Messages

1

Contests / Re: Gura Gear Giveaway!

« on: December 06, 2012, 07:50:11 PM »

I Wanna Win. They would look just fabulous under our Christmas tree.  Happy Holidays to All!

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Landscape / Re: Post Your Best Landscapes

« on: November 23, 2012, 08:17:27 PM »

Silver Falls State Park, OR

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Software & Accessories / Re: Help suggest a Tripod for Landscape, low angle shots

« on: October 07, 2012, 12:08:58 PM »

Another vote for the 055XPROB by Manfrotto. I went with the 324RC2 Manfrotto ballhead.  I already had Manfrotto's rapid release plates so I opted for this head rather than exceeding my budget for the Really Right Stuff system (head and plates).  If I could have I probably would have gone the RRS way, but at the time I knew that I would spring for the 5D3 when it came out so I was trying to conserve my allotted budget.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Renting 5DIII for a wedding, would like advice

« on: October 03, 2012, 11:34:14 PM »

I shot an indoor wedding and reception with my 5D3 using a 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 and my walk around 24-105 f/4.  I used 3200 ISO inside and it worked out just fine. I did have my 580EXII mounted and used on all of the reception shots.  With your faster lens you may not need that but I would think about having a flash just in case.  I did go to both the church and the reception hall at the time of the day of the wedding and attended the church rehearsal the night before and took a whole bunch of shots at different settings and ISOs to get what I thought was best camera settings including the various people walking down the isle.  I decided to shot in Av priority only because I was more worried about getting the shot than trying to manually set the exposure.  Shooting in RAW, I knew I could play with the exposure if needed. I found that with the 24-105 that 70mm was best and I was able to pick out one of the pews (I put a piece of black tape on the pew at the floor level to mark it)  where the light and ISO gave a good exposure (I had my wife walk down numerous times after the rehearsal was done as well) to start shooting the person wlaking down the aisle And used a stained glass window as my location marker as the where to stand.  My advice on the 5D3, use A1 Servo and the 8 "box" focus point (press and hold the far right button on the top back of the camera and press down on the M-Fn button on the top of the camera repeatedly until you get this pattern) for the walks down and back up the isle. Alos i shot in "silent" continuous mode throughout the evening. After the walk downs, I shifted to the center square button for all other pictures. With the f/2.8 lenses that you have you may not need as much ISO.  I'd probably put the 70-200 on the 7D which will give you a longer range and the wider angled lens (which ever you choose-maybe the 24-70 Tamron) on the 5D3.  For portrait pix, the 70-200 on the 7D should be OK I would think.

I'd definitely plan on using a separate card for each "section" of the day, i.e., pre-ceremony, ceremony, reception.  I had 3 CF cards, 16, 16 & 8GBs and a 16GB SD card (the 5D3 had two slots one for a CF and one for an SD).  The 16 SD saved my bacon on the ceremony shots because I ran out of space on my CF card as the couple was walking away from the alter and the 5D3 auto shifted to the SD card..whew!!!  An extra camera battery is a must. You probably have that already for your 7D, you may just have to suck it up for the 5D3. Good luck.  I discovered a new-found respect for wedding photogs after doing my first wedding!

5

Canon General / Re: Why you should take your camera to family Weddings

« on: October 03, 2012, 06:04:57 PM »

My sincere Thank You to those who took a moment to congratulate me on my daughter's recent wedding. They are so obviously in love that it was a time of great joy that will be remembered forever.

Let me add my congrats on your daughter's wedding and advise you to ignore some of the "less generous" (I'm trying to be nice and civil) comments posted. My nephew and niece recently got married a week apart and I didn't bring my camera to either and my kids complained.  They were hoping I'd take pictures of them and their spouses and SO's since they were all dressed to the nines!  I won't make that mistake again.

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Canon General / Re: Why you should take your camera to family Weddings

« on: October 03, 2012, 04:11:29 PM »

I just recently finished shooting my first wedding with my 5d3 and I had 3 CF cards and thank God the camera has that second slot for an SD as well, despite changing cards before each separate event (pre, ceremony, etc) I still ran over during the ceremony and the 5D3 automatically switched over the the SD card otherwise I would have missed the bride and groom walking out as the ceremony concluded!!

What size cards were you using?

Shooting RAW, I had 3 CF cards of 16, 16, 8 and the SD card was 16.  I took over well over 600 pictures all told for the day's event. 10 bridesmaids, 8 groomsmen, 2 flower girls, 3 "ring bearers", two huge families, etc. I shot on continuous silent mode, but I didn't do a lot of rapid continuous shooting except for certain critical situations. I made the "mistake" of using the CF 8 for the ceremony.

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Canon General / Re: Why you should take your camera to family Weddings

« on: October 03, 2012, 02:55:51 PM »

Inexcusable!!! I shot a wedding last weekend. Just before the ceremony, my 5D3 was reporting I still had 160 frames of open capacity on my 8GB card. I still changed cards just before the processional started. Unless the photog faints during the ceremony they should capture everything from start to finish. If not, you deserve some kind of rebate for failure to deliver.

I just recently finished shooting my first wedding with my 5d3 and I had 3 CF cards and thank God the camera has that second slot for an SD as well, despite changing cards before each separate event (pre, ceremony, etc) I still ran over during the ceremony and the 5D3 automatically switched over the the SD card otherwise I would have missed the bride and groom walking out as the ceremony concluded!!

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Software & Accessories / Re: Need help on neck/Shoulder Strap for camera body...!!!

« on: September 17, 2012, 04:18:20 PM »

Another vote for Black Rapid.  RS-7 is what I use.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: For those whose paid full price on 5d III, how do you feel about the price drop?

« on: September 17, 2012, 03:51:10 PM »

Meh...

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Software & Accessories / Re: Google Buys Nik Software

« on: September 17, 2012, 02:49:02 PM »

these are by far my fav plugins.. colorFX and silverFX are phenominal.. Dfine and their new HDR 2.0 are VERY VERY good too.. i hope google takes them under their wing but doesnt ruin them.

D

Exactly.  Nik seems head and shoulders above everyone else.  I sometimes wonder if Adobe doesn't wish some of Nik's software engineers worked for them.  It would be a shame if this killed off Nik as we know it.

Having said that, Vic Gondotra is an amateur photographer himself so it's not like he doesn't appreciate what they're getting.

someone asked Google this very thing and Vic replied https://plus.google.com/u/0/109674480414473952661/posts/9xAwogyeohZ.

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Software & Accessories / Re: Google Buys Nik Software

« on: September 17, 2012, 02:06:01 PM »

Love Nik products, let's hope Google can sort out their update notification/activate process, which is, let's just say, sub-optimal.  Certainly not as effective as OnOne's, or even Adobe's.

YIKES!  I agree.  I have NIK complete so I hope this doesn't effect it in anyway and that they continue with their extensive amount of free educational videos.

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Lenses / Re: 24-70 f/2.8L mk 1 or 24-105 f/4L

« on: May 28, 2012, 05:45:12 PM »

Like Neuro, the 24-105 is my main lens. I use it as my walk around lens and the vast majority of pictures I take come from this lens.

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EOS Bodies / Re: DPReview 5D3 review out

« on: May 23, 2012, 09:26:00 AM »

Oh, those crazy 5D3 people.  Another server on the verge of collapse because of apparent overwhelming interest.  I just died several times over a 15 minute period to see their review of the Canon %D Mark III and I get as message that the server can't handle the present volume try again later.  De ja vu, all over again. 

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EOS Bodies / Re: New 5D Mark III Firmware Before the End of May [CR2]

« on: May 09, 2012, 05:18:20 PM »

^^^YES!!!!  That drives me crazy and I just thought I had set something up wrong.  I does not happen in "standard" setting but seems to happen if I set the camera to switch to the secondary card (in my case the SD card) if the CF card fill up.  As a result I just keep the setting to standard and set the primary card to CF.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: What modes do you usually use on your camera?

« on: May 08, 2012, 09:29:05 AM »

Manual mode the majority of the time and occasionally Av, like this weekend at a indoor (gym) college graduation with manually set higher ISO.