Messages

1

Canon General / Re: What's your definition of "Pro"?

« on: February 12, 2013, 09:08:33 AM »

One of the problems in this discussion is that the word professional has two meanings.  One is a general term relating to the quality of one's work, one's ethics, and how reliable one is, with respect to others in a certain line of work.  The other generally means that you are paid to do the work as opposed to doing it as a hobby.  Ideally the two would go hand in hand but not always. 

I believe Ken's definitions are useful his audience -- which is mainly people who are about to spend too much money on a camera.

2

Canon General / Re: Total File Size - All Your Images and Keep or Delete

« on: January 02, 2013, 01:45:21 PM »

I'm a hobbyist who lost a portable hard drive a few years ago, so now I prefer at least two physical backups of RAW files, and one JPG on-line. (Luckily, I still had all my jpgs on-line). 

However, the whole process taught my how much I care about my tens of thousands of pictures that didn't make the cut.  Not much. You have to trust yourself.  If you determine that ten images sum up the weekend at the lake, then so be it.

First of all, as soon as I upload, I delete anything that is out of focus, duplicate, or uninteresting.

I keep a year of RAW photos on my laptop, and periodically copy them all to a portable drive.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy - great tool).  I upload JPGs and share them with my relatives.  The result is I generally have 3 copies -- 2 RAW and one JPG offsite. 

At the end of the year I make copies of all my favorite RAW files from the year, and back those up both to the portable drive and offsite.  I also upload new copies of the favorites online as JPGS.  Friends and family enjoy the 'year in review' album. 

From then on I only worry about the favorites.  The bulk RAW for the year are removed from the laptop, and the ones on the portable drive are relegated to folders that can be deleted after a few years.  Occasionally, I purchase a new (bigger) external hard drive, copy everything, and archive the old one until I feel like purging.   

3

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L IS [CR1]

« on: October 29, 2012, 01:12:29 PM »

If IS is important for video, then maybe a stepper motor, too? 

4

Canon General / Re: Canon Can't Even Make a Billion Dollars Anymore

« on: October 26, 2012, 01:54:48 PM »

Smartphones are killing the compact camera business;  the DSLR business is small in comparison, especially the high-end DSLR business.  And don't forget copiers, printers, scanners, medical, and industrial components.