Messages

1

Pricewatch Deals / Re: Preorder the EF 200-400 f/4L IS 1.4x TC

« on: May 14, 2013, 04:04:33 PM »

From price point of view, this lens sits between the 400 2.8 ii and 600 4.0 ii. it combines the shorter FL with the slower aperture.

At the wide end, a 200 4.0 isnt really spectacular, its available for about $1200, means for this amount a 400 2.8 and a 70-200is is available. if a speed of 4.0 is enough, a 500 4.0 looks like a bargin and with a 1.4 ext and a 2nd body its as flexible and gives more reach.

so the new lens would be fine but for this price its really specialised, and only an answer if 200-300mm cant be done with a 2nd, way cheaper lens. If it would be priced between the 300 2.8 and 500 4.0 it would be more interesting. as far as i know, the Nikon is prised in this range, but not sure about this.

to price it logically, the price must be reduced by 25% or the priced of the other teles must be increased the same amount, so its our guess what canon might do if the new lens wïll be no success

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Lenses / Re: Poll: Most Wanted New Lenses of 2013.

« on: May 07, 2013, 03:06:41 PM »

maybe a 6mm FF fisheye with 220° angle of view, as nikkon had decades ago.... a modestly sized 5.6 version would be enough... no montrus f2.8 version)

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Lenses / Re: 85 1.2mk3 anytime soon?

« on: May 06, 2013, 02:34:25 AM »

What i would like to see is weather sealing,inner focussing and f1.0 but honestly i guess your right probably a long way off so i think i will wait till august and go for it

85 1.0 would need a 85mm front element at least. if you search better IQ then 1.0 will do much worse than 1.2 or 1.4, compromises quickly increase. Further, costs would increase dramaticly, not only profit. If we look back the last years, openings of new versions were slower not faster, in my opinion for two reason, first to make IQ improvements possible and second to improve profit.

At unliked DXO there is an article which tries to proofe, that sensor efficiency lowers below f=2.0 dramatically, and that the cameras compensate this by improoving ISO secretely. If this is true, the only gain from a lens below f1.4 is shallower depth of field, which makes almost all of the picture blured, so border sharpness doesnt matter as much as for other applications.

Taking this into account makes the currrent version of this lens look even better and even more specialised compared to the f1.8 version.

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Lenses / Re: Buy EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II now or wait until September?

« on: March 12, 2013, 06:35:39 PM »

I bought my 55-250 for $199 on Amazon with an Xsi and 18-55 several years ago. The round (NOT petal) lens hood fits both lenses and causes a round solid vignette on the wide end of the kit lens.

A bent paper clip fits into an electrical outlet, too...just because something 'fits' doesn't mean it's the right fit.     The correct hood will not vignette.  The 18-55 takes the EW-60c (the 'W' is for wide angle), the 55-250 takes the ET-60 (the 'T' is for...you guessed it...telephoto). I presume you used the ET-60 on your 18-55, and that's why you got vignetting. The EW-60c fits on the 55-250, also...and would be totally useless in terms of protection from flare.

I do not know who to believe now.

Of course, you should believe the outfit trying to get you to buy their 3rd party hood, because the company that makes the lens clearly doesn't understand how to design a hood to match the lens they designed.

Sounds like you really want a petal hood.  It'll look so much cooler and fancier than the one designed by Canon, making you look like a cooler, fancier photographer.  How you look is more important than the pictures you take, anyway. So please, just get the petal hood. Be sure to do a lot of focusing from close subjects to far ones, while people watch. You will want to call lots of attention to that petal hood as it rotates with the front element. Heck, maybe it won't even vignette when it does that. Also, I really like the convenience of the screw-on one the guy in the first video bought, too. You should get that exact one, because not only will you look like a better photographer, it'll be a lot easier than the pesky, reversible bayonet mount Canon has for that lens. </sarcasm>

Just get the Canon hood or a knockoff that looks like the Canon hood, mmmm'k?

Hi Neuro,

I had a highlight reading your advice carefully, so i am now little less stupid than before, but serious, its one of the better sarcastic posts i read here

But i have a copletely different problem, which is killing me. I urgently need to buy some lenses, but need advice which one would be best for my needs. I mostly shoot lenscaps and brickwalls, so i need the sharpest lens with best colour and contast and ultra fast AF. My problem i already have all L lenses, and the normal ones are not cool speaking about? so what else can i by to improve the artistic value of my photoraphy?

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Lenses / Re: Recommendations for fast & sharp 24 ff prime?

« on: March 05, 2013, 05:48:53 AM »

What is sharp, what is fast?

- 24 1.4: is fast, but has weeknesses at large apertures (vignetting > meens not fast at the edge) and comas.
- TS/e 24: sharp but not fast, manual Focus.
- replace 24-105 by 24 -70: faster ans sharper
- the new 24 2.8 is: faster ans sharper

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Canon General / Re: What am I doing wrong???

« on: February 25, 2013, 06:09:33 AM »

if you let the camera choose the focus point, it will choose use the one with the closest subject. on a face it will focus the nose not the eye.

i shoot portraits with one point focus and ai servo, if i dont have to recompose. maybe it helps to only let the camera choose cross-type points.

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Canon General / Re: With the Yen plunging, will we see price drops now?

« on: February 23, 2013, 05:46:29 AM »

wi wont see price drops, but profit increases.

price is as high as customers are ready to pay.

a jeans costs less than 10$ to produce and is solld between 100 and 200$. no corelation to costs at all, just market production.

if anything is not producable at prices for which it can be sold it will not be produced, for example a 1200 f 5.6 is

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Lenses / Re: African Safari Lens Help

« on: February 12, 2013, 12:13:23 PM »

I was on safari in south africa 2 years ago, with my wife who also shot.

we had with us:

- 50d
- 5d mkii
- 300 2.8is (+ 2xiii)
- 70-200 4 is
- 24-105
- 17ts
- ex 580
- strong tripod with gimbal
- enogh cards and batteries

All of this fits in one backpack which goes as cabin baggage, its weigts about 15kg

Most of the time we used 50d with 300 w/wo 2x and 5d with 70-200 or 24-105. The flash was used for some snapshots of humens (i didn't flash animals) and 17mm for some landscapes and in cities. In low light the 300mm was used on the 5d

keep things as simple as possible and dont shoot to many dublicates, it makes less sense to have two similar lenses on two different bodies, better complement each other. With this said, the 300mm is worth gold, and the wider perspective is done with the other body. If one body breaks only one person can shoot, but the other one can spot and help change lenses.

Dust was no problem, we just had a professional cleaning set, but one must practice to use it in advance.

Practice with 600mm on crop, its not easy to find and track the "target" if it moves, just try to shoot some common birds for practice.

In doubt dont use the extender, in critical light its better to crop the final image than to shoot at high iso and add motion blur and camera shake.

Dont forget to enjoy your trip with your eyes not just trough the viewfinder.

With some training i was able to carry the backpack with me the whole day, but it was the limit.  i wouldnt have liked to carry a bigger tele, or additional lenses.

Viewing back, i would have left the flash at home and taken a fast 50mm with me instead, we missed some impressive night action because i didnt have it.

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Canon General / Re: some money left. what should I buy?

« on: December 19, 2012, 05:21:59 AM »

I have got:
2 x 1DX
5DMKII
60D
24-70 L 2.8 II
70-200 L 2.8 II IS
24-105 L 4.0 IS
70-200 L 4.0 IS
17-40 L 4.0
100 2.8 L Macro

Difficult but nice question if you dont tell us what you want to shoot with. From what you have I think you shoot some action and general  stuff, but thats just estimate. Further you have mostly zooms. 

For me, i would sell dublicates. Sell 24-105 and one of the 70-200's. This gives you another 1500.-

now it depends what dou you want to do, or do yOU just want to have (yes thats legitime)

- I would replace the 17-40 by a 16-35
- I think the 5dii you need really seldom. If you need it often, the 5d3 is amazing.
- For Landscape and in citys the ts-e17 is really nice, the ts-e24 is even better optically, depends on the needs which is more useful
- For action a bigger tele (prime) might be nice
- For available light some fast primes may be nice, 24 1.4, 35 1.3, 50 1.4, 85 1.2

Thats all together far above yoour budget, its just to choose from

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Lenses / Re: History Lesson: Canon FDn 1200 f/5.6L 1.4x Lens Images

« on: December 10, 2012, 07:29:04 AM »

Hallo M.ST.

Wow great for you that you have to possibility of owning one of the rarest and most exotic lenses.

I would also like to ask you for a comparision of this lens with other lenses, maybe the 600 + 2x or the 800+ 1.4x.

Nowhere in the web are any informations about the optical quality of this lens, just the specs whick are spectacular without any doubt. Maybe Mr Carnathan from "the-digital-picture.com" would like to shoot his standard comparisions with this lens.

Thanks in advance for sharing :-)

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Lenses / Re: Quick decision help: canon 24 vs zeiss 21

« on: December 07, 2012, 06:29:50 AM »

I dont know the Zeiss lens.

- The Canon has huge coma wide open. At night with bright lights in Background, i would recommend to stop it down to 2.0 or better 2.8. then its really sharp. the huge vignetting in the outer part of a FF shot can be fixed in software, but that means the same as using higher iso and less opening.

- I use this lens wide open only for events, where the outer part is out of focus anyway. then the AF is essential, as in bad light i cant get focus manually on moving subjects.

- Stopped down the lens is tack sharp and has no distortion, in opposite to the standard zooms. i would suppose the zeiss offers the same stopped down for landscapes, so this is no real Advantage for the canon.

Fazit: if you want to use the lens for events in low light as well (and can accept toe optical compromises wide open vs the compromises of high iso stopped down) i would go with the canon, otherwise i dont know because i never used the Zeiss.

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EOS Bodies / Re: When will we have a full frame body below $1,000?

« on: November 26, 2012, 04:28:31 PM »

That day will come...
And the day mobile phones become FF will also come..just a matter of time i believe...

Its mor likely that a FF (or crop) camera gets a smart phone integrated than vice versa... just simply because people would call a smart phone with a Ff lens attached a camera and not a phone.... thats optics and not speculation on manufacturing costs

13

Lenses / Re: "Affordable" telephoto lens for wildlife

« on: November 21, 2012, 07:59:40 AM »

I can barely understand what you are trying to write? The 300mm 2.8 is way out of my budget, but the F4 is affordable and a good lens. As I've read other places, the 300mm F4 combined with a 1.4x extender will work ok, but might not work with the 2.0x? I have a 5D Mark II

I am sorry if i expressedm me unprecisely. I speek from my own expierience, we were in south africa for wildlife shooting 4 weeks.

if i look at the costs we had to pay for this trip, 4000$ for the aquisition of the 300 2.8 was not the major expense. this it if course different if you shoot wildlife next to your home if tehre is some (i dont know where you live)

After such a trip you can resell such a lense if it was a one time use, but i kept it because i hope to go additional times. Yes i would have liked to have a 600mm lens, but i didnt bye one for the same reason as you. if you consider a 70-200 ii its already hald the price, then the difference becomes even smaller compared to the costs of the trip.

the disadvantage of the "big" glasses it that you cant leave them allone in third world countries, means you lug the equipment even on a city walk.
 
If you need more reach than you can afford with your FF camera, maybe a second crop camera is an option, a 50d is available cheaply and has the best AF below a 7d.

because you reported that you tried a 600 ii i assumed that you have a dream and maybe oyou may be working at a solution to make this dream true, in ignorance of your "budget". Thats why i wrote about the 300 2.8 as a more affordable compromise :-)

14

Lenses / Re: "Affordable" telephoto lens for wildlife

« on: November 21, 2012, 04:57:27 AM »

If I may squeeze in a question: How's the Canon EF 300mm F4L IS USM with the 1.4X III or 2.0X III extenders?

Yes that may be a dream, but its dangerous to think about toys like this one. but maybe half way between would be a used 300 2.8 is i with a 2x converter. you have a 2.8 lens in bad light, great AF at 2.8, and e good 600 5.6 but for this you need a good tripod, a really good one. Compared to a 600 ii its really affordable, and anyway better than every consumer telezoom.

15

Lenses / Re: Help!! 17 TS-E vs 16-35 II vs 17-40 vs 14II vs. Tokina 16-28 2.8 for Landscapes

« on: November 15, 2012, 11:55:01 AM »

Hi everyone!

So I am leaving in 24 hours! to go to Washington and Portland OR. I shoot with the 5d mark II.  I went nuts and bought the 17 TS-E, the 17-40 and 16-35 II and I am trying to decide which ones to keep and take along with me on the trip.

I am not experienced with TS-E but understand the main concepts and like how sharp they appear to be in the corners vs the zooms. I shoot with a Tripod and don't mind the lack of AF (but would prefer to have it!)

If you take the 24-105 with you, i recomend the ts-e 17. I dont know the zooms, but i had a 10-22 on crop, which matches the 16-35 s field of view.

Thats why:

If you take half an hour to look at the TS-e before your trip you'll know how to handle it. Without using tilt and shift it behaves like a really fine 17mm MF Lens. Focus confirmation in the Viewfinder is fine from f5.6 on, so you can easily use it handhold from f5.6 onwards.

With shift, metering fails which is tricky if you use flash, otherwise meter without shift, go to manual mode, set the metered result manually, shift and shoot. This needs 10 sec.. With flash you have to control the flash and the camera manually, i use try and error method for this. This needs time, but you are far beyound of what the zooms can do. If you take panorama shifts in consideration, you have a (multi shot) 11-17 FF Zoom, at least for static subjects.

With tilt, you have to set focus and tilt angle manually depending from each other, which is an iterative process. For this, i need tripod and several minutes of time. But you can take pics which no other equipment can.

The whole between 17mm and your 24-105 isn't that big, i can easily accept this compromise and don't need the 17-24mm zoom range.

Disadvantage of the TS-e is that its front element attracts rain drops, which means in rainy weather you need an assistant who holds the umbrella.

If you can take in comlete only one lens with you, i would take one of the zooms, as 17mm is really wide and not suitable for all shots, together with the 24-105 i'd take the TS-e, you can learn a lot and have lots of fun.