Messages

256

Lenses / Re: Do I go for the 85mm 1.2 L? Or do I go with this option instead...

« on: March 30, 2012, 01:17:59 PM »

I have always been Canon believer and avoided 3rd-party manufacturers lenses like a plague.
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Sigma-85mm-f-1.4-EX-DG-HSM-Lens-Review.aspx

For what it's worth, Bryan at the-digital-picture.com always adds the caveat about focusing issues to his Sigma lens reviews. I have had zero problems with my Sigma 85mm. The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 had some focusing issues for me (though it is a very good lens). I point this out in case someone with experience with the 50mm but not the 85mm was to infer similar AF performance.

257

Lenses / Re: Do I go for the 85mm 1.2 L? Or do I go with this option instead...

« on: March 30, 2012, 01:03:53 PM »

Every time the 85mm f/1.2 L II comes up I encourage people to check out the Sigma 85mm f/1.4

It's less than half the cost, has MUCH faster AF, and is every bit as sharp. I've owned them both and kept the Sigma.

258

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon 5D MarkIII & 1Dx - 1080p/60fps???

« on: March 30, 2012, 10:19:24 AM »

I doubt it is a storage issue, probably more of a chip read-out issue. To read 22mp worth of data 60 times a second requires some serious data buses from the sensor to the Digic chips. Canon did improve these, but maybe they still are not fast enough for 1080p60. For the 720p60 they might be using sensor line skipping to get the speed/size reduction they need, but at the expense of quality.

259

5D MK III Sample Images / Re: Cherry Blossom festival

« on: March 29, 2012, 10:56:54 PM »

Actually, it was this year's Washington DC festival.

260

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark III & Lens Combination Issues?

« on: March 29, 2012, 08:53:06 AM »

So, I tested my lens again and what I was hearing had nothing to do with the focus limiter setting. I am hearing the image stabilizer when it's active, but the sounds is being conducted through the body. I never noticed it on the Mk II, so I slapped it on my EOS film body and I can hear it there too. It sounds like an old floppy-disk drive when it was seeking. I'm wonder if the Mk III body conducts sound differently or if I just missed it on the Mk II though I find that kind of hard to believe.

Anyway, none of this is affecting performance in any way.

261

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark III & Lens Combination Issues?

« on: March 28, 2012, 11:50:30 PM »

I've noticed a sound from my 70-200 f/2.8 IS II when the focus limiter is set to 2.5m-infinity and I am trying to focus on something within 2.5m. I never noticed that sound with 5D MkII or 7D.

262

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D2 vs 5D3 ISO100 around 50 test raws

« on: March 28, 2012, 07:35:41 PM »

The thing to remember about the AF is that it is going to lock on whatever is closest to you. If you have all 61 points enabled the closest object might not be the one you want to focus on. In genreal, I default to the center 9 AF points, and have disabled AF when pressing the shutter release. I center the viewfinder on the subject, press the AF-ON button to focus, and then recompose and shoot. If the 9 center points aren't precise enough I try one of the spot AF modes. It seems like the time to use all 61 points will be with the Ai modes and moving subjects.

One caveat to what I describe above... if you are shooting f/2 or wider the center, focus, recompose, shoot method can result in missed focus since the depth of field is so shallow and the distance to the subject can change slightly when you recompose.

263

5D MK III Sample Images / Cherry Blossom festival

« on: March 28, 2012, 04:39:21 PM »

w/ 70-200 Mk II @ 140mm f/2.8 1/125 ISO 320

264

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D2 vs 5D3 ISO100 around 50 test raws

« on: March 28, 2012, 04:35:00 PM »

Thanks for the hardwork. When the rumors of the MK III were flying around, I decided that my upgrade criteria was sensor at least as good as my Mk II with the AF and speed of 7D. That was all I really needed and anything beyond that was a bonus. So, far I am loving it. So, my question is, how many of you are really going to be mad if there is no real IQ improvement over the Mk II?

265

Lenses / Re: Canon 5DmkIII vs Nikon D800

« on: March 27, 2012, 07:57:26 PM »

Take a look at that link to lensrentals.com. Their tests show that in spite of having more than 50% more pixels, the difference in resolution is less than 20%...and even then only at apertures f/4 or smaller. Their test doesn't go past f/8 which is about the defraction limit for a 36mp full-frame sensor.

In short, is gaining at most a 20% increase in real-world resolving power between f/2.8 and f/8 when you use really good lenses a compelling reason to switch? Almost certainly not.

266

Lenses / Re: Whats a good walk around lens to put on a new 5d Mk iii

« on: March 27, 2012, 10:07:50 AM »

The 24-105 is the best walk-around lens I have used. I suspect that Canon has worked in small improvements over the years...at least the 2010 copy I had is sharper and seems to have better IS than the 2005ish copy I had.

267

EOS Bodies / Re: So frustrated with new 5DmkIII - returning it!

« on: March 25, 2012, 10:36:15 PM »

So you are saying that I could just push the Rate button once to tag it with a star? That would be so awesome and make my life 10 times easier for sports!!

YUP, you will be very happy... and as far as sport shooting... the AF performance is going to make you wet yourself. I wanted to do some tests this weekend with the different servo modes, but didn't get to it.

268

EOS Bodies / Re: So frustrated with new 5DmkIII - returning it!

« on: March 25, 2012, 10:34:28 PM »

On the subject of JPEG quality I just did a test. I set the camera to RAW+JPEG, turned off Auto Light Optimizer, Highlight tone priority, and Noise Reduction and used Sigma 85mm f/1.4, 25mm extension tube, manual exposure at ISO 100, f/8, 1/180s, macro flash, tripod mounted, 2 second self timer to avoid shake. This is an incredibly sharp lens at f/8, so this should be a best case scenario. I took one with Standard picture style and one with Neutral picture style. In this setup the JPEGs show nearly the same amount of detail as the RAW. Looking at the histogram, the Red channel did overexpose, so I did botch the test somewhat. Still, by comparing areas that didn't overexpose I think the JPEGs look fine. I think the only real difference in camera setup compared to some of the initial JPEGs I took is the Auto Light Optimizer... it could be that this is what is killing the JPEGs. I will do that comparison tomorrow. For those of you curious, here is a 49mb zip with the in-camera JPEGs and the converted DNG files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32275661/samples.zip

269

EOS Bodies / Re: So frustrated with new 5DmkIII - returning it!

« on: March 25, 2012, 10:21:39 PM »

Re: rate button

Have any of you had to take photos and turn in "several good ones for web use" to sports information at halftime of a basketball game? I receive my 5D3 on Wednesday next week, and I am so hoping that the rate button will work by simply pressing it twice to give a default 1-star rating to a photo. If it requires pressing the button and selecting a rating with another knob, then yes, that will be extremely irritating.

Each push adds one star, so a picture starts with none. Push it once for one star, twice for two, etc. up to 5. A sixth push returns to zero stars.

270

EOS Bodies / Re: So frustrated with new 5DmkIII - returning it!

« on: March 25, 2012, 09:59:26 PM »

Not meaning to hijack the thread but, since most of this is about soft images from the 5DM3, here goes...

I have had the 5DM3 for 4 days now and am pretty pleased with its performance.  I've been doing mostly outdoor landscape type of stuff testing it out.  Tonight I realized that I hadn't used a flash on it at all so I mounted a small 270EX that I use for fill flash and began firing away at at a stack of magazines on the coffee table with the 24-105L.  With the camera set to let it select the focus points the results were soft to completely out of focus.  Changing the AF to single point produced sharp photos.  The magazine on top was a copy of American Photo with the large word "Photo" in red.  When the camera locked onto the red Photo word, the focus was completely off.  It got better when it chose to lock onto areas with black text but never produced anything as sharp as single point AF focused on the same black text.  This requires more investigation on my part but it will have to wait.  I have a 580EX II that I can test with as well but I thought I'd go ahead and put this out there in case anyone else with a 5DM3 can look at it too...

If you were using the flash AF assist beam(default setting) and were very close to the magazines, is it possible that the flash's beam was overshooting the area you were focusing on?