Hey NS, here are a few thoughts from someone who has been taking pictures of trains for a looong time.
First, the Canon is a great choice. It's a camera you can grow with. But don't get hung up on pixel count. For railfan purposes a 5 mp camera will do just as well as a 10 mp. When you look at images here on the 'puter you can't tell what kind of camera they came from. The advantage of more pixels is that you can crop away more and still have usable image from the remaining smaller file. Or, you can enlarge your image and print it 8x10 or 11x14 or larger without losing detail. More important than pixel count is the quality of your lens. That's where the Canon really shines.
Second, in choosing a lens, it is tempting to go for the long zoom. I find the shorter lenses more useful, although I sometimes break out the 300mm. Mostly I use my 18-70 and zoom wider as the trains approach. Put some thought into which lens you choose.
Third, when you are ready to buy, I recommend www.bhphotovideo.com. They are a New York based retailer with a very good reputation, fair prices and excellent service. Today they are offering your Canon with an 18-55 mm lens and a 2 gb CF card for about $770, after $10 rebate. Another reliable store is Adorama, also in New York. One nice thing about mail order is you won't have to pay sales tax unless you live in New York (like me), and these companies tend to price a little lower to keep the in-state business.
Fourth, if you find a lower price, be a little suspicious. Check out the retailer at www.resellerratings.com. There you will find a lot of good info about almost any retailer. Most are good, but they expose the bad ones for what they are.
Finally, you are lucky to have great sources of advice in Matt and Noah. Listen to them and you can't go wrong.
Tim
hey guys
haven't been on in a while... my last day of school was on monday had graduation and all... 9th grade next yr.!!! i'l also be section leader for my section in band i'm saveing up for a camra also it's kodak 6.1 easyshare z612 digital camera w/ 12x optical zoom it's 219.54 at wal mart i want it sooo bad lol. for graduation my dad gave me a belt buckel it's a steamer not sure what kind i'll try and put a pitcher up later. it's made out of puter my dad grandpa and grandmother used to own a puter shop. latley i haven't been able to work on the layout much w/ high school plans and graduation and all. on may the 17th i won the county sience fair!!!!! i got a plack it was really fun. i didn't think i would get passed the school sience fair. well thats about all there is goin' on for me... o ya my parents have been makeing me clean clean clean since monday after graduation so yesterday they wanted me to clean the carport and we have 10 bags 80 pounds each full of concret and a bin 90 pounds full of concret. well i moved every one of them 4 times by hand 1 by 1 yesterday because they couldn't decide were to put them in the car port! well happy rail fanning! :]
-jake
Maybe once I have a full-time job and all that jazz next year, I'll get me a rebel - Maybe a film rebel on the side, too! Then I can use the same lenses...
I'm a telemasher, myself - I can't wait until I have a 600+mm lens, then I can take REAL quality moon shots! Not just pixellated peices of crap like this:
On the bright side, all of you talking about getting out of school and graduating from grade 8...
I win.
four days until my grad, and then only a few days of actual school after that and I'm DONE!
Go here for my rail shots! http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=9296
Building the CPR Kootenay division in N scale, blog here: http://kootenaymodelrailway.wordpress.com/
hey guys feel free to e mail me no inaproipate stuff though
i just picked up some code 83 bulk brass rail for handlaying 15 peices for 10$ i handlay track some times and ive been destroing old, bad flex track for my rails so now i got some to work with.
and im graduating 9th grade in two weeks but seinors last day is tomorow, also known as seinor prank day.
It's been awhile but I decided to pop in and see how things are going. I see a lot of greta pictures out there. Also some nice tips for shooting pics. I have just gotten the money and I am going to be purchacing a Canon XTI 10.1 megapixel camera. So I will be upgrading here in the next couple of weeks.
Happy railroading
James
You're all so spoiled.....
Senior pranks day? That's EVERY day at my school! Like that one time me and a friend burst into my chem classroom and had a lightsaber fight during a lecture...that was classic.
If we can get three pigs, we're going to release them in the school.
They'll be numbered '1', '2', and '4'.
Mwahahaha.
OMG U ARE EVIL, THATS LIKE WAGEING CHEMICAL WARFARE ON YOUR SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so thease guys that had the lightsaber battle were they punished?
hey guys got any ideas on how to handlay track on a foam Scenery?
Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."
The Missabe Road: Safety First
oscaletrains wrote: OMG U ARE EVIL, THATS LIKE WAGEING CHEMICAL WARFARE ON YOUR SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!so thease guys that had the lightsaber battle were they punished?hey guys got any ideas on how to handlay track on a foam Scenery?
When it comes to laying track on foam it calls for a bit more work. First you need to pin the track in the right place with some sort of pin.. When thats finished I would use a glue, like elmers glue and glue the tracl down section by section. Then pin it again to hold in place and let the it dry over night. If you also wanted, put a spike through the ties so the glue will have something else to grip to. Then when it's done drying you should be ready for any scenery that you want to put down.
coborn35 wrote:It was him with the lightsaber.
Right now, I'm laying N scale track on foam roadbed, and the only word I can find to describe it is "AARGH!" It's a real pain....give me good ol' fashioned spikes and cord anyday! I'm using wood glue, and it DOES work, but it's just a little off..I lay it down and adjust it as I go, and that works fine, but still, it's a real pain.
trainboyH16-44 wrote: coborn35 wrote:It was him with the lightsaber. And no, I didn't get in trouble. Right now, I'm laying N scale track on foam roadbed, and the only word I can find to describe it is "AARGH!" It's a real pain....give me good ol' fashioned spikes and cord anyday! I'm using wood glue, and it DOES work, but it's just a little off..I lay it down and adjust it as I go, and that works fine, but still, it's a real pain.
Yup, that's the reason why I went with cork and nails, but I do know how to lay it on foam justs takes 10 times londer than the cork and nails. Just use pins to hold the track in place and glue down using the pins to hold it in place. And then put a couple of nails in there just so the glue has more to hold on to.
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
Anybody got any big railfan trips planned for summer?
Railfan trips? No.
Family vacations that are inevitably going to be commandeered every time we're near a rail line? Hell yes!
Here was what my parents wanted to do: Go to Toronto and Montreal to visit relatives.
1: Convince them to drive.
2: Convince them to take US2 all the way east as to fan the old hi-line.
3: Convince them to go to New Brunswick to catch the NBEC
The first two are check, the third one's a maybe.
I'm good at this game!
Matt, I'd appreciate it if you quit posting your damn shots on Railpics so other people can have a few views!
Keep It Up,
Alec