Topics

1

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Why is my 5D3 so noisy???

« on: May 23, 2013, 07:04:57 PM »

I've been seeing a LOT of my shots lately, come out with a ton of noise, on stills  and even video it seems.

This is is at ISO4000, and I've seen others post at this high with no problems like I'm seeing.

This is one of many, I've got some that were ISO 1000...and just as noisy and grainy as this one.

I've not altered this at all, straight out of the camera, underexposed, etc....but even with post I can't fix this.

Any suggestions what I've got going wrong here that causes my 5D3 to be so noisy?

Thanks in advance...I'm still (obviously) quite the noob.

cayenne

2

Lighting / Ok, I just snagged a 600EX-Rt, now what? (Questions on use, and going forward).

« on: May 22, 2013, 03:35:18 PM »

Hi all,

Thanks to the forum here, I snagged a refurb 600EX-RT from Canon. (I'm still trying to figure out why they charged me freakin' sales tax on an online store, I've not heard of a Louisiana Canon B&M store here, but I digress).

So, first thing, I'm reading through the strobist site and doing research. First think I'm painfully aware of, that except for some instances of bouncing light off the ceiling, and having the little card catch some light off that for face fills on that type shooting, you're never really wanting to use the flash on camera.

So, question one:
Does this flash come with some type cable to hook to the hotshoe to the flash, to allow you to shoot with camera in one hand, flash in the other?

Question two:
Looking a the Canon ST-E3-RT. I found it on amazon.com for $299 shipped, that's not a bad price is it? If so, that starts me off well for this and future growth with flash off camers.

Questions three and more:
For quick multi-flash setups...starting out before I can buy the ST-E3-RT or another Canon RT speedlight...would I be able to get some cheaper flashes right now to use with this flash?  For instance, I'm thinking of trying to learn manual shooting (based on a great CreativeLive class the other week), could I get something like the Yongnuo YN-560 Speedlights, and have them fire off (optically?) when they sense the main 600EX-RT go off?

I've seen refurbs for those in the $55 shipped range..and thought this might be a neat way to get3-4 more flashes to play with cheaply to use with my new purchase right off to bat, which again, would be cool for learning to shoot flash manual...and would hold me till I can save to get more RT controlled canon ones in the future.

Thoughts?

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

cayenne

3

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Suggestions for shooting Pinball: Machines and a Tournament ?

« on: May 20, 2013, 04:23:35 PM »

Hello all,

I have a canon 5D3 and the following lenses:
70-200mm f/2.8 II
24-105mm f/4 (kit lens)
17-40mm f/4
85mm f/1.8
All above is Canon
I have a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8

I have no flash as of yet.

Now, here's the thing. What are some good techniques for shooting pins? They are lit themselves of course (when turned on). I will have chances to take shots when the lights in the room are on (florescent), but there will also be times with the lights mostly out, and they have different lights all around the place (spinning colors, some xmas type lights around the walls of the place, etc

I will be wanting to shoot the games, the backglass will be shot. I've tried some HDR with this, and hit helps 'some'...the anti-ghosting is nice with this to help with the changing displays on the more modern machines. Not as much a problem with the old EM (Electro-Mechanical)....

I'm wondering if there is any good way to shoot the playfields? They often have some much glare on them, is there any technique I could try to minimize this shy of having them remove the glass for some shots?

I'd also like to get some action shots with people playing....not with actual tournament play, but maybe stage some with some of my stands and clamp lights I have...suggestions for how to light that with non-strobe lights? Most everything I have is same color temp, about 2700K that I used for my cooking videos I shoot.

Anyway, I'm looking for some suggestions/advice/pointers on shooting some challenging subjects in an often challenging environment with regard to the room lighting. How could I best use this to create some fun images?

Thank you in advance,

cayenne

4

Software & Accessories / 5d3+70-200mm: Is there a Sling Bag that can handle this + one other lens?

« on: May 18, 2013, 10:44:42 PM »

Hi all,

I'm looking to get a simple sling type bag, that I could use for going to concerts here in NOLA.

I'd like to be able to have my 70-200 IS f2/8 II lens on it at times and still be able to fit that on the 5D3 body in the bag along with maybe one more lens, like a 70-40mm wide angle zoom or something else.

I tried at a local shop today one of the lowepro (sp?) bags and it wouldn't handle the long lens plus 5D3 body.

Can someone recommend one that might work with the big lens plus room for one more and decent access in/out the sling type bag as needed?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

5

Software & Accessories / Opinions of FilmConvert software for video grain/color

« on: May 16, 2013, 05:16:55 PM »

Hello all,

I had such good luck with the NIK plugins when they went on sale awhile back and only took the plunge after the great feedback on these forums.

So, I'm wondering if ya'll could chime in on the FilmConvert software:

http://www.filmconvert.com/default.aspx

Looks like you can get the bundle for about $299.

Watching the examples, it looks like you not only can add some grain in interesting ways, and emulate different film stocks, but looks like this is a quick, down and dirty color grading tool too?

Does anyone have experience with this software, and if so...what are your thoughts? Is this worth the $$? What would other options be that you might recommend looking into?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

6

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Is anyone using ML after the latest 5D3 firmware update from Canon?

« on: May 13, 2013, 03:21:35 PM »

Hello all,

I'm getting ready to do the latest Canon firmware update to my 5D3.

I was also wanting to start testing out Magic Lantern on the camera, then it dawned on me, that that is a bit version dependent on the Canon firmware.

Just wanting to check to see if that was working yet and if anyone was using ML on the new Canon firmware upgrade.

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

7

Software & Accessories / If buying last standalone CS6: Mac or Windows version for longevity?

« on: May 10, 2013, 10:29:24 AM »

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy the CS6 Production suite. I have a macbookpro. I'm wondering which version of CS6 I should buy?

I would prefer the OSX version, however, it occured to me, that with upgrades to OSX, at some point in the not too far future, the Adobe tools might no longer work.

I have VMWare running on this mac, and it can happily run Win7 for the few tools I need windows for....so, wondering since I can more easily 'freeze' Win7 in time with the VM, maybe I should get the windows version.

Am I correct in saying that you HAVE to choose which OS you get for the Adobe tools? That you don't get 'both' OSes for one price? That you have to buy it twice if you want a version for each OS?

Thanks in advance!!

cayenne

8

Software & Accessories / XYZ vs Adobe Photoshop: Which one is the best alternate choice?

« on: May 09, 2013, 03:30:44 PM »

I'll start off by asking...what about
Pixelmator (the latest version just released)  vs Photoshop

What can Photoshop do that Pixelmator is lacking?

Also, can someone tell me what the difference is between:

Photoshop Extended vs Photoshop vs Photoshop Essentials?


Thanks in advance,

cayenne

9

EOS Bodies - For Video / So, has anyone recorded externally hdmi from 5d3 firmware updates?

« on: May 01, 2013, 05:18:43 PM »

Anyone recorded the hdmi out from the new firmware update from 5d3?

What recorder worked best so far?

How was the footages?

Was there anymore 'headroom' for want of a better term in terms of color grading footage?

Can ya'll post some footage taken both ways off your camera for comparison for us to look at?


TIA,

cayenne

10

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Will latest Magic Lantern work with the latest Canon Firmware?

« on: May 01, 2013, 04:55:04 PM »

Anyone tried latest firmware from Canon out with latest ML?


Thanks in advance,

cayenne

11

Software & Accessories / What external 'scratch' disk setup do you use/recommend?

« on: April 24, 2013, 02:38:10 PM »

Hi All,

My set up:
macbook pro (late 2011 model, 16GB ram), Dell U2711 monitor.

Now, as you can imagine, shooting all RAW, making multiple versions of some images in Post...and doing lots of video, editing it...versions after color grading, etc.

Well, I'm eating LOTS of disk space...that's not even keeping in mind, the software I've installed on said computer (aperture, fcpx, plugins, VMware, GIMP...etc, etc).

I'm having a terrible time keeping disk space open. As soon as I finish a project, I just move all the files off to an external single drive I plug into a USB connected drive docking station.

I'm thinking that I need some sort of fairly speedy, maybe dual disk NAS type thing....?  Maybe do it RAID 1 (mirrored) there.

I'm trying to fix up a separate computer to build a freeNAS system for large backups, haven't gotten that up and running yet, but I think for right now...I just need a large, fast disk storage system for holding and working on my current few projects.

Does anyone have a suggestion for that?

My macbookpro, has one thunderbolt connector on it...I'd think that would be the way to go, however, I'm using that with a thunderbolt to displayport cable/adapter...to run the Dell U2711 monitor, and I don't think there is a way to chain off that...?

So, likely firewire or sadly, USB2 is about my only option for connecting....

Anyway, does anyone have a suggestion on what I might look towards?

Thanks in advance!!

cayenne

12

Software & Accessories / Aperture 3 / NIK (and other plugins): How do you access plugins in Full Screen?

« on: March 31, 2013, 05:29:21 PM »

HI all,

I just got the NIK plug-ins special..added them to Aperture 3. I'm in full screen mode, but I can't find how to access the plug-ins there?  I can find them in the menu at the top when in regular view, but I like to stay in FS mode if I can.

Suggestions?

Thanks,

cayenne

13

EOS Bodies - For Video / What's the difference between ALL-I and IPB?

« on: March 21, 2013, 01:36:25 PM »

From another thread I've been on, it kinda came to me that I don't quite know what the difference is between shooting with a 5D3 in ALL-I and IPB.

What is the difference between the two? What are the pluses and minuses of each?

Why do you shoot with what you do with yours?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

14

Software & Accessories / So ProRes 422 is a lossy format? Why would degrade before editing???

« on: March 20, 2013, 09:46:42 PM »

Hi all,

I'm finding out that for some reason, using the 5D3, with ALL-I raw footage in FCPX.....you cannot successfully do the XML roundtrip with Davinci Resolve Lite anymore.

The work around for this, I heard, was to have FCPX create the 'optimized media' which transcodes your footage into ProRes.

I was looking around and found that ProRes is a LOSSY format....so, I'm losing information to do this??
I hear about people using ProRes all the time, are people not freaking out about going to all the trouble to take good HD footage, and then start degrading it when they begin to edit it??

Is there a lossless intermediate codec people work with, preferably one that works in FCPX?

I mean, I don't use mp3's on my home stereo, I rip my stuff to flac, to keep the fidelity there....I'd assume this would be even MORE important for video???

Where am I missing something here?

TIA,

cayenne

15

Software & Accessories / Will the Rode SmartLAV work with recorders other than iPhone/iPod?

« on: March 20, 2013, 08:55:46 PM »

Hi Folks,

I'm looking at the Rode SmartLAV which is to be used with an iPod or iPHone and use the iOS app for it.

I'm looking at this thing and thinking, hey...decent mike for good price, what should stop me from using this thing with say my older ZOOM H2 recorder or any other recorder I might get to use?

It appears to have a standard plug.....

Opinions?

http://www.rodemic.com/mics/smartlav

http://www.smartlav.com

Thanx,

cayenne