Messages

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Software & Accessories / Re: What card readers do you use? Need help finding a new one..

« on: July 22, 2012, 01:26:20 PM »

I read that had issues with the occasional SanDisk Extreme III cards. I can't be certain but I think I have a few hiding out that are my normal ones. What's your opinion of that? Or do you use different cards? I originally considered that reader until I saw that single review. Could be he just had a bad reader maybe...

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Software & Accessories / What card readers do you use? Need help finding a new one..

« on: July 20, 2012, 01:26:24 PM »

Not entirely sure this is the right spot, but it's my best assumption. My old card reader broke and I am in the market for a new one. It's been a few years since I got one and I was wondering what reliable ones you guys use are. I got the 5D Mark III a few months back and want something that will be able to fully handle larger gb cards and all of the standard cards it can take, but I don't want to break the bank or anything.

From the few forum topics and reviews I could find relating that seemed a little current, I felt it better to go off a more current opinion of you guys than some really old or outdated topics or products (example, I bought a reader a few weeks ago at Fry's and before opening it today did a read-up and found it doesn't work on cards over 2gb!!! What a gip. Taking that back to get my money back asap, thank goodness for online reviewers!)

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Resolution of 5D Mark III- what do you shoot?

« on: April 27, 2012, 02:32:28 PM »

Thanks for the info. I may have interpreted that site as it's better to shoot large for the most part but I still have testing to do, to find what suits my tastes. Interesting to know that shooting with L should have no difference but it would with sub L's. Right now, having sold off my 20D and it's corresponding cropped lenses, I only have the kit 24-105L and the 50 1.4 to test with, but I'll be checking into it.

A lot of my images turn out soft but every now and then (usually just in brighter light or with lower ISO shots), I will get a hit that returns my faith in not needing to send my Mark III to canon with the lenses for a calibration. Already tried the micro adjustments to no avail. Just looking for other stuff- I mean, it's a huge learning curve from a 20D to Mark III.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Resolution of 5D Mark III- what do you shoot?

« on: April 27, 2012, 01:14:55 PM »

Quick question, I've generally always shot on the maximum L size Raw images (on my old 8mp 20D) but heard that on the full frames, like the Mark III that the images actually turn out sharper (pixel peeper wise) on the S or M settings as opposed to the L. I know for a fact that I don't need L size prints  (Yes, I realize that the reason they show up sharper is like with anything, take a big image, shrink it to a smaller size, like when you see the massive image in a 3" LCD screen where everything looks awesome and then you blow it up and realize it's all blurred.. unless I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, hah)

Anyways, I was just wondering what everyone normally shoots at, as far as pros go with full frames like the Mark II and III. Do you shoot L Raw and downsize in PS/LR or do you shoot somewhere in the M range or other (and a reason would be nice .

I haven't attempted to go smaller yet, although seeing how fast 22mp fill up space... I am verrrrrry tempted to try it out. I almost always wind up downsizing anyways.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Newbie question about testing out my Mark III with samples.. HELLLLLP!

« on: April 22, 2012, 04:50:00 AM »

Definitely need to get more used to it. I was just doing some random shots today in the middle of doing some actual work building cabinets and man. All I know so far is I have a terrible ratio of good shots to shots taken. Enough so that I'm trying to get used to not only the more shallow DOF on f/4 on a full frame, but also trying to figure out if the IS really is helping me or bringing me down. I seem to remember a friend once saying that if you're actually very steady, the IS can break the image too, so I'm trying a mixture of the two to see which results with higher hits (if any).

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Sorry 5D3, Insufficient Value

« on: April 21, 2012, 12:55:24 PM »

I am sure Canon will not miss me (but will miss the $$$). I sure won't miss their bodies after I sell them!

This quote alone was worth my going from reading this post on my iPhone (and no, not an apple fan boy despite loving my iPhone and iPods, I built my pc from scratch on my own with my own knowledge and everything and refuse to have it any other way, as well as refusing to pay the obscene premium price of their computing products, even if they have amazing displays) and getting on my computer to respond.

First- I don't want to make any arguments (although I so know I am... > but you all have made very valid points. There's only a few considerations to consider. First and foremost, I don't know the exact value of the company, but I know it's easily a multimillion to billion dollar company, and one less person buying their cameras- they won't miss that money, there are hundreds more out there who are interested in them. Secondly, even if you're adjusting for inflation, and taking into effect the depreciated value of the dollar (and to make sense- gas costs more, people are not making that much more than they were when gas was a dollar a gallon cheaper- at least most people are not... and we're in a bigger deficit than ever before...), it's still only 500 dollars more than the intro of the Mark II. I don't know what you make or what everyone's budgets are but I do think you can manage to find a way to cut back for 2-3 weeks on something (food), especially if you live alone and have no family to worry about. Pretty sure living on Top Ramen for 2 weeks- far less than any college student has spent on the stuff, I know- would save you a few hundred in a heart beat. And what do you have to complain about? An excess intake of msg? Exercise more and burn it off

A great post by someone else also posted this: http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=3873.0 about the inflation and the fact that it actually costs less to buy the Mark III than it really should. And because that fanboyism term is thrown around so freely- I'm no fanboy of anything except my soda and beer of choice. If one company makes a superior item to another, be it a tool, a hamburger (okay, fanboy of 3 things, I forgot about In-N-Out), computer parts, whatever it is- I'll buy the superior product if I can afford to, and have a great enough desire to. You have clearly had a poor experience with Canon products, and for that- I'm sorry. It doesn't mean you have to degrade yourself online with the trolls who poke fun, spam and otherwise annoy everyone just to get a rise out of you by posting snide replies to your response, even if you're new to a forum. Just saying- why in the first place are you still here if you're attempting to get out? That's like a smoker trying to quit smoking going to a smokers convention... or Vegas.

And to remain slightly on point to the OP- Nice shot that you got with the lower end glass and a lower end camera. There's no arguing in the value of that. But as someone else stated- just because it's a higher end camera, doesn't mean that the higher end cameras will give a better ratio of perfectly focused shots to attempts made. Just do a search and find the dozens of articles and pros who will agree with that. Why do higher end cameras allow for so many more actuations? Because the pros who use them for a living, shoot that many more pictures. Sure they still have a higher image quality, and the low-light performance is obscene, but the fact remains that it's a bad statistic to choose a camera body by. Trust me, if a pro could get by making more perfect shots with less actuations, and you didn't take the ISO noise, and other image qualities and camera features into account, I mean only went by actuation counts, then the cheaper lens with less actuations would be of more benefit. I'm just saying... and it's just an example..

And lastly, to whoever was talking about sub-L lens primes outperforming some L zooms? Umm, yes. The nature of the beast. A prime has less glass and even one as cheap as the 50 1.8. And yes, many will agree the 1.2 L is not worth it when the 1.4 and 1.8 non L's shoot better and are all below half a grand in cost. But that is comparing apples to oranges. Show me a (16-35L, 24-70L, 24-105L, 70-200L) that are outperformed in aperture, image quality or anything else by a sub-L, equivalently ranged zoom. I've already noted and agree the 50L prime is outperformed by sub-L lenses, it's out there, and I'm sure it's the case that there could be some better ones, but what's more important in the long run anyways? Happiness, or an argument that someone who pays more should get better shots? I'm happy with my cheaper as well as my more expensive lenses, upgrading my 20D to a 5D Mark III and being out that much more money. I'm happy with the fact that in the end, it's all just a camera, and ya know what? It all won't matter in another ten years because there will be a NEW equivalent camera to b**** and complain about . So let's all get out and shoot!!!

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Newbie question about testing out my Mark III with samples.. HELLLLLP!

« on: April 20, 2012, 02:55:42 AM »

I'll have to check the micro adjusting and everything out later this weekend if I have time. Thanks for the replies

Pretty happy with the lens and camera I have now, just gotta get out and shoot and get a better feel for all the new settings. There's so much here, I don't think I'll have it down until they release a Mark IV or a 5DX or something haha.

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Software & Accessories / Re: Lightroom 4 RC 64-bit ??

« on: April 18, 2012, 01:51:40 PM »

Maybe its just me... but I had BSOD's in win 7 after installing 4.1. Could be a co-incidence or there could be a link. But reinstalling Windows and all apps was no fun at all... took a week.

  You're scaring me!! I haven't had a single BSOD on my Win 7 Pro but it could also be due to computer power etc.  I remember when I blew through them at times from running too many powerful programs and stuff on my old computer before I built this behemoth. I've only run it once on here, but will be more weary as I um, can't afford to have to completely reinstall everything and lose all my info- in fact, I think I might be off to Fry's today for some backup hard drives >< Haha.

Not sure if it will help you- but I built this comp almost 2 years ago, not a hitch (knock on wood) since then, and it's running Win 7 Pro 64 bit, Quad Core AMD Phenom II 965 Processor at 3.41 GHz with 8gb of RAM and like, 3 640gig hds or something. Although if anything, I think the RAM might be the thing to BSOD you. (Could be something else, I'm not really a comp science major, I'm an Architecture major so I know how to build and put things together, just not the technical science behind it )

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Software & Accessories / Re: Chances of Lightroom 3.0 update for 5D3?

« on: April 18, 2012, 01:42:49 PM »

Another + for the $79 upgrade to version 4. But I am just learning so I don't exactly have a catalog I can destroy by attempting to use the 4.1 beta update that allows for the new RAW's. I have tried it out a little bit and seems to work, but I need to figure out some more about the importing because only half of my RAW files previewed. I think it was primarily user error and my file locations though, something may have been offline.

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Software & Accessories / Re: Canon 5d Mark iii screen protector now available from XO Skins

« on: April 18, 2012, 01:39:07 PM »

Are there any other kinds of skins out there for the Mark III that don't involve liquids? I've used something similar to these XO things, called BestSkinsEver for like maybe my last 4-5 iPods that I have owned, however I find it a lot more difficult to use and it never comes out just perfect, be it super small air pockets that didn't squeegee out or whatever it is. I recently got a new iPhone that had some rigid protectors that attach to it, leave nothing behind, and have been exceedingly happy with those, but I would love to know if there are other options out there that you guys would recommend. I'm even down with the cutting to size, being an architectural student I have the whole Xacto knife, super precise cutting thing down to an art so yep Any other skins you would recommend?

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Newbie question about testing out my Mark III with samples.. HELLLLLP!

« on: April 18, 2012, 01:29:36 PM »

The only reason I originally swapped to the 4 pt expansion was due to my belief that the single point spot focus wasn't hitting as well. But like many have said- zooming in, or not, either way, shooting wide open, my DOF was so narrow that just a slight amount of movement from a dog who won't sit still isn't the world's easiest thing or the smartest thing to do with camera settings. I just never realized the differences that I would be taking on as someone told me, from going from a cropped 8mp 20D to a 22mp full frame NASA technology 5D3, haha. More tests!!! But that one shot where her eye was nailed right- I'm very happy with that one.

Thanks again for the replies. They're really helping me remember all my stuff, being primarily self taught- and I haven't done a lot of shooting over the last year so it's all this wonderful long process like remembering to bike for the first time after a few years. You know the basics- but you hate making those sharp turns because you forgot about the balance required

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Newbie question about testing out my Mark III with samples.. HELLLLLP!

« on: April 18, 2012, 04:08:22 AM »

Sorry. I thought I mentioned- these were all shot with the 24-105 L kit lens.. ><

As far as lenses go- I'm selling my Tokina 12-24 because I bought it for my 20D and didn't realize (or forgot that I did realize this at the time) that it was for cropped cameras so the 12mm length is no good on the full frame. I plan to shoot a lot more indoors and architectural so I'm looking at the 16-35 f/2.8L for that, and in the long term future, my goal is probably that, saving and potentially swapping the 24-105 for the 24-70 2.8 II L, the 2.8 70-200 IS II. As for primes, I'll see when I get there, I may avoid the 24-70 and go with a 24, 35, or 85 L prime.

Anyways- back to my point, I agree that I should stop down the photos more if I want to justify the sharpness. I will say on the ones I got sharp, and photos of say, my brick driveway with some clover weeds popping up, the sharp areas came out really well. I'm going to do some more test shots in the next couple days with newer info.

Another Sample:
(You can't see it in this, but when zoomed to 100%, all imperfections in sprinkles could be seen. The more I play around, the better I feel about it being a great camera as it should be, the worse I feel about myself as a photographer haha)

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Newbie question about testing out my Mark III with samples.. HELLLLLP!

« on: April 18, 2012, 12:02:15 AM »

So, silly me- I've been into photography for the last 6-7 years, and shooting with a 20D and no L glass. I do have the 50mm 1.4 but that's as close to awesome as it got for me- and that's only for the last year that I haven't been shooting. The thing is I finally made the leap to the 5D MIII after lusting after the Mark II for the last several years that I've known about it and know I made a massive jump in quality of camera etc.

My question is this- what is the easiest way to verify that I have a sharp camera/lens and not need to exchange it? My 30 day window from B&H is fast approaching and I've tested it out several times with my dogs, however I don't know if it's the perfectionist or the pessimist in me thinking they might be off.

I have like a 90% certainty it truly is user error, I mean, I'm coming from a 9 pt auto focus from the 20D which was released over a decade ago, into this massive behemoth of a camera, but I'm also not technologically incompetent at 26 either. I've swapped my AF setting to the 5 pt expansion mode (The one that looks like a cross, not the 9 pt expansion one) and been attempting to focus solely on my dogs' eyes, however out of the 20-40 images I took when I could try and get them to stay still, only really 2 came out to my satisfaction. I was shooting with the kit lens in daylight and also fluorescent light, but then again- I was shooting a 1 year old golden retriever, ripe with ADD and an abundance of energy. I'll try to attach the 2 photos that I'm somewhat satisfied with, and maybe one that I'm not.

I was just curious about what else I could do to test and just ensure it's an error on my part and not a calibration issue with the camera or lens so that my over-thinking mind can rest at ease while I learn and get better at this. The only other issue I can think is that I'm not stopping it down enough or that the focus hits, only it's not hitting their eyes but rather just before or after. Then again- these images could be perfectly fine and acceptable by all professional standards and I wouldn't know, coming from way down the chain of slr's.

(Side note- the two posted are of the jpegs, and I just purchased an update for my Lightroom 3 and downloaded the 4.1 patch that supposedly allows viewing of the RAW files, however I'm not that skilled at LR which I'm slowly working on learning. Wish they had a patch for PS CS5.5 that I could get for comparisons..)

f/4 1/125s 2500 ISO 24mm focal length

f/5.6 1/125s 800 ISO 105mm focal length


This is one of the many I am not so happy with, but I think it's because she was moving, or the AF did hit, however it hit her ear where the hair is more clear than the eyes. The first image has some glossy/softness to the eyes but I don't know how acceptable it is by a pro standards. The second one I feel is pretty much the best image taken so far but it could also be due to the focal length etc??

f/4 1/3200s 400 ISO 24mm focal length

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EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Mark iii focusing issues

« on: April 14, 2012, 05:27:35 PM »

I'm still in that paranoid group pondering if my lens/body is soft or not, and exchanging or more tests, altering settings etc. I kept trying out shots on our golden, trying to land her eyes, on the rare instances I did get her to stand still (which is no small feat for a 1 yr old pure golden, oh my gosh the energy and add!!!). I'm pretty convinced by like, two or three of every ten or more photos that I take, when I pixel peep just the standard jpegs at 100% that it's not soft because on the ones I do land, it's blowing me away. The soft ones, I can tell the focus was someplace else, be it her fur which in certain areas lands super sharp, or it was some other setting that threw something off.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the issues and focus problems are, in fact, my user error, and focusing on something so small and zooming in to 105mm on the kit lens. Just wish I could figure out how to embed/attach photos to my posts (could someone please shoot me a pm or something at least to say the easiest way they've done this??).

Anyone else have any updates on what steps they took for testing their 5D M3's?

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: How to disable the focus on shutter button on the 5D MkIII if depressed halfway

« on: April 14, 2012, 12:29:45 AM »

Quick related, semi-related question about this focus disable and the metering settings. I'm still learning, and used to a 20D, but I'm getting more serious into this but had a quick question. I normally would shoot full manual on my 20D and I had to control everything, the exposure, shutter, iso and all that- like you all probably know, and I made the jump to the 5D3 and have been doing what reading and learning I can however one thing I'm in the dark about or just not getting is the metering part.

Why would I want to leave metering on during the 1/2 shutter depression? From my understanding, metering is the camera sensing how much light is coming in, balancing the scene if you have auto iso enabled and if you focus, recompose, but in doing so, if you re-meter the central area of the image (or does the metering just work for the whole image...?) isn't there the chance to throw off what you wanted the prime focus to be?

Hopefully someone can help me out here, I'm pretty confused and not even sure I stated my question correctly ><. Just trying to understand this whole Auto ISO (when enabled), metering, AF and AE buttons on the back of the 5D3 and all of that to better take advantage of the camera. If someone has a question for clarification of what I mean, I'll try and respond as soon as I can. Until then- dinner Thanks for any help you can provide!