As usual , the pics I show below , have no other purpose than to illustrate how equipment works . They were shot in different light conditions, all handheld and,with the exception of the pics of my ol' Charlie and my son, were taken from the driver's seat of my van .

EOS 10D : I used my first 10D for 6 months last year , from March till September . By that time , I sold all my equipment as circumstances led me to think I would never photography again . Better news and an incredible oppotunity to acquire a factoty new 1D made me change my mind and jump in to fulfill a 2 years old dream . Maybe , I expected too much from that living legend but I never found my marks with it . The camera itself works and behaves above my wildest expectations but I couldn't learn to live with the banding my sample showed , even at ISO 200 .Yes , AF was faster , spot on , buffer seemed endless , pics straight out of the camera were sharper , it felt like it were built forever , one had to do its very best ( or worse ) to blown out the highlights , its responsiveness was phenomenal , the sound of the 8fps alone was worth what I paid for it and it had many more qualities but , despite its perfectness , after only 2 months of a love/hate relation , I regretfully sold it . My plan was to wait for the upcoming Mark II which I ordered the day the NDA collapsed due to leaks on the French Canon website . I was confident to get my hands on one fairly soon but when it became clear it I'd have to wait till April or later , I decided to go , once again , for the best dslr I used so far : the 10D . With the proper post processing it produces images that are nothing short to the quality of those rolling out a 1D and I'm a happy camper ... so far . I'm not a PJ nor am I a sports journalist and the AF works well for my purposes . Ok , the buffer fills up too fast and I have to wait , on some particular occasions , for it to write to the CF . On the countrepart , I'm not desperate when I need to crop with a 13x19 enlargment in mind , it produces no noise on long exposures , it's smaller and quieter . I still didn't decide if I will swap it for the newcomer but , as I'm into photography again , I will wait to read the comments and reviews of the ' beta users ' first . I also bear in mind the 10D replacement will likely be announced by the end of the year , probably at the Photokina in September , as it's commonly expected .

EF 80-200mm 2.8 L : Many owners of this lens claim it's sharper than the newer 70-200mm models which followed from 1996 - the EF 80-200 2.8 was introduced in 1991- and , having sold my last 70-200mm , I decided to give it a try . So far , I'm not disapointed . It's tack sharp at all apertures and offers good contrast and neutral color rendition . It's long , heavy ( some grams less than the 70-200mm IS ) and ... black . The zoom ring is much smoother than on the 3 samples of 70-200 2.8 I previously owned ( maybe due to some wear considering its age ) and a real joy to use . No continue MF as there is a switch to use that function but it's not a problem . No USM but the Micromotor is fast enough for my purposes even if it's noisier than current models . Adam-T says about this lens it combines many primes in one zoom ! That says enough about its optical quality . Beautiful lens which will be given a Kenko TC as the Canon TC's can't be used on this model . And , at the current prices they're going for ( $600 for a mint sample with tripod collar ) , they're a steal . But , don't wait : demand is high and this affects the asking prices ....

Workflow : All pics started their life as RAW files in RGB . Having tried every RAW converter Program , I settled my choice on Canon's File Viewer Utility which allows good control . With a long zoom , I prefer Tv Mode to avoid blurring . Metering is Partial as , with the 10D , Shooting RAW , AWB is used and adapted during the conversion process when necessary . I find to get better results to measure for the highlights . Tiff 16bits files are tweakened in PS7 ( Curves or Levels ) and sharpening through FocalBlade in Expert Mode ( no standard settings as each file gets its own sharpening ) . The resized Jpeg files get another USM of 10 - 25 - 0 .