Topics

1

Pricewatch Deals / Prices to drop soon for Canon, Nikon....?

« on: October 23, 2012, 04:57:28 AM »

The sky high yen is resulting in almost unheard of monthly trade deficits for Japan.
Japan is now targeting 90 Yen/USD early next year instead of the current 79.
Could result in significant price drops or discounts for Canon, Nikon etc. as they compete for market share.
So folks wait till next year before buying big ticket items and sell your old gear now!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9626542/Japan-to-join-currency-wars-as-exports-slump.html

2

Lenses / New Canon 300mm f2.8 II review...

« on: August 15, 2012, 01:09:59 PM »

New review of this lens together with the the 1.4x and 2x TC IIIs has just been uploaded on juzaphoto - if any one is interested.

Not quite the 300 - 600 universal lens I thought it was!!

3

Lenses / Canon 400/4 DO - why no upgrade?

« on: August 10, 2012, 03:10:25 AM »

With all the big Canons having been re-designed with improved optical performance and IS - the DO stands out for its neglect.

Have Canon come to the end of the line with this particular lens? Is DO a dead end anyway - even though Canon regularly leak hints of "possible" new DOs to come. Or is that all a sham to keep the 400/4 production line open?

Clearly optically inferior to the 300/2.8 nevertheless it is mechanically well made and a comparative lightweight and still has a good following.

Surprised that Nikon haven't introduced their own sharp 400/4 to fill the void.

(Apologies if this topic has already been covered)

4

Third Party Manufacturers / Smaller pixel means more noise can now be laid to rest!!

« on: June 24, 2012, 08:14:27 AM »

So says Professional Photographer in its review of the 36.3 Mp D800.

It says "...performs nearly as well as the...5D Mark III up to ISO 6400 so the idea that a smaller pixel means more noise can now be laid to rest."

The review goes on to say:

"...delivers outstanding results and levels of detail are truly astonishing ....almost as good as medium format...."

"Even the JPEGS are stunning with this camera"

"Highlight detail retained to an extraordinary level"

"The dynamic range is the best on any DSLR..."

Some camera Nikon have here!

Canon have some catching up to do!

5

Animal Kingdom / Welsh Terriers.....

« on: May 09, 2012, 04:23:55 AM »

A couple of photos of two year old sisters - Gwen and Maggie - in their winter coats:





... and brother Bryn after recent visit to the barber!:

6

Lenses / f/2.8 telephoto lenses have better AF than slower lenses?

« on: May 01, 2012, 05:48:45 AM »

This I have culled from www. learn.usa.com (with thanks) about 7D auto focus:

"... the center AF point has a separate diagonal pair of high precision line sensors which provide even greater precision - automatically used with lenses f/2.8 or faster....."

When considering an investment in a big lens is this a consideration ie go for the f/2.8 lens rather than a longer f/4?

7

Lenses / Very long lenses could become redundant...........??

« on: April 25, 2012, 04:21:53 AM »

With high density sensors coming on stream at a fast rate image size on your computer screen increases in proportion to the square root of the Mp.
Thus when (not if!) the current 7D 18Mp is superceded with say a 24Mp sensor (the R3200 already has 24Mp but on a slightly bigger sensor) a 600mm lens becomes equivalent to a 693mm and so on.
Perhaps in say ten years time there will no longer be a need for huge focal length and Canon/Nikon will not make anything bigger than a 400/2.8 with a built in 1.4xTC!
Assuming of course they can do something about improving S/N ratio of those tiny pixels.

8

Lenses / Canon 300/2.8L - non IS

« on: April 22, 2012, 05:15:27 PM »

Does anybody know anything about the history/spec of this lens?
Was there a mark II - non IS version made?
Also any info how sharp these early non IS versions were?

9

Software & Accessories / Film Scanners - any user recommendations?

« on: April 13, 2012, 08:04:45 AM »

I have thousands of old black & white foll film negatives (6x6, 6x7 and few 6x9 and 645 and some 35mm Kodachromes) to scan and upload.

Can anybody please offer recommendations (Canon, Nikon, Fuji etc) for few good ones to choose from - from first hand experience?

10

EOS Bodies / Canon 650D - sensor size?

« on: April 11, 2012, 01:20:04 PM »

Any rumours on the sensor Mp size for this next body in the popular APS-C range - and when it is due out?

The 450D had 12.2 Mp sensor

500D had 15.1 Mp

550D/600D have 18.0 Mp

650D - 22 or 24 Mp?

If you are shooting smallish targets requiring cropping then increasing pixel density on the same sensor must be beneficial to image quality - same size image but more pixels covering it?

11

Lenses / Used 400mm f2.8L IS lenses - good value now?

« on: April 10, 2012, 01:51:04 PM »

Just spotted this lens sold in a London shop for £3450 inc hood and flight bag and warranty - from the photos it seemed fairly described as exc++.

For a used Canon 500/4 - current model in the same condition - the current asking price would be a lot higher.

Surprising particularly as the 400/2.8 has a lot more glass and has the extra stop to freeze the action.

The current 500/4 is a bit lighter but certainly no lightweight.

Perhaps because there are a lot more 400/2.8s around and owners are upgrading to the latest version - available now.

Maybe we can expect a drop in price for used 500/4s when the new model comes available in May - allegedly?

Both are very nice lenses to catch fast moving objects but I am guessing you would get more keepers with the 400/2.8.

And with 1.4X TC I am also guessing that 560/4 images would be better than 700/5.6? Anybody out there who has used/tried out both lenses with a TC?

12

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Memory Cards

« on: April 06, 2012, 02:46:38 PM »

Quite a few available for DSLRs.
Any difference in performance?
In normal but heavy use do they deteriorate (ie image deterioration) after many many actuations?
If this subject has been covered before - apologies.

13

Lenses / Photo lens - aperture vs resolving power....

« on: March 24, 2012, 11:27:46 AM »

For telescope observation it is a well known fact that resolving power is proportional to aperture - all other things being equal of course!

So lenses loose resolving power (ability to resolve fine detail) when they are stopped down. Yes of course in practice there are other factors to consider like colour fringing etc. that force you to stop down a little bit to get the best from your lens.

Just say I am photographing something small like the moon and I am lucky to have the  Canon 400/2.8 and the Canon 400/5.6 to compare side by side with say a 550D.

The /2.8 will have four times the light grasp of the /5.6.

So presumably a much larger image crop is possible with the big lens (ie 4x image area or 2x the moon diameter?) and the /2.8 image crop will still look just as sharp as the smaller crop taken with the /5.6.

As the image of the moon on the sensor is so small than presumably the 550D with its high pixel density will be as good as any other current camera to photograph small images?

I'm sure its not that simple - so if anyone can guide me to a good source of information on this subject I would be much obliged.

PS In practice I would use a fast f4 reflector to get decent sized moon images at a tiny fraction of the cost of a 400/2.8!

14

Lenses / Canon EOS with Nikon Ai-S lenses.

« on: March 15, 2012, 06:20:07 AM »

Before switching to Canon Digital I was a Nikon enthusiast and built up quite a collection of those wonderful manual Ai-S lenses.
I used a Chinese made Nikon/EOS adapter with focus confirm on a Canon 400D.
The results were exceptionally good with fine vibrant colour rendition/no flaring on the following Ai-S lenses I tried: 50/1.8, 135/2.8. 200/4, 180/2.8ED.
A disappointment was the 85/2 (lack of contrast).
The surprisingly good Nikon lens was the lightweight non Ai-S 100/2.8E which gave exceptionally sharp images with fine colour rendition even though it had some fungi in it!
I even tried a friends Nikon 600/5.6 which also gave exceptionally sharp images unfortunately accompanied with a colour cast.
Manual focus on the Ai-S lenses is really nicely damped - much better feel than what you get with digital lenses.
Judging correct aperture/shutter speed comes easy after a few days - use PhotoShop for slight under/over exposures.
Lens jamming? Never had a problem!
And all the lenses reached infinity focus.
If you don't need AF and IS for a particular application then Nikon Ai-S lenses might be the way to go - they seem to last forever!

15

Lenses / Canon 400mm f4 DO lens - any users on this forum with feedback etc

« on: March 14, 2012, 10:14:37 AM »

In theory this should be a wonderful lens - Canon prime, light weight, f4, IS etc., etc.
But reading user comments on fredmiranda etc and elsewhere you get mixed reactions - so it appears things ain't turned out for Canon as intended for this lens.
Shame that Canon did not simply scale up the 300 f2.8 - but that's history!
Read somewhere that later versions of the DO are better than the earlier batches - maybe just rumour.
Would like to know how well it works with a Canon 1.4x TC.
Any users out there?