Dillon RL-300 Clean Up!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Yea, it's that time again!

I can't take looking at this press all dirty and grungy any more!

Thought I would start trying to work on this press this weekend.

I have 4 of these now, one that I was working on was missing the whole primer assembly and I just figured straight up.

I would have to make everything for it on the mill mostly.

Then a couple weeks ago got a PM from Alvarez Kelly, saying he had seen a 300 primer assembly on the Bay. (impossible!!!)

I have a Dillion 300 email notice set up for anything under the 300 name and had not seen it!

Wasn't even listed as a Dillon 300, just "Primer Assembly"?????

How he found it remains a mystery (to me) still! (Thanks Brian!!!)

Here's some pics as I get going on this one.

Notice the corrosion on the stanchions!

[44Vaquero]

Hey Seagiant,

Yet another 300 finds a good home! It pains me to see what some people have done to many fines tools my friend!

[seagiant]

Hey Seagiant,

Yet another 300 finds a good home! It pains me to see what some people have done to many fines tools my friend!

Hi,
Thanks 44!

We have to remember I guess these come from the early 80's!

It pains me to think, not only how some have been treated, but how many were so abused that they are gone forever! (Landfill!)

The stanchions on this one had a strange corrosion and made me wonder what exactly the stanchion was made of.

From what I can tell it is steel that is chrome plated! (heavy and magnetic!)

Also notice this one has the bronze bushing at the top.(on the base)

This bushing goes down about a 1/2" into the base and the ram slides on it of course!

This took time to fit and machine and probably another reason Mike Dillon said he lost $100 on each one of these!!!

For those interested I used some #320 alum oxide paper with WD-40 as lube and then 000 steel wool to give a burnished look.

Looks better than the pics of course under the shop lights!

[Alvarez Kelly]

I love these kind of threads. Looks good! Glad to help. :-)

Question... Are you going to use a case activated powder measure instead of a truly manual one?

[seagiant]

I love these kind of threads. Looks good! Glad to help. :-)

Question... Are you going to use a case activated powder measure instead of a truly manual one?

Hi,
Well...to be honest I'd rather have the manual, but the case activated came with this one.

Guess there is always the option of selling this one and buying a manual?

Do you have a complete manual PM, Brian?

[Alvarez Kelly]

I have several of the silver RL450 manual powder measures... in pieces... I don't have any of the RL300 black ones left. I think I can come up with a silver one with a small powder bar. You'd have to put a new powder hopper on it. Wanna trade?

[seagiant]

I have several of the silver RL450 manual powder measures... in pieces... I don't have any of the RL300 black ones left. I think I can come up with a silver one with a small powder bar. You'd have to put a new powder hopper on it. Wanna trade?

Hi,
Ha! PM inbound!

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Looking GREAT!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Thanks!

I'm just plugging along this loader wasn't really abused now that I'm getting into it but it was used!

I can see where so many cases where run through it, that there is a small imprint on the shell plate holder where the bottom of the case sits!

As this is HARD steel that says something, no problem, but something that gives you an idea of the history of the machine!

Someone got their moneys worth out of this one!

Another thing I found was inside the base where the ram slides.

There is a 1/2" round bronze bushing, I THOUGHT was machined and then pressed in?

On this base there is a casting flaw where it looks like the bronze bushing was CAST into the base?????

This is just me thinking out loud, but maybe someone has an idea on this.

I guess casting the bushing in would be quicker than machining and pressing!

I have NO idea who made these for Mike Dillon??

I'll try to take some pics!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Ok, here is some pics of the "shellplate platform"!

You can see the cartridge base imprint.

Also a pic of the bushing inside the raceway for the ram.

I don't see this as a problem, but do see it as poor quality control on the maker AND Dillon!

If you were anal, it really wouldn't be that hard to chuck this up in a lathe (4 jaw chuck)

Cut the cast bushing out and press a solid in!

Doubt you would see any working improvement, but a thought never the less!

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

How much slop is there between the cast bushing and the ram?

I like the idea of cutting out the old and pressing in a new one. Then I guess the next part would be to indicate it in a 4 jaw to thr be concentric to the bore going through the base. Then recut just a touch over ram diameter.

I bet you could face that shellplate base and take those imprints out. Probably need just a few thousandths taken off.

Neat project you have going there!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Thanks, I doubt any of that is going to happen.

The ram is fine I'm just looking and picking on it a little I guess, as I clean!

These RL 300's are very well made and why Dillon went to another design! Ha!

Not enough profit (or NONE) according to Mike Dillon, I'll see if I can find that memo he did about these.

I'm always interested in the history of the presses we use!

If I thought I could tmprove the functioning with a little machining I would do it but I don't see it?

This press could probably load twice as many than it has and still be good!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Our first hobby-level progressive loader – The RL-300 – was a major learning experience. We built maybe 900 or 1000 of them, and lost about $100 on each one. This led to the RL-450, a less expensive machine to produce, and one that got the attention of the “big guys” in the reloading industry. By 1984, both Hornady and RCBS either had introduced or were preparing to introduce their own progressive reloaders, and they were much stronger than us in the distributor market. I wasn’t going to fight their fight. All good fighter pilots know that you don’t fight the other guy’s fight. Instead, I went into direct marketing. This was a go-for-broke thing. I spent every dollar I could raise on advertising. We had to sell 500 machines that month to pay for all the advertising we had purchased – we sold 5000.

[jimkim]

Is there a blast shield that will fit my priming mechanism? I have the primer filler tubes, and the priming arm/plunger, but I don't have the blast shield and primer tubes. I figured I would us my RCBS primer tubes, but I need the blast shield too.

[seagiant]

Is there a blast shield that will fit my priming mechanism? I have the primer filler tubes, and the priming arm/plunger, but I don't have the blast shield and primer tubes. I figured I would us my RCBS primer tubes, but I need the blast shield too.

Hi,
Have you called Dillon?

There is a guy there that is up on the RL-300, he has no parts, BUT somethings will cross over!!!

[jimkim]

I talked to somebody, and have sent several emails. What they said was nothing they make now will fit. I need to find somebody with a Redding and measure the priming system it uses. It looks almost identical.

[seagiant]

I talked to somebody, and have sent several emails. What they said was nothing they make now will fit. I need to find somebody with a Redding and measure the priming system it uses. It looks almost identical.

Hi,
To make the primer tube and the blast shield would be easy with a lathe.

The primer tube is just a regular tube with a bronze or aluminum bushing that could be held on to the tube with red loctite.

The blast shield is just a aluminum tube that has threads to screw into the primer base and bears down on the bushing to hold the primer tube secure.

Just sayin, you have the base, the other is "easy"!

[Alvarez Kelly]

I believe the early, screw on, RL450 steel blast tubes would work. I happen to have a few... :-)

[seagiant]

Hi,
Yea, If AK, has a shield your halfway home!

I'll try to take some pics tonite and show how it goes together.

Get someone with a small lathe to make a couple of bushings for the primer tubes and your good!

[jimkim]

Thanks. AK message sent.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Jimkim, working on helping you!

I've got to get some info for AK!

The previous owner (John) dropped me a PM.

He had admittedly gave me this info when I bought this press from him but I had forgotten as I have a few!

Here is what he wrote me on how many loads this reloader has made and as I said will probably do that many or double more!!!

Remember this isn't hear say this is real world info coming at you on the ability of these machines!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe that this is the press that I sold you. If it is I bought it in 1979 or 1980 and at the time I was loading and shooting 80,000 rounds of 45ACP per year and that continued through the 80's into the 90's. I loaded over a million rounds on that press winning a number of matches on the way to the point that I developed tendonitis in the right arm and had to take a 2 year break from shooting to heel.

John

[seagiant]

Hi,
Here is some pics on the primer tube shield and primer tube/bushing set up!

As you can see not that hard to make really, just some lathe work!

[jimkim]

Looks good. Thanks. It'll be nice to use it as it was intended. It might be my new favorite press once I get finished with it.

[seagiant]

Looks good. Thanks. It'll be nice to use it as it was intended. It might be my new favorite press once I get finished with it.

Hi,
It will be!

I enjoy this press, reloading one round at a time actually!

Yea, a lot slower than progressive, but it is so fun to use and I keep a couple 300's set up.

Lube some boolits load them then go do something else.

An hour later stop by and do it again!

Laid back and enjoyable!

[Alvarez Kelly]

I believe the early, screw on, RL450 steel blast tubes would work. I happen to have a few... :-)

For anyone following this thread, seagiant provided precise measurements, so I was able to confirm that the very early RL450 blast shields are functionally equivalent to the RL300 blast shields.

If you want to be picky, the original RL300 blast tubes I have seen are all silver. I'm not sure if they are galvanized or what. All the RL450 blast tubes are blued. They can easily rust in high humidity, especially if not wiped down like a good, blued rifle.

[jimkim]

Thanks again fellas. This press was a gift and I've been trying to get everything functioning off and on for the past couple of years. I can't believe it's finally going to be up and running again. I feel like it's Christmas in March.

[seagiant]

Thanks again fellas. This press was a gift and I've been trying to get everything functioning off and on for the past couple of years. I can't believe it's finally going to be up and running again. I feel like it's Christmas in March.

Hi,
Jim, if you need a measurement on the bushing (so you have original specs) let me know!

The op handles are blued steel but on this refurb, I'm going to paint it semi gloss black.

I don't have time or set up here to slow rust blue which is what you want to do (harder blue than hot blue)

There is always the option to do it later and will probably do ALL of them at that time.

In the mean time the paint will protect it!

If it's not protected or covered in Florida.....it's rusting!!!

Thanks for all this info Brian, If I could only retain it!!!

[jimkim]

Will do. I'm in middle GA and am surrounded by creeks, branches, and springs. I know rust very well. Sometimes it feels like you can cut the air with a knife.

[Iowa Fox]

I always enjoy your posts seagiant. I nice to see the old presses restored to their glory. Most of the time we read of someone that knows nothing about reloading stumbling into an old Dillon and the first thing they want to do is start changing things. Brings a tear to my eye if they are really nice. Over the years I have run into a lot of parts for the early Dillons, I always latched onto them if they were reasonably priced. There were certainly a lot of changes along the way and I have never been able to find much in print on the progression of the changes. Have you ever found a way to take the discoloration out of the powder hopper tubes? I have used McQuires plastic cleaner then their polish but I can't seem to get them totally clear again. I've been lucky enough to find odd ball Dillon stuff that I need from Brian and I'm amazed at his knowledge of the early Dillon parts.

[Lagamor]

This is a really cool thread. Like to see some pictures when it's all done.

[seagiant]

I always enjoy your posts seagiant. I nice to see the old presses restored to their glory. Most of the time we read of someone that knows nothing about reloading stumbling into an old Dillon and the first thing they want to do is start changing things. Brings a tear to my eye if they are really nice. Over the years I have run into a lot of parts for the early Dillons, I always latched onto them if they were reasonably priced. There were certainly a lot of changes along the way and I have never been able to find much in print on the progression of the changes. Have you ever found a way to take the discoloration out of the powder hopper tubes? I have used McQuires plastic cleaner then their polish but I can't seem to get them totally clear again. I've been lucky enough to find odd ball Dillon stuff that I need from Brian and I'm amazed at his knowledge of the early Dillon parts.

Hi,
Yes! You are correct!

Brian is a treasure trove of info on ALL the Dillon equipment, and should be commended on his selfless sharing, with anyone needing help!

I've often wondered, how he obtained some of his info, and know he probably has a job at Dillon, whenever he wants it! Ha!

As far as the hoppers if you look at the pic above of my two 300's set up, you will see, clear, shiny, (like new) hoppers, because they ARE new!

Everytime I find one of these loaders the hopper is junk and I just replace it with a new one from Dillon!

I know no way to get them completely clean so I just replace them! HTH's!

It seems the "plastic" hopper absorbs the color from the powder and I know of no way to clean it!!!

[seagiant]

This is a really cool thread. Like to see some pictures when it's all done.

Hi,
Thanks, I'm waiting on some parts, and for some paint to cure!

Most people want to handle their "new" toy to soon, with their dirty little hands!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yes and keeping your mitts off the parts until everything is Dry is key to a good result. I try to forget about things I just painted for at least a few days to insure that the paint has dried completely ,,, to touch. Rustoleum actually takes about 6 weeks to fully cure.

I use a lot of it on my Jeep Project which is also progressing.

Randy

[WFO2]

Very nice press .Would like to have one for my collection .

[seagiant]

Yes and keeping your mitts off the parts until everything is Dry is key to a good result. I try to forget about things I just painted for at least a few days to insure that the paint has dried completely ,,, to touch. Rustoleum actually takes about 6 weeks to fully cure.

I use a lot of it on my Jeep Project which is also progressing.

Randy


Hi Randy,
Yep!

I'm using that "Industrial" Rustoleum again!

I actually broke down and bought some real carbide lathe tooling from 'Mesa Tool"!

I could chuck that shellplate holder in my 1945 12x36 Clausing and spin it up and take that case imprint off the holder, but....

It's not that deep, just enough to see it. (a million cases! Ha!)

What do you think?

[W.R.Buchanan]

I believe I'd leave it. it adds character to the part and if it doesn't affect the way the cases sits on it why mess with it.

how exactly does that thing work? is that part the part that the actual shell plate rotates on? and it attaches directly to the ram?

I would chuck it and take some fine sand paper to it and establish a circular cut pattern on the faces of the part which would look good and may take some of the indents out.

If you take a cut with a tool on that surface it may change the height enough to cause problems with the parts that go on top? Also it will be an interrupted cut so all the places that interfere will have to be deburred and that causes more problems.

Looking at all the different things that can happen and figuring out either ways around them or the consequences of doing them is the biggest part of doing any kind of Resto work. How far into it you want to go, or more properly when to stop is the whole name of the game.

This is true of all machine work as well. Knowing when to quit only comes by trial and error. IE you make a mistake, then next time you quit before you make the same mistake again.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi,
Ha! I hear ya!

Don't ask why I know what you are talking about!

Yes that is officially the "shellplate platform"!

That screws on to the top of the ram and then the position spring and ball (indexs the shellplate) then the shellplate goes on and is held on by a screw bolt in the middle!

I doubt the imprint is more than .001 !

I think the finest wet/dry I have is #600, I'll give it a try!

Thanks!!!

[Alvarez Kelly]

Dillon currently calls that part the shellplate platform. I can tell you one thing... it has been hardened, and I don't doubt for a minute that it has seen a million rounds.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Ha! I hear ya!

Don't ask why I know what you are talking about!

Yes that is officially the "shellplate platform"!

That screws on to the top of the ram and then the position spring and ball (indexs the shellplate) then the shellplate goes on and is held on by a screw bolt in the middle!

I doubt the imprint is more than .001 !

I think the finest wet/dry I have is #600, I'll give it a try!

Thanks!!!


Hi,
Fixed! I actually looked that up and still messed up!

Age, has no mercy!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Well, chucked this in the lathe and cleaned it up as Randy suggested.

Went through three grits of paper ending with #600!

This is HARD steel!

The "spots" you see is not dirt but very small micro type pits! (corrosion)

Didn't get it all out but better and I'm happy and calling it good.

Can't see why this press couldn't reload 2-3 MILLION more!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Looks good.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi,
Not completely done yet.

All the paint used on this loader was Rustoleum "Industrial" Semi-gloss!

I'm waiting on the manual powder measure from AK.

I'm going to set this loader up in 45ACP as I shoot more of that than anything else!

I will try to take some better pics with a back drop when I finally get it all together.

The lighting is terrible here, but better than nothing.

This press is SUPER smooth now and one of the reasons I think to pull a press apart and just clean and re-oil sometimes!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Looks good Greg.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi,
Thanks Randy!

The pic stinks, but will try to get some in natural light when I finish it!

There was a LOT of hand work on this, and I would hate to have to pay a guy to do what I did!

I flat sanded the tool plate a while to get all the knicks and scratches out.

Seeing how these loaders are pretty much 35 years old.

A lot to do when you go to detail them!

[W.R.Buchanan]

How do you rotate the shell plate? Does the regular star wheel like from a 550 fit these?

Randy

[seagiant]

How do you rotate the shell plate? Does the regular star wheel like from a 550 fit these?

Randy

Hi,
Yes!

The conversion kits for the 300,450 are the same.

The shell rotation on the 300 is CCW and on the 450/550 CW!

Being left handed the 450/550 is cumbersome and crowded, while the 300 is more open and roomy!

What I don't understand is Mike Dillon, says he lost $100 a pop on 800 of these loaders???

How do you do that coming into a market with a new product, that you have done the numbers on????

I figure I'm asking the right guy on this?

Right, Randy?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg:

First: I think that story was embellished a little. But I see the cost to produce 800 of those around 1980ish as about $150 each.

Second: You must make 110-120 % above your total cost to produce in order to make a profit. This is the minimum number to have a viable product. Anything less and you are shipping money out the door. This is where he may have gone wrong.

I learned this the hard way! and it is fact! I would make money on some jobs and lose my butt on others.

Once I got the numbers right I started making money on all jobs and not taking the losers on in the first place.

What happens is guys grind on you and shop your bids so that if you bid something close to break even, and then get ground down a little you lose money but they make it. The product they are trying to sell has a price point, and in order to make that price point with the 110% mark up the cost to produce has to be at a certain point. If all his bids are coming in higher then he's in trouble, and has to grind someone down to where his numbers will work.

In that case, it is all about finding someone who doesn't really know what it is costing him to run his shop, and will hold still while you hose him. Basically he is willing to work for less than his normal shop rate, and usually this comes from a shop with little or no work in house. I got hosed many times and after a while the need to do something different because your rear is sore, simply forces change.

I signed up for a magazine at the SEMA Show called "Aftermarket Parts Retailer!" Yes it was called that! I used the mag as toilet reading in my shop, then one day I read an article that explained how all this worked and once the numbers were explained I changed my operating basis and stopped losing money. If you are getting more than 50% of the things you bid you aren't charging enough.

Job Shop work is just that ,,,Work. Developing and building products is a completely different game, and that is what I now choose to do.

As such when people came to me with things they wanted to produce and sell the first thing we did was look at the numbers and decide if the product was economically viable. 90% were not! about 9% were marginal and 1% were winners.

I did one called "Spin Shades" for a guy. It was a little paper lamp shade the clipped onto a Christmas Light Bulb and the heat generated by the Bulb caused the shade to spin around. They were very cool and I built the fixtures that were used for the retarded kids to assemble the shades themselves.

He sold a few here and there and then got an order from K Mart for a million units! He foolishly took the order and then couldn't produce enough to fill it on their delivery schedule. He came to me to build him an automated machine to assemble the shades which I could have built but I need $50K up front to do it and he didn't have the money. I ended up making about 50 of the assembly fixtures and he just went out and found more people willing to work for free to assemble them and finally made the order. The people problems almost drove him nuts! and after he finally filled the order he was done. He made $2.3 million! and I made $5000 building the fixtures. He sold the product to someone else who lost their butt, because K mart was so pissed off they wouldn't have anything more to do with it. This was well before Walmart came on the scene and a Walmart order would make you rich! I have some of the product in our Christmas decorations. kind of neat memories.

A cheap to produce product, with a wholesale price above 120%, and big orders from major retailers, is the Holy Grail of manufacturing. What you have to be aware of is that when the orders get big, they always want deep quantity cuts in price. if the orders are big enough you can live with below 110% mark up, and then you find ways to produce for less. IE: China!

That's what China is all about guys. They can produce cheaper than just about anyone because their labor rate is as close to free as is possible. Pretty hard to compete with that.

When people actually get a winner they usually don't know how lucky they are. True winners are very few and far between. I have had two in my life and the big one was stolen from me so I made virtually nothing off it, the thieves made literally hundreds of $Millions. I made squat!

I am hoping for moderate success from my current project but won't really know if it is a big hit until I get feedback from the guys here who have bought the tool, and then get picked up by a major retailer. It all depends on what the market will bare as to Retail Pricing. If they are happy with the profit margin then it will go big. If they aren't then Ebay looks pretty good.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi,
Ha! Well....I knew I was askin the right guy!

Admittedly I had to read that twice to get it all in but, that was (again) a mini education!

I ran my little Blacksmith Shop for about 10 years pretty heavy as a hobby, but would sale some things I made to help with the cost.

I was going to an Art School in the mountains of N. Carolina, to learn the trade from some of the top Blacksmiths.

One of my teachers in the discussion of making money, said that the biggest moneymaker in Blacksmithing was the humble little wall hook!!!!

This is a hook people put on a wall to hang their car keys on or a coat.

It has a little curl on the end and a twist for decoration and is made from 1/4" square steel.

They sale for about $8 apiece.

He said when he went in his shop in the morning he would warm up by knocking out about 200 of these!!!

Anyway these little hooks were suppose to have the biggest profit margin!

The problem was, after about beating out about a hundred, you started going nuts!!!

How he did 200 every morning I don't know!

Thanks for the info Randy!

I'll have to say you have a talent you are not utilizing, and that is your writing skills!

I'm still waiting on the" Bridgeport Mill User's Manual"!

A general Machine Shop Manual would also be great!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Well...with the help of Alvarez Kelly, I was able to trade the auto Dillon PM with a real OEM Dillon RL-300 MANUAL powder measure!

Don't ask me how he found it, I look EVERYWHERE for bits and pieces for these loaders with ZERO luck!

This keeps the loader as it was when it left AZ! (THANKS Brian!!!)

I also bought a used set of Hornady 45 ACP reload dies including a matching taper crimp die!

I bought not long ago a Canon little digital camera, thinking it would be great (good reviews?)

I have been VERY dissapointed!

If it is bright, there's glare everywhere and if it's nice diffussed lighting, the picture goes FLAT!

Makes me miss my SLR and Kodachrome!!!

But this loaders ready to go to work!!!

Here's some pics!

[LUBEDUDE]

Great job SG, it looks fantastic! :)

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg: I have used one of those cameras and taken probably 20,000 pictures with it. Believe me they are the best ones out there.

What I do if taking pictures under artificial light where the flash would normally blow the picture up completely is turn the flash off, and just use ambient Light.

I also use the Macro setting most often as it shows details better.

To engage the Macro setting, turn the camera on then hit the left side of the round button until the macro function shows,,,

Then hit the right side of the button and the Flash settings will show, bump the button again and it will turn the flash off. Then take your picture. The setting will return to automatic when you turn the camera off.

It took me along time to figure this out but it works well. You can go right to it doing what I said. It's simple.

AS you might have noticed I post a lot of pictures,,, most of them are taken indoors under Fluorescent Lights with the flash turned off..

Here's some I took of my Jeep tonight first and third done with the flash and 2 and 4 without. You can see the difference. The ones with the blacked out background were done with the flash.

Randy

[Alvarez Kelly]

You'll find your press will work a lot smoother if you install the brass locator buttons... :bigsmyl2:

[seagiant]

You'll find your press will work a lot smoother if you install the brass locator buttons... :bigsmyl2:

Hi,
Ha! They are stayin in the little blue box!

To easy to lose for me! Thanks for everything Brian!

Thanks Randy, I'll give it a go, maybe not as bad as I think, but seems the loader should jump out a little more in the pics!

Maybe the Macro setting would give a little more "life"?

It does look better in person, and will probably be my favorite Dillon RL-300!

[W.R.Buchanan]

The Macro Mode definitely exposes more detail. If you are taking pics in your shop under Florescent Lighting just turn the flash off.

With the Macro setting engaged the light will take care of itself. My Thread at www.4BTSWAPS.com (http://www.4BTSWAPS.com) has 900+ pictures and all the ones from about 4-5 years ago forward were taken with my current camera. When I Appraised Houses I used the first version of that camera and my wife used the second model. We took literally thousands of pics! I dropped mine and it cacked, so I got the newest model which had 10 times the resolution my first one had. It has been going strong for a while now.

I found out quickly that when I take pics at night in the shop that if I use the flash the background is black, and usually the subject has glare on it.. I took all those pics above last night, and you can see the difference.

Anyway give it a try. By the way Canons are definitely the best working Cameras out there and mine go all the way back to the early 70's with my Canon AE-1 which still works perfectly,,,, Except it costs too much to get prints made. The great thing about the digital cameras is that you can take a pic and look at what you've got and if it isn't there you just delete it and take another. Also there are tools on your computer to be able to tweak pics to fix them. We used it a lot when indoor house photos didn't come out right and we didn't want to drive 50 miles back to a house to take another pic.

They are a valuable asset when we are blogging as one pic is worth a thousand words.

My wife has stuff all over Ebay, and she now uses her I Phone which makes pics even better than my Canon.

Randy

[seagiant]

The Macro Mode definitely exposes more detail. If you are taking pics in your shop under Florescent Lighting just turn the flash off.

With the Macro setting engaged the light will take care of itself. My Thread at www.4BTSWAPS.com (http://www.4BTSWAPS.com) has 900+ pictures and all the ones from about 4-5 years ago forward were taken with my current camera. When I Appraised Houses I used the first version of that camera and my wife used the second model. We took literally thousands of pics! I dropped mine and it cacked, so I got the newest model which had 10 times the resolution my first one had. It has been going strong for a while now.

I found out quickly that when I take pics at night in the shop that if I use the flash the background is black, and usually the subject has glare on it.. I took all those pics above last night, and you can see the difference.

Anyway give it a try. By the way Canons are definitely the best working Cameras out there and mine go all the way back to the early 70's with my Canon AE-1 which still works perfectly,,,, Except it costs too much to get prints made. The great thing about the digital cameras is that you can take a pic and look at what you've got and if it isn't there you just delete it and take another. Also there are tools on your computer to be able to tweak pics to fix them. We used it a lot when indoor house photos didn't come out right and we didn't want to drive 50 miles back to a house to take another pic.

They are a valuable asset when we are blogging as one pic is worth a thousand words.

My wife has stuff all over Ebay, and she now uses her I Phone which makes pics even better than my Canon.

Randy

Hi,
I started with a Pentex K1000 with the old built in light meter!

I bought it in Athens in 1980 and switched to slide film (Kodachrome)

So I could get prints blown up more easily and was better for storage!

Went to the TOL Pentex LX model, like the Nikon F1 and the Canon AE1!

I do know how to use a real SLR camera, but just take pics mostly now for discussions on different forums!

I just was expecting more from this Canon even though it is all "AUTO" mode pretty much now!

Thanks for the tips I will try and play with it more!

[Hamish]

Randy, finest explanation of small business production EVER.

You guys are making me misty eyed talking about SLR's, I just finally gave up my screw mount Yashica TL Electro X a few years ago.

[bullet maker 57]

My first camera was a Pentax K1000. I still have it. Took thousands of pictures with it. I even have an underwater case for it. Used to dive.