[archosman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PYROphonez /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, being that this is the Canon thread, I thought I might ask a question regarding an older camcorder, the L2. I've been looking around for a nice quality camcorder, and although it's getting old, the L2 caught my eye. Is this a good choice for someone just looking for a camera with good quality at a low price?

No...

No firewire, Hi8 format, could swear I remember some reliability issues as well.

It was a badazz camera when it came out, but since I'm in the biz I would steer way clear of it.

You're better off going with MiniDV than anything else. Those DVD camcorders are much more compressed than MiniDV. Hi8 is about as popular as a MiniDisc. They tried to extend the life of 8mm by making a Digital Hi8 format, but there was such a huge penetration of the MiniDV format (as well as DVCam) that it fell off the face of the earth with the exception of consumers not doing their homework.

Our Hi8 machine at work is unplugged since we needed the rack space for another BVW-75 BetaSP machine, so when I would get calls for dubs of the format depending on how I felt I would either unplug the BetaSP to do it or I would say we no longer had the ability to dub 8mm.

That's a pretty old camera. If it has any internal problems it will be next to impossible to repair. If you can even find anyone who can repair it the cost of it would easily run the same price as a cheap DV one.

Try and find a battery for it as well. Bet they're pricey...

 

[archosman]

Other thing to consider...

We are on the verge of the HD revolution. There are more and more HD sets being sold now more than ever. Standard Definition is dying. I'm not trying to upsell you.. but it's something to consider since in about 2 years HD will be the norm. That standard definition camcorder is going to look like dogcrap on a HD set. Pretty soon it will be hard to find tape.

 

[PYROphonez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by archosman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Other thing to consider... We are on the verge of the HD revolution. There are more and more HD sets being sold now more than ever. Standard Definition is dying. I'm not trying to upsell you.. but it's something to consider since in about 2 years HD will be the norm. That standard definition camcorder is going to look like dogcrap on a HD set. Pretty soon it will be hard to find tape.

Yeah, I thought about that as well. The only thing is that I don't want to spend a whole load of money at the time. The most reasonably priced I saw was an Aiptek A-HD for $140, but 2x zoom just won't cut it for me. I haven't seen much in the ways of around $300 price range. My uses simply aren't worth much more than that amount.

 

[archosman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PYROphonez /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, I thought about that as well. The only thing is that I don't want to spend a whole load of money at the time. The most reasonably priced I saw was an Aiptek A-HD for $140, but 2x zoom just won't cut it for me. I haven't seen much in the ways of around $300 price range. My uses simply aren't worth much more than that amount.

I know...

In one way it's a bad time as well. Being on the bleeding edge of technology sucks. I really would stay away from an obsolete format though. About the only way I would do it is if you can get the camera for next to nothing...

 

[lan]

One problem with analog camera is your can't get footage onto computer easily or cheaply. If you get a minidv camera, some computer have firewire already built in or you can get a card for cheap compared to a card which does analog to digital conversion.


MiniDV is the current popular standard and there are some deals to be had around even under your budget. I got me a Samsung used ome for like $80 just to do tape transfers.

It'll be a while till HD camcorders get cheap so I wouldn't wait for that.

Forget memory or DVD based camcorders since their compressions makes things worst.

I'd skip the Canon L2.

 

[leoftw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by archosman /img/forum/go_quote.gif If it didn't belong to you why didn't you turn it in? Did you not think the owner wanted it back? Not cool...

Who am I going to turn it into ? The serial number on there was never registered so Canon doesn't even know who the original owner was .

 

[warnsey]

What is the general consensous on Tamron lenses?

I like the look of the 28-300mm XR DI VC as an everyday travel lenses.

Are canon lenses that much better?

 

[WiredMonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leoftw /img/forum/go_quote.gif Who am I going to turn it into ? The serial number on there was never registered so Canon doesn't even know who the original owner was .

As far as I understand it, the police are a pretty good option. If a valid claim isn't made in x number of days, you get to keep it, instead of just making off with it and taking advantage of some poor soul's absent mindedness.

Or at least leave some contact info with the transit lost and found, or a notice on a few of the major stops where the owner is probable to have gotten on/off.

Anything's better than just keeping it. Who knows what kind of importance it might have had? Maybe it was the last present from a dying grandparent. Maybe it accompanied them on a trip through Africa. Who knows? All I know is what I would want, and can only assume you would want, the finder to do, if something valuable was left behind.

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warnsey /img/forum/go_quote.gif What is the general consensous on Tamron lenses? I like the look of the 28-300mm XR DI VC as an everyday travel lenses. Are canon lenses that much better?

Tamron makes some great lenses optically and nicely priced.

Any lens with such a large zoom factor 28-300 is nearly about 11 times is a quality tradeoff though. You probably have a 1.6x crop camera? If so, 28mm isn't really wide. So you have to ask yourself is that the range you really want?

IMO f/6.3 at the long end like that isn't really useable unless it's the daytime but it's up to how you use it.

For consumer lenses and budget, I prefer Tamron but I'd say Canon makes ultimately the higher quality lenses but that's in the pro range.

 

[warnsey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Tamron makes some great lenses optically and nicely priced. Any lens with such a large zoom factor 28-300 is nearly about 11 times is a quality tradeoff though. You probably have a 1.6x crop camera? If so, 28mm isn't really wide. So you have to ask yourself is that the range you really want? IMO f/6.3 at the long end like that isn't really useable unless it's the daytime but it's up to how you use it. For consumer lenses and budget, I prefer Tamron but I'd say Canon makes ultimately the higher quality lenses but that's in the pro range.

Thanks for the reply, I was looking at the Canon ES 17-18 IS USM. However, I have been reading that it has some problems.

Any suggestions for a lens that has a similar zoom range that is decent quality for a Canon EOS 40D?

 

[lan]

17-18? That's a typo.

------------

Updating my own experimentations. I picked up 580EXII last week and 18-55 IS right now. We'll see how they are.

 

[warnsey]

Yes, sorry- 17-85

 

[WiredMonk]

17-55 f 2.8 IS is one of the best mid-range lenses out there for the Canon crop bodies, which translates to about 28-80 on a standard scale. Tamron and sigma both have very decent budget priced versions.

there ARE decent 18-2xxs out there, which would give you that wide angle and super-telephoto, but you have to realize that these 'one-lense wonders' have drawbacks in terms of Image quality and distortion. A recent entry by tamron that gets decent reviews is this one, which also comes with macro functionality.

 

[send]

Quote:

Originally Posted by martook /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thats true, but they don't have screens with split image, which I like a lot more than matte. Amusingly enough, the Canon original is a lot cheaper though

It is very difficult to manually focus by just looking through a croped-sensor dslr's viewfinder, esp. in critical situations, when the deprth of field is just a few mm. Since I regularly use mf, I replaced the screen of my 350D, with a split-image chinese one. Didn't take more than 5 minutes to install and works just fine. With large aperture lenses, mf isn't that difficult after all!

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warnsey /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, sorry- 17-85

Nearly about 1 stop faster in that range is Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5. If you want much better quality in less range, there's Tamron 17-50 2.8 if you like more wide angle or 28-75 2.8 if you prefer more telephoto. If you want another lense for more telephoto, I recommend Canon 70-200 f4L.

Please tell me you're not going to put a cheap lens on the 40D.