Messages

1

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

« on: June 14, 2013, 06:40:49 PM »

I finally replaced my ancient Tamron 28-75 2.8, when the price of the 24-105 got down to $725 last week.  It came in a white box with lens hood, pouch and US warranty registration papers.  I assume it was part of a kit.

First I did a focus test.  The point of focus at F/4 was within the depth of field at both ends of the zoom range, but being a bit obsessive about focus accuracy I put in +1 AFMA at both ends to make it closer to perfect.  Then I took the new lens and my 5D3 to the Portland Rose Garden for some practice.

I have to say I am very impressed with the autofocus, center sharpness and color rendering.  Edge sharpness is not very important in my work, so I can't comment on that.  The folks at LensRentals.com mention this lens as one of their least troublesome lenses, so hopefully it will continue to work well for a long time.

Here is a shot at F/4, 1/400, ISO 200.  It's been a while since I had an image that wasn't too naughty to post here!

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EOS Bodies / Re: Eos 6D for $1562

« on: June 11, 2013, 03:41:29 PM »

Newegg.com has a discount code that brings the price down to $1521.19 with shipping.  Good for about the next five days it says.


BTEXPWX63

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Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Sigma 50mm 1.4 AF issues question

« on: June 04, 2013, 04:55:08 PM »

Autofocus performance is in general a mysterious and frustrating topic.  I have had a Sigma 50mm F/1.4 for around 3-4 years.  I got it to use on my 5D classic, but it front focussed enough to be annoying and there is no micro-adjust on that body.  (Canon calibrated the body for me shortly after I bought it used.)  I managed to get some use out of it for portraits by focusing on the subjects ear, then the eyes would be sharp! 

When I got my 5D III last Fall, the Sigma worked great with it, needing very little MFA.  I use it a lot now for full body portraits at about F/2.0 to F2.8 to get just the right background blur.  Sorry I don't have any acceptable images to post right now, most of my work is not appropriate for this site. 

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Third Party Manufacturers / Sigma USB dock

« on: June 04, 2013, 04:12:12 PM »

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/909813-REG/Sigma_USB_Dock.html

I'm hoping for reports from some of our Sigma 35 owners soon!

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Canon General / Re: Noooooooo....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

« on: June 01, 2013, 03:30:55 PM »

You can expect a lot more of this kind of thing as more newspapers spiral around the drain before they go down.

Not only has technology changed, but most newspapers insist on pushing a biased political agenda that automatically alienates about half of their prospective customers.  I stopped reading newspapers about a decade ago and stopped watching television about five years ago.  I don't need elite journalists telling me what to think.   I'll end this here, as this is not really the place for such a discussion.

6

Lenses / Re: Canon 85mm f/1.8

« on: May 26, 2013, 01:08:55 PM »

Since Dylan mentioned an interest in the F/1.8 non-L 85, I thought I'd offer my two cents worth.  I'm using the 1.8 on my 5D3 and love it for my portrait/glamour/boudoir work.  It is light and fast focusing.  I like bokeh, but I don't often want the super-shallow DOF that you get at F1.2, so I find myself using the lens primarily between 2.0 and 2.8

The shot below was taken at: ISO 100, F/2.0, 1/3200.  I picked it because it shows the minor flaws of this lens, which I don't normally notice.

As you can see, it is not super sharp at F2.0 but it does improve rapidly as you get to F2.8 or so.

If you look at the cropped image, you will see the chromatic abberration on the fence cables.  You get green behind the subject and purple in front of the subject.  You can remove this with Lightroom, but I've never had to do that.  Note that there is no CR on the subject.  In any case, the CR is gone at F2.8

I'm a big fan of this lens.  If the price, weight and focus speed are important to you, I think it is much more attractive than the 1.2 L version. I'm pretty sure your clients will never notice the difference.

7

EOS Bodies / Re: New AF Technology Coming in July? [CR1]

« on: May 25, 2013, 01:55:03 PM »

“D— —– —- AF”

I don't think that's the name of the new technology, I think it refers to what we've had in the past.   Before I got my 5D3 I was always saying:  Damn autofocus!

8

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

« on: May 19, 2013, 01:46:00 AM »

Since I got my 5D III, with it's incredible autofocus system, I can now use my prime lenses to good effect.  One that has become a favorite is the 85mm 1.8 USM lens.  I shoot mostly people these days who are moving and posing, so a light, compact lens is very helpful.  This shot was at 1/200, ISO 200 and F/4.  The light was very flat due to the bright overcast sky, so I increased the contrast in Lightroom.  I can do so much in Lightroom now that I really question the need to have heavy, expensive prime lenses that give a bit better contrast or color rendering than the mid-range primes like the 85/1.8.  I have a 135L that is fun to use, but I can't pick out the 135L images from the 85/1.8 images without cheating.

This is not one of the better images from this shoot, but the model was quite the exhibitionist and there weren't many images suitable for this forum.   

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: my new 5D3 battery life

« on: May 17, 2013, 12:14:16 PM »

So far I have not had to change batteries during a shoot and I've gone a bit over 1,000 shots.  Note that I don't use Live View, do you?

I'm not sure how accurate the battery condition report in the menu is. In any case, it is good practice to always carry a spare battery.

10

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Waiting for a Sigma 50 "A" like their 35 to appear?

« on: May 14, 2013, 02:14:48 PM »

My Sigma 50mm 1.4 sat on the shelf a lot when my primary camera was a 5D classic.  The focus was just too erratic to make use of it at wide apertures.  My 7D was a bit better, but still not great.

When I got my 5D Mark 3 about 7 months ago, the Sigma suddenly started focusing very well!  I now use it a lot hand held as a full body portrait lens at about F/2.0 in soft available light where I focus on the eyes and let the body be blurred.  That's what I bought it for in the first place.  I have to admit that I'm not getting tack sharp images this way, but it works fine for the boudoir business and saves me a lot of retouching.  LOL

Anyway, the point I'd like to make is that some of the erratic focus may be due to the camera body you are using.

11

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: dissapointed 6d 100mm f2 and 24mm 2.8 (non l)

« on: May 06, 2013, 01:21:40 PM »

Not enough info so far to give much useful advice beyond what Mt. Spokane offered. but one thing I've learned is never to take off on an important vacation with a brand  new camera.   I have sometimes needed a thousand or more exposures to figure out how to use a new camera body, even with my old lenses.

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Lenses / Re: What exactly is a 100% crop?

« on: April 28, 2013, 08:04:28 PM »

I guess I had the wrong idea about the 100% crop images people post on forums.  I thought that it meant they were cropping the image to a certain standard percentage of the frame to allow meaningful comparisons with other images.   

Since it apparently refers to a 1 to 1 display of pixels on my monitor, it does not seem like a very useful concept for use on the forum.  I like the way that the river photos were posted above.  You can see the full image, then the small cropped section.  That seems like a pretty practical way to show people how sharp your cool new lens is.

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Lenses / Re: What exactly is a 100% crop?

« on: April 27, 2013, 09:43:29 PM »

Hmmm...

I can certainly use Photoshop to crop to a certain pixel size. I think even Lightroom will do that in the export options.  However, that doesn't really create a standardized crop that folks on forums like this can use to compare lens resolution and such.  To do so, I think we'd all have to agree that our sample images would be a certain standard portion of the original frame.  Am I missing something?

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Lenses / What exactly is a 100% crop?

« on: April 27, 2013, 06:40:37 PM »

For years I've seen people post examples of a "100% crop" to show the sharpness of a lens or the noise level of a sensor.  Today I was thinking about posting some images from a EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS that I just picked up and realized that I don't know how to do a 100% crop.  Can someone provide brief instructions on how to do that?  I'm using Lightroom 4 if it matters.

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Canon General / Re: 5D Mark III

« on: April 17, 2013, 12:42:48 PM »

Any rumors of a newer 5D Mark III or it being upgraded.  I am about to buy one and if a newer model is around the corner I can wait.

What body are you upgrading from, Prospero?   If you are just upgrading from the Mark 2 and you don't need a killer autofocus system, there may not be much of a rush.  If you are upgrading from anything else farther down in the Canon heirarchy, I'd say go for it and have fun with your new Mark 3.  I've found mine to be a fantastic tool for my type of photography (mostly people, indoors and outdoors).