Messages

2926

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

2927

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

2928

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

2929

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

2930

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

2931

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

2932

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

2933

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Split? 5D X & 5D Mark III [CR1]

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:53:10 AM »

Hey everyone, I'm gonna try something new here, no rumors, no guess and no jokes like "18-55 F/3,5-5,6 L IS"
Instead, just a really down-to-earth question for you pros of Canon items ... I'm a happy owner of 7D who wants to go FullFrame for his GREAT road trip of August month, do you think I have a chance to own the 5DmkIII until then, or shall I go right now with the 5DmkII 'cos mkIII is just a chimera ??
Thanks buddies !

august you might just scrape in if you preorder the minute the official release is out

2934

EOS Bodies / Re: What's Next? Lenses & Cameras

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:41:48 AM »

...as will the IS version when it comes.

LOL can we stick this comment in a time capsule and open it in 10 years time when the CR1 Rumour comes out for the IS 24-70

2935

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Split? 5D X & 5D Mark III [CR1]

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:38:29 AM »

So how many threads will NR see going something like... "dammit nikon wont give me what I want thats it i'm changing to canon!"

2936

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Split? 5D X & 5D Mark III [CR1]

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:32:31 AM »

I hope the MP monster has better IQ than the 7D aka 18MP crops, that would be disapointing to say the least
hopefully they have refined the tech in recent years to get better sharpness out of them maybe removing the AA filter like the D800E. fingers crossed.

2937

Lighting / Re: I Need a Flash

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:24:20 AM »

If you don't need TTL then the YN560 (different from the 565 mentioned above) is an amazing choice for about $70. They are serious workhorses with pretty much everything you need (unless you need TTL, of course), and pretty much the only thing I can fault them on is long recharge at full power. At anything below full power it's a non-issue. Very comparable to a 430EX II in what you can do with it, for about 1/3 the price.

Does the YN560 support eTTL2 and being a wireless slave from the on board controllers?

i dont think so that was the major complaint with it they are dirt cheap though and if used in manual with some poverty wizards can get some great results for not alot of money for people starting out with strobe

It is hard work to get the lighting right with 3 or 4 flash on eTTL - I am not sure that I would have the patience to try it on manual. I guess fine tuning would be done by adjusting distances.

At the moment I am doing an event where people are dressed in period costume from the 19th century. The clothes are light and dark, shiny and matt. I have a room set up as a studio and I can do a person in about 5-10 minutes as eTTL makes the fine tuning adjustments for me. Not sure that in manual that I would get the productivity.

Here is an example of a 3 flash setup simulating someone by a window which is on the left. In reality the (very small) window is on the right and it gave very low light levels.

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

2938

Lenses / Re: Best lens for photographing product...

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:17:39 AM »

on your T3i you should look at the canon 10-22 it has les distortion than the 16-35

2939

EOS Bodies / Re: The Price of Full Frame

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:10:59 AM »

I really think Canon will keep the 5D2 and reprice it to $1999 to satisfy and own the entry FF market
still great cameras, great IQ and AF works brilliantly in MF mode but seriously the center point with f2.8 glass is alright for most stuff. Cannon would be mad to not just continuing to make mk2s and keep that cash cow alive as long as possible

2940

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Why the hate for video capable DSLRs?

« on: February 10, 2012, 02:06:51 AM »

I'm a still photographer, And every time i try to make a video it looks like an epileptic with parkinsons got hold of the camera. so I have alot of respect for the skill it take to make good video. Its something i cant do and right now dont have the time to get a handle on. I dont mind either way having the video on DSLRs I think its mostly a software thing, as long as they dont go re-arranging buttons and controls to suit video and cause problems for still shooting its all good.