Saturn

I've been meaning to photo Gihan's car, but sadly didn't get the time. If anyone here likes their car photographed also, let me know and perhaps we can meet up, preferrably with Gihan also if thats OK I'm not a photographer as such so you may be disappointed but the good news is I have a few interesting lenses so I could potentially get some interesting photos

Bummer I'm always on the lookout for opportunities to practice photography and car shows are good,

The safety pin is a subliminal throwback to the drivers recent childhood.. or he has a daiper fetish?

Things seem quiet these days.. are there any events or shows coming up?

That's a line you don't hear often Well, actually I'm wondering what the bird in the first photo is?

thanks.. btw what's the bird in the first photo?

See how long it takes you to spot the bird in the above photo. I didn't see it until I downloaded it. Speaking of birds.. Peri, can you tell me what this is?

Dude, that's not a good idea, you might end up getting him disqualified. As it is, his photo is excellent so it stands a good chance, and I hope he wins

Madz, I don't think JadeyBlitzen is trying to be rude.. he's just being humorous.. Now, to get back on topic.. the truth is that it's technically impossible to prevent threads going off topic - see this one for example . The best you can do is encourage people to be on topic when they start to drift, and ban people who are purposefully disruptive. End of the day, forums are non-formal conversation areas, and when people have conversations,and they tend to drift. The best thing people can do is personally make an effort to stay on topic, and set an example by their actions... eventually others will hopefully be inspired to follow. Also, people could probably try to do is try to get a thread back on topic when the conversation drifts. It's not guaranteed to work but it helps. Lastly, this is a small forum with a handful of users, if we personally made an effort, the problem would be solved

That's an excellent photo! voted for it and hope you win.

Here's another attempt to compare the two (100% center crop) - max telephoto, distance 100 - 200 feet (see full size) no post processing except crop and re-save settings 10.1mpix, digic 3, sharp +1, daylight ISO, ISO 400 (I think) and JPG quality L2 (in original) @ f8, with a lot of care, the 90300 can match the 70-200. 1. Focus is obviously more vague on the 90-300 and the 70-200 delivers consitent results much more often 2. 70-200 is full frame capable, 90-300 is 1.6focv 3. 90-300 max aperture at telephoto is 5 70-200 is 2,8, which is more than a full stop more. This particular example of a 90-300 is very very good quality, and seems to beat most other consumer zooms - as seen here it can even take on the L

Try a service station? they usually have large cans for engine oil/transmission fluid etc They may ask you a little money tho Best to try the place you service your car, maybe they will give them free

wow

The 70-200L is extraordinary. I still am learning how to use it. I don't think MP's make the difference. Anyway, here's a photo I just took (70-200@f8, 10.1mpix/fine, sharpening +1) View it full size and take a look at the detail in the bark, far right bottom, its pretty good Another image, 90-300 @f9, 6mpix I think, sharpening 0 Similar coconut tree, 70-200@f8 10.1 mpix, sharpening +1 Note, the jpeg artifacts are due to cropping it and re-saving it, and are not present in the original Note: looks like my white balance is all wrong . All images are 100% crops

Looks like the don't go off topic thread... has gone off topic

The f4 lens is the smaller aperture - the f2.8 lets in 2X the light as the f4.

Actually those lenses are meant to be rested face down like that. L superzooms are built like tanks. Those things are heavy as hell and solid. If you check kenrockwell.com theres a guy who dropped a 70-200 off an elephant onto a concrete floor, and it still works.

Hmm.. tell me more about the difference you spotted? As strange as it sounds I didn't find much difference between my consumer and L zooms (90-300/70-200f2.8), especially when it comes to close ups. True, at distance, the resolving power of the L lens shows immediately (and the extra stop makes a difference in bokeh/low light). In it's defense, the 90-300 is an exceptionally good quality lens. I guess there are many differences in contrast/color reproduction, also the L is full frame OK vs the 90-300 being crop sensor only. To give an example, in a photograph in my room, I could spot no difference in resolving ability between the L and the 90-300, whereas in a photo of the moon, there was a clear difference (the L was much sharper). This is something that has puzzled me quite a bit and I'm putting it down to my sensor which is a 6mp older generation. I will be upgrading to a 10.1mp sensor and then I'll try some tests and see if I can find much difference. update: here's a link to an image test I did with 4 lenses. This isn't very scientific but it gives a rough idea how those lenses may compare in real world usage. Each image is a 100% crop of a photo taken at about 10 feet with mostly default camera settings (except the 50mm which is much closer as I tried to get the same level of zoom - so I guess the 50mm may be 1/4 the distance away from the target, as the other photos are at approx 200mm each http://i42.tinypic.com/18ocpd.jpg On an unrelated note, of the few lenses I own, the one I use the most is the 50mm prime. Ironically this is the cheapest, and it is very practical for normal usage. Quality wise it is on par or better than the f.2.8 - it does have a weakness of poor focus in low light..

Guys, my fuel consumption is really low these days and I'm thinking of taking my car to the agents for a checkup.. well.. best thing you could do is try to steer the topic back on topic, and perhaps send a private message to the poster if they continue to try to drag it OT.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5182772/canon-eos-reb...ne=true&s=x "Canon has crammed the $1500 50D's sensor and 5D-Mark-II-like 1080p video capture into an $899 entry-level Rebel. " Of course it will probably cost $1800 when it reaches Sri Lanka, what with the 100% markup All the same, HD sounds awesome, should be pretty cool with a good lens.. that feature alone makes this worth the price, what more can you ask for

By swap I think he means swap his manual Astina with your Auto astina Sparky: sorry to hear about you experiencing a stroke hope you get well soon

Indeed. This thread has it all

I think he's kidding man. If he were really that intellectually deficient, the Aussies would shipped him back

Man are you for real? ;-) Or are you just trolling?

Unless I'm mistaken, INGO's tend to use language like this when working in conflict situations to avoid pissing off either side (and being cut off from helping the civilians), as recently happened in Dafur. What bothers me is (correct me if I'm wrong): 1. There's a crisis and a lot of kids are suffering/some are dying. 2. INGO's like UNICEF are actively working to help these kids. 3. Everytime this topic comes up in any medium in Sri Lanka, the comments either go as: a. NGO's suck because (insert reason) b. Their reporting is biased. c. I'm patriotic and anyone who speaks against me/our side/some side is unpatriotic etc etc. Suppose we assume that UNICEF is highly biased/corrupt, and everyone who works there is doing it for highly selfish reasons, etc... does that change the fact that people are indeed suffering, and they (UNICEF) are saving lives, feeding children. Shouldn't we be grateful to them for that?