Messages

1

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: New Canon 5D Mark III

« on: May 19, 2013, 10:26:24 AM »

Congratulations and welcome to CR! That having been said, look forward to you posting pictures!

BTW, I went from 300D to 5D3 and so I understand your delight! One word of caution - the DOF is very different. It takes a while to fully comprehend that... Also don't hesitate to push the ISO. It is not grainy at 800 I had a hard stop at 400 ISO. With the 5D3 even 12800 and 25600 ISO can be workable!

Enjoy!

One more thing - if you think the images are soft even when you take a stationary subject from a tripod, try live view focus. If that is sharp and the normal AF is soft, you need to micro-adjust the AF for your lens.

Great comments! You have a high-performance machine with some great glass - I can't recommend FoCal enough to get the most from your investment... Like rpt says, don't think you have to shoot at 100 ISO to get good results... Mine goes through a battery quite a bit quicker than my XSi - I bought an extra for my bag...

Welcome and Enjoy!

2

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF135mm f/2L USM

« on: May 17, 2013, 10:52:11 AM »

I'm a recent purchaser - partly because of this thread! 

FoCal says it is my sharpest lens - and I believe it!

After AFMA, I took it to the Philippines and put it to use...

Really love this piece of glass!

3

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM "Pancake"

« on: April 19, 2013, 10:36:39 AM »

Thanks gentlemen! Another thing to like - it is so small and unobtrusive - grabbing a quick shot like this does not arouse attention...

The fisherman displays his catch for the day and locals begin to gather and decide about dinner options...

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Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM "Pancake"

« on: April 17, 2013, 11:17:37 AM »

This is such a great little vacation lens! And, according to FoCal, the second sharpest lens in my bag ahead of some L glass and my 50mm macro...

Here are some Jeepneys waiting at the ferry landing in Sabang... They always make me smile - like a Pixar film - I can just imagine them talking...

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1D X Sample Images / Re: Any Thing shot with a 1Dx

« on: April 02, 2013, 11:34:47 AM »

1Dx
600mm

f/7.1 1/2000 iso 400 case1

Reminds me of the old Highlander movies...

"There can be only one...."

6

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Tutorial on Auto ISO

« on: March 24, 2013, 11:09:11 AM »

Two words:  Exposure compensation.

Go to custom menu and set min aperture to f/4 and max to f/2.8.  Turn to TV mode, set shutter to 1/500 and ISO to auto.  Furthermore, set EC to +2/3 for example.  Now you are shooting in auto ISO with +2/3 EC.

You can only do that in 1D series bodies and NOT the 5D3.

Damn! ... I got all excited until I read the last line that it is not possible on 5D3 ... bummer

I know! I'm with you! Come on Canon - just one little firmware tweak for us 5D3 owners!

7

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Fastest card for 5DM3 - do you still buffer out?

« on: March 24, 2013, 11:00:56 AM »

While we are on the subject... I have a Sandisk and a Lexar UHS SD card... so class 10, but basically 45 to 60 mbps... and I was shopping for CF cards the other day and I think the fastest I saw was 1000x in my budget range. 

So my question is how much faster is the cf card than the sd card?  Is it the write speeds which makes the difference and not the reported read speeds?

On the 5DM3 or just in general?  On the 5DM3, the CF slot is the racehorse. The SD slot is not UHS-1 enabled, and seems to max out at about 25% of what the CF slot can do (with the fastest CF card = Lexar 1000X)...

I knew the mkiii didn't do uhs... which ticks me off, but it's more fake anger.  So a 4:1 ratio... ouch.  I wish there was resale value to my SD cards... but they don't have much of a draw.

Yeah, I will never understand why Canon did that to the SD slot... They have UHS-1 on a Rebel, for goodness sakes! If you write to both cards, for insurance, the SD will slow you down considerably...

8

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Fastest card for 5DM3 - do you still buffer out?

« on: March 24, 2013, 02:01:28 AM »

While we are on the subject... I have a Sandisk and a Lexar UHS SD card... so class 10, but basically 45 to 60 mbps... and I was shopping for CF cards the other day and I think the fastest I saw was 1000x in my budget range. 

So my question is how much faster is the cf card than the sd card?  Is it the write speeds which makes the difference and not the reported read speeds?

On the 5DM3 or just in general?  On the 5DM3, the CF slot is the racehorse. The SD slot is not UHS-1 enabled, and seems to max out at about 25% of what the CF slot can do (with the fastest CF card = Lexar 1000X)...

9

Software & Accessories / Re: AFMA advice sought

« on: February 24, 2013, 03:42:26 AM »

This is great stuff from ML. Thanks for sharing.

In regards to Focal's AFMA, at what aperture should you perform Focal's AFMA test? I think i had it wide open during the test, is that ok or are we supposed to stop it down to something smaller like 5.6 or 8?

Generally test wide open... In fact, only the Pro version let's you select f/stops other than wide open...

10

1D X Sample Images / Re: Any Thing shot with a 1Dx

« on: February 22, 2013, 04:57:56 AM »

Sharp Shot - Those are beautiful... They look like oil paintings...

gary - I could look at bald eagles all day! Your work is always amazing...

11

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Emergency wedding, of sorts.

« on: February 06, 2013, 09:04:06 AM »

do you think that it went so bad that the dude got killed???

 

12

Lenses / Re: what's the best UV filter for Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II lens?

« on: February 01, 2013, 11:42:29 PM »

You can't go wrong with Heliopan or B+W...

13

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: a digital photography noob has a question about image quality

« on: January 31, 2013, 12:49:34 AM »

yes i know that lenses are important, that has not changed.

the test photos i have taken are done under good light conditions.
well daylight so to speak.
and i was pretty conservative with the ISO and i did not go over ISO 800.

im not so much a image editing guy.
i know RAW is the way to go but i have so much new stuff to learn with digital, that i will start with JPG.

but you say im doing nothing wrong, when i see no image quality difference in prints?
i thought i may missed something or doing something wrong.

Your path sounds like mine - a long-time film shooter who moved to digital... My first body was a 450D and then I moved to a 5DIII... First let me tell you, right off the bat, that 8 weeks in Africa sounds amazing!

I think the reason you are seeing very little difference is the test conditions - good lighting conditions with ISO at or below 800 - levels the playing field. Also, you are evaluating JPG's side-by-side - and with good light and reasonable ISO they look pretty darn good...

I would keep the 5DIII... You are going on an incredible trip - the additional card slot is worth the peace of mind! Silent shooting, great AF, 6 FPS (3 in silent), 3200-6400 useable ISO, that 22MP FF sensor, AFMA, etc... If you pick up a 2X TC to get some extra reach on that 70-200 - you will have an f/8 lens - and the higher ISO's will become very valuable...

I find the 5DIII battery life rather short - I would order an extra for the trip and have two at 100% every morning... Good quality CF and SD cards... I get better results when I double the shutter speed over the old 1/x rule...

I was leery of RAW at first - shot just JPG's - now I wish I had all those files in RAW to go back and rework... Me, personally, I would shoot everything in RAW+JPG - you can enjoy the JPG's right away and save the RAW files for potential PP later... Processing RAW files makes me feel like I am back in the darkroom again...

14

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Emergency wedding, of sorts.

« on: January 27, 2013, 04:25:02 AM »

...what you need is a metric fuckton of knowledge

Coffee shot out my nose when I read that...

15

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Best carry set-up for 7D & 70-200 f/2.8L

« on: January 24, 2013, 03:41:02 AM »

A friend of mine owns a 7D - and he just bought his first "L" - the 70-200 f/2.8...

He asked me about strap/mounting options and that is not my area of expertise...

But I told him that I belong to an online Canon community that is awesomely helpful!

(hint: that's you guys...)

What are you using to carry this rig? Are you coming off the camera or using the tripod collar/foot?

Pics of your rig with detailed description as to specific products/connectors/ideas would be greatly appreciated!