Messages

61

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Skewed diagonal lines, dpr studio shots with D4, 5D2, 1D4... not on 7D, D800

« on: March 23, 2012, 03:12:21 AM »

You can see the skewing in the attached screenshot. Anybody have any idea whether it's a sensor or processing glitch? It shows up in both raw and jpg comparisons. on second look it is there in the D800 sample, just not nearly as noticeable.

62

EOS Bodies / Re: DPreview - problems?

« on: March 21, 2012, 10:44:22 AM »

this board is in desperate need of a "general photography" forum.

They could call it "The Darkroom" A Place for members to hang out and engage in random conversations.

63

EOS Bodies / Re: DPreview - problems?

« on: March 21, 2012, 10:11:20 AM »

dpreview is part of amazon not?
i always wondered if they have to buy the gear themself or if they get cameras from amazon.

I was unaware that Amazon bought them.

According to dpreview's FAQs...

All products are provided to us 'on loan' (from the manufacturers) and are returned at the end of this loan period (typically 2-3 weeks). In some circumstances we may ask for this loan period to be extended for the purposes of comparison. We have no reason to believe that any product has ever been 'specially prepared' for review, we have in the past compared our test results with those of purchased models and found no differences. Should we ever discover a manufacturer attempting to do this we would of course immediately publish this fact. We have also received 'DOA' (Dead On Arrival) products which have to be replaced.

How come you represent brand X more than brand Y?

We're an independent review site, as such we're at the whim (to a certain extent) of the manufacturers. We do all we can to represent all brands fairly, if one manufacturer drags its heels loaning us review equipment then we can hardly be blamed for not being able to review those cameras. We have in the past taken alternative routes to get our hands on cameras which are unavailable directly from the manufacturer. We work very very long hours producing the most detailed reviews we can, even if we receive a camera today you won't see a review for at least two weeks.

We always try to be as objective as possible in our reviews and receive a lot of praise for our straight talk and detailed tests.

How come you've not reviewed camera X yet?

Probably because the manufacturer hasn't sent us a review sample or that they have and it's simply too pre-production (too flaky, not representative of final product) to review. We also have a limited amount of resource to review cameras, we'll often select the most interesting / innovative or popular camera to review in great detail rather than trying to review everything in a shallow manner.

You said you're working on a review of this camera, how come you've not posted a review yet?

Because our reviews are the most comprehensive and detailed on the net, it takes us considerably longer to produce our reviews than some of the other sites. Our normal turnaround time for a single camera is 10 working days (not that the weekends normally stop us) and if we have more than one camera in then that may impact on how long it takes.

64

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Skewed diagonal lines, dpr studio shots with D4, 5D2, 1D4... not on 7D, D800

« on: March 21, 2012, 06:54:13 AM »

Odd image skewing in dpr's studio scene comparison. If you move the image view portion to the black and white pinwheel located directly below the images center cross point you will notice that on most sensors, including the D4 and the Canon 5DMk2 that some of the spines of the wheel are skewed, in both raw and jpeg images.

 In the Nikon D4 I see a skewed line run horizontally across the diameter, just above the center point, and a vertically skewed line at the far left of the pinwheel. The Canon 1DMk4 has the same problem, in almost the exact same positions as the D4, only more pronounced.

 For the Canon 5DMk2 I see a horizontal skewing about a 1/4 way from the top of the wheel, no vertical skewing though.

The Nikon D800, Canon 7D, and the Leica M9 don't exhibit the same behavior though.

Any ideas on whether this is indeed flaws with the sensors, or with the imaging software?

65

EOS Bodies / Re: DPreview - problems?

« on: March 21, 2012, 06:15:02 AM »

Yes I accept that they review production cameras, but no DSLR reviews for 5 months is a little of a concern.

Barney Britton, one of dpreview's contributors has posted a first impressions review of the D4 within days of receiving it, he posted on March 9th that they are working on the full review. These things don't happen overnight, and I'm fairly sure he can't just drop everything to test cameras and write reviews, he does have his own photography business to keep afloat, so part of the review is actually using it day to day, over a range of assignments to glean those things you don't notice in a day or two of rushed testing. It's this, used in a professional capacity, testing than helps separate the quality of dpr's reviews from most other sites. Sure they may not be first to post their reviews, but the quality of their reviews well above most other sites.

As far as the G1X, if they only officially review products they have purchased, it may be that none of their contributors was interested enough to purchase a G1X and review it. Which could also be the reason they have reviewed so few DSLRs recently, their professionals were not interested enough in them to add them to their collection. I have no doubt that the 1DX, 5D3, D800, and the D4 will all get full reviews within a month of hitting the streets. So hold on, we'll see the reviews soon, as I'm sure their contributors will be picking these models up as soon as humanly possible.

Edit - dpreview gets their test units on loan from the manufactures.

66

EOS Bodies / Re: DPreview - problems?

« on: March 21, 2012, 05:11:47 AM »

I think DPR insists on reviewing production grade cameras and not engineering and marketing samples that float around prior to release.

+1 The most reputable review sites only review products that have made their way through the retail channel... that they have purchased themselves. The next most reputable review sites are loaned units directly from the manufacture, give a bad review though and you may find manufactures unwilling to loan you their products in the future.

67

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: D4 sensor scores available at DxO

« on: March 20, 2012, 08:02:05 PM »

I think it's interesting that the Nikon D4 has a lower DR score than the D7000 (13.1 vs 13.9), and that the D4 has a Low-Light ISO score lower than the D3s (2965 vs 3253).

 I hope Canon catches up to Nikon with the 5D3 and the 1DX, The 1Ds3 is the only Canon camera to break the top 40 (tied at position 39) in Dynamic Range, and barely misses the top 10 in Color Depth. At least Canon's 5D2 was able to break the top 10 for low light, #6 at ISO 1815. I can't wait to see the scores for Canon's new cameras.

68

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: D4 sensor scores available at DxO

« on: March 20, 2012, 06:39:46 PM »

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Cameras/Camera-Sensor-Database/Nikon/D4

DxOMark Sensor Scores for Nikon D4
DR - 13.1
Color Depth - 24.7
Low-Light ISO - 2965

69

EOS Bodies / Re: Upgrading from "x" to the 5D3

« on: March 19, 2012, 05:24:03 PM »

Upgrading from Canon's T90 & 7D.

70

Lenses / Re: MTF Charts, Lenses, and Crop Sensors... a question.

« on: March 17, 2012, 01:14:06 AM »

Thanks, didn't even cross my mind about the diagonal measurement.

71

EOS Bodies / Re: Blind megapixel test: Medium format vs. G7, can you spot the difference?

« on: March 16, 2012, 08:38:03 PM »

I'm thinking 1, 2, 5 and 7 are MF. Didn't do any pixel peeping, or downloading, just looked at the pictures as they appeared on screen.

How far off am I? You don't need to tell me exactly which I got right or wrong (leave that until other people have had a chance to play), just tell me how many of the ones I picked were MF.

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Lenses / MTF Charts, Lenses, and Crop Sensors... a question.

« on: March 16, 2012, 03:46:53 PM »

Since MTF Charts are from the center of the lens to the outer edges and Canon usually shows their lenses out to about 22mm from center, am I right in assuming that a FF sensor (36mm across) would only be applicable to about the 18mm portion of the MTF chart, and a crop sensor, say the 7D's 22.3mm, would be applicable on the chart to the area just above 11mm?

  I've included a mock up,  shown in the attached image, where the red line would indicate the edge of the 7D's sensor, and the green line the outer edge of a full frame sensor. I'm just wondering if my understanding of this is correct, and that the 7D is using a much more uniform part of the lens than a FF sensor.

73

Lenses / Re: Recommend me a lens that's better/more useful than a 50mm lens

« on: March 16, 2012, 03:01:08 PM »

Well, since I've never found a 50mm useful for anything... Not wide enough for most indoor, landscape or architectural  shots, and not telephoto enough for anything else (assuming a FF sensor). The last time I used a 50mm was when it came with my Canon T70, I couldn't find any subject that lens was suited for, ended up trading up to a Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm f/2.8-3.8, still my favorite lens of all time, wish Canon would make a similarly fast L lens with that range, variable f/ stop would be fine, but a fixed f/2.8 would be nicer.

74

EOS Bodies / Canon EOS-1D X Available at B&H for Preorder

« on: March 14, 2012, 02:49:33 PM »

"From B&H
We have just been informed that B&H Photo has the new flagship Canon EOS-1D X available for preorder with the official price of $6799.

Shipping is expected to begin the last week of April, 2012.


Canon EOS-1D X Available for Preorder
Preorder at B&H now for $6799"



  I notice that Canon's site no longer has the FCC disclaimer at the bottom of the 1D X page. Looks like it's been approved, so we should be seeing it soon. 

 I, for one, did not expect the 5D3 and the 1D X to hit the shelves at effectively the same time. Now I have to decide which to purchase first, if they had staggered it... the choice would have been made for me. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

75

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon 1Dx vs 5DIII vs Nikon D4 Processing Power

« on: March 12, 2012, 03:47:19 PM »

hmmm....If I recall correctly, the DIGIC 4 in the 1DX is dedicated to the metering system, not the AF. I believe both the 1DX and 5DIII have a dedicated chip for the AF but it is not a DIGIC one.

+1 

  This is correct. Exactly what I came here to say.