Topic: Ideas Or Advice On Your Current / Favorite SLR Camera Lens.

[Richary]

Well I'm pretty happy with the 1000D and the 2 standard zoom lenses that came with it. At 1600 ISO and a 15 minute exposure with the lens cap on it does show a couple of hot pixels, but these are barely visible and certainly wouldn't be noticeable with any sort of normal use.

I have just bought a Canon fixed 50mm lens that opens to F1.8 to try night sky photos with next time I go camping - maybe this weekend should be on - save me from doing the gardening or defrosting the fridge :-) That will also give me the ability to really cut down the depth of field if I want to for shots, time for some more experimenting!

[Shaun Galman]

Hi Richary

The hot pixel issue should be pretty easy to fix if it's anything like my 450D. I just remove the lens and replace the dust cap, switch it on, go into the menu and activate the sensor cleaning/mirror raising function and leave it sit (while still on) for 15seconds. Switch it off, put the lens back on, turn it on and you should be good to go with no hot (or dead) pixels! I had one nasty big red one there when I first got the camera, infact I think it might be in one of the shots I posted here? I fixed it this way and haven't needed to do it since, even with doing many 30second star trail exposures at 1600ISO more recently.

Hope this helps and I cant wait to see how the 1000D handles the weather photos! That 50mm prime should perform nicely, particularly with portraits!

I should point out the lens I ordered in the post above wasn't readily available so I scrapped that order for a new, and bloody expensive!, copy of Photoshop CS4 which I received and just installed tonight. I'm blown away by the new features so far!

I will still go for a new lens a.s.a.p. but I'll let my lightning photo sales build up and pay for that in good time.

Can't wait to see the work from the new gear guys! Looking forward to the results!
All the best,
Shauno