Justifing "Tour" gear

[terryand]

Now I know the tour debut rages on with if you get any benefit or not from it. I have found tour gear with results that justify the buying of tour gear.

Now I'm not talking about the if the tour driver gives you another 10 or 20 metres.I'm talking about results in black and white,well colour really.

I'm talking about tour camera gear and when you talk tour ('L" series lenses) camera gear we're not talking an extra $100 or $200 dollars, or even double the price of retail. We're talking $1800 as apposed to the $200 lense I have now.

Myself thinking that the difference can't be worth 9 times the price of the lense I have now,I went to Photo Continental today with my camera and lense and took some shots in the shop with my lense then put the "L" series (tour) lense on and took the same shots.

I took them at 1/20th of a second(which is pretty slow) hand held,with all the settings the same for both shots, with no flash.

Heres what came out of my lense....
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/5664/img6676mediumoi9.jpg

And this from the tour lense....
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7853/img6673mediumzo8.jpg

As you can see the difference is quite substantial, so if this is the improvement with tour camera gear, maybe, just maybe there is an improvement with tour golf gear :-?

All jokes aside, I was hoping the difference wasn't this great, cause now I want one :cry:

Terry.

[Ducky]

Wouldn't it have been a better idea to take the pictures with a faster shutter speed to eliminate the possibility of a shakey hand causing blurring? Although the difference between the two photos is significant, I wouldn't consider it a good indication due to the slow shutter speed.

Did you take anymore picture comparisons?

[terryand]

Taking them at a higher shutter speed wouldn't show how good and the differences between the two are.I actually could've taken them slower, maybe 1/8th or 1/10th to reaaly show the gap between them.

Terry.

[terryand]

Heres the other shot I took Ducky.Same results.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/9945/img6678mediumjn1.jpg
http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/3396/img6675mediumat9.jpg

[markTHEblake]

Tezza i have seen your hands shake mate - I thought you must have been having an epiletic fit. No way you can hold a camera still.

anyway, you were in a retail shop, no way they are they selling Tour lenses.

[terryand]

Tezza i have seen your hands shake mate - I thought you must have been having an epiletic fit. No way you can hold a camera still.

anyway, you were in a retail shop, no way they are they selling Tour lenses.

Sure you were looking at me and not PeteRS trying to put a golf ball on the top of a 4" stinger tee :-s

Terry.

[markTHEblake]

Doesnt he ask Shazza to do that for him?

(your right there - he'd be stuffed lining up for dinner with plate in one hand - the food would fly everywhere!)

[terryand]

Doesnt he ask Shazza to do that for him?

Can't in long drive comps.....Aparently :-?

Terry.

[Courty]

Tezza, there's no substitute for good glass.
Remember I was telling you at lunch we were getting a new lens at work? It arrived last week. It's a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM (http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras_lenses_accessories/telephoto_lenses/ef85mmf1.2liiusm.html). Damn! You should see it and what it can do. I'll get some pics up next week for you to look at.

[terryand]

Tezza, there's no substitute for good glass.
Remember I was telling you at lunch we were getting a new lens at work? It arrived last week. It's a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM (http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras_lenses_accessories/telephoto_lenses/ef85mmf1.2liiusm.html). Damn! You should see it and what it can do. I'll get some pics up next week for you to look at.

wow, big $$$$$ for a 1.2 F stop. Almost be able to take hand held shots in the dark :shock:

Great for portraiture, i guess that what its for.

Terry.

[Choppa]

Tez, what makes the "tour" lens eliminate the "shake" casued by the lower shutter speed? It's not like the tour lens stabilises the camera......unbelievable difference though.

[terryand]

Tez, what makes the "tour" lens eliminate the "shake" casued by the lower shutter speed? It's not like the tour lens stabilises the camera......unbelievable difference though.

A lot of the tour lense have IS (image stabilizer) on them which enables them to capture the pic 2 or 3 stops better than a lense with out it.

Meaning,even though the shutter speed was set and taken at 1/20 of a second,with the IS turned on it is like taking the pic at 1/60th of a second. And like Courty said the better quality glass in the is a big factor too.

Terry.

[BrisVegas]

Hey Tez.... In your avatar, is that a stray pixel or a nipple tassle??

Sorry, what was this thread about???

[Choppa]

So can you still tell the difference in image quality when using a tripod?

[terryand]

So can you still tell the difference in image quality when using a tripod?

You'll always get great images when it on a tripod,but using a tripod is sometimes not the most practical thing to do :-s

Terry.

[terryand]

Tez,

Do Wilson make any lens' ?

Probably do, but iI haven't been to Kmart to look :-?

Terry.

[Trung]

Tezza..

BUY BUY BUY :)

[zipptopp]

Here's my two cents worth.
The top image in the second group is camera shake. Note the double image of the end of the shop racking holding the printer cartridges. I you had the focal length set at anything greater than about 28MM equivalent the camera shake is almost a certainty unless you are very steady handed. It's well know that camera manufacturers consumer grade lenses are ordinary especially when they try to give a big zoom range. Canon L series are far superior to their standard lenses. I have manual focus Nikon lenses that cost more than consumer grade digital SLR's. You get what you pay for in optics. If you really want superb optical quality the get the adpator that allows you to fit Leica lenses to Canon bodies

[Fishman Dan]

Tez - what SLR do you have?

I've been tooling around looking at something relatively entry level such as the EOS 350D.

And it has to be Canon ;)

[goughy]

Then your answer is pretty much just the 350D Fishy. After that the prices jump pretty high. I think the 20D is next, then 30D, 5D and 1D.

There are some great prices on the 350d at the moment. I think some twin lens packages are around the 1300 mark. We paid almost 2000 for the 300d with twin lens kit, free bag and 2 cf cards. Still pretty happy with the quality.

If you know much about canon slr, I think when we bought the 300d, as a comparison to their film slr, it sat somewhere inbetween the eos500 and eos50. So its not a bottom level camera. Call it an enthusiests model.

[terryand]

Tez - what SLR do you have?

I've been tooling around looking at something relatively entry level such as the EOS 350D.

And it has to be Canon ;)

Yep, Canon here.I have the 20D which has been superseded by the 30D. The 30D is actually cheaper now then when i bought my 20D. If you shop around you can get the 30D for around $2000 for the body or about $2200 with the 18-55mm lense.
The 350D is a great camera although you might find it a little small if you have big hands i have read. The 350d with the same lense is around $1200-$1300.

Fishy, all this said,all I can say is don't do it. I have spent more on camera gear in the last 10 months than I have EVER spent on golf...Period.

And I'm haven't included the lense in this thread that I am going to get....Or I am thinking about getting.

Terry.

[Fishman Dan]

Thanks for the info guys. My brother is a professional photographer so i've always been around top shelf gear, but I haven't been paying much attention lately. Photography has always been a fascination of mine though.

Knowing the price I can get a 350D for today, there's quite a gap - it's about $1000 tax free (leaving the country within 4 weeks) for the 350D kit with 18-55mm. I think i'll give it a miss today and save my beans for when i want to do it properly.

Perhaps that Rescue Dual #3 isn't such a bad option ;)

[goughy]

I've heard goss that canon is considering dropping it's entire film line of slr's.

[Courty]

Fishy, I used a 1Ds at work, but have my father-in-law's 350D at home. Apart from the control wheel missing from the back of the 350D, and not having the vertical shooting grip, the 350D is a pretty damn good slr for the price. Obviously, for that money you're getting a plastic body which isn't as robust as the higher models, and the 18-55 lens is, well, 18-55mm :roll:. Not much more I can say about it, it is entry level. If you're really keen, get the 350D body on its own and a better quality lens...