Messages

1

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon Cannot Keep Screwing It's Customers Over

« on: December 23, 2012, 06:05:21 PM »

I don't like it and I don't love Canon like I might but the next best option is Nikon and their lens range is crap in comparrison to Canon's. 

is that so...?

care to explain why.. and how can joe mcnally be such a better photographer then you ...with all these crap lenses?

Sorry, I don't know who Joe Mcnally is and whether he is a better photographer than me. Perhaps he is a god to some and not to others - photography is such a subjective interest isn't it. My point regarding Nikon's lenses is that their range is crap in comparrison to Canon's. Look at all the popular primes and zooms from both parties and compare them. Canon's RANGE is vastly superior - perhaps that's a subjective statement too. I'm not a fanboy and could happily switch if I felt someone else were producing a better product but they aren't. Bodies - maybe but lense range - not. 

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EOS Bodies / Re: Canon Cannot Keep Screwing It's Customers Over

« on: December 23, 2012, 03:29:04 AM »

Personally I love what Canon brings to the market but their prices for new gear of late has been outrageous. I haven't been stung - I bought a 5dMK2 just as the 5D3 came out so actually I got a good deal. I wouldnt spend that much on a body - much rather have last year's body and a top lens.

My biggest concern is for people who bought the 5D3 thinking it was the replacement for the 5D2, so they bought it and then Canon announce the 6D. I thought that was borderline misleading the customer, particularly as the 5D3 was significantly more expensive but carried the 5D lineage.

Also the 6D has built in wifi and GPS - that's got to be a kick in the balls for some 5D3 owners.

Make no mistake - Canon is charging its customers for the lost revenue caused by the 2011 tsunami.

I don't like it and I don't love Canon like I might but the next best option is Nikon and their lens range is crap in comparrison to Canon's. 

3

Lenses / Re: Thinking about a 17-40 f4L USM. Thoughts?

« on: November 03, 2012, 12:47:52 AM »

I would not judge a lens' built quality by the looks and feels, until you actually experience the impact or any unwanted damages to it.

Quite right. Let's all smash our lenses on the ground and see how well built they really are. Presumabley you have done this to all of your lenses in order to determine that the 17-40 is the worst?

I have both the 24-105 and the 17-40. They are both very useful on a fullframe. The 17-40 is better than the 24-105 throughout their cross-over range, but that's not to say the 24-105 is a bad lens. They are both terrific but the 17-40 has much less field curvature than the 24-105 so for landscape is much better. Also the 17-40 produces a kind of punchiness to images that I really like. Sharpness doesn't mean a thing if it doesn't have that bubbley contrasty pop that this lens has. Personally I'm yet to see any CA of any concern from mine and light fall-off? it's an ultrawide lens - deal with it. It's just a really well engineered piece of kit and for the money you can't go wrong. I love mine!

4

Pricewatch Deals / Re: Big Canon EOS 5D Mark II Price Drop Coming

« on: October 01, 2012, 12:45:03 AM »

The price of the 5D2 now makes it an absolute no-brainer for those considering full frame on a budget. Why wait for the 6D?

Better still - get a 2nd hand 5D2 and a brand new 24-105 f4L for less than the price of 5D3 body.

Definitely a good time to be in the canon full frame market for sure.

5

Canon General / Re: Is it time for the "CEO" of Canon's DSLR division to resign?

« on: September 18, 2012, 04:09:39 PM »

These threads are just getting more and more hilarious to be honest.

What a shame...

6

Canon General / Re: Loving Canon right now.

« on: September 18, 2012, 01:57:24 AM »

I reckon Canon are secretly miffed with all these newbies with too much money who bleat about bad AF and want more predictive and complicated systems in their cameras. Go buy an EOS1n with it's 5 AF points and run some films through it and learn how to focus properly. It's easy, you just need to understand the principle of depth of field.

Whoomp, there it is!  It never takes long... you guessed it... it's the "go learn how to use your gear and be a better photographer like me" post.  Love it.

I didn't say "like me" but I did mean like most people who don't rely on Canon to take their pictures for them. I think a lot of photographers are handing the creativity over to Canon and relying on them to make up for their shortcomings, like not being able focus in the same manner in which professionals have been doing for the last 50 years.

More af points means more fiddling with the controls and hoping the processor works out what you want it to focus on. That's all I'm saying.

The one thing I will say however is that I think it is very cheeky of Canon not to put the GPS in the 5D3.   

7

Canon General / Re: Loving Canon right now.

« on: September 17, 2012, 10:56:29 PM »

I've got no issues with where Canon are headed right now and I like the 6D. People want ground breaking upgrades? Go mirrorless - that's where the true innovation is going to come from. Sensor technology for DSLRs is pretty much peaked now and YOU WILL NOT SEE MASSIVE UPGRADES IN IQ FROM NEW BODIES. Incremental improvements here and there maybe yes but the 5D2 was and always will be the ground breaker - it will never be surpassed in terms of what it bought to photographers in one huge dose. Get over it!

Nikon's DSLRs are great on paper but how will they perform in the real world? How tactile are they? How good is the glass? How much is the glass? How many AF points do you really need?

I reckon Canon are secretly miffed with all these newbies with too much money who bleat about bad AF and want more predictive and complicated systems in their cameras. Go buy an EOS1n with it's 5 AF points and run some films through it and learn how to focus properly. It's easy, you just need to understand the principle of depth of field.

I fear that the biggest issue is not the equipment that Canon are producing here but the new generation of photogrpahers who don't understand the basic principles of taking a picture.

 

8

EOS Bodies / Re: Describe the 6D in one word...

« on: September 17, 2012, 05:59:43 AM »

Looks like a great little camera to me. Some 5D3 owners will be miffed though - it's got built in GPS and LAN which I guess is pretty useful to some. It's a neat little camera, looks well built and I'm sure the image quality will be excellent.

Rebel upgraders are going to flock to this camera.

Full frame is full frame - that's the killer. It's a compact little full frame rebel - marvellous really.

9

EOS Bodies / Re: 6D or 5D Mk II

« on: September 17, 2012, 05:45:10 AM »

I've recently bought a 5D2 and having seen the price of the 5D3 and the specs of the 6D I can honestly say I'm pretty happy with where I'm sitting.

As for the people who suddenly think Canon are crap - yeh go and buy a Nikon, please just go and buy one!

10

Animal Kingdom / Re: Need help - photographs on dull days

« on: September 09, 2012, 04:56:35 PM »

Personally I would like to see how this image would have come out with a polarising filter over the lens. Yes you need to speed things up due to the light loss but it doesn't look like lack of light would be a problem in this case. It's not actually a bad image considering the bright background and dark colours of the subject - it needs straightening and cropping more than anything. Try a polariser next time?

All the editing seems to do is render the sky unnaturally.

11

Lenses / Re: A New EF 400 f/5.6L Before Photokina? [CR1]

« on: September 04, 2012, 12:29:45 AM »

If this were true I would expect Canon to release the new 100-400 at the same time. That would cover all the bases for this range. Expensive zoom with IS and less expensive prime with no IS but sharper at 400mm.

Wishful thinking!

12

Canon General / Re: Do you feel your photos have improved proportionally to the cost of your gear?

« on: August 31, 2012, 03:26:16 AM »

For me, the biggest jump in quality came when I started using fast primes. I'm not sure you'd have to spend a lot of money to achieve that though. The difference between shooting at f5.6 and f1.8 is immense regardless of the sharpness of the lens and cost of the body.

I have a 5D2 and 2 L lenses. They are beautiful pieces of equipment which I sometimes just like to admire and polish them. They are marvellous pieces of engineering but if you want to improve your photography, get into fast primes is my advice.

13

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon EOS M System Announced

« on: July 24, 2012, 03:39:42 AM »

I've got to say that whilst I have no interest in the EOS-M body, I can appreciate that people like me are not Canon's main target audience.  My main concern with this launch is the lack of lenses announced with it.  My "hoped for" launch would have been:

• two bodies: this one and higher end model;
• three zooms: the EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM (collapsible would have been nice), an EF-M 55-150mm(ish) f/4-5.6 IS STM and an 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM;
• three primes: three fast pancake lenses.  I won't specify focal lengths or apertures, as we could all argue over this until the cows come home!

Of course, this would have been living in dreamland! In the real world, we might have hoped for

• two bodies (camera companies seem to be more keen on bodies than lenses!)
• two of the zooms
• one or two primes

In reality, we got one body, one zoom and one prime, not exactly a solid commitment to the system from Canon! This wouldn't be a problem, except that they're the last to the party; we weren't even given a roadmap.  What incentive is there to invest into EOS-M when micro-4/3rds is now so well established, Sony are starting to look strong, Fuji are pitching to the enthusiast, and even Samsung have a pretty good lineup.  I certainly wouldn't buy into this system based upon EF lens compatability, because we all know they're mostly pretty unsuitable for mirrorless cameras (too big and with poor AF speed).  I'm sure that Canon had this in mind when they launched the new EF 18-135mm IS STM and 'shorty-forty', but I don't think they're anywhere near as compelling (for their target audiences) on EOS-M as they are on their native format. 

Canon have now shown the hand that many people have been waiting to see before they committed to a system.  That hand is pretty weak at the moment; they need to keep up the momentum as the EOS-M system currently risks fading into obscurity once the hype from the launch is over (like Nikon '1' has).  If they haven't got anything else (mirrorless) to show at Photokina, there are going to be a lot of people buying into rival systems.  If that happens, then Canon had best hope that mirrorless is a fad and not the future, or they will have truly blown their market position.

I would be surprised if they didn't announce more lenses in the next month or so and probably even another body. They'll drip feed this new system over the next few months and hog the limelight for all it's worth. This is just the beginning and Canon will have a mirrorless package to compliment your DSLR and you simply wont be able to resist going out and spending 1500 bucks.

Canon know our minds - they have mind control!

14

Landscape / Re: Need critique please

« on: July 15, 2012, 10:48:58 PM »

I think the image is fine under the circumstances whereby you can't go back and take another. You want to make the best of what you have.

I would straighten the horizon and crop the image in a 5:4 landscape format getting much tighter to the sign and house (cutting out the cars on the left) and still catching a large chunk of sky yet cutting out the area of extreme glare where the sun is. I'd just darken it a tiny bit too.

If you crop so that the sign is in the bottom right corner of the image it will lead your eye toward the house.

Good luck

15

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D mk II still a viable option?

« on: June 13, 2012, 09:30:56 PM »

I've owned a 30D, 5D1 and now have a 5D2. Once you go full frame you will never look back - fact!

The 5D2 is a massive upgrade from the 5D1 in terms of functionality (live view, better LCD, customisable control, raw size control, the list is endless) but the 5D3 from what I am seeing is not such a quantum leap in technology or quality. I honestly could never justify the huge price difference between the 5D2 and 5D3 particularly as I have never had a single problem with the AF. 

Pound for pound, the 5D2 has to be the best value DSLR currently on the market. Buy one before they run out of stock!