Messages

1

Lenses / Re: Poll: 35mm Vs 50mm Primes

« on: September 14, 2012, 04:14:41 PM »

This focal length generally will determine the first set of primes someone will buy.

EX:

35mm - 85mm - 135mm

24mm - 50mm - 135mm

What is you preferred standard lens choice?

Funny I'd say that for a first set of primes, having both a 85mm and 135mm seems a bit overkill and weak on the wide angle abilities - personally my goto prime set is the 14mm 2.8, 35 1.4 and 135 2.0 - all fast focusing, great color & sharpness, and the 14mm .. man do i love those dramatic wide angles!

2

Lenses / Re: Should I sell 35L f/1.4 to get 24-70II?

« on: September 14, 2012, 04:12:48 PM »

I'd say go for the 24-70 II if you usually work in decently lit venues - the 5Dmk2 is just not the low light monster the mk3 is, so you'll notice missing that bit of extra light.

3

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II Arrived

« on: September 14, 2012, 04:09:38 PM »

Ok so it's only been 3 hours since my copy arrived but the initial impressions are very good:

1) Focus is out of this world fast and accurate, more so then the 70-200 II which was my previous benchmark of best focusing system

2) Sharpness is incredible - so much so that I think it'll make me watch the shutter speed and/or use tripods even more then before - it's so sharp that you'll be able to tell when you moved a tiny bit, and when it lands perfectly, well it does blow away the sharpness of my 24 1.4, 35 1.4, 50 1.2 and 70-200 II by a decent margin - boy do pixels look amazing with this lens!

3) Feels great on a 1DX, balance works out great, even though it's not a super light lens its a pleasure to hold and use on that body

4) Color, saturation is damn good as well - relieved about this since sometimes sharpness / saturation are a trade-off in optical design, and this lens is nailing both of those

In short - it's looking like this will be my new most used lens!

4

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II Arrived

« on: September 14, 2012, 04:02:01 PM »

Digital Rev are talking rubbish about this being a plasticy lens unlike the nice metallic original. Can someone set my mind to rest and confirm that this is made of all metal like a lens of this class should be?

The outside barrel is made out of plastic - mind you it's industrial strength plastic so about as strong as a metal exterior would be - think EF 100mm 2.8 Macro type material

5

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Canon U.S.A. Introduces Two Compact Lightweight Cinema Zoom Lenses For 4K and 2K Digital Cinema

« on: August 29, 2012, 11:52:41 AM »

Wow now thats some serious lens action - 24k for a lens is a mind blowing amount when you're used to DSLR pricing

I do wonder, are they really _that_ much better?

6

EOS Bodies / Re: Time from Announcement to Release

« on: August 29, 2012, 11:07:42 AM »

+1 to renting a 5Dmk3 for your trip - the release time sort of depends on the market positioning and, well, how lucky Canon gets with getting things finished and manufactured.

But the thing is, there really -isn't- a dependable release schedule that I would bet something like a trip on, for instance it was pretty much 9 months between the announcement of the Canon 1D-X and it being available, the 5D Mk3 and Xti4 were a good bit faster though, so a camera like the 70D or 7Dmk2 is likely to be available somewhere between 1 to 9 months of announcement

7

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS-1D X - June 20, 2012 in Japan

« on: June 24, 2012, 12:25:40 PM »

Now go to OpticsPlanet and they don't have it.  This has been like this for weeks now.

I've talked to them on the phone and they don't actually have any in stock, as you can imagine I was slightly frustrated that they did list it on amazon as being available..

They can order it from the manufacturer and the sales rep said he expected that order to be filled by July 15th.

8

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 14-24 f/2.8L [CR2]

« on: June 16, 2012, 04:48:30 AM »

This would so completely my dream team of lenses, I'd buy one the moment it's available.

The new 24-70 2.8 II looks sharp enough on paper to actually be useful to me (personally I chose to lug around a bunch of primes over depending on the 24-70 2.8, so it'll make a huge difference to be if it turns out to be as good as the charts say), the 70-200 2.8 II is obviously a smashingly good lens as well that I'd never hesitate to use - the only thing that's missing is a really great wide angle zoom.

Right now I'm depending on my 14mm 2.8, which you know, is decent enough, but we all also know it doesn't hold a candle to Nikon's 14-24 2.8's sharpness or versatility.

So yes, a hundred times yes

9

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS-1D X - June 20, 2012 in Japan

« on: June 13, 2012, 11:44:38 AM »

Wonder what the availability will be in the Japanese shops - anyone have any experience with that?

Was planning on hitting up Tokyo for work anyhow, so I might want to combine reasons to go there

10

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon EOS-1D X Availability [CR3]

« on: June 09, 2012, 11:51:29 AM »

Meanwhile... I suppose that this question has been done before, but...
For fashion, wedding and portrait (And maybe some landscapes on my trips) Do you think that 1DX is a really better choice than the 5D Mark III?

If you don't know the answer to that, then the 5D Mark III is the far better choice

11

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon EOS-1D X Availability [CR3]

« on: June 09, 2012, 10:56:35 AM »

I do wonder how this will play out in the US - I know they've bumped CPS members to the front of the queue in the UK as well (that news hit a few months ago), but I haven't had any inquiries here in the US yet.

Given that I am a platinum CPS member, well I have to admit I hope that'll apply here as well

12

EOS Bodies / Re: New Full Frame Camera in Testing [CR1]

« on: June 06, 2012, 11:42:21 AM »

'Sooner then you think', 'but then we'll take a year before making it available'

13

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS-1D X Availability [CR2]

« on: June 02, 2012, 10:48:25 AM »

All I can say is that it fills me with sadness, July to September is so darn far out - a year of anticipation is a bit much

14

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5DIII - advice needed please - keep it or send it back?

« on: May 24, 2012, 05:21:51 PM »

As others have mentioned, the backlight issue only happens in very rare cases - I have an early serial # body as well and I'm not worried about it at all, if I do ever find my self outside of a dark cave, I'll just hit the exposure comp button after reviewing the result - pretty the same as you would do with every other shot with tricky light conditions.

I've personally never used the JPG mode on the camera, I don't trust build in jpg processing and I know it'll never tell the story I want to tell so even in time constrained situations I'll do quick 10 second processing step in lightroom, so I don't have any personal experience with how I like or dislike the jpg processing - as suggested you can tweak a lot of the build in jpg processing in the image style menu though so chances are perhaps that will improve the outcome for you? (ie in your case you might want to boost the sharpness a fair bit?)

For the 24-105 kit lens, it's a known trade off - it's a very light lens with a very usable range and pretty decent image stabilization, however what you gain in that versatility, affordability and portability you do pay for in absolute sharpness, contrast, saturation and some distortion. The distortion you can easily fix in Lightroom (or camera raw, etc) with the build in tools, for the rest - if you want the sharpest photo possible the (heavier and more expensive) 24-70 or primes will give a better result, it's all about the trade offs and what you want to use it for.

I personally see no need to return my body at all - the raws are spectacular, the light leak issue is barely an issue at all and easy to work around in the remote case where it does show up, and while I do have the 24-105 lens as well I know what situation it's good for (light walk around lens for casual shots) and what situations it isn't enough (shots I would consider publishing).

15

EOS Bodies / Re: Availability Update: EOS-1D X & EF 500L II & EF 600L II

« on: May 21, 2012, 12:22:55 PM »

Agreed.  It's not 'holding to the end of June' it's yet another delay.  Well, just business as usual, I suppose.

Yeah it is odd how 'mid june' turned into 'end of june' (a two week delay) and how it's positioned as holding position - still 4 weeks from now is better then the 9 months from now we started with so here's hoping it'll finally stick!