Hopefully, you never got the comment, "gee, must be great to have that wonderful equipment to take pictures for you!"

Thanks for sharing those cats!

Another vote here for the Canons. I have a S100, a G16, and a SX50 HS. Like said a few messages ago, the S100 is incredibly handy, images are excellent quality for the size, but doesn't have a view finder. The G16 is a very capable compact, excellent quality images, has a view finder, and is somewhat larger than the S100. I recently took the SX50 on a Costa Rica tour as my only camera and did very well, thank you. I wear glasses and used both the LCD and the EVF without an concerns or issues. In bright sunlight, I preferred the EVF and had no problems reading camera setting, focusing, etc. With these three, my 70d spends a lot of time on the shelf.

Thanks Shutterbob. I returned to the scene of the crime this morning and backed off to 25-30 feet and tried again. The results were much better and what little distortion at 16mm there existed was easily corrected. I'm thinking I'll give it a shot.

Yeah, I think you're right mcveed. I need to return to the scene of the crime and try again. Plus, bring my tripod. I kind of messed this up. Great intentions, though!! :-)

I downloaded the program. The lens was in his database, but I didn't see much improvement from what PSE was able to give me. I read in the PTLens help section that he will calibrate if he doesn't have a lens but didn't want to see bricks (inherently not perfect) and wanted a minimum of distance from camera to object of about 25 feet. Whereas I was no more than 6-8 feet away from the wall I shot. At that distance, I could have introduced some distortion merely by my camera position relative to the brick wall?

Thanks. Yeah, my DSLR is a Canon 70d, but your suggestion is a valid one. I was thinking a Canon 18-200mm for comparison. Local camera stores are pretty reasonable about letting customers step outside and shot examples for evaluation. I guess I was just surprised to see the amount of distortion at that focal length.

Here are three more pics that are as shot. As you can see, I really didn't take the time to make sure they were level, I was more interested in the brick line. All shot at f/11 and ISO-640.

16mm 1/640 sec

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52mm 1/400 sec

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185mm 1/400 sec

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I kind of thought so, as well. But, I'd be the first to admit that I didn't take a lot of time in the PSE correction module. Very possible that more could be done, and I didn't have enough time with the lens to see at what focal length did the distortion pretty much disappeared. After your comment, I pulled the "corrected" image back into PSE and tried more correction. Unfortunately, movement in one direction seemed to cause problems in another.

This is a question of whether I should be concerned or not. In a couple months, the wife and I will be taking a Rhine River cruise and I'm entertaining the idea of bringing a single lens instead of an armful. I looked at the Tamron 16-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro today. I read in a review where some "expert" thought it had excessive barrel distortion at the low end of the zoom (if that's the right expression). So I took the below shot with the lens on a Canon 70d standing relatively close to a brick wall. I then took the resulting image and loaded it into PSE 11, did distortion repair and nothing else. Bottom line, I am looking for opinions on whether the amount of distortion on the image is acceptable or not? Is the correction in PSE 11 about what I should expect and do you believe that to also be acceptable? I figure acceptable distortion is one of those "in the eyes of the beholder" things, and I sort of think it's significant but at the same time would like to hear whether hoggers think I'm over reacting. Thx!!

Native JPEG - 16mm, f/11, 1/2500 sec, ISO 640

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Native after PSE 11 Distortion Correction

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Ditto on the S100, plus the added benefit of a built-in gps. The S110 refurb (wifi, no gps) is available at the Canon site for $180. I also have the G16, which I also like, but it's definitely not a small pocket camera. The Canon S-series PowerShots are really sweet cameras.

Lens is SOLD - thanks.

Will have to let you know, lens tentatively sold. Waiting for buyer to chk his paypal. Thx for the interest.
TL

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Canon EF mount 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens in "like new" condition. Has probably been used 3-4 times max! This is an incredibly sharp and fast lens for the money! Will fit either Canon EF or EF-S mounts. Includes end caps. Price is firm. Includes shipping to lower 48. PayPal accepted.

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Thanks, Jerry. Fascinating look at an incredible plane.