Messages

1

Canon General / Re: Seeking advice for corporate sporting event gear

« on: May 21, 2013, 02:26:38 AM »

5d3
24-70
70-200
Monopod
Cards & batts.
Suncream
Flask of tea.
Flash for winners portraits.

You are over thinking it and if you keep doing that you'll screw it up.

Want:

Minimum kit to carry. (Drop / lose)
Minimum opportunities to change lenses (24-200 is all bases covered well)
To concentrate on composition and operation, not niggling nagging doubts like 'is my 135 prime better?"
Yes, it is.  But your 70-200 is absolutely brilliant and more than good enough.

Do a reccie.  Pick the best vantage point for freeezing the action. Learn how to shoot aiservo properly.
Learn how to tweak your ai servo tracking.

Think about having a couple of really strong images of each event.  Get the winners on the podium.  Try and get your bosses and friends along the way.

Relax and enjoy.  Loads of other folk will still take the iphone and compact shots ofbygone years.  Dont try and get everything or you'll get nothing.

No pressure like, but you've set your stall out: i am a photographer. I have good kit. Folk will expect good images.

Think quality not quantity.  Keep it simple and focused.  You might only shsre 10 images.  You might take 10'000.  Print the 10.  On matt.  With white border.  Big.  A3.  Folk will be blown away.

Just keep the heid.

2

EOS-M / Re: EOS M Announcement in the Summer? [CR2]

« on: May 20, 2013, 11:18:59 AM »

My 100mm f2.0 EF works great via the adaptor on the M.  See my previous comments Re. AF.

3

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: 5D3 BEST SOUND?

« on: May 18, 2013, 09:53:44 AM »

A few options:

Seperate recorder: tascam DR100, Zoom H4n etc.  Another device to charge, hit record on, files to synch.

Interface device: juiced link or beachtek, adds XLR connects to your cam, some are powered (phantom) some are passive.  I currently use a beachtek DSLR-5Da.  I have a DXA-4 (very basic passive XLR interface with line / mic. mono stereo switching and level dials) for sale just now.  This is a good match for the 5D3 as you can monitor from the camera.  Your mic would need it's own power source (such as a K6 module) These generally sit underneath the camera, so are better if you don't want a big massive rig.

New Tascan DR-60D.

a combination of both, an integrated recorder and interface. You can record internally to SD, but also pump a feed to your camera.  Also sits on the camera.  Has phantom.  Looks like being the mutts nutts.

If you want to PM me I'll give you more details about the Beachtek DXA-4 I'm selling.

4

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Superflat, MarvelCine, Cinestyle and other profiles - what is the trick?

« on: May 18, 2013, 09:47:53 AM »

They are applied at the processing stage. 

You need to install some kind of LUT plug-in to your edit suite (see Magic bullet LUT Buddy)

http://www.redgiant.com/products/all/magic-bullet-lut-buddy/

This lets you apply a gamma/rgb curve in post to lift or crunch certain ranges in your image, with the 'flat style' being the best possible starting point for the associated LUT.

5

EOS-M / Re: EOS M Announcement in the Summer? [CR2]

« on: May 17, 2013, 07:24:54 PM »

Red2

Switched to AF operation> One shot AF

Switched to AF Method > flexizoneAF []

Switched to Continuous AF > Disable

Switched to Focus Mode > AF+MF or > MF

I AM THE FIRST TO ADMIT that such intricacies of the menu are probably well beyond the target market, but I'll also defy anybody to use the camera with the above settings, using either screen touch on or screen touch off (or indeed via the trash button to centre the AF spot) to tell me the camera has unacceptably slow AF.

Canon got it wrong with the M.  They thought that casual users wouldn't care about AF speed, and thought that enthusiasts understood how AF worked.  They were wrong on both counts.

The AF speed is fine if you understand how AF works and have reasonable expectations.

I have a 7D, the M won't replace it.  If you have a 5D3 or 1DX, the M wont replace it.  We knew that. 

Maybe I am the wrong person to ask.  I'm a video guy.  Af is kind of heresy to me anyway. But I've used just about every EOS made (either in previous lives as a happy snapper, student, photographic retailer or as I do now, to earn a crust) and I like the M.

@Brad-man

M is for Masochist.  It's also the mode I use on any camera.

Green square is moron mode.  And the M is lousy in that mode. See above.

6

EOS-M / Re: EOS M Announcement in the Summer? [CR2]

« on: May 17, 2013, 09:56:09 AM »

Just can figure these AF comments out at all.

Folk making them either:

Mindlessly repeat what they've read without thinking

Haven't used the camera

or Haven't used the camera properly set up.

I was shooting at dusk last night with a ND64 and CPL on my 22mm and it was working fine.  Is slow with my Sigma 70mm, but then so are the rest of my cameras.

If you use the camera in moron mode with totally automatic AF select then you have no right to complain that it doesn't work as well as your DSLR in moron mode.

7

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Help with transition shooting from dark place to light place

« on: May 15, 2013, 03:26:16 PM »

You can do this a few ways...

1. Use a manual lens such as a Samyang with manual iris (hire if need be?)

2. Mask a cut as you say via a doorway, or have the actor walk right into the lens at the end of your indoor sequence and right away from the lens at the start of the outdoor sequence.

3. Get a faderND, and dial in the appropriate stoppage as you transition between the two zones.  Do a walk through first and mark your filter.

4. Have the internal zone lit, maybe arri 2k's?  Shoot your outside sequence away from midday so you've a better chance of shot matching. 

Or a combination of all of the above (between indoors and outdoors the usable aperture range of a lens may not be wide enough, either through shallow depth of field, or through diffraction)

I would think cut and find a way to mask it.

8

Lenses / Re: EOS 1V and new EF L II lenses. Match made in heaven or ziltch?

« on: May 12, 2013, 10:24:01 PM »

I think the issue was that film absorbed light whilst sensors reflected light.

The film era lenses were potentially prone to ghosting, whilst the digital era lenses had coatings on the rear elements to counteract this.  In practise I've only seen one lens with horrific ghosting, the 75-300 USM.

I wouldn't worry about it.  If anything the new lenses will get more out of your 1V.

It seems from comments that it's assumed that digital is now ahead of film.  I would welcome a comparison between ilford XP2 super with a red filter and a 1DX set to mono or with a red filter.

Ilford XP2 super is fairly grainy, but with a pleasing pattern, and with a red filter, decent contrast for a chromagenic (panchromatic, eff that, I'm not a masochist)

Folk may cry 'off-topic' butthe digital / film comparison has already been drawn..

9

Lenses / Re: 70-200 for video

« on: May 12, 2013, 06:54:01 PM »

I use the 70-200 f2.8l non-IS on my 7D, 600D and M, great results, nice range, only use in MF mode obviously, couple of bug bears however..

The lens will not sit nice on a video tripod plate, always seems to work loose: moral -don't carry camera on tripod between shots.

The lens does not stay in focus as you zoom.

I tend to use live view preview to focus check, but obviously this doens't work during record.  If you change your zoom setting you are going to need to change your focus position slightly.

HOWEVER...

The older canon push pull zooms (70-210 f4, 80-200 f2.8L) do hold focus through the zoom, af can be very slow, but for video and on an adapted gh, thats hardly an issue.

10

EOS-M / Re: Filters for M

« on: May 12, 2013, 02:59:09 PM »

Ordered 43mm B+w nd64, and already have a 43mm cpl on way.

Many thanks all

11

Lenses / Re: Sport lens - low budget

« on: May 10, 2013, 08:07:29 AM »

the 70-300 is great for a non-L.  I wouldn;t buy anything cheaper, new at least.

the 200mm f2.8 is a great lens, but you would need to buy used, perhaps even s1 used.. (lens hood only real difference)

or you might get lucky with a used Sigma 400mm f5.6.
If you can find the APO Macro HSM version (the last one they made) there is a good chance that will work properly on your 1Ds (although not the lower spec or newer bodies) and actually gets a better rep than the Canon 400mm f5.6L

Needs to be the last version, and there is a good chance it will be for use on your 1DS only.

12

Lighting / Re: 270 ex ii or 430 exii for vacation

« on: May 10, 2013, 05:31:20 AM »

Anything below a 430 is just a toy really.  430 is a great head, with linked zoom, sensor crop detection, 2nd curtain, hss, flash modelling preview etc.

BUT!!!

If you are willing to carry a 430EX is it really that much of a difference in carrying the gun you already have?  The 600?

Why not expand rather than augment your kit?  It's not like the 430EX is much use to you in a system with the 600 (i.e you can't do multi off camera flash mixing radio and E-TTL wireless)

I would take the 600, and spend the flashgun money on a video monopod (manfrotto 680B or similar) as the pivot foot will be great for panning shots with slow shutter as the family pass on the roller coaster.  Or plug a gap in your lens range.

Just seems excessive.

13

Street & City / Re: San Francisco Long Exposure Cityscapes!

« on: May 09, 2013, 05:43:39 AM »

If you post stuff for a critique, then don't be dissapointed if you get one.  Not everybody is going to absolutely love your stuff (unless you use flickr the home of facile sycophancy).  Sometimes you are wrong.  Sometimes they are wrong. 

If you are doing it for a hobby (like me) then it doesn't really matter, keep doing it your way and keep enjoying it.
If you are doing it for a living, then unfortunately the client is always right, or you aren't getting paid.

14

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Some clarity on the 1Dx = 1Dc minus firmware... and a solution.

« on: May 09, 2013, 05:32:09 AM »

There was recently a long thread regarding the reality that the Canon 1Dc is mechanically identical to the 1Dx and is simply a firmware difference... that costs an additional $6000.

I don't know if it is or isn't electronically or mechanically the same.  And I don't care.

I'm really interested in the 'simple' firmware difference.

Can you write firmware or processing alogorythms for temporal and spatial compression etc?
I'm sure the magic lantern guys will have a chuckle at that 'simple' bit too!

My office mac would cost around £10k to replace, around £6k of that is 'simply' software.  But my Mac wouldn't be worth anything to me without that software.  See what I'm getting at?

The 1DC is a limited market product, so market forces apply, economies of scale apply and absorbtion of R&D costs apply.  Oh and Canon, like Nikon, like Blackmagic, in fact unless you are the worlds last cardinal altruist, I bet you expect to get paid for your work as well?  For what it's worth I think the 1DC is a 'wrong' product.  Wrong form factor for a video device costing 10k.  Folk will accept limitations if they are getting a lot of bang for their buck, but 10k is too much to spend against things like the Sony F's which are dedicated video devices with conventional switchgear etc.

This is screwing non-EU consumers because Canon is wary of getting slammed for violating EU rules, and probably afraid that offering the firmware upgrade only in non-EU countries would cause an underground blackmarket of product making its way to the EU. (Much like the graymarket here)

Emmm, the underworld blackmarket and the graymarket are different things, and both exist quite independantly in the EU and US.

I'm not being funny, but I've bought quite a bit of graymarket gear.  I would be really disturbed if I thought the vendors were re-investing my cash in prostitutes, people smuggling and heroin dealing.

15

EOS-M / Re: Filters for M

« on: May 08, 2013, 06:52:01 PM »

It may come to that, I've got a fader ND in 58mm, I was just conserned about the lens movement, I don't want a stepping ring to impede movement or damage motors, from what I can see the inner mechanism doesn't retract beyond the threads...  thoughts CircuitR?