Ok... if fate dictates that I get the 18250, then I shall have it. Come wednesday I'm gonna check out Studio Zaloon (hmmm... wonder if they're opened yet then?) and if the 18250 is in stock I'll gett it. Or does anyone else have other recommended shops to go to?

Heh, a zune. Finally eh?

vertical ggrip is not a necessity unless you shoot a lot of pictures to need the longer battery life or shoot a lot of pics in potrait orientation to want to have the convinience.

Can.... please don't say cannot, afterward the Canon people come and say we're spreading false rumours. You CAN autofocus with Liveview on, just that you have to press another button OTHER than the shutter button to do it, and in the default mode because it's using some sort of image detection algorithm to focus so that you can see the results in Live View, the speed is PAINFULLY SLOW! Unlike with the A300 or A350. In the fast auto focus mode, the 1000D needs to bring the focus sensor down and thus LiveView turns off when focusing but you loose the speed of an SLR like that.

Remember, speed wise, focus with LiveView on, only the A300 and A350, and.... errr.. was it the Pentax? that is able to do FAST Autofocus with Liveview on.

yeah, for us we just flip a switch and VIOLA... viewfinder closed so no light leaks in and Live View on. Turning on LiveView for 1000d is already much easier compared to the 450d previously. When I was recording the live view comparison after I first got my A350
http://www.marauderzstuff.com/PermaLink,gu...acb9b50f0f.aspx

we spent 30 mins trying to figure out how to turn on the Live View for the 450d because the owner also just got the camera and wasn't sure how to do it.

Decided to get the Sony 18250 today from Studio Zaloon. I politely declined the boss's suggestion of a 70300G.

Initial thoughts are.. DAMN...this lens is HEAVY! Somehow I have a feeling my wife is never gonna take pictures of me and my son with that lens attached!

I go slaugther innocent zombies nearly every night which I'm free man.

probably not tonight, heading down to FGS Dong Zen to see the lights and if my son is willing, I'll be able to test out my 18250 and the string tripod.

Got a few new things to try out... first some little DIY gadget.

Gheez, was trying to find the eye hook since someone posted about this string tripod before CNY, couldn't actually find something suitable until yesterday when I was looking for stuff in ACE and I see a whole WALL full of eye hooks of various sizes. Still not too sure about how to use it, will have to practice it a bit more first.

Next is of course, the last lens I'm going to buy for a while.

The SAL 18250, feels hefty, think I see some purple fringing effects but I can't be sure wheter it's just my settings or the lens.

can you show the 2 pictures in question?

This is not the whole picture right? you just cropped and gave us the sky portion. But right now to me I'd say it has more to do with what you were trying to focus.

The picture on top you focused on something dark, so the camera's metering set the image to be exposed more (slower shutter.. bigger appearture value etc. etc.) hence the sky got blown out.

the picture below is exposed darker compared to the picture on top, so you must have been focusing on something bright. hence the overall darker tone of the picture.

to answer your question properly, we'd need to see the whole pic (you just need to resize it) and hopefully retain the EXIF in the pictures so we can see what did the camera decide to use.

We can keep guessing until you show us the full pic, which hopefully will have the EXIF info. Or maybe because you can't show us the subject?

It is? But I only see one picture that is cropped which he posted.... oh well guess I'll just go take some JPG and RAW and find out myself.