Messages

1

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: EOS 5D Mark III Firmware 1.2.1 Available for Download

« on: April 30, 2013, 02:45:19 PM »

Is the CF formatting after the firmware update really necessary, or removing the firmware file is enough?

2

Canon General / Re: How to Pre-Visualize like Ansel Adams

« on: March 14, 2013, 10:02:46 AM »

Ok, modified, apologize for it, I deleted the wrong line...

3

Canon General / Re: How to Pre-Visualize like Ansel Adams

« on: March 14, 2013, 09:46:46 AM »

How can someone like Ansel Adams refer to "Pre Visualization" when he descibed the negative as being the score and the print being the performance? 
Much like a maestro that never performs a symphony the same way every time, Adams never developed a negative the same way twice.
That print development is based on one's memory, emotions, at the time of PP.

Adams could never develop a negative twice (no way to duplicate it before developing it... no RAW files then) , and his technique is exactly to understand how to develop each negative (and print it) to achieve the final image you have in mind since the beginning. Adams' technique was developed for single sheet large format cameras, it is tricky to use with roll films unless you can develop each frame separately easily enough, and requires a lot of pre-shoot decisions. It's very different from taking a picture with a good exposition and then taking advantage of actual RAW processing to change it in ways Adams could have never thought of. For Adams, each negative is a different score and thereby requires a different performance. And like a composer, you pre-visualize the music in your mind before writing the score.

4

EOS-M / Re: The Next EOS M? [CR1]

« on: February 24, 2013, 01:09:11 PM »

What is the market for this kind of cameras? Frankly here in Europe I don't see a real demand for relatively "entry level" mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses. The people Canon aims this kind of camera to are usually happy with some fixed lens one with a decent zoom lens, which spares them the need to rummage inside a bag to get another lens and change it - and get also a bag to store lenses within. The Powershot G series covers that market already pretty well. IMHO the buyer of such cameras are those looking for something smaller/lighter than a DSLR to carry around as often as possible, with almost the same power. But they need a more powerful camera than the actual M is. If Canon delivers something with a good viewfinder - but please, not a "removable" one, such kind of cameras needs to be "simple" and fast to use - and a decent lens lineup I'll get one. I don't care if it is full frame or APS-C or whatever - I'll judge the versatility and image quality.

5

Technical Support / Re: Photographing paintings for a Catalogue help please

« on: February 20, 2013, 06:40:19 AM »

Set the 5DIII "pictures style" to "Neutral" or "Faithful" (check the difference in the manual), and then process the images accordingly. Check and set white balance while shooting, you can correct it later but IMHO it's better to start with the right one. The usual light setup is to have lights on the sides so the surface is uniformly lit, and with an angle so no direct reflection is seen by the camera - 45° is a good starting point, but the optimal angle depends on the subject size and camera distance. If there are some direct reflection hard to get rid off, polarize filters could help (also mounted on the light source).

The EOS 5DIII can use both sRGB and Adobe RGB to store its images, just you have to setup your devices and workflow accordingly to ensure proper color management.

Shoot in RAW, perform any needed adjustment in LR, and then convert to TIFF. TIFF can handle very different image formats (including non RGB formats like CMYK), that's why they specify which one they need - guess it means the standard 24 bit RGB with 8 bit per color (TIFF also supports 48 bit RGB images with 16 bit per color)

6

Lenses / Re: Lens recommendations for wildlife

« on: January 29, 2013, 11:53:29 AM »

I am hesitant of a extender setup because I have heard image quality can be pretty bad.

The upcoming 200-400 comes with a built-in 1.4x extender, thereby extender quality may not be that bad. An extender will degrade the image a bit, but a lot depends on the quality of the lens it is attached to, and the quality of the extender itself.

7

Lenses / Re: History behind the white lens

« on: January 17, 2013, 06:33:53 PM »

http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/activities/atmos1/ColorAndCooling.pdf[/url]

I believe you got it wrong - reread this passage:

"But silvery metals don’t work like this. They reflect visible light and they reflect infrared too. They don’t absorb it—and, more importantly, they don’t emit it! So, in this experiment, the two cylinders will cool at different rates. The bare aluminum cylinder radiates less and cools rapidly; the white cylinder (and the color doesn’t matter—it could be any color at all!) will radiate more and so it will cool off more quickly."

As long as you paint the lens metal, black or white - it will cool in a different way than unpainted metal. It's the paint that radiates. But the black lens will absorb much more energy - heat - than the white one... and a polished bare metal lens would be a nightmare

8

Lenses / Re: 2013 - The Year for 400mm Lenses? [CR1]

« on: January 17, 2013, 09:55:19 AM »

You might, just might, be able to find a beat-up old EF 400mm f/4.5L for $3K.  If you honestly think a new 400/4L IS will be under $5K, you should see a psychiatrist for a diagnosis, or possibly a rehab clinic to flush out some illicit narcotics...   

Did ever Canon made an EF 400/4.5L? I can't find it anywhere, Canon Camera Museum has no references.

In the '80s the FD 400/4.5 costed slightly less than a third of the FD 400/2.8. Thereby I guess it could be possibile today to deliver an EF 400/4.5 in the $3000-4000 range, which would make it cheaper than the DO. If it could have enough sales it's another matter.

9

EOS Bodies / Re: Older Canon cameras

« on: January 17, 2013, 03:23:14 AM »

Canon A-1 was the top-of-the-line "prosumer" camera in the early '80s, one of the firsts  with both Tv/Av and programmed mode, and digital display in the viewfinder (LEDs, not LCDs...). The T-50 was instead an attempt to make a very entry-level camera, a sort of compact-SLR hybrid, it has only the programmed mode although it can mount any FD lens, and was the first Canon SLR with an embedded film winder (A-1 has a 2fps "winder" and a 5fps "motor" as accessories only) .  The EX is an older model (60s-70s, AFAIK) IIRC it can't take FL/FD lenses but needs its own ones. Of course they can't mount EF lenses.
You can find a lot of information here: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/SLRs/index.htm
Are they worth 200 euro? Depends on the overall conditions, what lenses come with them, and where fungus are and what damage they did, and if you plan to use them, how much restoring will cost. You can check sites like keh.com or ebay to see what are the actual prices for such items.

10

Lenses / Re: History behind the white lens

« on: January 16, 2013, 07:02:58 AM »

AFAIK when there was only "black" lenses many photographers started to cover them with more or less improvised white covers to avoid excessive heating. Canon started to deliver some FD L telephotos in white finish, starting with the larger and more expensive ones - i.e. the FD 300/4 L was black, while the FD 300/2.8 L was white, the FD 400/4.5 was not even an L less although it used UD glasses... probably later Canon understood even cheaper lenses could benefit from the white paint (and the L "signature"), and maybe commercial reasons were important as well.

11

Software & Accessories / Re: Black Rapid and dropped camera?

« on: January 06, 2013, 05:34:12 PM »

The Sunsniper has a strap with a metal cable incorporated to deter theft.

BR has an optional accessory, the ProtectR, to add a metal cable protection to the strap.

12

Software & Accessories / Re: Recommended case for Canon G1X???

« on: December 28, 2012, 03:15:12 AM »

Give a look to the BlackRapid SnapR bags.

13

Lenses / Re: 2013 - The Year for 400mm Lenses? [CR1]

« on: December 16, 2012, 12:55:28 PM »

EF 400 f/5.6L IS (Highly desired)
EF 400 f/4L IS (Not DO)
EF 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS (Not push-pull & patents exists)
EF 200-400 f/4L IS 1.4x (Long known about)

I would prefer a 400/4 or /4.5, even without IS to keep it a little cheaper. It would allow to be used with an extender and easily keep AF working. The FD line had a 400/4.5 (I own one), I wonder why there's nothing between the $1300 400/5.6 and the $6500 400/4 DO.

14

Landscape / Re: Best lens for landscapes for a trip to the mountains?

« on: September 24, 2012, 10:02:32 AM »

Beware a polarizer with a very wide angle may create an unnatural sky, because polarization is maximum at 90° from the sun position and then decreases, in a very wide angle lens can create an unnatural darker stripe across the sky. In such a case, an ND graduated filter can yeld better results. In mountains, anyway don't forget an UV/SKY filter to block UV haze.