Messages

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Lighting / Re: Request advice for quality home portrait lighting in tight space...

« on: January 31, 2013, 06:08:10 PM »

I would actually argue that in this case, one can go wrong with AlienBees.

I love their stuff, it is what I usually use, but if space is tight they can make life difficult, esp if you want to play with setups.

For tight spaces I second the Strobist stuff.  It is small, provides more then enough light (even the B400s are overkill), are easy to move around, and rather importantly can be clamped onto many surfaces with very little footprint.

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Lenses / Re: New Tilt-Shift Lenses in 2013 [CR2]

« on: December 11, 2012, 09:19:45 PM »

I am guessing it would be too much to hope that at least one of them would have a tripod mount.....

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Q: A dedicated Still Image DSLR without video? Thoughts?

« on: November 15, 2012, 07:18:33 PM »

Ah, this old topic.

Look, at the end of the day, unless someone can actually get a copy of Canon's engineering schedule, testing costs, design documents, etc, guessing at how much video costs to add is just that, pure guesswork.

However, even if sales volumes go up, video is NOT free.  It ads complexity that needs more testing (not as cheap or quick as people might think), it requires more hardware and software to operate, and chances are there were design meetings where they had to weigh various decisions based off how they would impact still vs video performance.

Outside DSLRs, plenty of dedicated still and video cameras still exist.  They tend to fill niches now, places where volume is already low and thus the reduced engineering costs and less weighted design decisions really matter.  If Canon put the same resources into developing a dedicated still camera instead of a multimedia camera, chances are it would be functionally superior in some non trivial ways, just like Canon's dedicated video cameras are generally considered better then their multimedia ones.

Part of what we have here, as a marking issue, is that there is a larger market for video then stills in general, so dedicated video cameras make sense because plenty of videographers would probably complain at the design compromises but not enough still photographers do.. and still photographers who are really particular move to one of the niche cameras.

Realistically, multimedia cameras, esp at the consumer end, are probably here to stay.  But just like monochrome ones, a few specialized models will probably stick around.  Or who knows, maybe some open source kit plus 3D printers will just let people design whatever they hell they want.. I am already seeing that start to creep in to the video market....

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EOS Bodies / Re: Best FF option

« on: September 21, 2012, 01:24:55 AM »

Second hand 1Ds3?  Really nice camera for things like landscape/portrait/architecture.

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EOS Bodies / Re: Canon to announce medium format dslr?

« on: August 06, 2012, 09:34:42 PM »

I am rather surprised so many people are commenting about how 'silly' the idea of putting an EF lens on a MF camera is.....

I see people using Nikon FF lenses on MF view cameras fairly regularly....

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Canon General / Re: "Time for a Change at Canon?" -Barons

« on: July 26, 2012, 03:59:27 PM »

I find this a nearly startling characterization of the new Canon M. A lackluster clone? I'll bet a 1DX to your little Powershot that Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, Fuju and even Nikon are not singing that song. If you want to say it's lackluster, you'd better bring some facts. Also, what's your basis for saying the primary target market is "new customers"?

It is pretty much like every other mirrorless entry right now.  Nothing really differentiates it other then having fewer lenses available for it's new mount and, of course, Canon's name associated with it.. which in the mirrorless space isn't worth much since they are just entering.

Suddenly, there's a simple little camera that is compatible with every EOS lens we already have. That's called a major competitive advantage. How do you get that with Sony? Olympus?

Ahm.  Yes.  Adapters exist for putting EF lenses on those bodies already.

While somehow you see this as "lackluster," competitors see this as Canon leveraging their market dominance, and you better believe they don't see it as lackluster. I also see it as Canon's first step down the road to totally eliminating the mirror-based DSLR. If I were working the camera floor at Best Buy, I'd be overjoyed with the Canon M. What a great alternative to offer buyers!

They might fear Canon's marketing department and resources, so yes, their dominance might play in... but for the moment they are just a late player to an emerging market with a product essentially identical to existing ones.  It could pan out any number of ways, but right now it kinda feels like a 'too little, too late'.

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Canon General / Re: "Time for a Change at Canon?" -Barons

« on: July 26, 2012, 12:35:34 PM »

It just continues to amaze me how thread after thread after thread on this forum contains so much complaining about canon and how they are falling so short on every front.  It seems everyone is so worried about numbers and stats that they lose focus of what amazing tools the camera industry is putting out there.

This I can easily agree with ^_^ even if each new generation is not focused on some specific segment, they generally out preform earlier designs across the board.

Though personally I will continue to bitch and moan about the lack of range in monochrome camera offerings available today, and of course the dearth of affordable view cameras (film ones were expensive but accessible, digital ones are priced out of most people's range, so I feel we are really loosing a valuable tool there, at least on the hobbyist level).  But I know both of those are rather niche ^_^

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Canon General / Re: "Time for a Change at Canon?" -Barons

« on: July 26, 2012, 08:59:04 AM »

Wow... A bunch of whining here.  Canon produces camera after camera that continues to push ISO quality and resolution at the same time while packing them with mind blowing features like 6, 10, 14FPS!!! Do you pixel peepers even use your cameras anymore?

I think comments like this are why we can't have nice discussions.

This pretty much reduces to 'features I find important are improving, anyone who says otherwise does not matter because they are a pixel peeper'.

Yes, Canon has pushed forward in certain domains.  They have been flagging in others.  One of the classical problems when you have stagnant leadership is you tend to get a culture of tunnel vision, increasingly singular criteria that they optimize for because the group think says that is the set of metrics that 'matter', which can leave a company blind to shifts or emerging markets.

In order to continue to be successful on the scale Canon is, you have to address as many profitable market segments as possible, not narrow down to a smaller segment(s) that 'matter(s)' and hope brand loyalty and 'good enough' carry the others.

Then there was their mirrorless entry.  A lackluster clone in a new market which already has some serious contenders in it.  For the moment there is no good reason to buy the Canon mirrorless over others outside the brand, and brand can only take you so far when your primary target is new customers.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon EOS M System Announced

« on: July 23, 2012, 08:31:08 AM »

So... another camera where video is the big selling point?

At some point Canon needs to just drop the pretense of being a camera company and admit that they are making camcorders in camera form factor.

Thus I go 'meh'.

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Lenses / Re: Could a 35mm f/1.2 L be in testing? (pic)

« on: June 22, 2012, 09:47:04 AM »

Amusing thing is, it would probably actually be easier to build your own camera from available parts then your own lens...

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Lenses / Re: Could a 35mm f/1.2 L be in testing? (pic)

« on: June 22, 2012, 12:12:33 AM »

I wish they would sell lens parts separately, so only price would interfere with ones ideas.. like, all lens elements could be combined as you wish. I can think of a few lenses i would like to build...

A 14 TS f 1.4 for example...

Get a reprap and source the lenses strait from EO. There are also quite a few threaded modifying lenses like macro and fisheye.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Can more be done with the way sensors deliver us RAW info?

« on: June 21, 2012, 11:00:04 AM »

Hmmm, you mean like you do with video?

Or similar to what might happen with 14fps on the 1DX?

Hrm... there is that low cost RAW video camera that came out a while ago.... I wonder how many FPS it actually has.... I know I often do exposures int he 30s-90s range, which would kinda give the effect the OP is asking about.

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EOS Bodies / Re: Examples of DR photos and why this is important to landscape shooters

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:48:30 AM »

I guess I'd want to ask how many still shoot film and or how did you cope with only film. I coped just fine. *shrugs*

I think one source of much of the griping is that, while they improve every generation, digital sensors still have not caught up with good film in terms of DR... which I guess also ties into the question of 'how good is good enough?'.  I think when senors are at least on-par with the high end films then there will be some tapering off of the desire for improvement.

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EOS Bodies / Re: Canon's Mirrorless Entry

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:42:02 AM »

I think that people are complaining because the af is below-par for mirrorless cameras and these models are at the top end of their price ranges.  Don't forget that for all the fancy viewfinder technology on these Fuji cameras, there is no rangefinder.  Manual focusing can only be achieved by using the EVF/LCD and neither camera has focus peaking.   You are therefore stuck with using the accurate but slow 10x magnification feature, or using zone focusing (i.e. educated guesswork).

You know... Canon could potentially make a splash if they marketed a mirrorless entry to segments that don't care about AF in the first place.  If mirrorless has this weakness, pump up the strengths these people do care about and watch them fly off the shelves.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Can more be done with the way sensors deliver us RAW info?

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:39:15 AM »

I don't see why not.

To a degree this is how exposure stacking already behaves... so combine exposure stacking with high speed video capture and you could probably get what you are asking for.

It would probably be a boon to HDR photographers.. single capture with the whole range of exposure data in it.