Messages

16

Lenses / Re: Please - I do need some wise advise 2choose: EF500II/EF600II/EF200-400?

« on: November 01, 2012, 08:30:31 AM »

I personally would go with the 600 MKII and the Canon 1DX for birds. Never used either of them but 600mm is what all the pros I aspire to use and the 1DX write up by Arthur Morris was pretty excellent.

Don't however think that good equipment will get you good photos, as a pro one advised me ' i'll take fieldcraft over reach any day'.

Have fun....

17

Lenses / Re: efs 15-85 or ef 24-105L

« on: October 24, 2012, 07:41:20 AM »

Had the same decision to make a couple of months ago for my 7D. I went for the 24-105 over the 15-85 as I have paired it with my 10-20 sigma which gives me the wide angle if I need it, which is very rarely nowdays. As a general walkaround lens I find the 24-105 a great lens which give a good focal length range, @ 105mm is  especially good for portraits. I don't find that 24mm is too narrow for anything other than landscapes and only then in particular circumstances, and I'm not particulary fond of the the distortion of UW angles on crop sensors anway, prefering 18-20mm shots. I'm very happy with the purchase and don't really miss the wide end, but I have another lens to cover that should the need arise.
From what I have heard the 15-85 is also a great lens, and I'm sure you'll be pleased whatever one you choose.

18

EOS Bodies / Re: do crop sensors really add reach?

« on: October 19, 2012, 09:00:11 AM »

No crop sensors don't add reach, a 400mm is a 400mm no matter what size sensor it is put on. It will give the same optical effect if you are at the same distance. You will see the difference when you display (print) your images; for instance comparing the 1DX and the 7D, both 18MP sensors. Imagine you take a picture at the same distance with both cameras, subject filling the frame of the 7D. You then crop the 1DX to the same framing. Your photos will look exactly the same, however when you print then out @ 300dpi the 7D will be roughly A3 size the 1DX slighly under A4 (18MP vs 7.2). What if you only print out at A4? You downsize the 7D and upscale the 1DX image a tiny amount, you then have exactly the same image (not accounting for pixel quality).

If your intention is to print and display your image at A3 300dpi, then your 7D requires no upsampling; the 1dX image will require considerable upsampling and will more than likely introduce artifacts which will degrade the overall quality of the image. So the benefit of the 7D over the 1DX is only when displaying images at large sizes like A3 where large scale upsmapling a cropped 1DX image is likley to intorduce unwanted artifacts which would degrade the image to that lower than the 7D (never tried this but would think it would).

Ever seen those beautiful bird portraits with the buttery smooth background taken with a FF and 600mm, you can't do that as well with a crop and 400mm lens at the same (similar) distance (640 effective focal lens). A FF allows you to get closer to the subject and still retain the same framing as crop with shorter lens, therefore the bokeh is far better and is a more desirable quality in photographs which is the benefit of FF with long lenses. I'm not going to mention any more benefits of FF like cleaner files as we all know about that...

19

EOS Bodies / Re: Red AF in AI-Servo fixed in 1D-X before 5D Mk III

« on: October 18, 2012, 07:11:23 AM »

I'm sure canon will get around to the 5d3 eventually. Hopefully.

Or not. Force us to upgrade to the 1dx. Make more money. You know, canon's usual. Or should I say, a sane company's usual.

I wouldn't count on it, they never bothered with the 7D.

20

Lenses / Re: What lenses do you own?

« on: October 02, 2012, 08:41:03 AM »

Sigma 10-20 EX F4-5.6
Canon 24-105L IS F4
Canon 50 1.4
Canon 100 2.8 macro
Canon 70-200 F4
Canon 400 F5.6

Body 7D

Really happy with all lenses and feel I have got a good coverage, 24-105 is the newest addition and is most used when not shooting wildlife.

21

Lenses / Re: New Lenses in January [CR1]

« on: September 27, 2012, 07:26:56 AM »

It will be interesting if a 400mm f/4 IS comes out.  I would think if priced right it should sell very well considering how old the 400/5.6 is and the desire for its replacement.

A 400mm f4 will likely be about $7000.  It will be similar in diameter and cost to a 300mm f2.8 II

I doubt that many owners of the 400 mm f5.6 will be rushing out to buy a 400mm f4.

Really!? I would think this would be the ideal wildlife lens for us 7D owners. The ability to increase focal length to 560mm and to have autofocus (yey!), still very handholdable, an extra stop and the latest IS would be just what I want. Thinking of what i can sell to fund it already...

22

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: For those whose paid full price on 5d III, how do you feel about the price drop?

« on: September 18, 2012, 07:08:24 AM »

Everyone surely knows than when a product is released it is priced above the market value with the intention of dropping it later. This happens with every new product, those who bought it at the release price are prepared to pay the higher premium. The price drop was expected as is with every other body and lens.

23

Lenses / Re: A New EF 400 f/5.6L Before Photokina? [CR1]

« on: September 07, 2012, 08:17:24 AM »

If it does happen it will shorten my wishlist to 35L, 135L and 180L Macro.

I dont like zooms as their image quality cannot approach that of primes. This holds true if the design year are within months of each other.

Zooms are heavier than primes at the furthest focal length and max aperture.

400/5.6 with IS would be a killer light long lens.

It should sell for the same price of a 70-200/2.8 IS II.

I'd be using it at 400mm all the time so a 100-400 would be useless for me.

My sigma 10-20 at 20 is incredibly sharp as is also my 24-105 and 70-200, there is no descernable difference to my 100mm 2.8, 50 1.4 and or 400 5.6. Modern high quality zooms are excellent and produce ultra sharp images and are no way 'inferior' in image quality to primes. Unless lenses are pushing the extreme boundaries of optical performance and measured in a lab then I'm sure there will a difference but in day to day shooting, nah.

24

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: AI SERVO

« on: August 24, 2012, 07:26:16 AM »

One thing you will find invaluable is rear focusing. This enables you to focus, recompose the shot and shoot   without initiating the focus again.

Arthur Morris explains its use here:
http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2011/09/13/rear-focus-tutorial/

25

Lenses / Re: best wide or ultra wide angle lens for crop sensorh

« on: August 17, 2012, 09:12:15 AM »

I have the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 EX DC HSM which I find an excellent lens, it really is sharp and well built. The Canon is 60% more expensive than the Sigma here in the UK and from comparing images is I didn't think was worth the extra cost. It's my only third party lens but is no way inferior to my Canon lenses.

26

EOS Bodies / Re: 7d - max ISO issues

« on: August 14, 2012, 06:50:36 AM »

Auto-ISO is working fine on mine after upgrading.

27

EOS Bodies / Re: Patents - EF 600 f/5.6 DO & 800 f/5.6 DO

« on: July 12, 2012, 12:25:42 PM »

I doubt youll see a 400 5.6 DO soon as the weight of the current 100-400 is not very great itself, and I very much doubt it would be $1500 seems far too low. The DO is all about portability and is more beneficial as conventional lenses get heavier, the reason why we are seeing patents for the big primes at the moment. As its new technology, its expensive and people arn't going to pay a premium for a 30% weight saving on a lens that is already easily manageable/portable. As time goes on then you may a see a shift with more DO lenses and may even replace conventional lenses if the optical quality is the same, but I feel this is a long way off at the moment. The 400 f4 Do has been relatively successful as it fills a specific niche for those people who dont want the weight of the 500+ but need the reach + TC usage and f4.

28

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS 7D Successors [CR1]

« on: July 04, 2012, 03:42:14 PM »

More megapixels for the 70D.... why do you need more megapixels on a prosumer camera?

Useful for cropping when I'm focal-length or magnification limited.

If more pixels weren't useful for this, teleconverters would also be useless, and they are not.  Even our old optics can do well with a 2x TC on an 18MP 1.6-crop sensor, thus indicating that sensor could go to 72MP and still provide benefit even to an old zoom lens (100-400L).

100-400L + 2x on T2i:
http://photos.imageevent.com/sipphoto/samplepictures/T2i__3574%20edited.jpg

That's like saying I'm shooting birds with a wide angle and need the extra pixels for cropping. Not really the right tools for the job.

I routinely need a zoom lens for shooting at long focal lengths because I'm shooting aircraft and they move quickly.  They move so quickly that handholding is required.  How many handholdable fast autofocus zoom lenses does Canon make longer than 400mm?  It's common for me to crop to 800-1200mm equivalent focal length, and those extra pixels are a big help.

Now, if Canon wants to make a nice, affordable, handholdable 100-1200 f/4-f/5.6, I'm all for it but I don't think that will happen any time in the foreseeable future as we don't even have materials that could meet those specs.

Well you are shooting at the same field of  view of pros I follow who shoot FF with 600s they crop minor for composition. Perhaps you need to improve your technique rather than 'need' more pixels. Shooting planes miles in the sky and cropping to way over 50% of the image is never going to give quality no matter how many pixels you have.

29

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS 7D Successors [CR1]

« on: June 30, 2012, 05:43:21 AM »

More megapixels for the 70D.... why do you need more megapixels on a prosumer camera?

Useful for cropping when I'm focal-length or magnification limited.

If more pixels weren't useful for this, teleconverters would also be useless, and they are not.  Even our old optics can do well with a 2x TC on an 18MP 1.6-crop sensor, thus indicating that sensor could go to 72MP and still provide benefit even to an old zoom lens (100-400L).

100-400L + 2x on T2i:
http://photos.imageevent.com/sipphoto/samplepictures/T2i__3574%20edited.jpg

That's like saying I'm shooting birds with a wide angle and need the extra pixels for cropping. Not really the right tools for the job.

30

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS 7D Successors [CR1]

« on: June 29, 2012, 08:47:32 AM »

More megapixels for the 70D.... why do you need more megapixels on a prosumer camera? Its unlikely  enthusiasts are going about printing bigger than A3. Stop with the megapixels and put the R&D into better noise and DR not trying to cram more photosites on when its not needed.