Topics

1

Lighting / Buff Einsteins can use any Balcar accessory?

« on: May 14, 2013, 03:23:50 PM »

I have a few Einstein heads and reflectors on the way to me. To my surprise a Buff employee told me during transit that these heads take Balcar accessories. I had not seen that on the Buff website.

Has anyone here tried out (successfully?) Balcar modifiers, reflectors, etc., on the Einsteins? Willing to share your experiences?

I have some modifiers here that require a 6-inch flange of thin metal as a connector/attachment. Now I am searching for source(s) of a Balcar-to-6 inch pieces. Buff doesn't have such a thing. Living way out in the boonies I hope to avoid too much shipping cost to try out possibilities. Looks like Kacey Enterprises has one excellent alternative sold specifically for Buff, and I ordered that. Page about this flange shows it on Alien Bees, not Einsteins.

2

Lighting / Stands made for assistant carry/point?

« on: May 03, 2013, 01:00:59 PM »

I want a pole or stand that my assistant can hold to point a small softbox at an event or outdoor shoot that calls for a two-legged-lightstand. Yes, I can offer him or her a folded lightstand but I wonder if anyone has seen a pole with better handle, grip surfaces -- to make pointing, lifting, holding easier?

As I was typing I thought to check Lastolite. They offer this one:
http://www.lastolite.com/extending-handles.php
which seems well thought out.

Alternatives? Experience to share with this kind of solution?

3

Software & Accessories / Moving fm Manfrotto to RSS/Arca-Swiss but still need geared head

« on: April 14, 2013, 10:37:43 PM »

This weekend finally kinda gave up on Manfrotto head/attachments. This is going to cost me but... I plan to switch over to the RSS gear I'll need for simple pano experimentation. I am only interested in single row pano right now, but the panos I tried included a couple that needed a nodal rail. I am losing confidence in Manfrotto, so I figured it was time to switch.

(Searched whole CR forum for posts on geared heads and read everything returned.)

I had trouble getting my whole support combination to stay level through the "swing". Surprisingly my wonderful very heavy old-style Gitzo Tele-Studex 309 seems to have a spirit level that's inaccurate! (I will have to confirm that with some other levels and a known level surface right away.) I had found Manfrotto's L-bracket but trying to use it this weekend found it's a kludge compared to the RSS. I believe it introduced some flex and alignment change. I have a pano rotator from Manfrotto (300N) but think I can stick with that.

The RC4 quick-release is still a little looser than I'd like. Yes, it's better than my RC2 plates but still not great. I was using my Manfrotto 410 geared head with the RC4 plate as the camera attachment -- not rotation. Is there any Arca Swiss standard equivalent? Some searches today turn up nothing. I have seen one shooter say he just bought the clamp "adapter". I do architecture and real estate so want to continue to use a geared head for that.  Is there a geared head for about $300 that uses to Arca Swiss quick release? Yeah, I saw the $1,600 block of goodness that Arca Swiss makes... clients here aren't paying the margins for that.

From my experimentation I take it that the tripod has to offer the rotator a perfectly level plane of swing. Can I just give up a head altogether and have the rotator on the tripod as the "head", then place a nodal rail on the rotator, then, of course, the camera on the rail? That takes a source of error (the head) out of the "stack".

I know I'll need one RSS for each body, so I think I'll stick to one L-clamp for my 1DsMk3.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

jonathan7007

4

Software & Accessories / Anyone find an INTERNAL usb3 CF reader?

« on: March 31, 2013, 06:45:03 PM »

I like my Lexar pop-up USB3 dual-slot reader and its portability has a benefit: I can take it to a shoot but I also want a USB3 front-panel CF reader. 5.25-inch front panel (optical drive slots) would be best. I have a big Cooler Master case on my Win7 production machine.

I have searched and find most also have a lot of useless card reader slots. Some have CF but the fine print tells you that the CF circuit is only USB2. Cooler Master does not offer this for their cases. The ideal configuration is two or four USB3 and a CF + SDXC slots set. (Whatever acronym represents the latest SD standard). There is also the UDMA7 capability to check for each of these units.

Anyone find one of these they'd recommend?

5

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Anyone using UDMA7 cards in 1DsMk3? ...and they work?

« on: March 18, 2013, 04:04:44 AM »

I have recently started using a 1DsMk3. I don't know the manufacture date. I had problems with a Lexar64Gig UDMA7 card. Amazon is sending a new one. But I suddenly wondered if the brand-new standard was not compatible with the older firmware, motherboard, etc.

So to be sure I am asking if 1DsMk3 users have good experience with UDMA 7 cards.

jonathan7007

6

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Did I get an expected result from Reikan FoCal?

« on: March 15, 2013, 01:01:09 AM »

All,
Please comment. I just bought a used 1DsMk3 and saw a consistent "back focus" -- that is, with a few different lenses images appeared to be focused on a point a little behind the intended point of focus... best I could remember, of course, where I asked for focus. Not 100% but a lot of images showed this. 

I own Reikan FoCal and made some time today to test as the sun went toward setting (we rarely have low winds here...) and got through the following lenses: 24-70 v2 (at 70); 70-200 v2 (at 200); and the Sigma 35mm f1.4. The last test was asked to soldier on through what I know was too dim a light. Yes, I know it's best to do this with sunlight.

The results were all positive numbers like 4, 7, and 5, respectively.

So are positive numbers in FoCal consistent with my description/observation of back focus?

I do plan to redo this under better conditions. Hard to get all the factors -- including time -- together. I did like having the test run automatically, as my 5DMk3 has the annoying SDK failings that Reikan tells us are NOT in the 6D camera software.

Thoughts?

jonathan7007

7

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Canon tells me tethered shoots have to go direct to the "C" drive

« on: March 12, 2013, 04:41:12 PM »

Canon told me today tethered shoots have to go direct to the "C" drive...rather than a SSD on the laptop bus but not the C drive. That seems a little restrictive and nowhere mentioned in dialogs. I will look in the documentation...

I have been having tether trouble which now after the call and a card switch, may have been caused by a faulty Lexar 400x 64Gig UDMA7 CF card I recently bought. I would love to think my recent trouble in a liveView shoot was caused, too, by this card. On another nearby thread a 1Ds user said they have tens of thousands of LiveView shutter actuations with ZERO problems. Crossing my fingers that further testing today settles this.

Anyway, the C drive rule was a surprise.

8

Lighting / Inconsistent firing of Strato rcvr by my Odin on a shoot

« on: March 08, 2013, 03:59:34 AM »

I had a little 270 speedlite tucked in the area above a stove for an interior shot of a kitchen. Needed a kick light down on the stove surface. (The articulation of that little head/reflector is a added benefit.) There was some Gorilla tape holding it and the Strato Multi receiver in a corner. Wel, maybe a lot of tape... enough to cover the assemblage. Odin controller was on the top of the camera not far away. Sometimes the 270 would not go off. Sometimes it seemed like it lagged a part of a second behind the flash of the units that had Odin receivers. (I agree that this is hard to judge just by eye...) There are frames with no 270-included flash. Tape the culprit? There's no metal in the tape to act as a shield.

I bought one Strato to try out with the Odins because I usually set up this kind of work with plain old manual settings. I have Vivitars in addition to some Canon speedlites, and these Vivitars are always going to be manual. But I discovered that the Strato will not fire any of the Vivitars. I wrote Phottix to ask why but their first answer shows they are not yet sure what I am asking. I know Stratos are supposed to co-exist with Odins in a complex lighting setup but I wonder if I made a mistake? I need to trigger a Norman studio flash in 9 days for a shoot! (the pack needs a solder connection fixed so have not been able to test it yet.) 

Thoughts?

jonathan7007

9

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Error 30 Experiences? Have you seen this?

« on: March 07, 2013, 11:13:37 PM »

Just bought a second-hand (but one owner) 1DsMk3 and after arrival I tried is with a bunch of my lenses and pixel-peeped to see how it differed from my 5Dmk3. Liked the image at low ISO, which is exactly why I bought it. Oh, and for its great build quality and the long-life shutter.

I have had no other 1-series camera and the shutter on this body sounds sweet to my ears: more mechanical, more authoritative.

But yesterday on a real estate shoot with my 17mm TSE, tethered, I started getting these Error 30 messages on the screen. I believe it told me turn off and on again, too. The body never stopped working, and responded to the power cycle. Shooting tethered I was bringing up the images in Windows Explorer and right clicking to ask them open in ACR... just to check focus and the histogram. But I don't know how tethered operation might have caused -- or highlighted -- whatever is the root cause of the error.

Canon tells me this error is a loose bag of possible shutter issues. I was using an Odin trigger in the shoe but the VA-center tech person said that wasn't likely to be the cause. Ditto tethering, although he asked if I had been in and out of LiveView, which of course I had! I am so bummed. I know these things happen but I *thought* I had purchased this at a reasonable cost and from an enthusiast, not a pro, which meant lower actuation count. No signs of hard use on the body. I believe my cost just went up by $400 (a guess, I admit)

Important shoot on the 16th and despite my CPS fast turn inside the repair operation at Irvine I would have to spend about $100 to go with the fastest shipping service available, and here in rural Hawaii, often, "next day" is not next day either going or coming.

So, given that I MUST have a second body at this important shoot (and that it will be tethered photography of regular folks -- with people and groups stepping in one after the other, I am tempted to wait to send it, explore the body's reaction to all my TSE lenses, try tethered again, to see if there is any recurrence... and still, I guess send it in and pay for whatever repair is necessary at that point. Grrr.

jonathan7007

10

Lighting / Yongnuo vs. Godox battery pack comparison

« on: March 04, 2013, 07:31:35 PM »

Just received and tried a Yongnuo 8-AA pack. Attached to a 550EX this inexpensive ($45) pack is slower than my Godox 820, which is around $140 delivered where I live (many sellers will not ship such items to Hawaii). Not a scientific test. I used 8 freshly-charged PowerEx AAs right out of a Maha charger. The batteries inside the 550 were also just charged.

Cost difference mitigated somewhat by the necessity of buying eight rechargeable AAs to run the cheaper unit.

One benefit unrelated to speed is that longevity at an event, for instance attached to a balcony over your reception area shooting area. And Yongnuo repeats over and over the need to avoid rapid shooting of 20 or more exposures -- for the danger of overheating.

Perhaps others with both can add to this. I will try my 580 with the Yongnuo in a bit, and  make a more quantitative comparison.

jonathan7007

11

Lighting / Phottix Strato Multi turn out not to work with Vivitar 285HV

« on: March 04, 2013, 05:04:04 AM »

Bummer. Bought a Strato Multi II to test expanding a set of Odin receivers intended for my Canon flashes into my existing batch of Vivitar 285HV units. I had hoped this lower-cost rcvr would fire the Vivitars for those interiors that needed "just one or two more flashes". I am posting to see if anyone here ever tried the Strato successfully with these Vivitar 285's. The Odin rcvr *will* fire the Vivitar. Vivitars offer no TTl feedback. There's just one metal connector in the shoe, and eyeballing that spacing it *does* line up with the Strato's center connector.

The Strato rcvr will not fire the Vivitars with the test button, or a pc cord run from the Vivitar into the 3.5mm receptor at the back of the unit.

This may mean I have to buy a few more Canon flashes. I like the lower cost of the Canon 550EX used, but I already had the Vivitars and hoped to use them mixed with my Canons for a little while.

I had also planned to have the Odin controller tell the Strato to fire a Norman studio pack. That pack needs a quick repair -- in a day or so -- before I can test it, but now I am not to so sure it will work.

12

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Will Lightroom/Canon tether with incoming images from a WFT-5 ethernet adapter?

« on: February 12, 2013, 10:10:42 PM »

Lightroom or Canon EOS Utility tethering is always described as a USB cable attachment. There's always the issue of the signal weakened or corrupted by an overly long USB cable...

But what about the [overpriced, I know] WTF-5 adapter? (This piece should be renamed "WTF", given that it costs new what some lenses cost.) I saw one on eBay at $400 and thought I could start watching for a more reasonable unit to use with a 1DsMk3 I hope to buy soon. Architecture, studio, other tethered scenarios. So far I have come up with a pretty reliable cabling but maybe an alternative is a good idea.

So can at least EOS Utility receive images over a CAT5 pipe?

jonathan7007

13

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Back-up and extra body: advantages/disadvantages of 1D-IIIs

« on: January 30, 2013, 02:20:35 PM »

All,
Starting point -- I have three bodies: 5Dmk3, 5Dmk2, and a 30D, which I rarely use. I do this for a living.

I see no new bodies coming soon and don't like the sound of (and the reviews of) the 6D. My desire to get more flexibility and back-up in my bodies was accelerated yesterday when I discovered that my 5Dmk2 shoe doesn't work! I have an evening charity event I am shooting Saturday night and was testing everything.  There are few rental opportunities in my area but I was lucky to find a mk2 I can rent for flash backup.

I am interested in opinions of the trade-offs for a third FF body between another Mk2, a 1DIIIs, and I guess I'd have to consider another (used?) 5Dmk3.

I should say I am disappointed with the focus ability of the Mk3 in certain conditions so am leery of adding another Mk3. Canon can't duplicate the conditions in which I see difficulties in their repair facilities; Canon and I have gone around and around on this already. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth about the variability of the Mk3 bodies.

The 1DmkIIIs would be used for product work, food, landscape, portraits, architecture, tripod work in general, when I have the luxury of lower ISO. At or lower than 400 is my guess, and often using lighting. I think I would want to shoot high-speed-sync in some real estate or architectural work to balance windows (HDR still problematic for this in some conditions.) Further, I read that the skin tones are good on this sensor. Would shoot this body tethered a lot.

Did I read about focus problems on some of these?

 I *don't* get asked to shoot sports.

I get the "old technology" epithet, but we used to buy a couple of used Hasselblads and their lenses and use those for YEARS in billing good day rates. And in a couple of years there may be another Canon to consider. I have to say that the lack of extra DR in the Mk3's low ISOs (over the Mk2) was a big disappointment.

This sounds like a lot of complaining but I am willing to work with the gear as it is... just find the right mix for me. I have never used a 1D.

Thoughts?

jonathan7007

14

Lenses / 300 f2.8 Ser 1 vs. Ser 2?

« on: January 07, 2013, 02:25:14 PM »

All,
There's a used 300mm f2.8L Series 1 available used in my local area for $1200. What were the sharpness improvements in the Ser 2 that I will be giving up? The price seems almost too good. I am planning to get together with the owner carrying my laptop and 5D's for a real-time test of the image sharpness. But Since I already have an OK 300mm f4L (admittedly a pretty old lens, too) I have to feel that selling that and paying another $500-600 for the f2.8 is worth it.

I have no regular work that demands the f2.8 speed right now, but I have had assignments where the extra stop would have been a benefit. However, except for the wow factor of the lens' appearance, no client here on my kinda out-of-the-way Hawaii island would have knowingly paid me a dime more for what I would have delivered for that extra stop, now that I think of it... <grin>

I do have the excellent 70-200 ser2 and a sharp shot at 200 can be enlarged a bit... Hmmm, I seem to be talking myself out of a bid on the 300f2.8.

(My next purchase was to be the Sigma 35mm f1.4, arguably filling a bigger hole in the glass I have.)

Aloha All,
jonathan7007

15

Lighting / Trade off? Canon ext battery pack vs. knock-offs w/8 AA rechargeables?

« on: December 05, 2012, 01:10:52 PM »

I am going to get at least one external battery pack for a few Canon 550's I am putting together as a location kit. ...for events where one unit will be needed for especially fast recycling. Perhaps in the future multiple slaved units would be sped up with such battery packs.

Canon's pack has one big recharged battery and a dedicated charger, it appears. So declining health of that core component affects the usefulness of the whole unit. If AA's weaken I replace just the little battery which has aged. OTOH, I expect that the engineering in the Canon is good.

Thoughts? Experience?

jonathan7007