BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Two kinda dumb questions!

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March 10, 2006

Light boxes are great for viewing negatives or transparencies - essentially a light box is a plastic or metal box with (usually) a daylight-corrected fluorescent lamp inside that you switch on and sit your negs or slides (or your favourite X-Rays!) on to get a good view of them - use a magnifying glass or loupe to check them, type thing. Also good for people who have seasonal affective disorder as they give a blast of daylight in deepest, darkest winter time just when sufferers need it!

Your Canon 10D will take any Canon EF lens and there are loads of "independent" lens manufacturers who make excellent lenses that will fit the Canon mount. Generally speaking the independents' ones cost less and give high quality all the same - independents are e.g. Tamron and Sigma to name just two. You can decide what kind of lens you want and check the forums for people's impressions on them, sample images, prices etc. Maybe try one or two out in the shop, type thing! Hope that helps... S

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March 10, 2006

Anyway, a light box could be one of two things: either a backlit table on which photgraphic slides are viewed (also called a "light table"), or an enclised area with translucent and reflective sides into which an item to be photographed could be placed. That is, if you are shooting a lot of small items (costume jewelry or eyeglass frames, for example) for a catalog, say, and you want to simplify the lighting (which could get very involved if you wanted) you would use a light box of this type. THe subject piece would go inside the box, and the flash or lamp units would be outside (above, to the side, etc.) of the translucent walls. The walls would thus spread the light more evenly and reduce hot spots and harsh reflections.

I guess a third possibility would be what's usually called a "soft box", which is an accessory for studio type lights that fit over the front and have a large translucent sheet to soften the lighting effect.

As for what other brands oflenses fit your Canon camera - Tokina, Sigma and Tamron all make lenses that fit the 10D. Usually, you get what you pay for - that is, the cheaper lenses are either opticlally and/or mechanically poorer than their more costly brethren. All of these brands, including Canon, have some excellent gear, and all of them make some dogs as well. My point is, try not to be penny wise and pound foolish, because if you are unhappy with the quality of your images then you didn't really save anything, did you?

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March 10, 2006

The Sigma EX series is their professional grade of lenses. I have two of them and I think they are very good.

I think there could be several uses for the term "light box".

One item that is sometimes called a light box, sometimes a light table, and you use it to view slides or negatives.

Another item is sometimes called a light box, sometimes called a light tent. It's a collapsable enclosure that you use to light and photograph small items.

In what context was the term light box used when you saw it?

Chris

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March 10, 2006

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March 10, 2006

Lightbox works differently to all other image/file browsers. It automatically connects to your favorite software applications to give them fast, visual file browsing support. Works will all popular applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Fireworks, Macromedia Freehand, Adobe InDesign, Corel Draw, Jasc PaintShop Pro, and more. Includes full digital camera support (reads EXIF JPG & TIFF images, reads RAW images from over 50 digital cameras, displays EXIF meta data, displays IPTC meta data, displays Maker Notes); Abode Illustrator (AI) file support; Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file support; Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file support; multi-page TIFF file support; Macromedia Flash (SWF) support; dual monitor support; UNC network file browsing support; faster thumbnailing and more.

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March 10, 2006