Messages

1

Lighting / Re: Knockoff Speedlights

« on: April 30, 2013, 04:11:23 PM »

I'm using a patchwork family of EX 430, YN 565 EX and the Nissin DI 866

All have their strength and their weakness but they work perfect together.

With the YNs you have to be carefull, there seems to be Export Quality and Red China Quality.
If you buy it at the bay you can just guess which Version you get. I bought mine in Wukesong Cammera City in Bejing and had to try several before I was happy. 3 month later the red plastic cover on the front fell off without any force applied. There seems to be a sensor under it, the missing red filter did not disturb the Flash in any way but... The YN is a fair bit larger than the EX430, is slower and makes more noise but also has more power and can be a infrared ETTL slave. My 60d can configure most Settings from the camera menu and the build in Flash acts as a weak master.

The Nissin is not the latest model. As Long as Version I and II are still sold You can save some Money by buying the older Version. Only difference I found so far: louder Husky Sound when the Flash reflector zooms and a plastic rather than a metal feet. The Nissin can act as a master. The way the Flash groups itself allows you to have control over one more Flash Group than you could do with Canon only flashes. The rotating Color Display of the Flash is a cool Gimmick. Again the Flash is bigger, slower and stronger than the EX 430. Howeverit has a few extras. X Sync Port, USB Port, and you can use an additional power pack.  The Standard Battery compartment slides out completely like a Magazin. If you have 2 of them, you can swap batteries in an instant.

regards

2

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 DX

« on: April 16, 2013, 04:15:13 AM »

I had this lens in my bag but sold it after discovering that it did not offer anything the Sigma 50 150 2.8 (model I and II) could not do better. The Sigma is discontinued and replaced by the 50 150 OS which is in my eyes a joke as it is as big as the 70 200 OS.

All three lenses are soft.

The Sigma 50 150 front lense does not rotate, it does not extend while zooming and it is small and silent. Of course it is DC (digitally crippled) and EX (expensive). However as a 2nd hand lens it is usually a bargain.

The Tokina is sharper wide open at 135mm as the Sigma is at 150mm. Can't compare them at 135 mm as I never did test this.

I love the Tokina build philosophy, I like my 11-16 2.8 and my 20 year old 28 70 2.6 but:
Both lenses have no zoom creep but if you turn the Tokina upside down my lens makes the sound of a piston going through a cylinder and some rattling like a loose screw following shortly after.
The 50-135 autofocus has this acoustic resemblance of a BOSCH Accu drill. That does not diminish its optical quality but the Sigma scores much higher here in my personal preference with a silk smooth HSM implementation.

3

Canon General / Re: European travel?

« on: April 04, 2013, 04:44:31 AM »

Now to give you an idea for southern Germany:

If you would go as a normal tourist I would say avoid the tourist traps, but if you go for pictures, then descend right into them because there you get your motive and interesting people around it.

Munich itself: You need sunshine! You can do of course make master class pictures under a clouded sky but you would need time to find the right spots. Walking through the City will cost you about 4 hours and a 24-70 for outside and something more like a wide 1:1.4 will do the trick for inside.

If there is no sunshine:

Deutsches Museum
Plan careful what to see, for a full round you would need several days
http://www.google.de/search?q=deutsches+museum&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=uDJdUdXwN4OGswbNlIGYBw&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1382&bih=773&safe=active

Hofbräu Haus
Choose time and place to sit careful for best shots, don’t expect the food to be outstanding, avoid asking which table Adolf preferred etc...
http://www.google.de/search?q=deutsches+museum&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=uDJdUdXwN4OGswbNlIGYBw&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1382&bih=773&safe=active#hl=en&safe=active&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=hofbrauhaus&oq=Hofbr&gs_l=img.1.0.0l10.142690.144162.0.151600.5.5.0.0.0.0.292.645.3j1j1.5.0...0.0...1c.1.8.img.8rq8XpMwkqA&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44770516,d.Yms&fp=f677f99ed6bcee65&biw=1382&bih=773

If you can afford to travel:
Go to Passau, do some Danube travel to get this "Sissy" feeling.
If you did not check the churches in Munich check them here.
The Bavarian baroque style churches can be fascinating. I spent half an hour in one, listening to the sermon of the priest while taking pictures but was not able to actually detect him in all the ornament.
A few minutes to the south you find a city called Jochenstein which has a water lock one side is German the other one is Austrian.
 
http://www.google.de/search?q=passau&hl=en&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=9DRdUf7bKYWGtAa-qICwAg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1382&bih=773

Finally the holy grail of Japanese tourists: Neuschwanstein
Timing is everything here, be late enough to avoid fog, be early enough to avoid the sons of Nippon.
Choose you gear wisely, you have to climb a lot, if you want to find a motive requiring your 70-200 then you need to climb even more. Behind the castle is after a short walk through the woods a bridge ( Marienbruecke).  Some well-prepared tourists (usually the Russians) bring name engraved locks with them and tie them to the ropes of the bridge. Visiting the other two castles in walking distance actually allows for better framing of Neuschwanstein than visiting the castle itself.
http://www.google.de/search?q=neuschwanstein&hl=en&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=fDxdUaX7BIaWswaflIDADA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1382&bih=773

Even more time at hand?
Regensburg visit the Walhalla
Be there early in the morning, this joint is best enjoyed with the morning fog still in the valley. If you are early enough you will have the monument almost for yourself allone. Gives you an idea where the typical german character deformations come from... :-)
http://www.google.de/search?q=walhalla+temple+germany&hl=en&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ZTtdUfWGF5HEtAbzq4G4Bg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1382&bih=773

4

Software & Accessories / Re: Nik Software worth it?

« on: March 25, 2013, 06:08:16 PM »

I use the NIK package since about 4 month and I think I posted some Points already somewhere else but here we go once more:

The package is good value but be aware:

The sharpener and the noise removal have to be used early in the workflow. Their effect on JPG is almost Zero so you need to use RAW.

If you shoot a lot of Pictures and have a 18+ Megapixel sensor then have storage available. Using Define2 from a Lightroom collection will multiply the size of your collection towards the factor 10.

5

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Old gear on offer, please help me decide

« on: March 23, 2013, 04:10:28 PM »

Thanks to all of you,
that altogether was the best help I got here so far.
I had no clue that the MKII is out of Support and the fact that the 3ds has already the 60d style  menus is really helpfull. I have passed onthe 1dMKII.
In my area used 1D MKIII will sell around 1200 Euro, a !DS MKIII for 2500 Euro
So I will enter new teritory and give the APSH a try.
many thanks again...

6

Lenses / Re: small primes to go with SL1?

« on: March 23, 2013, 03:59:29 PM »

Me usually going for the cheap old 2nd Hand solutions would advice :
Sigma 14mm 3.5
was already good value second Hand and will now drop more in Price with the art line replacement ant portas.

Sigma 30mm 1.4
really small, old school lens, not sure if the electronic works with anything newer than 60d

Canon 85mm 1.8
for midrange

Canon 200mm 2.8 L
for longrange, not really small but way smaller than the 70 200 zooms

The complete range costs 2nd Hand arround 1200 Euro

regards

7

Software & Accessories / Re: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4... DOH!!!

« on: March 22, 2013, 09:12:29 AM »

Some thoughts about the love to a technology from the last millenium:


Desktop operating systems   End of mainstream support  End of extended support
Windows XP                         April 14, 2009                     April 8, 2014
Windows Vista                      April 10, 2012                    April 11, 2017
Windows 7                           January 12, 2015               January 14, 2020

If your hardware supports it go to Windows 8
If your hardware does not support it... go and buy some proper one.
You are mature enaugh to desire Lightroom
You are serious enough to spent your time on Canon Rumors which deals with future technology that is not even in the shelves.
It would be a flawed logic to treat your picture and the related workflow with past technology. Or to teach yourself the usage of an OS that is surpassed by two or three newer versions.

By the way the next Version of Windows OS (let us call it "Blue") is at milestone 1 in it's development that means you will see it in shelves probably before the summer 2014.

regards

8

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Old gear on offer, please help me decide

« on: March 22, 2013, 06:22:02 AM »

After the disappointing Canon announcements I'm looking to invest my cash not in a new but an older Canon.

What I got offered:

EOS 1Ds MKII
EOS 5D MKII modified for Infrared without Low pass filter but plenty of lens filters to allow adaption
EOS 1D MKIII

I use since 3 years my EOS 60D and initially wanted to have a second body with APSC, minimum X0D comfort and a clean ISO for lowlight situations as high as possible. Looks like I will have to wait some longer for the 70D announcement and even if they announce it I would not buy it soon because I want to wait for the 7d MKII to be announced to decide which one is the better choice (fearing that the 7D MKII might be the last high quality APSC offering from Canon ) So I can invest a little now and save for the APSC body later this year presumably Winter 2013.

Still I need a second body right soon so I checked for the above mentioned alternatives. The modified 5DMK2 and the 1DS MKII are almost same price, the 1d MKIII is just half of that.

I used to have a 5D which is no longer available to me but I still have a complete lens line up for the APSC and the full format.

The last time I shot with my own EOS 1 was half a live ago in the analog age.
What I do not know:
How expensive is it to change a low pass filter. Is a used and modified 5D MKII worth to be compared with a used 1Ds MKII? (Assuming both are in good conditions)

I have not used APSH sensor format (last time to use this format was with my Canon APS IX). I know that EFS lenses will not cover the complete sensor but can EFS lenses be attached to the EOS 1d MKIII or will the mirror slap against the lens?

On paper I know that the 5DMKII has a much higher ISO range and a higher resolution than the 1Ds MKII but how is it with noise? The large pixels of the 1Ds MKII should be helpful?

I know about the behavior of the 5D MKII but not about the 1Ds MKII or 1D MKIII. Do they come with AFMA?

Finally lenses:
My usual battle order when leaving the primes at home was
Tokina 11-15 2.8
Canon 17-55 2.8
Sigma 50-150 2.8
Sigma 120-300 2.8

If I change to APSH/Full Format + the 60D as the backup body it would be
Canon 17-35 2.8
Canon 28-70 2.8
Sigma 120-300 2.8
Sigma 14mm 3.5

That means more L glasses, less stabilization, more weight and a little less flexibility in the ultra-wide area
Worth the effort?

Regards

9

Reviews / Hands on preview for 100 and 700d on dpreview.com

« on: March 21, 2013, 06:48:14 AM »

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/03/21/canon-eos-100d-rebel-sl1-hands-on-preview

10

Lenses / Re: How's the 70-300L?

« on: March 15, 2013, 05:49:46 AM »

The above comment is correct, going over 200mm usually requires more than a mere 100mm more.
My suggestion is to go and check out the Sigma 150-500 OS HSM etc...

Yes it is slow, but so is almost everything shorter with an extender.
I limit myself usualy to just one rocket launcher per trip and always have to decide between the Sigma 120-300 and the 150-500. The IQ of the 150-500 is far above the 120-300 so you would not like the faster lens.

Ah.. and a tip: If you go larger then 300mm with stabilizer than consider some extra battery power. These lenses cost power especialy when they suck on the smaller rebel batteries.

11

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Question for techies, Port of call: 2.0 crop factor

« on: March 14, 2013, 05:47:01 AM »

I"m using a 5D and a 60D, the later as a kind of tele converter to my lenses.
Now there is the talk of a smaller than Rebel form factor which still connects to EF and EFS.

What would be the maximum sensor size possible if you want to use EF and EFS lenses but desire to achieve a 2.0 rather than the 1.6?

Carying a somewhat smaller camera just for the sake of having a small camera does not apeal to me... but a body that makes my 120-300 2.8 become a 240-600 2.8 would be a dream.

12

Software & Accessories / Re: Help needed lightroom and photoshop machine for editing 5d mkiii raw

« on: March 12, 2013, 07:32:26 AM »

There are a few more aspects to consider:

Fan noise:
The perfect Light room PC (as I tried to build one by myself) is usually also used as an Internet PC, as a gaming PC etc.. depending on the demand in your family. Working though a pile of let us say 100 pieces of 60d Raws turned out to be a pain as the cooling settings I had foreseen did not fit to working quietly on a blog and the noise onslaught the PC presented when the processor load was multiplied by Light room. Especially the fact that the different cooling fans (CPU + Graphics card +Chassis) shifted their RPMs quiet often was annoying. So if you can influence it go for a chassis with fans as huge and slow turning as possible (250 mm). While there are plenty of Software/Bios/UEFI solutions to control the fans inside your computer it makes life a little complicated to find the right balance. In my PC I have all internal coolers on auto mode bound to a temperature threshold but the 250mm main chassis cooler has from factory a 3 stop manual cooler. I use this cooler on low for all my standard non heat intensive sessions and switch it to medium for Light room/Panorama/HDR sessions. Higher noise level but now the PC needs almost an hour of heavy load before the internal heat sources heat the inside of the PC so far that they start to influence each other. The fan noise in this configuration does not change pitch and is less of a distraction.

Disk Space:
Consider add-ons and plug-ins in regard to disk space. I once was careless enough to batch the NIK noise reduction software out of Light room to denoise 200 Gig of 60d Rows. That is 1 Terra of additional Gifs you add to your system and todays green HDs are behaving not so green anymore once they have a constant write access for hours (Hot hard disks heat up a small chassis quiet remarkably). If you system is designed to hold a mix of HDs (mine has a 256 Gig SMD for Windows and Light room + 2x2 Terra conventional HDs for Photos and Backup) you should pay attention to the RPMs. High-end fast spinning and reliable HDs are usually server HDs (not optimized to be silent). They whine at a high frequency and if there is more than one you might discover that their nuances in RPM deliver a resonating combined frequency. Talking about Terras of disk space might sound fast fetched but with canons new models waiting to be announced and 4K ante portas....

Graphic Card:
AMD and NVidia have different models to offer their calculating power to light room. Some Plug-ins for Light room crash when they do not like your card. This can be circumvented by not allowing the Plug-in to use graphic card resources but that leaves you with a slow system and requires some knowledge to be applied if the plug -in is not even starting.

Backup:
In the IT world there is the law: all non backuped Data is by definition unimportant Data. I'm a little paranoid with that. I backup one HD in my PC onto another. If a thief steals my camera, that is a loss of money. If a thief steals my PC that is a lifetime of memory gone. So I backup onto an external drive. This drive has to be as far away from your PC as risks connect to it. Consider what network speeds, connectors like E-sata etc... your Workstation should have. If you decide for a NAS: verify if your mainboard can keep up the magic 3x3 formula that is running SATA3 (Disks) PCIX3 (Graphics) and Gigabit Ethernet at the same time without putting load on the CPU. I have seen powerful multicore systems being rendered useless for hours because the backup process supposed to run in the background used up 70% of CPU resources due to the mainboard not being able to handle the Datastreams.

13

Lenses / Re: Sigma 50 1.4 or Canon 85 1.8 OR 100 2.0 for 5d mark ii

« on: February 20, 2013, 04:08:27 AM »

As a reply to the original question:

I own the Sigma and the Canon. I bought the 85mm 1.8 based on internet reviews. "The digital picture" catched me with a remark that the best thing on the 85mm L is it's ability to remind you how good the non L already is. I droped the idea of the 100mm lens as the 1.8 sounded more important to me than the 20mm more and just for the sake of a metal ring instead a plastic ring to screw the filter in I did not want to change my mind.

I bought the Sigma 50mm instead of the Canon because I liked the Bokeh of the Sigma more and someone on E-bay sold it almost new cheaper than any used Canon.

I'm selling the 85mm canon right now while it is still one of my most loved lenses, however I never use it anymore because the Sigma 50mm and the Canon 135mm L eat up enaugh real estate in my camera bag and my idea of a need to cover the middle seemes suddenly not practical.

Really be warned, if the reach, the quality and the bokeh of the 85mm is attractive, then sooner or later the lure of the 135 will be overwhelming.

That said there is something which made the 85mm interesting: It's size and shape (without the lens hood) makes it the perfect companion when using a holster pouches for DSLR with mid sized zooms.

For example your 5DII with a 28-200 or 28-300 lens in such a holster means a lot of reach but nothing fast at hand. The 85mm fits usualy perfectly into the sidepouches of such holsters and so you have the 1.8 available when light conditions are bad.

I do not share the complaints other people have about the focus of the Sigma 50mm. I love that lens just wish it would resemble more the feeling of the Sigma 30mm 1.4 However if you should buy it, it is a heavy, huge monster in relation to just being 50mm. If I know in advance that I have the need for the 50mm I usualy keep the 5d at home and take the 60d with the Sigma 30mm 1.4 as it is a much more convinient solution.  Often when carying the Sigma 50mm arround I wish to either return to my old crappy Canon 50mm 1.8 The lens hood comes with the Sigma for free and is an absolute must to control flare and IQ. As the reversed Hood covers way to much of the lens to be handeled in a convinient way you will end up carying the lens with the hood proper mounted. The result is a short prime being as bulky as the the Tamron 28-70 VC.

14

Lenses / Re: lens question for the math geniouses

« on: February 19, 2013, 11:33:24 AM »

Many thanks to all the feedback.

Through your answers I actually now understand the flaw in my question.
I did understand that changing through the crop factor not only the effective length of the lens but also the effective minimum aperture increases. However I did not apply the logic to it's full end and believed that the amount of light passing through would not change. Reading about it in the answers I understand now that the amount of light has decraesed but however so did the surface of the senor need to flood with light.

Furthermore thanks for enlighten me with the concept of physical DOF and percieved DOF by blur of distant backgrounds... todays posts spared me a long and boring study through theory books.

15

Lenses / lens question for the math geniouses

« on: February 19, 2013, 04:24:39 AM »

Over the last month I'm trying to get rid of the "Edelschrott" aka "Noble Glas Garbage" in my lens stable and turn more and towards the L lenses. With no L crops and me usualy using a 60D I gain a lot of reach from those glases with the 1.6 crop factor. But... I'm usualy not going for reach but for shallow DOF.

It seems that my initial idea about optics from the analog age is not covering the whole reality. I always thought if I bring the subject close to the lens, have the background far away from the subject, the lens as wide open as possible and the lens as long as convinient for the job I end up with a very shallow DOF. That means with nothing else changing, the longer the lens the more shallow the DOF

Now I use for example the EF 135L at F:2.0 I can mount it to my 5D and or 60D and I get the same AE of 200/1 Second at 2.0. So the crop does not cost me any light while extending my lens to  216mm.

If I mount the 70 200 L on my 5D I of course do not loose any light as well if I change the zoom from 130mm to 200mm at 2.8, however the DOF changes quiet a lot (gets more shallow)

The change from 135mm on the 5D to 216mm on the 60D however does not generate this effect (shallow DOF)
It actually looks more like I have now a wider DOF. To get a simmilar wide DOF with the 135mm still connected to the 5D I would have to change to F:3.5 or 4.5

All my friends say that is because FF gives a more shallow DOF than Crop anyway however I believe that this is not a fact of the sensor's build itself but of the distance of the lens towards the sensor.

If I'm not mistaken than 1:2.0 on the 135mm describes the relation between the diameter of the first optical element of the lens and the effective length of the lens 65.25/135 in this example. Putting the lens on a crop camera extends its effective length to 216 but does not change it's front element so we have now a 1:3.456 lens (which fits to my observation with the DOF on the 5D either by rule or incident)

Now to my question: How can the crop change the F number in regards to DOF but not in regards to the speed of the lens?  And applied to the rest of the universe does this mean I need not only to convert the mm up but also the DOF capabilities down by 1.6 on all EF-S lenses?