Messages

961

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon 5D Classic/Mark 1 - Still worth the buy now?

« on: January 14, 2012, 04:36:52 PM »

The 5D Classic seems to have earned the title of classic for more reasons than simply being first in the line of the 5's. It delivers a "look" for portraits that is all its own. My beaten up 5D Classic still gets pulled out for commercial jobs with complete confidence up to 1600iso. On its original shutter it must be up over 250,000 or more actuations. It's not the quickest thing in the world, those duties go to the 1D4 bodies.

Even though it is now in semi retirement, I do love it's classic qualities. It's also become my holiday camera when I want to travel light. No grip and the 24-105. I'm considering a little 430ex to round out this compact combination.

Yes there are far more competent, faster, cooler Canons to be had, but the 5D Classic delivers the goods with its simplicity, light weight and sweet sensor.

Paul Wright

962

Lenses / Re: 135L or 100L macro?

« on: January 11, 2012, 05:45:06 PM »

I took advantage of the great prices that were available for a new body and upgraded to the 5dmk2. Now I find myself with only the 50 1.4 & 70-200 f4 non-IS that actually work with my body.

I tend to use the wide range much more than tele (definitely getting the 17-40L) but recently (after renting the 135L for a week) it was so sharp it really inspired me to start shooting people i.e. portrait, and candid shots.  Never really had much of a desire to do so before, and now it's something I would like to learn and develop a much stronger skill for. 

I'm going to throw a curve ball here and suggest you don't get either of them. At least not yet. The 17-40L is a great value lens, that's a good choice. I've used mine daily for commercial work since it was announced in 2003, and I've got fussy clients. The 17-40L is a very good flexible lens.

If you're uncertain about the 100L vs 135L don't rush in. You already have an extremely good lens in your 70-200 f/4L. Don't under-rate it.

Full frame is a different experience to APS-C. Use your 5DII for a few months with the 70-200 and see what focal lengths you tend to use the most. This will inform you on whether to get the 100L or the 135L. You might be perfectly happy with the 70-200. Your upgrade money may be better spent on a 70-200 f/2.8.

While I am in the fortunate position of having a comprehensive lens set, if I could only keep two lenses they would be the 70-200 f/2.8Lis and the 17-40L. I buy new lenses to cover a clear and obvious creative or commercial need.

Paul Wright

963

Software & Accessories / Re: Lightroom 4 Beta now available

« on: January 11, 2012, 07:05:08 AM »

LR V4.0 better not be such a system hog as V3. It's a shocker in that regard. Early impressions suggest this is a highly meaningful upgrade of an already brilliant piece of software. The LR3 public beta held back a couple of cool features (can't remember which ones) so maybe LR4 final release candidate will deliver even more cool stuff.

SSD? This is the future. You seen the way a Macbook Air powers up instantly? iPad? One day we'll look back at the days when we relied on antique HDD's which had actual moving parts and shake our heads in disbelief. SSD might as well = Speed Stability Durability

I build my own PC's (it's a bit like Lego) and the next build will follow a pattern established by others of having the OS and programs on SSD (two for RAID) and modest 1Tb local storage on HDD (two for RAID). The storage heavy lifting is handled on a 10Tb NAS.

Paul Wright

964

PowerShot Cameras / Re: Canon PowerShot G1 X Brief Hands On

« on: January 11, 2012, 12:29:48 AM »

When I see a human holding the G1X, I realise what a large camera it is.  Comparing it on camerasize.com, I realised that it isn't much different in size to the Leica M9! 

Here's a useful size comparo snipped from DP Review:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canong1x/


Paul Wright

965

PowerShot Cameras / Re: Canon PowerShot G1 X Announced

« on: January 10, 2012, 06:35:22 AM »

Street price is NEVER the same as recommended.$600 sounds about right.

A quick look back at the launch price of previous G's and most new Canons for that matter, has always been high. Once the initial demand starts to soften, prices will ease off pretty rapidly.

G12's have been around $400 for a while now, though I doubt the G1X will hit this for some time.

Paul Wright

966

Lenses / Re: Sigma 70-200 f2.8 OS vs. Canon 70-200 f 2.8L (non-IS) vs. Canon 70-200 f4L IS

« on: January 09, 2012, 11:15:25 PM »

Coming from a position of having owned and heavily used the non-is 70-200 f/2.8, the isI and the isII across 14 busy years in just about every shooting environment you could poke a stick at, plus extended test drives of Canon f/4 70-200is and the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 within the past few months I'm in a pretty good position to comment.

The Canon 2.8isII without doubt is the standout lens here, but with a constrained budget the very strong second would be for the bargain priced non-is Canon 70-200 f/2.8. In many ways I wish I'd kept mine. Just go for the Canon. It's a lens you'll completely love. And if you ever upgrade, resale on the Canon will outperform the Sigma.

If you're using a TC, then clearly you need f/2.8.

You see far less comment on the Sigma because there are simply far fewer of them out there. Have you looked at the Fred Miranda lens reviews? The fact that Canon shooters consistantly report that the f/2.8 70-200 (of any model) is a stellar favourite does convert to strong sales of new lenses and excellent retained value when on-selling.

The Sigma is a very respectable lens, and possibly great initial value, but the Canon should be both the emotional and practical choice.

Paul Wright

967

PowerShot Cameras / Re: Canon PowerShot G1 X Announced

« on: January 09, 2012, 08:28:37 PM »

I think this camera will fail, the fuji X10 lens is a full stop faster at the wide end and 2 full stops faster at the long end! not to mention its smaller, and the fuji looks retro

Time will reveal whether this camera bombs or not. But I think it's really a different market category to the brilliant X10 with a compelling 4x bigger sensor. But yes, that slow f/2.8-5.8 / 28-112mm lens will be a deal breaker for plenty of potential buyers. The sweetener will be if it has comprehensively class leading high iso performance. We'll see results soon enough.

Here's a snip from the DP Review G1X preview...

The sensor in the G1 X is 18.7 x 14mm, which means it's 20% smaller than the sensors Canon uses in most of its DSLRs. However it's slightly larger than the Four Thirds size used by Olympus and Panasonic, and more than 4x the area of the Fujifilm X10's sensor. Noticeably, its pixel count is also around 20% lower than Canon's 18MP DSLR chip - supporting its assertion that its design is closely related, with the same underlying pixel design. This can only bode well, given the high quality results that cameras such as the EOS 7D can produce.

Here's the whole thing: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canong1x/

Paul Wright

968

PowerShot Cameras / Re: Canon PowerShot G1 X Announced

« on: January 09, 2012, 06:22:09 PM »

Clunky appearance, disappointing slow lens, great feature set, and yes, that roomy sensor...I'll be getting one for sure.

Paul Wright

969

EOS Bodies / Re: 1D X \

« on: January 09, 2012, 06:06:36 PM »

I can't believe nobody said the obvious ones:
-custom Low and High limits on Auto-ISO.
-More than 2EV for bracket shooting.
-More than three shots for bracket shooting.
-Prioritize Auto-ISO vs shutter in Av and Auto-ISO vs aperture in Tv (i.e. first play the iso within a range, then move the shutter speed or aperture depending on mode). In particular, variable light in sports could use this feature.
-Block delete of images.
-ExFAT support. May be even some other nice filesystems for the CF cards?
-When doing LiveView Zoom, focus to zoomed part.
-Voice notes for picture. Voice Notes and Tag notes for picture sets.
-Be able to program a straight button for mirror lock up, for example.
-Do time lapse with bracket shots.

All those, and everything that MagicLantern does could be very easily added in firmware. Let's not focus only on the f/8 issue (which might not be doable by firmware).

+1
Thanks for jolting us out of the f/8 thing. Your points are well observed, relevant ones.

Paul Wright

970

Lenses / Re: Does anyone here have a sigmonster?

« on: January 09, 2012, 12:55:11 AM »

is IS that important on a lens of this size? I mean its not like you are going to be shooting it handheld so its always going to be on a tripod etc so you would turn IS off anyway.

Over 90% of my long lens work is done on a monopod and I definitely see tangible value with IS.

Paul Wright

971

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

« on: January 09, 2012, 12:08:44 AM »

Jaime Alguersuari by alabang, on Flickr

+1
That's a very cool motorsport shot. Too many motorsport images come across as quite similar looking. It's not easy to keep coming up with different shots.

The f/2.8 300is has become one of my all time favourite lenses. The more I use it, the more diverse jobs I find I'm shooting with it. It really is an all-time classic. It's usefulness will probably increase for me with the transition from APS-H 1D4 to the FF 1DX.

But the lost reach with FF on the 1DX means I'll need to pony up for a new f/2.8 400 isII . Sigh...

Paul Wright

972

Lenses / Re: Does anyone here have a sigmonster?

« on: January 08, 2012, 11:47:03 PM »

What a monster! It's almost 6Kg! http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/300-800mm-f56-ex-dg-apo-hsm-sigma Love the Sigmonster tag.

If your safari isn't until next year then definately sit tight and see if anything interesting/relevant ships this year. The 100-400 f/4 may actually materialize (just like all those other "any time now" Canon lenses we're all sweating on...)

It does look like a intiguing bit of kit. But the lack of IS is the big negative. Sigma have been upgrading a number of their long lenses, notably the favorably recieved update to the 120-300 f/2.8 which has gained OS (that's IS) and improved optics and faster AF. This is a lens I may well pick up this year once a few proper reviews get published.  Sigmonster may get the upgrade treatment before your safari.
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/120-300mm-f28-ex-dg-os-apo-hsm-sigma1

Then of course there's the legendary Bigma http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/50-500mm-f45-63-apo-dg-os-hsm-sigma which sounds like a dog to me but is valued by plenty of shooters for its unrivalled range.

Got $30k to drop on a fast f/2.8 superzoom? http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/200-500mm-f28-apo-ex-dg-sigma has got the be the Attila the Hun of all lenses on the planet.

Paul Wright

973

EOS Bodies / Re: 1D X Limitations Fixable?

« on: January 08, 2012, 11:16:08 PM »

If the f/8 AF limitation was a pragmatic compromise that enabled superior AF at faster apertures then I have no problem with it.

if that were the case I am sure they could have a custom function to enable / disable the f8 sensitivity of the center point disable f8 and increase sensetivity and enable to make it more like that of a 1D4, I would guess this could all be done in firmware?

Yes, it quite possibly could be a firmware item. The number of Custom Functions has expanded like crazy already in the short history of Canon DSLR bodies and that's a good thing. If Canon gave us full potential choice in CF can you imagine getting your head around the bazillion settings choices? Could be fun.

But the f/8 AF thing seems to have become THE pre-release hot potato for the 1DX.

Paul Wright

974

EOS Bodies / Re: 1D Mk II dioptric adjustment method

« on: January 08, 2012, 07:32:22 PM »

There may be a fault with the dial on your 1DII. All my DSLR's will show a radical difference in viewfinder sharpness when you spin the dioptric adjuster. I just focus on something high contrast and adjust till it just looks sharp.

Paul Wright

975

EOS Bodies / Re: 1D X Limitations Fixable?

« on: January 08, 2012, 07:19:18 PM »

There is a downside to the demise of the SD slot: the EOS-1D X will not take an Eye-Fi wireless/memory SDHC combo card.

they suck anyway.. no pro i know would use them.
i returned mine after 4 days.

for studio work you have ethernet with the 1D X and there sure will be better solutions then the eye-fi cards.

Sorry to hear you couldn't get EyeFi working for you. It's not an uncommon story.

Yet there are plenty of professional photographers out there working smoothly with EyeFi. It is necessary to be aware of its limitations. I only use it to stream small jpegs to an iPad with the app Shuttersnitch which is handy for a client to watch the images roll in rather than peering over your shoulder. Attempting to stream RAW files with EyeFi is an exercise in futility.

Still, EyeFi does definately feel like a temporary technology. I feel pretty certain that built in WiFi will be a feature of many new cameras in the not too distant future.

Paul Wright