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Yet another pre-D70s gallery from me We went out for the day on the James Craig, which is a restored 19th century barque-rigged ship maintained by the Sydney Heritage Fleet. She sails most weekends, and I think is open for viewing every other day. You don't see many of these ships with square sails any more, and it was fascinating to go out and see how these ships were sailed back in the old days. Basically they motored out of the harbour and then sailed back in. Turned out to be a beautiful day after a miserable morning (constrast the first and last shots!!!)

It would have been great to have my D70s for this trip, but alas, I still have to wait till next week before I get it. So I brought along my Canon Digital Ixus 400, a teeny tiny compact digicam that we bought a couple of years ago. What I love about it is the size, which means I'm more likely to have it with me when I'm out and about.. As they say, better the photo taken with the lousy camera that you have with you than the photo not taken with the brilliant camera that's sitting at home. In any case though, since I've decided to get a D70s, I've been trying to think a bit more about the layout/composition of my shots, and I think I'm doing alright!

What I struggled with a bit is that it really doesn't have a wide enough angle lens to do the ship justice, especially when you're on deck!! The Ixus has an equivalent of 35-105mm, and I don't think 35mm is quite wide enough to get a sense of the scale of the thing. The brilliant sunshine also meant dealing with very bright light contrasting with dark shadows. Trying to get both exposed properly was interesting, unless I used the flash.

With the Ixus, you don't have much control over manual features - you basically point and shoot, though you can do a couple of basic things, like exposure lock, backfilling with the flash etc. DOF usually isn't much of a consideration either! You can get some pretty decent results with it too, nonetheless.

<a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=18" target="_blank">Link to full gallery</a>, if you're interested.

Click thumbnail below to see a bigger pic! (only 640x480 unfortunately, server space and all that...)

<a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2001.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2013.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2013.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2022.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2022.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2026.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2026.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2027.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2027.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2036.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2036.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2039.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2039.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/JamesCraig%20-%2040.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/JamesCraig/thumb_JamesCraig%20-%2040.jpg" border="0"></a>

Fantastic pictures!! Im only just learning about my photography but I love your shots!

Hi,

I also have an IXUS 400 as my pocket camera ( great little device ).

Best advice...?...... Use the plus or minus EV adjustment,

That's the top one in the Func. menue ( + - O )

If there is to much light on the subject--- go minus 1 ( ie. -1 )
and vice versa.

It's amazing how much you improve your chances of a good shot.

Regards, David.

yep, that's a handy way of doing it, though it is a shame you have to go through the function menu

What I normally do is spot meter, lock the exposure then recompose and shoot. A bit long-winded, but you can get good results that way....