A post at The Luminous Landscape today includes the following:

Just as the question with hard drives is not will they fail, but simply, when, a corollary to this is that if you shoot a lot, at least a couple of times a year you’ll end up with a corrupted memory card.

This happened to me yesterday when I was shooting a seminar session being put on at a local studio. When I got back to my own studio in the evening to copy the files to disk, I found that the card was corrupt. I have no idea why, or how it happened, but there it was. My Mac couldn’t even see the card and mount it, and in the camera (Nikon D300) the display said, no directory, no images.

Rather than despair I simply ran PhotoRescue overnight, and this morning had every single file recovered, including every file that had been on the card from my previous shoot, before I had formatted the card in camera yesterday morning. Simply amazing… [The Luminous Landscape – What’s New]

I’ll second both points. Like hard drives, memory cards do get corrupted and you need to be prepared for this eventuality. When it happened to me – twice this year- PhotoRescue recovered my photographs from the corrupted cards.

(In my case, as soon as I had tried to download the photos using Adobe Bridge, the files all disappeared and it looked like there was only a single file left on the card! As reported above, PhotoRescue not only recovered the photos that I had just made, but even turned up a bunch of older images on the reformatted card! In the end, my “bad card” was actually a problem with a separate firewire device that I had left connected to the computer.)

A post I frequently see in online photography forums goes something like this:

I’ve been using a P&S camera and I want to move up to a DSLR. I don’t have much experience with these cameras, and I’m not sure what to get. Also, can you recommend what lenses to get when I buy the camera? I’m going to use this mostly to photograph my family, vacations, and so forth.

My perspective as a Canon user* is that the best camera for new DSLR photographers in this situation is likely the Rebel XTi (aka the “400D”) and not one of the more expensive models such as the 40D.

Cameras like the XTi were designed with such users in mind. The cost is significantly lower than that of the prosumer-level 40D. The camera provides a wide variety of automatic functions for casual photographers, yet it also has full manual controls for those who understand the camera a bit better. The smaller body size is generally more convenient than the larger bodies of the more expensive cameras – one is less likely to leave the camera at home.

Image quality on this camera is outstanding. It has a 10 megapixel sensor, which is more than enough for making letter size prints or sharing photographs electronically. In fact, with a good lens and good technique you can make photographs with this camera that will look great printed at 12″ x 18″ and even larger. The 10 MP sensor is essentially the same one used in the more expensive 40D, so the XTi gives up nothing in this regard.

What does the buyer miss out on by getting the XTi instead of the 40D? Very little, actually. Burst mode (which lets the camera automatically fire off several shots per second while you hold down the shutter) is faster on the 40D, but the XTi is plenty fast for almost all photographers of the sort we are considering here. The 40D has a bit more rugged body, though neither competes with the fully sealed (and extremely expensive) professional cameras. There are some other technical difference, but they will not likely make a significant difference to most new DSLR photographers.

Some new DSLR photographers worry that they’ll buy “too little camera,” and then find that their camera isn’t good enough a year or two later. The XTi will still produce photographs equal to those from the 40D in two years. If the 40D won’t be “obsolete” then, neither will the XTi. However, the DSLR technology improves so quickly that should your photographic skills and needs advance sufficiently you’ll probably sell any camera you buy today and replace it (or demote it to backup status) in a couple of years anyway. If your needs remain typical of those who buy entry-level DSLR bodies, you’ll be fine with the XTi for quite awhile. If your needs surpass what the XTi provides, they will also surpass what the 40D provides – and you’ll join the many photographers who upgrade after a couple years.

Finally, what about lenses? Should you buy a full selection of lenses at the time you purchase your camera? Should you listen to photographer friends or those who participate in the online forums who tell you to get expensive and highest quality lenses? In a word, no.

In general I strongly recommend that you begin with the 18-55mm “kit lens” that comes virtually free with this camera. No, it is not a “professional” lens. Yes, it can provide quite good images – certainly of sufficient quality for those letter size prints and more than enough for posting online.

There is another reason to start with the kit lens. Choosing the right lenses is not straightforward, and is very personal. What is right for one photographer is wrong for another. The “right” choice depends on a lot of things: personal preference, subjects to be photographed, conditions in which the photography is done, and so forth. As a beginner who has really figured out his/her style yet, you don’t have a context for sorting this out. Do you like to shoot wide angle? How wide? Do you shoot low light without a tripod? Will you use a flash or shoot natural light? Do you like zooms or primes? Will you end up shooting landscapes? Sports? Weddings? Without knowing the answers to questions like these, there is a very good chance that lens investments you make now will turn out to be wrong in the future.

A better approach is to shoot a lot with that kit lens. Learn about how different focal lengths do or do not work for you, and discover what kinds of shots you cannot get with the kit lens. If you find that you are running out of room at the wide angle end, you may want a wider lens. If you discover that 55mm is not long enough you can start thinking about longer telephotos. If the maximum aperture is frequently not wide enough you can consider lenses with larger apertures. If it turns out that the kit lens doesn’t capture enough fine detail in your landscape shots you can investigate lenses with greater resolution. Slowly and carefully add lenses to your kit as you find you need them and as you develop knowledge that will permit you to make good choices.

On the other hand you may find that the kit lens is just fine for your style of shooting – and remain happy shooting with it for as long as you own the camera.

* Although I only mention Canon lenses – that’s what I’m most familiar with – there are similar models at similar price points from other manufacturers such as Nikon, Sony, and Pentax.

I have written a few times about my purchase of the Induro C313 carbon fiber tripod, and I have reported that I’m very pleased with its performance now that I’ve used it for the better part of the past year.

I did have one small problem. The center column hook assembly apparently was not firmly attached and it fell out at some point. I didn’t notice it when it happened – only later when the part was long gone. I contact MAS, the American distributor and parts source for Induro. My initial email contact was positive, and I got a reply providing a toll free number to call to order a replacement. Unfortunately I had a less than positive experience with the MAS phone system, getting unceremoniously booted from the system after waiting and being transfered more than once.

So I decided that it might be better to contact them again via email and ask if I could simply order the part online. Expecting no more than an answer telling me how to place an order I was very pleasantly surprised when I received two quick replies promising to send me the replacement part right away free of charge. I received the new center column hook this week. Count me as pleased and impressed.

Alex writes to ask about the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM:

I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and have noticed that you haven’t commented on the Canon 10-22mm lens on a crop camera. I have a 350D with the 10-22mm lens. I’m curious as to your opinion on using this lens on a crop body compared to the 17-40mm. I’m considering upgrading to the 5D at some point and would obvioulsy need to purchase a WA lens as well. You seem to be satisfied with your result of using the 17-40 on a crop body in the past or did it make a noticeable difference to you when you moved from the crop body to the full frame on the 5D with your 17-40mm?

Thanks for writing, Alex. You are right that I haven’t written about this lens, but only because I don’t have any direct experience with it. Being an EF-S lens, it is designed for use only on crop sensor Canon bodies (like the 350D/400D series and the 20D/30D/40D series), and I’m using full frame these days.

You are also correct that I’m a big fan of the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L lens. I used this lens on the crop sensor camera that I had until about a year ago, and I continue to make a lot of use of this lens on my 5D. On my crop sensor body, the 17-40 always produced excellent center sharpness, though it could be a bit soft in the corners, especially when shot wide open. I find it to be even better on full frame where I frequently shoot it at f/11 or even f/16, thus controlling the corner softness/fall-off issues more effectively.

On a crop sensor body, the 10-22mm focal length range is essentially equivalent to the 16-35mm range on a full frame body – in other words just a tiny bit wider than my 17-40mm lens on full frame. Although I had thought that 17-40mm was “wide enough” on my crop sensor body, once I started shooting full frame with this lens I really came to appreciate the much wider coverage provided by this combination. I think that the combination of the 350D and the 10-22mm lens could very useful – for example, it could be a wonderful small and lightweight setup for doing landscape photography while hiking or backpacking.

With that in mind, I guess you could say that I was satisfied with the 17-40 on the crop sensor camera at that time, but that I know realize that if I were going to again use a crop sensor body I would almost certainly want to get a lens providing the coverage of the 10-22. Although I haven’t used the EFS 10-22mm lens myself, almost everything I’ve read about it has been positive.

When you do move to that full frame body you might find that the 17-40 really comes into its own, especially if you shoot landscapes and similar subjects. As to whether you would want to get this lens now or wait, I think that depends upon what kind of coverage your other lenses currently provide in that range.