Episode #151
I would like to know what Leo suggests as a good all-round Canon Lens to shoot people. Fixed or zoom. Also would like to know which Leo thinks is better photo Application, Adobe’s Lightroom or Apples Aperture?
James, Pakenham, VIC
I’m a big fan of starting with a 50mm fixed focus lens - especially on a DSLR with a full frame sensor. A 50mm lens approximates the view of the human eye - so it’s a good way to learn to compose shots.
I use Lightroom and find it faster and more reliable than Aperture. But you can try them both free for a month and see which you like best yourself.
Sean’s note: It will ultimately depend on what you’re hoping to do with the lens — a lot of pro photographers swear by the fixed focus lens for general shooting, but you have to remember that if you want to get a closer shot of something, you have to move closer to it. On the other hand, you can get a zoom lens that covers a fairly broad zoom range (17–85 mm for example) but these lenses also tend to be slower, which means you won’t get as much light into them…especially at the furthest extent of the zoom. So really, it’s a trade-off. If you think that you’ll be needing zoom more than you’ll be needing to shoot in lower light, go for a good zoom.
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Air Date: February 21, 2008
TranscriptCaller Questions
- James, Pakenham, VIC
- Stuart, Vernon
- Robert, Toronto, ON
- Matt, Victoria, BC
Yewell's Jewels
- Kuler.adobe.comwindowsmaclinux
Kuler is an online Adobe application in which allows you to quickly create harmonious colour themes online! Plus you can share them too etc. The colour wheel theme/scheme presets are valuable to any designer or concept artist.
Sean's Shinies
- D-Link Medialounge DSM-520
$249
The Medialounge series from D-Link is designed to fit in with the rest of your home theatre components – it even takes on the same form factor as a typical DVD player, in fact. The difference is that the DSM-520 has a wireless antenna on the back, and pulls your multimedia files from a shared folder or a media server located elsewhere in your home. It connects to the television via component, composite or HDMI outputs, and in addition to the stereo analogue audio, there’s also digital SPDIF and digital optical outputs. While the DSM-520 comes with software for setting up a Windows machine to act as a media server, it can also pull data from other third-party servers, too, and you can select between servers on the fly using the remote control. Streamed content looks very good when it’s streaming, but as always your ultimate performance is susceptible to other traffic on your network and the type of encoding on the original files. And in case you don’t have any local file servers handy, you can also stream directly from a USB key (there’s a port on the front), or go online and stream directly from compatible sites on the net. You can even use the menu system to download things to your PC for later use.Shiny
- streams audio and video
- HDMI connection to home theatre
- stream from USB key too
Dull
- requires computer with shared folders
- some formats won’t playMedialounge DSM-520
D-Link
Kate’s Tips
- The Paleontology Portal
This site is a resource for anyone interested in paleontology, from the professional in the lab to the interested amateur scouting for fossils to the student in any classroom. They have gathered many different resources into this single entry “portal” to paleontological information on the Internet. Images and links that you see as you browse through the site have been reviewed and selected for quality by one or more members of the Editorial Board, following the guidelines of the established editorial policy. This site was produced by the University of California Museum of Paleontology, the Paleontological Society, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and the United States Geological Survey.