Messages

16

EOS Bodies / Re: Has Canon entered the Graveyard Spiral?

« on: November 17, 2012, 11:21:26 PM »

I compared the same photo on the screen on the back of my D600 to my laptop (recent 15" MacBook Pro) screen and they are very similar.  My laptop tends to be a bit warm... and it is slightly warmer than the back screen on the D600, but I couldn't see any "green cast" on the screen in the slightest.

17

EOS Bodies / Re: Has Canon entered the Graveyard Spiral?

« on: November 17, 2012, 10:30:23 PM »

no,  it is easier than that, if  some one thinks the LCD shows to green/yellow tint in the Nikon and  they are using raw they can adjust the AWB so the display shows a more red warm tone and from the jpg rendition in the LCD (has noting to do with the cameras result and raw files)

But wouldn't you have to edit every picture in post since you artificially changed the AWB?

Wait now I see what Jukka was saying... and you are right.  It would be foolish to modify the WB setting to compensate for the screen.  What a real pain to deal with in post!

18

EOS Bodies / Re: Has Canon entered the Graveyard Spiral?

« on: November 17, 2012, 10:27:46 PM »

no,  it is easier than that, if  some one thinks the LCD shows to green/yellow tint in the Nikon and  they are using raw they can adjust the AWB so the display shows a more red warm tone and from the jpg rendition in the LCD (has noting to do with the cameras result and raw files)

But wouldn't you have to edit every picture in post since you artificially changed the AWB?

What?  Why?

I haven't noticed the "green screen" on my D600... but even if the screen were off a bit it wouldn't matter.  I don't know anyone that modifies the WB based on how things look on the back screen.  You either pick a WB preset based on the lighting (like the tungsten setting), use a grey card for a custom setting or leave it on Auto.

So it wouldn't matter if the screen were off a little bit... it only effects your view while shooting... and not the actual values in the file.

I'll compare the back screen view vs my computer screen and see if I can see any green tint...

19

Canon General / Re: Photography websites. Where are you posting?

« on: November 17, 2012, 08:08:38 PM »

All of my photos go to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/friedmud/

My best / favorite go to 500px: http://500px.com/friedmud

Both sites are useful for different purposes.  Flickr is a great place for my family to look at vacation photos.  500px is a great place to explore my photography hobby as an art form.

20

Technical Support / Re: Best Methods For Long Term File Storage ??

« on: November 15, 2012, 10:38:19 AM »

Currently I just use Apple time machine to back up to an external hard drive AND a Flickr Pro account where I upload full resolution versions of all my photos.  In the case of catastrophe I could recover my photos from Flickr (albeit not the RAWs)

A good option is to use with Time Machine with two drives.  Keep one at a friend's house and swap them out every now and again.

21

EOS Bodies / Re: Has Canon entered the Graveyard Spiral?

« on: November 14, 2012, 12:17:57 AM »

As someone that just switched to Nikon for the D600 I agree with some of the OP's sentiment... But he is way off in 2 areas:

1.  No way this is a "Death Spiral". Canon has had some trouble with execution lately (look at the time between announcement and availability for most of their new stuff for instance) but they are still making big profits and selling tons of gear.

2.  Auto ISO and Flash?!?  Those are two words that don't belong together.  Don't get me wrong... I love the Auto ISO on my D600.  It is infinitely more usable than on my 7D because of all of the ways you can customize and restrict it.  However:  flashes should never be used with Auto ISO.

When using a flash you have a 4th variable outside of the normal shutter speed, aperture and ISO exposure triangle: flash intensity.  I've found that flash photography is best done in manual mode where you select the shutter speed you need to freeze the action (generally), the aperture you want for DoF you want, and the ISO you want for the amount of "background fill" (ie, how light or dark the rest of the scene will be in relation to your main subject).  THEN allow the camera to choose the correct amount of flash to properly expose your main subject.

Auto ISO and speedlights just doesn't make sense to me at all...

22

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Convince me to shoot in RAW

« on: November 12, 2012, 09:51:45 AM »

For me:

RAW for everything except high speed action.  The reason is two-fold:

1.  When you are machine gunning you really will fill your cards / computer quickly wit RAW.
2.  Buffer size greatly increases with jpeg

To accomplish this,  I actually have my "fast action" custom mode set to jpeg...

Other than that... There are no other valid reasons to shoot jpeg (for me).

23

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: D600 High ISO Examples

« on: November 01, 2012, 10:25:42 PM »

As for the D600 being able to take pics at ISO 6400, ok, better than my camera, but these are pics with in-camera JPG NR + some post NR, and I see some ugly noise in the backgrounds. Frankly I considered switching, but my gear won't let me, and for high ISO Canon has managed to keep rather pleasing grainy noise, even at ISO 10,000 with no NR. And we can expect the same performance from the 6D, just nobody's sure about the AF and everything else yet....

So, since that night I've upgraded to Lightroom4 and have now been able to process RAWs shot at 6400.... and damn they look good.  I haven't been applying any NR because the photos look great without it.  There is a lot of noise, but like you say, it's very fine grained and melts away when outputting lower res versions of the photo while a bunch of detail is still retained.

It will be interesting to see how the 6D stacks up for sure...

24

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: D600 High ISO Examples

« on: November 01, 2012, 10:20:55 PM »

Skin tones are orange...which seems to be a hallmark of Nikon FF sensors. Nothing that can't be fixed in post, but I grew tired of dealing with it and switched back to Canon. Thankfully, short of MP count, the 5D3 is equivalent to most of Nikon's current offerings (D4 notwithstanding).

Actually they are really true to the light.  The light is really weird in his house (multiple lamps with differently colored shades).  The way the photos look is pretty much spot on to what it looked like that night.

25

EOS Bodies / Re: Official DXOMark Sensor Score for the EOS-1D X

« on: November 01, 2012, 01:22:55 AM »

So would you want a camera that has better DR, or one that has better AF, ISO & FPS?

If you had a camera that had the DR of the human eye but only shot one frame every 10 minutes at ISO 100 only and was only manual focus... I would put a second mortgage on my house to buy it.  This is doubly true if it came in at 30-40Mp and also had incredible color reproduction.

BUT... that's just me... as a landscape photographer.  I certainly wouldn't get on a forum and suggest that everyone in the world would want a camera like that...

Many people have many different needs in photography.  Study the DXO measurements and take them for what they are: measurements.  Taken together with many other reviews and tests they can help people make decisions _for themselves_ about what cameras best suit their needs....

26

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: D600 High ISO Examples

« on: October 28, 2012, 05:16:48 PM »

It's still really unknown if that gap is really the culprit or not.  Some others are thinking that it's metal shavings from a scratch to the metal during production.

Personally, here's my take: I think it's perfectly normal.  What's abnormal is how poorly the built-in automatic cleaning mechanism of the D600 works.  When my sensor was at full dust (before I ever blew it off) repeated automated cleanings did absolutely nothing.  So, I think what I'm seeing is probably what would be on any brand new camera without a sensor cleaning mechanism.... it's just residual dust floating around in there from the production process and nothing is shaking it off.

Many people have reported that after a few cleanings there's doesn't get dirty any more... so I'm hoping that it will settle down over time.

Overall though... it's really not a huge issue.  If you're looking to go Nikon for the IQ I wouldn't let this hold you back...

27

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Considering switching to Nikon

« on: October 28, 2012, 02:24:48 PM »

So..........
There are reasons to switch and reasons to stay,
So make a choice and go away.

tadaaaaaa!

Seriously, guys.

Well we have talk about _something_ instead of actually shooting photographs ;-)

But seriously... when I was thinking of switching these types of threads were extremely valuable... they let you see all the different lines of thinking that can be taken into consideration when making this type of decision.  For many of us multi-thousand dollar decisions with no RoI other than great photos are difficult, prolonged decisions with many variables to factor in....

28

Lenses / Re: Your technique for switching lenses in the field?

« on: October 28, 2012, 01:44:27 PM »

Too much? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1022605159/quikdraw-an-innovative-lens-holster

Looks good for certain types of photography.  A couple of issues come to mind:

1.  Weather proofing.  If you have all your lenses hanging about like that and it starts to downpour - you could be in trouble!

2.  Thieves... obviously you wouldn't want to walk around like this anywhere that you were expecting thieves... they would get quite good at just coming up to you and twisting one of your lenses off!


This solution seems best for wedding photography and other type of (indoor) event photography where you're not really expecting thieves and you have some control over the weather...

29

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Considering switching to Nikon

« on: October 28, 2012, 01:32:07 PM »

Hi, have been reading these forums for a while.
After reading topics like this, i cant give in to the thought that my 5D mark II is overclassed by the D800.
Today i was in the opportunity to take some comparison shots in and outside of a store.
I had my zeiss 21, the nikon the 14-24; both respected lenses.
The nikon salesman asked for 400 iso, so we shot at moderate iso.
I didn't expect it, but no way the d800 showed better DR.
Sharpness is better on the zeiss/canon combo. Resolution of course the d800.
I learned my lesson today, i'll stick with my 5D for the next couple of years...

Ummm - I don't really understand.... why were you shooting wide angles outside at ISO 400?  I hate to say it, but you missed an opportunity by not going down to ISO 100... that's where the Nikon's shine.

If you look at the tests the current Canon sensors basically "top out" at ISO 400... not offering anything extra going down toward 100... but the Nikon's keep adding DR and dropping noise.

Also this doesn't make sense: "Sharpness is better on the zeiss/canon combo. Resolution of course the d800."

What is sharpness to you if not resolution?  How can the D800 have better resolution but worse sharpness?  Is it because you're comparing 100% at their native resolutions or are you comparing how "sharp" jpegs are?  You should downsample the D800 shots to the same resolution as your 5D and do that comparison again.

Not trying to be argumentative here... I just thought your test scenario and outcomes were a bit odd.

30

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: D600 High ISO Examples

« on: October 28, 2012, 01:24:26 PM »

suggest to check for dust more frequently with your new camera since nikon d600 has sensor's dust spots problems...  i am not goin' to post link into this forum since i am not pretty sure whether i am going violate any thing with that;  however, google key search would be "Nikon D600 sensor’s dust spots caused by a gap around the shutter?"

Yep... mine gets dusty.  It is just dust though... and does get blown off with a Giottos Rocket Blower.  It is annoying... but worth the hassle (IMO) for the incredible image quality.

I'm actually surprised that I haven't seen this discussed here yet... Canon guys are usually pretty quick to jump on Nikon quality shortcomings (and the other way around on other forums!).