Topics

1

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Warning on low card space

« on: March 24, 2013, 10:10:07 AM »

So I just shot a wedding last night. I got to try out the Sigma 35 1.4 and a 5D Mark iii. Great lens BTW. We were all setup for the exiting shot with sparklers. Right as they came out the doors my card reads full. Luckily my wife got the shot but is it just me or does anybody else find it frustrating there's no warning when you're running low on card space? I come from the video world and pretty much every camera I've ever shot with has had a warning message when you get to around a couple minutes of space left on the tape/card. It seems like such a simple thing and especially with the 5D mark iii now having a section for warning messages, this seems like an obvious thing to put in there. I took a look at magic lantern again today but didn't see anything like this in there. It'd be great if at least it supported it. Before somebody says it, I do realize that the 5D mark iii has 2 slots and that I could of selected the option to have it start recording to the other card but being that it was a wedding, I decided to have it record JPGs in case there was an issue with one of the cards I was recording on. I had extra cards in my pocket but in moments like that you don't have time to switch cards. Sigh... live and you learn I guess. Just frustrating that a $3000 camera can't give a simple warning for something so important as card space.

2

Pricewatch Deals / Canon Direct 20%-30% off February 24-27

« on: February 20, 2013, 09:12:40 PM »

Just found out Canon Direct will be having a sale February 24-27. It reads "20% or 30% Off Refurbished Lenses"
and
20% Off Select Refurbished EOS Digital Cameras (Excludes 5D Mark III Refurbished)

Most likely the 30% off is on the entry level 55-250 or 70-300 but even with the 20% there's some good deals and stock appears to be good at the moment. Remember this doesn't start until February 24th.

3

Lenses / Do I need to rent a normal range zoom?

« on: December 21, 2012, 11:50:43 PM »

So I'll be shooting a couple weddings in March and I'm starting to think about gear for it. While the wedding I did in early December was with two full frame cameras, my wife was one of the brides maids so I was able to have both cameras with me with one having my 24-105 and the other a rented 70-200. My question is this. Do I need to rent a normal range zoom to make sure I don't miss shots? I'll give my wife the 24-105 so I'll at least have some fall back there. I normally use the 70-200 for most of the ceremony and a good part of the reception as well. The main things I'm thinking of are the cake cutting and wide shots of people dancing where you need something wide. My thoughts are either #1, use my 40 2.8 lens for this. I always have a hard time using this lens just cause of it's low price yet it's a very nice lens so maybe it's just in my head and that would a good option. The other possibility would be to rent the Canon 35 1.4 like I did for this last wedding and have that for my wider angle option. I'm only wanting to rent one wide aperture lens though and I'm trying to decide between this and the Sigma 85 1.4. Now one other thing that factors in and is part the reason I'm wondering if I can get by without renting a normal range zoom is I also still have my 50D which I can either have ready to go with my Sigma 10-20 or Tamron 17-50 as a backup as well. Full frame is obviously a lot nicer though so I wouldn't want to be using it more than I'm using the full frame or else what's the purpose in renting the full frame camera then? So any thoughts on this? Thanks

4

Software & Accessories / What software do you use for printing DVD covers?

« on: October 27, 2012, 10:47:36 PM »

So I have a Canon IP4920 printer. It came with a program called Easy Print or something like that for printing inkjet printable DVD-Rs. The problem I continually run into is the colors never match what's on the screen. The one today was so far off that I ended up making it black and white because it was so bad. I looked in to see if the program allowed me to set any sort of printer profiles and it doesn't. I tried using Photoshop again today but as always I had tons of issues with it and ended up getting ink all over the DVD tray. What does everybody use for their DVD covers. We used to write out in sharpie and so obviously what we have now is a step up but it's very frustrating and time consuming the current way we're doing it. Thanks.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Setting Sharpness At 0 To Better Detect Out of Focus Areas

« on: October 02, 2012, 07:42:25 PM »

I think I read this somewhere one time that some people set their cameras to 0 for sharpness to make it easier to tell if the shot is actually in focus or not on the LCD. Similar to how you get a focussing screen without the tiny micro lenses which make it look sharper than it really is. Is there any weight to this at all? Of course in post you can set it to whatever you actually want.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / 5D mark ii vs 50D center AF point sensitivity

« on: September 22, 2012, 08:15:49 AM »

So I was at a wedding rehearsal the other day. Super dark as always. I was testing out the lenses. I put the 70-200 is ii on my 50D and tried to focus on pew near the back of the sanctuary. The camera couldn't get an AF lock presumably due to the low light. I switched to my 5D mark ii body and tried focusing around the same area. The AF wasn't super fast but it did lock focus. This made me wonder, is the 5d's center AF point more sensitive in low light than the 50Ds? I know the 5d's gets bashed a lot but I'm trying to figure out what caused this. Not trying to start a flame war here but just curious if someone knows the actual sensitivity of the center AF point. Thanks.

7

Lenses / Tamron 24-70 Focus Accuracy

« on: September 21, 2012, 11:26:00 PM »

So just thought I'd share some findings that happily surprised me today. I have a wedding this Sunday and decided to to rent the Tamron 24-70. As always I setup Focal to calibrate AFMA all the rented lenses. I was surprised when it came time for the Tamron that it's focus accuracy was right around what I get with Canon's L zooms. The only other Tamron lens I've owned is the Tamron 17-50 which while a great lens has fairly large focus accuracy issues. For this reason I often use it at f/4. It also sharpens up nicely I've noticed vs 2.8. Anyways, attached are the Focal reports for both lenses on my 50D and the 24-70 on my 5D. We'll see how well it does Sunday but this definitely gives me a little more assurance than before.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / 5D Mark II eyepiece

« on: September 21, 2012, 10:07:55 PM »

So I've been noticing lately that it's hard for me to see the entire frame when looking through the eyepiece. If I push my eye against it really hard I can see all the way but it's very uncomfortable like that. As a result of this, a lot of my shots end up with more head room than I'd like. Has anybody ever had this issue? With the smaller mirror on my 50D I don't have this issue. I wasn't sure if there was something I could do that might help this some. I don't wear glasses FYI.

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Pricewatch Deals / 20% off Refurbished EOS Digital Cameras, Lenses, PowerShot Digital Cameras, and

« on: September 19, 2012, 01:51:20 PM »

Just found out Canon will have 20% off Refurbished EOS Digital Cameras, Lenses, PowerShot Digital Cameras, and Camcorders starting September 23rd and running until September 30th. No coupon code was given so I would assume they're doing it like they did last time and simply taking 20% off the price. Shipping is free with coupon code SHIP712 on orders over $100.

I did not see an limitations on this so this is really big deal. The 5D Mark II is currently in stock and with the 20% off is right around $1400 before tax. There are quite a few lenses out of stock currently. There's a chance some of them will come in stock during the discount period. You can either use Canon's built in tool for being notified (some products don't have this) or a script I wrote that checks the Canon store every 5 minutes which I mentioned in this thread:
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=7988.msg145750#msg145750

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Software & Accessories / iMac As Display / Calibration

« on: September 15, 2012, 10:46:03 AM »

So I'm thinking of getting the next iMac when it comes out. I've seen some post on here of people that use it for a monitor. I guess a few questions.

#1 - I'm currently using an eMachine monitor that I got for like $90 running on a Hackintosh I built. Overall everything works pretty well for what it is but I do realize I need something better 1 - for speed and 2 - for more calibrated coloring. The iMac for around $1200 seems like the best route to go. It'll be 3-4 times faster than my current system and I would assume the display will be much better. The alternative would be to build either a regular windows computer or another hackintosh and buy a nice external monitor. I wouldn't want to spend quite as much if I went this route as it's more work on my part and it has its faults (system not monitor). All that to say, would the iMac be equal to or better than what I could get otherwise for say $900-$1000?

#2 - If I do go with an iMac, I've read that the display panels are high quality but the profile they're setup with is not accurate so I will need to calibrate the display. I have two options here. Either 1 - Buy a calibrator in the $150 to $200 range or 2 - rent the colormunki from lensrentals. I guess this comes down to, can I get something in the $150 to $200 price range that will get me pretty close color wise or do I need something higher end like the colormunki. If I did rent the colormunki, how often do I need to calibrate my monitor? Would once a year be enough or how often are we talking? I like that the colormunki can also calibrate printers as well since I have a Canon iP4920 that tends to not match what I see on the screen. Thanks for your input.

11

Technical Support / Removing Vignetting On 3rd Party Lenses

« on: September 10, 2012, 04:10:38 PM »

So I use Digital Photo Professional for editing my pictures. I normally don't have to mess with vignetting at all due to most of my lenses either being Canon or they have low enough vignetting that I don't notice it. I just did a wedding with the Sigma 85 1.4 though and when wide open it has a fairly noticeable amount of vignetting that I'd like to try and remove. Is there anyway to do this inside of DPP? If not, what's the best way to go about trying to fix this in something like Photoshop or something else in bulk? Thanks.

12

Lenses / 40 2.8 with extension tubes

« on: September 10, 2012, 10:14:00 AM »

I was just wondering if anybody has tried out the 40 2.8 with extension tubes. Given its very small design, I would think this would give a greater minimum working distance since even with the extension tubes it wouldn't stick out as far as some other lenses.

I'm shooting a wedding in a couple weeks and am not planning to rent a macro for it. I just shot a wedding on Saturday and only used the 100 IS L for a few shots of the ring so I can't really justify renting a macro just for that little. I have the 24 105 and am renting the tamron 24 70 as well in case anybody has any input on if those would work better with extension tubes (I would think not). I also have been wanting to try out the canon 35 1.4 and own the canon 35 2.0 if anybody has tried it on those as well. Thanks.

13

Software & Accessories / Yongnuo RF-603 Limitations

« on: September 01, 2012, 11:29:22 PM »

So I just got my Yongnuo RF-603 triggers. They're not bad for the price but I realized a couple things now that I own it that I didn't realize before hand. I think I still would of gotten it but it does show that it designed to be used a specific way and has some freedom limitations. Anyways, the first thing is it took me forever to get it working. I put batteries in both triggers but when I would push the button it wouldn't send a signal to the other trigger. I tried different channels and batteries thinking those were the issue. I finally put the trigger on top of the camera and suddenly everything worked. I googled around and discovered this is a limitation of this model is that the transmitter has to be on the hot shoe on a Canon camera to work. The main thing that stinks about this is it means I can't use an ettl flash on the hotshoe at the same time I'm using this trigger I tested to see if the ETTL passed through but it doesn't (not that I'd really to do that since there's no locking base on the triggers). The PC port is an output only so you can't send a signal to the trigger through a camera's PC Sync port. There's stuff online about putting in a resistor inside the unit to trick into being a transmitter always. I don't completely understand what they're doing but my question is couldn't this be done outside the unit as well? So have like a hot shoe that you put the trigger on that has that resistor built into the stand? Then you could just remove the stand when you didn't want it to be transmitter and then you could put a pc sync input on it as well so you could activate the trigger from the pc sync out port.

Another limitation I found and this is more specific to my setup. But I would like to have a setup where when I take a picture with my primary camera, the secondary camera takes a picture as well. I can make this work if I plug the remote shutter release into both cameras and their respective trigger but if I use the cameras built in button to take a picture then the other camera won't take a picture which means I have a very awkward setup to have to use the button built into the trigger since once again the 2.5mm output for remote release is output only not input. I brought this up in another thread and thought I'd bring it up here as well that I'm wondering what would prevent you from using the PC sync port to trigger the other camera to take a picture. I did some testing and the voltage the trigger is sending out is maybe a volt if that if my meter is working correctly. The camera itself is sending a higher voltage than that for the remote release trigger so I don't why that wouldn't work but then again I'm little eerie of trying it out with off chance it would take out a circuit board in the camera. The safest option would be to use a relay or something similar that upon getting the input voltage it completes the remote release circuit. By doing this, whenever I take a picture with the main camera it will send a signal to the second camera to take a picture as well which is what I want.

Any thoughts anybody?

14

Lenses / Canon 35 1.4 with extension tubes

« on: August 28, 2012, 06:20:01 PM »

Does anybody here use the Canon 35 1.4 with extension tubes? I see the lens has a floating system which is supposed to make it better for closer focusing. I realize a Canon 100 2.8 IS is a much better option for true macro work but for the occasional shot, I'm wondering if this might be a possibility for ring shots with a pleasing background.

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Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / What size Softbox

« on: August 22, 2012, 09:00:34 PM »

So I currently have a 580exii and 430 exii and am currently using a gary fong diffuser on each. I'm looking to improve the softness of the light by starting to experiment with a softbox. The one I'm looking at is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089JYJ1U/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=AL7LHK6Q9LVTS

Some of the reviews mention it only being good for one person. I'd like to be able to use it with groups as well. Will this not work for that due to the angle of light transmission? Thanks.