Canon 350D Advice For Novice

[falconer2406]

Hi All, Out at the weekend learning with my 350D with an 50-500mm APO DG zoom.
Spent Saturday taking photos, down-loaded to laptop on Saturday night using proprietory software that came with camera, not the best of results so decided to spend Sunday doing same but saving in"raw" and using manual focus rather than jpeg and auto focus.
Now here is my dilema, tried to take the photos off the camera on Sunday night but the software and also other software packages couldnt find the photos on the camera that i took on Sunday but could find those i took on Saturday! Checking the card in the camera this appears empty and putting it direct into a printer seems to prove this to be the case. However i can still scan through the pictures on the camera. I have scanned the manual cover to cover and cant find anything that helps with this, its as though the photos are stored in the camera but not on the card, can anyone please offer some advice on this as its beat me! Thanks all.

[postcardcv]

The photos will have to be on the card (the camera doesn't have an built in memory), my guess would be that the software you're using and the printer are unable to recognise RAW files. You should have got Digital Photo Professional (DPP) with the camera, try opening the files in that, it should work. If you put the card into a card reader (attached to your PC) the files should show as .CR2 but will probably not display a thumbnail, drag and drop them into a folder on your PC and then view that folder in DPP.

As an aside using RAW will give you more control over processing but it would make your image 'better'. Depending on the issues with the first batch it may be that looking at long lens technique will help, did you have fast enought shutter speeds for your focal length? Shooting at 500mm you really want 1/500th or faster (and I'd suggest using a tripod) and to get the best out of the lens you really need to stop it down to f8(ish). If in doubt post up an image and give the shooting details, someone may be able to offer more advice.

[falconer2406]

Many thanks for the speedy reply and now appreciate that they must be on the card if there is no in built memory, just need to find a way of getting them off, incedently not all the photos are in raw there are approx 60 photos on the card from Sunday and approx half are in raw, the software i have tried cant read any of them. I have tried Zoom browser EX, Raw Image Task, Digital Photo Professional which came with the camera. (no joy) and Kodak Easy Share and finally Picassa 3. No joy with any of these. Its strange because first time out a couple of weeks ago i loaded the card into the printer and it read it fine.

Re photos its still a learning curve for me, but i appreciate your comments re a tripod, the camera was mounted to a Velbon PH 157Q tripod which i believe was stable enough. All photo's were taken at 124th or above shutter speed with the biggest aperture i could get (on auto) which is why i decided to go with manual focus and manual settings on Sunday, through the screen the photos look a lot better than saturday's but until i can download them i cant be sure, looks like i have a nice one of a Nuthatch, very frustrating!! Any one else with any ideas please?

[avwh]

You probably should try shooting in aperture priority for birding, if you're going to use any of the camera's semi-automatic programs; that controls your depth of field. Then you have to set a high enough ISO setting to make sure your shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the image you're shooting.

The lens' "sweet spot" (where it gives the best, sharpest image quality) will be closer to f/8 than wide open, for almost all lenses, so you probably want to set your aperture closer to f/8 and adjust ISO accordingly to keep a fast enough shutter speed.

DPP should have come with an ACR reader, so that RAW files can be opened and viewed.

[JohnZ]

Agree with AllenH that you really should be using Av, aperture priority, for shooting bird pics. The sooner you get off Auto the better. If all else fails then you might pick up a copy, not literally, of Photoshop Elements 3 on fleabay.

[hollis_f]

Do you have a CF card reader? If not, I'd recommend getting one (you can get them for around a tenner almost everywhere). Then you can use Windows Explorer to check the card and see what files are on there.

[Hawkmoon]

The 350D comes with a USB lead for direct conection to a PC. If all else fails try that. The camera will appear as an external drive and you should be able to drag and drop the images to your internal drive for viewing.

Andy

[mike from ebbw]

I agree with the others about the PC not recognising the RAW files.To be honest you would be better off starting out with jpeg as its a much more straightforward processing procedure IMO.I shoot in jpeg all the time.You can then progress to RAW when you have honed your processing technique.Also get a card reader.This way the card can be plugged into the USB slot on your PC saving your cameras battery power.Good luck.