Messages

31

Lighting / Re: New to off camera flash, any tips/guides for beginners?

« on: December 16, 2012, 10:59:19 AM »

The resources mentioned in all the posts above are excellent. I have been going to Strobist.com for years and have read the Syl Arena book.

Good advice to get an umbrella, umbrella swivel-adapter and a stand. A cord is cheap and handy but the YN-622C's mentioned are excellent for the price.

Start by learning the effects of one light, in close/far from subject and at different angles and power settings. A nice second light source is a reflector. Again, keep it simple when learning as a small change in your setup will be more apparent. Shoot in manual too

32

Lighting / Re: Off-camera flash for 5D3

« on: December 06, 2012, 05:57:54 AM »

Yongnuo YN-622C transceivers: $90 per pair, complete functionality, perfect operation. Why pay more?

I confirmed they do exactly whatever PW's Flex/Min can. ^_^

That sounds GREAT! When you say they can do exactly what the PW Flex/Mini can do, does that include the brilliant Optimized High Speed Sync http://www.pocketwizard.com/inspirations/technology/fp_sync_hss/

Quoting from the PW website, "HSS is a battery hog as it needs a lot of power to pulse the light.  Through extensive experimentation, we found a way to reduce the total power used while giving you more power, and thus more light, when you need it. This means more light (which equals greater working distance), faster recycling times and more flashes per battery set when shooting in Canon's HSS/FP Flash mode."

If it does this Yongnuo will win a LOT of new business. I'm first in line...

-PW

I believe, The 622c`s implement standard Canon wireless HSS, I doubt PW can give more power while using less battery but I suppose it is possible. Most of these radio systems just interpret and re-transmit the Canon optical/IR signals, I didn't think PW was any different.

Here is a pretty extensive review/discussion on the 622c's:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157631348234978/

For the money I can overlook the limitations of the 622c's. The exciting thing is there are a number of great systems out there now and more to come.

33

Lighting / Re: Off-camera flash for 5D3

« on: December 05, 2012, 10:22:43 PM »

Another vote for YN-622c's. I just picked up four of them and did some really quick tests and they work fantastic with my 5d3 and 2 x 580EXII's. They only work with the more modern Canon flashes and cameras so check compatibility before purchasing.

The nice thing is, you control everything right from the back of your camera. Another nice feature I discovered is you can manually override things like flash zoom so they don`t keep changing if that is what you want.

34

Lighting / Re: 600EX-RT and third party gels

« on: October 24, 2012, 10:13:38 AM »

I recall reading that the Nikon SB-900 behaves the same way - the gel holder is chipped and that is what tells the camera what gel is in the holder. Stands to reason Canon would be similar but I don't know for certain.

35

Canon General / Re: How to work around Canon shipping restrictions at B&H

« on: October 20, 2012, 04:53:18 PM »

Back when I got my 5d3 kit it was a wash to but it in Canada or from B+H. At the time it was $4549 + 13% tax for $5140.37 (they threw in an extra battery). At the time it was cheaper to get it through B+H but by the time you exchange the currency you typically pay a 2.5% commission it was a wash.

I would say it is the local Canadian retailers that are lobbying the manufacturers for protectionism.

36

Lenses / Re: Which Prime: 50L or 35L?

« on: October 12, 2012, 02:01:28 PM »

I have lots of razor sharp shots with my 50L. It takes some AFMA tweaking though. It is well documented that the focal plane of this lens is curved. Therefore I suggest adjusting using the focal point you use most. If you dial in the center point your shots focused with outer points are going to be off miserably. With my copy I found my center point to be a 14 step difference than the next-to-outer-most points. It went from -7 at center to +7 on the outer.

I have always heard of focus shift on the 50L but never bothered to research what it meant - your explanation makes total sense - thank you!

37

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: SOFT BOXES - BRACKETS - STANDS - MUST BUY! (say it 3 times)

« on: October 12, 2012, 06:13:39 AM »

Where are you located and what is your budget for lighting gear?

38

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: SOFT BOXES - BRACKETS - STANDS - MUST BUY! (say it 3 times)

« on: October 10, 2012, 04:17:36 PM »

I use mostly Manfrotto stands BAC1051 and 1052's and the Nano 5001. I also have a 420B combi boom which is a nice starter boom provide you are only using speedlights or other lighter loads. I use Photoflex regular and heavy duty umbrella swivels.

You should consider getting a Westcott Apollo 28 softbox as they are fast to setup and very portable. Also, get one or two 60" bounce/shoot through umbrellas to light groups.

This is a great resource if you are getting into lighting:
http://strobist.blogspot.ca/2006/03/lighting-101.html

39

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: New 1DX and 24-70L II lose their cherries together (1st shot)

« on: October 10, 2012, 03:22:48 PM »

Yeah.. we have a few. The one pictured is about 2 feet tall. Took the shot at ground level.
My wife likes the little statues around!

Here is one of our backyard Garden Gnome taken as a test shot with my 5D3 and 70-200/F4/IS @5.6 (which is the sharpest aperture for that particular copy of the lens per FoCal Pro).

40

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: New 1DX and 24-70L II lose their cherries together (1st shot)

« on: October 10, 2012, 02:01:55 PM »

You have Statues in your backyard?

41

Reviews / Re: Review - Canon EF 200 f/2L IS

« on: October 09, 2012, 10:45:39 AM »

Craig (CR Guy), Nice shot of 'Little CR Guy' - I recall seeing this in the store in Owen Sound - really nice 16x20 print!

What are your other two favourite lenses? I dream of owning this one day...

42

Software & Accessories / Re: Video card advice, please!

« on: October 09, 2012, 06:55:02 AM »

HDMI 1.4 can do 1920x1200 but cant stretch to the 2560x1440 of the dells

same all the usb graphics cards max out at 1920x1200 so not sure of any way to get dual screens at 2560x1440 each on a macbook pro (2011)

also Dell documentation states that the U2711 HDMI port is (internally) limited to 1920x1080

only way to get max res is with a display port or dual link dvi

Sounds like the HDMI port on the Dell is the limiting factor rather than HDMI 1.4a. It is like plugging in a USB 2.0 device to a USB 3.0 port - you are still limited to USB speeds.

43

Software & Accessories / Re: Video card advice, please!

« on: October 08, 2012, 08:50:01 AM »

its the hdmi thats limiting your resolution
you have to use a display port connection to get that resolution
so if your existing video card has a display port output then try that it will probably get full res

I am looking at buying a laptop with nVIDIA 600m or 670m. The one with the 670m ($300 more) have a display and DVI ports and both units have HDMI 1.4a. I just Googled around and found that the newer HDMI spec appears to support higher resolutions - can anyone confirm that?

http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_1_4/hdmi_1_4_faq.aspx#1

Here is a link to the two notebooks (desktop replacements, really)
http://www.reflexnotebook.ca/laptops-notebooks/screen-size/15-display/sager-np6350.html
http://www.reflexnotebook.ca/laptops-notebooks/screen-size/15-display/sager-np9150.html

I thought I would be fine with the 6350 model for my needs and think the NP6350's HDMI port will support monitors beyond 1920x1080.

44

Software & Accessories / Re: Lightroom 4.2 update

« on: October 06, 2012, 05:05:27 PM »

Tons of very accomplished photographers are onboard with DNG. Scott Kelby, Chris Orwig and Jared Platt come to mind. You can embed post processing information into a DNG after the fact - in LR just do a CTRL-S and what ever edits you have done get burned into the DNG.

Embedding CR2's inside the DNG is a waste of space - the files will be huge. Some people would say that you may lose the Canon special sauce but at the same time they rely on Lightroom or Bridge to render their CR2 RAW files which is the same potion that Adobe uses to convert to DNG.

I have yet to see a difference between DNG and CR2 but YMMV.

45

Software & Accessories / Re: Lightroom 4.2 update

« on: October 05, 2012, 10:07:13 AM »

I just realized that DNG.files are like 3x faster in develop mode to load than canon's own cr2.. Anyone else here who noticed that?

I don't use LR4 yet (I am getting a system that will run it shortly) but I do use DNG because the 5D3 is not supported in LR3. That said, when using DNG it helps to use the conversion setting of 'Embed Fast Load Data'.