What did Santa bring you?
 

Ok, now that Christmas is done and dusted for another year, what did Santa bring you? I’m sure there’s plenty of people with shiny new toys so this thread is somewhere to post either:
a) If you got new photographic equipment a picture taken with your new stuff or, in case you didn’t get any new photographic stuff,
b) A picture taken of your new toys, whatever they are.

Any new stuff takes time to get used to so, in the spirit of helping others on the learning curve, it would be useful to see shots that didn’t work, as well as the good ones that did. If you made some mistakes in those first few shots, post an explanation of what you found didn’t work, and how you worked around the issues. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, none of us ever stop learning.

What did I get for Christmas? I got a Manfrotto 679B monopod. What did I learn? That you also need a head and QR plate. Direct attachment is ok as long as you have a rotating collar on the lens but it really doesn’t help if you then stick the short lens on, have to unscrew the monopod, screw it onto the base of the camera (especially if you then find the shot works best in portrait format) :o . Makes you look like a Ninja Warrior from a distance though. :rolleyes:

I got one of those 'Rocket' blowers for sensor cleaning purposes (digipads are good but a bit expensive to use every time at £2 a throw)

What have I learnt - well, they're very good at moving dust around...

Adey, you don't throw away the Digi-Pad, you just recover it with a Pec-Pad. One Digi-Pad will last you a lifetime, so the cost is minimal. Both Greypopint and used a blower in the early days and both regretted it due to some of the dust being moved into the viewfinder.

Harry

Yelvertoft, congratulations on your choice of monopod. I have a manfrotto 682B monopod with legs. Yes, you do standout a bit but its necessary with a 200-400 f4 VR lens, amasing how many people stand right next to you at an airshow not realising you need to pan.

Santa brought me a Nikon CF holder, as I am concerned about losing a card. The holder holds two CF cards and a PCMCIA reader in two sides. I plan to get another to make a CF holder that takes four (I have four cards).

On the subject of sensor dust I have claened by D2X only once in 8000 shots. I rarely change lenses and IF (Internal Focus) operation of 200-400 or teleconvertor use seem to keep the dust away although I check every shot.

I recieved my pressy a little early, this being the Giottos Inovator tripod + the Manfrotto 322RC2 Heavy Duty ball head. my second one (or I should say a family one) is the holiday I've booked for Kenya in January.

Harry

Well I got a Kenko 1.4x tc for use with my 350D and my Sigma 500 - having looked into tc's I decided to ask for the Kenko as it is a 'dumb' converter and so should allow auto focus... I tried it for the first time yesterday and (typically) it does give the correct info to the camera, so does not allow AF. I can't quite work out why this is as I've spoken to someone else who uses the exact same set up and does get AF... now wishing I'd asked for the Sigma!

I would investigate firmware updates for the sigma lens. I don't use this system but I know Sigma have the ability to 'update' lenses.

Worth a go?

Er... I got some thick socks for all those riverside walks!!

Well you need something to protect your feet in those big wellies that you wear :)

Converter
 

I have a Sigma 2X converter for my 50-500 zoom and it won't autofocus. The image is too dark for the camera to be able to focus, the answer is a faster ( & costly )lens.