "you gotta pay to play" so they pay for them. And I'll tell you what, once you have shot with a top of the line body and lens one thing becomes absolutely clear YOUR PICTURES.

Another little thing you all might consider is that someone that has been taking pictures for a living for several decades just might, maybe, sorta, kinda, have some tiny idea what they are doing. I seldom question the cost of my Doctors X-ray machine I simply expect it to work and work well, as do Editors. Oh and by the way most Photo Journalists these days are not Photographers they are Writers that are forced to take pics because their publications are too cheap to pay a real shooter to cover an event. One can make a very good paycheck selling real photos to PJ's who had not a clue why their pictures were all green and blurry. And as a side note I happen to own two Sigma lenses including their newest 120-300 f/2.8 OS and it rocks but when I need more length out comes that 400mm because its the right tool for that task not because I want to impress some guy that owns a DSLR in the stands. Trust me he doesn't have to haul that thing back to his car after the event, they ain't so cool then. Bottom line is if you don't need such a lens great, your wallet will be heavier for sure. But if you do "need" one than nothing else will do period. So don't just automatically assume that a guy with an expensive lens or camera is a snob or a fool he just might be a Photographer using a photographic instrument for a specific job.

Yea the last night Baseball game I shot for a magazine I used a Canon 1DX and a 400 f/2.8L IS II as did all the other pro's who shoot similar setups. We all just felt so stupid when the guy with that off brand P&S showed up. :roll:

Correct, in the Canon world all lenses focal lengths are stated on a full frame camera EXCEPT the EF-S lenses, which have been designed to provide a specific focal length on an APS-C crop sensor body. The APS-H bodies are the odd balls.

Ditto, the 70-200 is a great lens for video work.

I would use the telephotos on the 7D and the wider angles on the 5D. You can always do both but generally this works well due to the 1.6X bump the crop sensor body has in focal length.

I had and E520 then two E3's and an E5 with every super high grade lens Oly makes and I very much loved them. As stated the view finder is superb and the .jpg's it produces are still among my favorites and I now shoot with a Canon 5DII and a 1DX. If you don't need fast burst modes or really low light performance the Oly's are great and the E3 is a classic. And $355.00 is a steal I payed MUCH MORE. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Your welcome. It always comes back to the old "you get what you pay for" with camera gear. There are some real gems out there like the 85mm f/1.8 for $400 versus the f1.2L version for $2K, it's a very sharp lens that "almost" matches the "L" version but noooooot quite :)

If your talking about the new 24-70 f/2.8L II then there is no comparison. It is one of the sharpest lenses Canon makes.

Wendy are you talking about the 16-35L or the MKII version of the 16-35? I have the 16-35 f/2.8L II as well as the new 24-70 f/2.8L II and they are both incredibly sharp especially stopped down a touch.

I bought a 7D from them about a year ago. After doing all the checking I decided to take a chance and clicked the buy it now button. It was a kit that had the lens removed and that was fine with me but what happened next got me angry. I received the confirmation email and buried in it was a "reminder" that the order would require an additional TWO TO THREE WEEKS to ship " as spelled out in the shipping details". Well I read and re-read those details and nowhere in there did it say that so I emailed them. I got a reply telling me that they were in the process of moving to a larger warehouse (might be why the listed one is vacant). Their shipping said something that vaguely could have been stretched to say "some" orders could be delayed "if" they were not in stock but mine was listed as in stock so? They said that I could either wait or they would cancel the order. I decided to wait and the camera shipped about one week later. It arrived as promised, have had no problem registering and upgrading it, and has been flawless so overall I was very happy. I just would have appreciated them being very upfront to lessen the appearance of something shady. If you use PayPal you have recourse and some protection from fraud so just make sure the vendor has a good Ebay rating and LOTS of transactions and you should be fine. If they have a 92% and 125 actions I would look elsewhere.

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You should checkout the Vanguard Actus 323CT Carbon Fibre Tripod. It is a big and heavy duty unit that is very well built and very sturdy. It has a cool vertical column that has a nice adjuster to raise and lower it and It gets great reviews. If you order it from B&H right now it can be had for under $300.00 after a rebate is cashed in. I have a Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 which is awesome but the Vanguard is bigger and heftier and the optional snowshoes and spikes it comes with are very useful. Overall its a great tripod that costs less than half the price of some.

http://www.vanguardworld.com/index.php/en/pv/products/photo-video/detail-1-4-218-688.html

I replaced all of my caps with the new Canon Center Pinch ones months ago and they were about $25 per copy. Now do you guys have your focal length engraved onto the back cap so you can ID them in the camera bag???
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If you can't get it to work just wait until Monday during business hours and call Canons 1-800 number (800) 652-2666 and one of their reps will walk you through it. Just have all your stuff at the ready such as your camera, memory card, cables, and your computer with an internet connection. They will have you all upgraded in short order. :thumbup: