Messages

2896

Lighting / Re: Using the Built-in Flash

« on: February 13, 2012, 06:07:39 PM »

I agree with everyone else regarding lack of power on the built in flash however it will be ok in 1 situation with a diffuser and that is if you are very close taking the shot with a wide angle lens say of young children you know those cute shots where their head looks really big. Because you are so close to your subject the effective power is increased regarding exposure.

The best use of the pop up flash is to control an off camera flash and to provide a little bit of fill flash if you want to diffuse that fill flash a bit, these are good because they are so small can just pop into your pocket
the orange one can be handy if you want to get tricky with your colour balance and Gel your off camera flash too
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-Color-Pop-Up-Flash-Diffuser-Kit-Canon-50D-550D-500D-450D-400D-Nikon-D5000-/230741291820?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories&hash=item35b940b32c

2897

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS in 2012 [CR2]

« on: February 13, 2012, 05:56:03 PM »

which either indicates times are hard and people are ditching their least used lenses or a lot of people are expecting something soon and want to get the maximum return on a old lens.

Or - like me - they've upgraded to a new lens (in my case a new Siggy 120-300mm f/2.8 OS) and no longer need the 100-400mm...

going a little OT here but what are your thoughts on the siggy? quality how do you think it compares to say the canon 70-200 f2.8 IS II

2898

Lenses / Re: 24-70 too short for full frame?

« on: February 13, 2012, 05:40:44 PM »

They could do 24-105 f2.8 but it would weigh a ton and a half. But every major manufacturer doesn't make a 24-70 f2.8 because it's a crappy focal length. It's a very good length, it gives you good wide angle and decent normal range @ f2.8. You are asking if it's "too short" even though it's not suppose to be a "long lens". It's a normal zoom lens, that's all.

Some of us wouldn't mind the extra weight to avoid having to change out lenses or buy a 135mm. 

I had considered the 24-70, but went with the 16-35mm and 85mm instead.  I am glad that I did.

I use my 300mm (with a 1.4x sometimes) and that is long enough on my 5Dm2.  Well, for pictures of the Moon and planets it isn't long enough.  But it still works well.

this is the combo i like too 16-35 on an APS-H body gives you 20-48mm f2.8 and takes away any corner softness great for group shots or some interesting angles then the 85 on FF is perfect for portraits / couples etc

2899

Lenses / Re: Lens recommendations for fashion photography (catwalk)

« on: February 13, 2012, 07:01:52 AM »

Personally i would just go for the experience and you might get some nice portfolio shots if nothing else you will get to test out some back button focus and ai servo. you might have to headbut another tog to get some prime real estate though

but on a more serious note i think the fashion industry is notorious for taking advantage of people wanting to advance. You just need to turn the situation to your advantage, you are going to have a bunch of models and clothes in a runway situation that you can shoot for free to build a portfolio which you can later use to market your skills to the likes of local clothing stores or modeling agencies.
but you have to have a solid portfolio to show so a bit of pro bono work up front to get a decent portfolio  is often called for, interested to see some of the shots if you go through with it

2900

EOS Bodies / Re: When will Canon Meet The Market Demand?

« on: February 13, 2012, 06:27:40 AM »

Who cares you are going to sell all your Canon gear.

I care because i might want to buy some of it 

2901

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Which Speedlite

« on: February 13, 2012, 01:45:09 AM »

i use the yongnuo external battery packs on all my 580exii flashes they are less than $50 each and work great, boost recycle time and last forever before you need to change batteries

2902

Landscape / Re: Snowy pictures

« on: February 12, 2012, 09:49:18 PM »

here's one from a couple of years ago at the harbin snow and ice festival

2903

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Which Speedlite

« on: February 12, 2012, 09:06:21 PM »

Here is another way to have an onboard flash

LOL thats great, kind of reminds me of the guy that did the wearable studio suit at burning man... but smaller

Human Light Suit: Burning Man 2010	Small | Large

2904

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Just how strong is the Magnesium Alloy construction?

« on: February 12, 2012, 06:37:41 PM »

I've been using 1D bodies in pretty harsh environments for a couple of year now and the punishment these things take and hold up to is amazing, its not that I mistreat them its just the environment is extremely agressive with dust, high humidity, all sorts of nasties. I've definately put the weather sealing of the body and lenses to the test (be carefull of very fine dust and extending barrel lenses the the lens will drag dust into the focus ring which means a trip to canon for a pull down and cleanout).
Having a disciplined cleaning regime helps, when shooting this stuff I spend more time cleaning the gear afterwards than shooting

2905

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Which Speedlite

« on: February 12, 2012, 06:28:26 PM »

Thanks for all the replys.....

You could consider the Canon 580EX which goes for around £240 on Ebay but the II version isn't much more fetching around £275

If I can find a 580EXII for £275 that would be amazing but I have to admit I'm coming down on the 430 side at the moment, it’s fast enough as it is and if I need more a battery pack sounds like a perfect combo.

Regards
Z

I pretty sure that you will find that without a battery back your recycle times will vary wildly depending on the distance to the subject, ambient light, type of batteries, the charge left in batteries and even temperature.  Comparing best case and worst case examples you might find the recycle times are 3 times longer in the worst case.

I totally understand that money is not an infinite resource.  However, I would STRONGLY suggest that if recycle is important, spend the money and get a unit that takes an external battery pack if possible.  On a 580EX II, not only does it cut the recycle time to about 2 seconds but I can take hundreds of shots and they all have the same  2 second recycle time, even when I know the flash did a full dump.  Without the battery back I know that a 580 EX II feels like it takes 2 or 3 times longer or more to recycle.  At a wedding or any other event that you can't ask people to "stop and wait" that is a really big deal.

You can even get a knock battery unit for $50 and save a lot of money. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049JO71G/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

I second the need for the external battery pack they are brilliant

2906

Lenses / Re: 85mm f1.2 II or 70-200mm f2.8L IS II

« on: February 12, 2012, 06:22:38 PM »

I have the 70-200 f2.8L ISII  and I recently got the sigma 85f1.4 which I was deciding between getting the canon 85f1.2L

The primary reason for the 85 for me was for wedding use
I decided to go with the sigma over the canon mainly due to focus speed
the canon 85f1.2 is slowwww to focus particularly if you change from a near object to a far object then back to a near object , if changing focus at similar distanced obbjects its not too bad. but the sigma is much snappier I would estimate maybe 3 times faster.
However I thought the canon f1.2 Was sharper at 1.2 than the sigma was at 1.4 the canon is no doubt a stunning lens, if you can live with the slow AF then it is the lens to have for IQ in my opinion it lives up to canons claim of the definitive portrait lens. The other thing I didnt like was the fly by wire manual focus rather than a mechanical manual focus. just not a fan of this setup

I have tested the sigma against the 70-200 and I find the sigma at f2 significantly sharper than the 70-200 at f2.8 and for weddings moving my position i can cover everything the 70-200 can so I have found that the 85 has almost completely replaced my use of this lens for these events. Primarily because it is so much lighter and smaller, less likely to bang the lens into something and shooting for 10 hours the 70-200 weight really starts to take its toll (still a brilliant and all round awesome lens which i love so dont get me wrong here) I find the sigma 85 IQ to be about equal to the 70-200 wide open at f1.4 vs f2.8 but at f2 the sigma is gold.
My copy is heavily front focusing and i had to dial in +13 AF microadjust so while i have a break in wedding shoots I have sent it in to be looked at to see if they can get it closer to neutral I dont have a problem with a little micro adjuct but +13 is significant and I was worried that a future body might not have the adjustment range to compensate.

I dont know if that helps your decision, just some information from my experiences to factor into your considerations the sigma is 2 and a half times cheaper than the canon 85L too

2907

EOS Bodies / Re: Anyone else want a cropped sensor?

« on: February 12, 2012, 06:06:36 PM »

Very true. My point was that cropped bodies are well provided for at the moment where as those after a non gripped full frame with more than one useable AF point are not.

Best summary in the least amount of words

2908

Lenses / Re: A Lens Roadmap? [CR1]

« on: February 12, 2012, 05:39:01 PM »

Interested in the 50 1.8 IS as long as its razor sharp wide open
I was really kind of hoping for a ligthweight 50 f1.4L of similar build to the 100 f2.8L macro

the 100-400 looks interesting too and I think will sell like hot cakes

and i'm keen to see what sort of quality they get out of that new 35 if the 24-70 mtf is anything to go by i wonder what they have managed to squeeze out of a little prime... might be amazing!

the rest seem a bit wierd especially those EF-s lenses

2909

Lenses / Re: Canon 85L vs. 135 L in terms of focal length

« on: February 11, 2012, 03:08:35 AM »

a friend of mine has the 135 i have been planning to see if i can borrow it to do a comparison vs the sigma 85mm f1.4 as the sigma 85 at f2 is exceptionally sharp

I'd be interested to see this, thanks!

My money's on the Canon winning the usefulness side of things, even ignoring image quality.  The TC is not the same as having a zoom lens; it's "two focal lengths in one" but still clunky here.

oh yeah dont disagree at all there i wanted to do a comparison between the 85 at f2 and the 135 at f2 after a little playing around I think the sigma at f2 is sharper than the 70-200 f2.8 IS ii at f2.8 at 85mm still love the 70-200 though but i just find for weddings i dont need anything longer than 85mm.
I was just going to throw the 1.4TC into the mix for a laugh typically i find the need to stop down to get goodIQ with the tc which would mean being at f2.8 for effective 119mm and i would be suprised if the quality would be better than the 70-200 here. but not sure when i am getting my 85 back so still waiting

2910

Lighting / Re: I Need a Flash

« on: February 11, 2012, 03:01:44 AM »

actually i started out with manual I find it easier actually to do the calcs in my head to just change the power by moving the flash closer or further away or bumping power up or down. Once you understand how it all works together its pretty easy really and just shoot a bunch of test shots and move stuff around, shoot some more and look at how things change, you will be amazed how much you can learn with a awilling model and a few hours just moving the lighting around to create different effects
ETTL actually complicates thing more because all the flashes take each other into account.
Sometimes its easier to just switch it all back to manual and have total control over each flash

Significant moving of the flash impacts the quality of the light.

Few hours? I did a new lighting set in 15minutes this morning.

The whole point of eTTL is that they balance all the time - you only have to get them in the right place and they take care of the rest

sorry i wasnt clear enough i didnt mean hours each time it's pretty much a  once or twice thing wher eyou jusr move stuff around and play with the light , doesnt take long to work out what works and what doesn't as far as manual setups go. Learning manual lighting is fun and once you get a feel for it its pretty strait forward. And for someone just starting out some manual flashes and cheap poverty wizards are a good place to start without dropping heaps of cash