I have been trying to figure out how I can stop my iPhone from launching iPhoto every time I connect it. I love that it comes up when I slip in a memory card from my camera, but the extra time it adds on to an iPhone sync bugs me. The only solution I could find previously involved Applescript, but annoyingly it would only work with USB connected cameras – not memory cards in the MacBook Pro’s ExpressCard slot.

Finally, though, there is an answer. Get it here: http://www.flexibits.com/

Cameras, a preferences add-in, does exactly what I, and many, many other Mac users, have wanted. You connect a device (such as a camera, card or iPhone) and it will ask you what you would like it to do with that device in the future. If you want it to do nothing when you plug in your iPhone, but load an app (such as iPhoto or Aperture) or perform an action when you connect another device, then it will handle it for you.The best bit is it will even recognise the ExpressCard34 slot, so if you’re like me and have an SD card reader in there, it’ll work just fine. It can’t tell the difference between different cards (which could be useful if you use SD cards in your camera but MS Duo in your camcorder) but quite frankly I don’t care!

Download Cameras from the Flexibits website now.

As you might have seen in an earlier post, my wife and I have recently decided to get into photography. We did the research, and bought a Canon EOS 450D DSLR. Fantastic camera, love it, really happy with it. I’ve already learnt a lot about DSLR photography, and have been teaching Peggy what I’ve picked up.

And herein lies the problem.

Over New Year, we stayed down in Bournemouth, and had time to relax and practice the camera skills a bit. I’d bought a f1.8 lens for taking indoor shots without flash, and that flexibility – along with the great depth-of-field effects – let Peggy have a lot of fun with the camera. So much fun, in fact, that we realised that sharing one camera beytween the two of us isn’t going to work! We’re going to end up with too many situations where I want to shoot one thing, and Peggy would rather shoot something else (probably a bird, cat, or plant). We had such a situation on New Year’s Day, in fact – I was busy taking photos of classic cars on Bournemouth beach; Peggy wanted to shoot seagulls.

So, it looks like the best solution is to give Peggy the Canon kit we’ve already accumulated and I’ll start again with another camera – in other words, it’s time:

What DSLR should I buy Part 2

Ok, so the obvious answer is to just buy a second 450D, right? It was my first thought, and indeed my second. I already did all the research once and the 450D really is the one to get in that ‘range’, as it were, so it’s definitely good enough. And I know I like it, I’m used to it, and we already have three lenses for it – plus if we get more lenses, we can keep on sharing them.

That was my thinking.

Then I looked at my thinking a bit more closely, and realised that my main reason for sticking with the Canon 450D was the lenses, and when I thought about it a bit more, I realised it was no reason at all. If I biuy another one, I’m gonna have two of the kit lens – so no advantage there. Alternatively, I’d get the 18-70 f2.8 lens – but then Peggy would be wanting to borrow it frequently as well, so we’d ahve to get two – and indeed, same with other lenses – we’d end up swapping over all the time, or buying two of each, so there’s no advantage to us both having the same camera.

Ok, so I’ve been learning – slowly – about proper photography. I’ve already gone and bought a Canon EOS 450D, and have started to get the hang of all this aperture and f-stop business. Something I noticed fairly early on was that although you’ve got more control over things like shutter speed and aperture, it’s still very hard to get good photos in low light conditions without resorting to a tripod and long exposure times. How do other photographers take photos indoors without a tripod?

It turns out that you need a lens which lets more light in; this means that the shutter speed can be faster and you get less chance of blur. The lens that comes with the EOS 450D has an aperture size – or f-stop – of 3.5 to 5.6. Now, until recently that meant nothing to me, and to be honest, I’m still not completely clear on how the numbers are relevant. What I do know, though, is that smaller numbers – e.g f1.8 rather than f3.5 – means that more light can enter the lens, because this means that the aperture is larger (the aperture is formed by the iris mechanism inside the lens). It also has an effect on depth of field – if the iris is wide open, then light is coming in across the full width of the lens. Due to the curved construction of the glass inside a lens, the light that enters through the outer edge of a lens tends to get scattered, and that results in the blurry background typical of SLR photography. A smaller aperture, say f5.6, means less light entering at the edges of the lens, so what light there is isn’t scattered and more of the background is in focus.

Anyway, eventually I realised that I needed a lens which had a larger aperture than my 3.5 lens. As luck would have it, there is actually a lens available which fits the bill, and even better, it’s dead cheap! For around £70-£80 you can pick up the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 MK2 lens, otherwise known as the “nifty fifty”. First thing to point out – this lens has no zoom capability; it’s a fixed length. It’s also not much in the wide-angle stakes, at 55mm (haven’t worked out quite how focal lengths work yet!), and it feels a bit cheaper than the lenses that came with the camera – which it is! But that doesn’t matter when you see its party piece – brilliant low-light shots, and stunning depth-of-field effects! I can now take shots indoors without worrying about camera shake – brilliant!

I found a thread over on the “Photography on the net” forums where lots of people are posting photos taken with the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 MK2 lens.

For a while now, I’ve been thinking of learning how to take better photographs. I’ve got a decent compact digital camera – the Fuji FinePix F810 – but I wanted something with more flexibility. A few friends of mine have gone down the DSLR route recently so I started to think about it again. Then I noticed my wife looking at DSLRs and we figured we might as well get one since we were both interested!

As usual, I started off with some internet research. What sort of prices were we looking at, what was available, what would give us the ability to start simple but get more advanced – that sort of thing. Very soon, however, it became apparent that there were three main contenders that deserved more investigation – the Canon EOS 450D, the Nikon D60 and the Sony Alpha A350.

Here’s what I discovered and how I decided which camera to buy:

Nikon D80: Nikon’s a big name in cameras, been around for a while, but I figure that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the best any more. The D80, whilst the same level as the other two, is older, and ‘only’ 10 megapixels. Now, I know that for 4×6 prints that’s more than enough, but I’d rather have the ability to crop my images and still have a decent resolution. The D80 has 11-point autofocus, which beats the Canon which has ‘only’ 9 points. You’ll notice me using ‘quotes’ a few times – that’s because I think of some points as relative; for example, ‘only’ 9 AF points still beats the one I am used to using! Anyway, the Nikon also doesn’t seem to have any form of image stabilisation. All the reviews I can find rate it very highly – often the best – in terms of actual results, though. This seems to be the best camera judged on images alone. However, it does have some flaws in my eyes, namely no sensor cleaning facility and no image stabilising. Nikon also has a heeee-uge range of lenses to choose from when the time comes to expand.

Sony A350: Sony? What do Sony know about decent cameras? Well, it turns out they know quite a bit! The A350 looks very tempting – the first things that jumped out at me were the sensor-cleaning, 14 megapixel count and image stabilising which works with any lens. It also has a colour LCD screen which flips out from the body, so you can take photos (via the sceren) with the camera held away from your eyes. That could be useful. So far, the Sony is looking good from a gadget point of view. However, some further research shows that the lens selection isn’t as good.

Canon EOS 450D: Canon? Again, what do they know about stuff other than printers? Well, apparently, quite a bit. For starters, everyone else I know who has boufght a DSLR has bought this one. But they could all be wrong, so I’ll make my own decision. The Canon is 12 megapixels – which was my mental benchmark – and has sensor cleaning. Image stabilisation is available, but only in certain lenses – one of which comes with the camera. It also has sensor lockup – apparently this would be useful for trying to get super-sharp images as it reduces vibration. There are also more lenses available for it. It has a massive LCD panel, and can do 3.5fps if required. It’s also much smaller than the other two, and that surprised me. Finally, it seems to have more control flexibility, meaning that as I learn more, it will still keep up with me – I won’t be wanting to upgrade too soon.

So, in the end, I bought the Canon EOS 450D. I’m sure I would have been just as happy with the results from the other two, but on paper the EOS 450D made more sense. It was a decent price – less than £500 with a zoom lens from Jessops (after £50 cashback, which just arrived today). I’ve already bought my first additional lens – a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 MK2 – and I’ll write more about that in another post.

Useful links:

• Camera Labs review of Nikon D80
• Camera Labs review of Sony A350
• Camera Labs review of Canon Eos 450D

My wife and I have recently started to get into DSLR photography, and have bought ourselves a Canon Eos 450D camera. I’ll be posting more about that later, explaining why we chose that model and so on.

Right now, though, I wanted to let you know about a great way to save some money if you’ve got one of these cameras – or indeed, any of the other Canon EOS cameras – and want a remote control.

The Canon EOS 450D remote control will cost you £20-£25 in the shops. However, I’ve just bought one off eBay for £4 including P&P! It’s not an official Canon item, it’s a Jianisi remote control, but it works just fine – here’s a link:

Canon EOS 450D Remote Control

Ignore all the extra buttons on there – only two work on the Canon cameras, and they either take a photo instantly (after focussing, that is), or after a 2-second delay. This is the same as the official Canon remote.

This remote is branded with “Jianisi”, not Canon,  and looks like it would also work with other brands of camera. I’ve checked and pressing the other buttons does emit infra-red commands, so it looks like it’s a multi-remote control that just gets listed on eBay under all the different brands it supports.

I haven’t confirmed the range of the remote, but to be honest I’m really just interested in being able to put my camera on a tripod and take a photo without risking movement being caused by me pressing the shutter release on the camera. For £4 I figure there’s nothing to lose!

Anyway, if you’re looking for a cheap remote control for a Canon EOS camera, this is definitely worth trying!