Messages

1

Landscape / Re: Jippieeee! It's spring! Post your first spring pictures here.

« on: May 17, 2013, 06:44:27 AM »

Any feedback is welcome.  I'm still new to this whole photography thing.

Great Shot, love the colors.

 

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Landscape / Re: Jippieeee! It's spring! Post your first spring pictures here.

« on: May 16, 2013, 03:22:24 PM »

Here's one from me.

3

Lenses / Re: EF 100-400 Replacement in 2013? [CR2]

« on: April 30, 2013, 09:46:26 AM »

...could be a marketing nightmare selling expensive zooms coming out at the same time (approx) with overlapping focal lengths..

Yeah, that makes sense.  I'm sure VW and Chrysler are just as worried about the marketing nightmare of internal competition from their Porsche and Mercedes subsidiaries.  Just like the 100-400 vs. 200-400, there's bound to be a lot of overlap in the customer base.

Off topic, but Mercedes never was a subsidiary of Chrysler. Daimler bought 92% of Chrysler's shares (I believe in 2003?) and then the company was named DaimlerChrysler, but they split in 2007. Daimler (and Mercedes as well as it is only a brand of Daimler) are now completely separated from Chrysler, just as they used to be before 2003.

Besides of that, I completely agree with your opinion.

I worked there in 1998 and it was DaimlerChrysler. Jurgen Shcrempp was the Head boy form the EU.... They might have been bought a year or two earlier.

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Lenses / Re: EF 100-400 Replacement in 2013? [CR2]

« on: April 29, 2013, 09:56:45 AM »

I'll go on record... here: 

Canon will price it higher than the Nikkor equivalent... 

I would not be surprised if the initial price is in the $3500 region....

Hopefully once they have a production surplus, then 2500 might be feasible in a couple of years.

5

HDR - High Dynamic Range / Re: Post your HDR images:

« on: April 27, 2013, 10:04:50 AM »

Shot about 30 minutes before sunrise.  Canon 5D Mark III and 24-70 2.8L II lens, on a tripod, using mirror lockup, a remote shutter release and 5-shot bracketed exposure.  Initial tone mapping done with Photomatix Pro.

One of the most inviting HDr's I have seen in a while. Great taste!

6

EOS Bodies / Re: Why not higher resolution video?

« on: April 26, 2013, 12:33:40 PM »

Pixel binning is a form of resizing, so yes If I took an 18 or 22mp still and resized it to 2 mp, I am pretty sure it would look better and crispier than if I paused a 1080p feed. Maybe I did not explain myself better before.

There are a couple of reasons why a single frame from 1080p won't look as good as a 2mp still, and I'm pretty sure a lack of resolution doesn't come into it.

First of all, the video will be compressed very differently from a jpeg - its not just lossy compression of areas of the image, but between frames too. Secondly, when set optimally, the shutter speeds will be very different between the two. Typically with moving subjects, in a photo you'll want them free of motion blur - in a video, to avoid that stuttering effect, a slow shutter speed is needed (because of the slow frame rate) to allow motion to flow from one frame to the next.

The two really can't be compared, but if video ever gets to the point that NHK were on about - 120fps, higher shutter speeds on each individual frame will be optimal, further narrowing the difference between video and stills. However, current broadcast TV is 25 or 30 fps, so no optimally recorded 1080p broadcast TV will be able to freeze frame to create a still image as good as an optimally taken 2mp photo.

Thanks for the explanation.

What would be the comparison of a static scene (disregarding motion).

7

EOS Bodies / Re: Why not higher resolution video?

« on: April 26, 2013, 09:44:32 AM »

Pixel binning is a form of resizing, so yes If I took an 18 or 22mp still and resized it to 2 mp, I am pretty sure it would look better and crispier than if I paused a 1080p feed. Maybe I did not explain myself better before.

8

EOS Bodies / Re: Why not higher resolution video?

« on: April 26, 2013, 08:37:55 AM »

The other question to ask is why does the current 1080p video frame look so infinitely crappier than the equivalent  2mp still?  If they can give me broadcast quality or better 1080p, people would not be waiting for 4k as much as they are.....

9

Abstract / Re: Bursting Balloons

« on: April 25, 2013, 11:13:52 AM »

Good Work.

I like #3, you can see the pellet at the corner of the frame. 

10

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

« on: April 25, 2013, 10:13:11 AM »

I just purchased this lens last week and can't believe how sharp it is! What a amazing lens! Here is a picture I took with it last weekend of a painted turtle in a wildlife refuge I was hiking in.

Glad you know your Turtles... for if it were a snapping Turtle, it would have showed your 100mm, how sharp "it" is. 

11

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: 135mm f/1.8 DG OS ART Next from Sigma? [CR1]

« on: April 21, 2013, 12:01:00 PM »

Oh my...  If it as good as the 35mm 1.4, I could end up replacing all my primes with sigmas. Never in a million years would I imagine that.

HAHA Ramon, your wish came true... chances are, this won't even cost $2700.

12

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: EOS 5D Mark III Firmware Coming April 30, 2013

« on: April 18, 2013, 03:18:26 PM »

What exactly is wrong with the autofocus at f/8?

Does not exist where min aperture falls above F5.6 with phase AF at the moment... this change will bump it up to F8. This not you setting aperture in cam, but open wide (what the cam does when assessing AF). When capturing the image, the Cam will reduce F to whatever level you chose... the limitation still is what the value is wide open.

13

PowerShot / Re: SX50 outperforming 5DIII +100-400mm

« on: April 18, 2013, 12:03:23 PM »

A bit of optimal processing brings them even closer. For years the best sensors for noise per area were Canon P&S sensors, hard to believe I know, but if they had made a FF sensor using the P&S technology we'd have been using 200MP+ sensors with backlight performance for a while.

spot metered?

14

PowerShot / Re: SX50 outperforming 5DIII +100-400mm

« on: April 18, 2013, 11:18:48 AM »

Who knows, I might sell my 100-400mmL

I have a 5diii, and I got the SX50 for birding and for my daughter. The superzoom is not DSLR class, BUT, it can reach with decent quality, objects I cannot otherwise without plonking serious cash in lenses for the 5diii.

While I remain impressed with it's reach, what got me was the DR..

Let me explain, I don't mean it has more DR than the 5diii, but that it almost seems to compress DR to fit the camera's abilities... meaning, on a sunny Day with harsh light (high contrast scene); the 5d3 will blow the highlights if I meter for the shadows, but the SX50 does nto seem to blow highlights especially in people shots.. I find this strangely amusing...

(granted in PP I could get the 5d3 image close to what the SX50 does without PP) but that is a separate issue. Right off the Camera, image of the SX50 have more viewable DR than the 5D3 or so it seems.

I am sure there is some Digic mishmashing going on...  but I wonder if this sensor has more DR or not.

15

Lenses / Re: Trading my Canon 70-300 L for a 70-200 2.8 L ?

« on: April 15, 2013, 02:22:32 PM »

the 70-300L is as sharp as the 70-200 mk.ii wide open.  With TC's the 70-200 will get you 280mm but less sharp than the 70-300L @280mm... even less sharp with 2x TC... but you get some extra length. As long as you are ok with that, it should work.

The 70-200 2.8 mk.ii is an amazing zoom... but it is only 200mm for your plane spotting.

The 70-300 is light and sharp... I used to own one.