Messages

631

Lenses / Re: initial thoughts on the new Canon 2X III

« on: January 28, 2011, 12:50:00 PM »

ah ... well I'm sure the 70-200 f/2.8 II with the 2x III will serve you well in yellowstone.  that's exactly what I'm bringing down to Ecuador this year.  was debating renting a 500 f/4 but I'm not sure about the cost or the weight of hauling it around.

70-200mm with 2X is not long enough for wildlife in Yellowstone unless you are photographing the elk on the lawns, or buffalo that come up close.  Even 100-200 yards away is a long ways.

Here is my 70-200mm with 1.4X and the animal looked to be quite close.




On the other hand, a 70-200mm zoom isn't the best choice at Old Faithful.

70mm backed off a long distance such that it was difficult to keep the crowd out of the image.

632

Lenses / Re: 35 /1.4 mk2 , anyone ?

« on: January 27, 2011, 11:32:34 AM »

I think it will come out soon.  That's based solely on the fact that I gave up waiting for a MkII and bought the current version at the beginning of the year.

I bought mine last July, but that did not trigger a new one at Photinika :-)

Resolution charts for the Nikon35mm f/1.4g are up on the digital picture, it is noticibly sharper at the borders and C/A is less.  I'm not sure that it is enough better to matter though.

Note, it was tested on a D3X, so a little more resolution is to be expected.

633

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

« on: January 23, 2011, 11:42:28 AM »

I'm sure everyone would love to have a 400mm f/2.8, but if you take a look at the cost you'll see why more people use the 100-400 despite the slow 5.6 on the long end

While cost of the 2.8 is too high, last year I bought a 600mm f/4 used.  Carrying it around and setting up with heavy tripod and wimberly was just too much, it took up a lot of space in my car too, so I sold it and kept using the 100-400mm L. 

For my use, portability has a higher priority than larger aperture.  I have considered the 400mm DO, but it is also pretty high priced, and is not much sharper than my 100-400mm, and the background is not smooth like the zoom.

634

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II Patent?

« on: January 22, 2011, 05:05:51 PM »

Canon also patented a 600mm f/5.6 with what appears to be DO optics, but there's no explicit mention of IS, it would be really surprising if a lens like this didn't have IS.

I agree that any 600mm lens that will be produced will have IS.  however, the version patented does not have IS.

Only a very few of a large number of patents make it to production.

Here is a translation of the 600mm DO patent application.

http://www4.ipdl.inpit.go.jp/Tokujitu/PAJdetail.ipdl?N0000=60&N0120=01&N2001=2&N3001=2010-145832

635

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II Patent?

« on: January 22, 2011, 11:33:56 AM »

I'm not sure why a patent application for the design & construction of a lens has to have every single design point included.  The IS part of a lens is already covered by patents, and new patents have to cover something new & original.

There is another point to consider - Canon offer 2 different 70 - 200mm lenses, and offer them in IS & non IS versions.  There is nothing here to show that Canon can not / will not offer similar in the 24 - 70mm f/2.8 satisfying budgets and market demand.

The is unit contains optics and thus is part of the optical path being patented.  It might not be identified on the patent as a IS, but it needs to be included in the optics.

636

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

« on: January 18, 2011, 10:49:09 PM »

A person who understands their equipment, like you, can capture great images.  The photographer is at least 90% of the equation.

637

EOS Bodies / Re: Buy now a 5D MK II or wait...?

« on: January 18, 2011, 10:47:03 PM »

Im in a same situation >< im a student and i want to upgrade to a full frame camera for this summer cuz i will be doing a lot of traveling and i love photography..so saving up 2-3G is a lot for me. I was hoping that they will announce the spec by the beginning of the year so i can decide if i want to buy a 5DMark2 or 5DMark3
Hopefully they will officially announce it before may =D

I have a 5D MK II and love it, but for traveling, weight is important, and so are lenses.  I'd recommend that you consider the package as a whole, lenses, body, flash, extenders, figure out what you need.  You will get more milage out of a T2i/ 60D plus good lenses than a 5D MK II and no money left for good lenses.

Good lenses do not need to be "L" lenses, but determine what you need in advance, since the lens part can cost 3X the camera body.

638

EOS Bodies / Re: 60D video problem

« on: January 18, 2011, 04:26:34 PM »

perhaps this belongs in the movie sohoting forum, but it is a technical issue with the camera i feel so here goes:

the card i using is a new 16GB class 10, but it is cheaper brand than sandisk for example

any ideas what caused this?

Try a different card, buy a good brand like sandisk, and buy it from a reliable store like B&H or Adorama, etc.

Unfortunately, there are lots of counterfit flash cards around that are not really what they claim, or, your card could just have a bad memory location and recording stops when the location is reached.

Give a new card a try, and if that fixes it, return the old one. 

639

EOS Bodies / Re: white balance issues

« on: January 18, 2011, 11:50:16 AM »

What value is given in exif?  That value is what the camera applied for the image.

640

EOS Bodies / Re: white balance issues

« on: January 18, 2011, 01:07:38 AM »

As someone said, if your light is narrow spectrum, then you will not be able to make colors balance, you might be missing red and blue for example.  Our brain is a marvelous thing, it fills in the missing colors so you see white where you know it should be white.  A camera can only capture what it sees.

A gray card helps most of the time, but not for certain types of lighting. 

641

EOS Bodies / Re: 1Ds3 Changes on Canon USA Website

« on: January 17, 2011, 03:43:12 PM »

A single off center point. The center one is fine, but leads to bad framing or broken by design metering, timing issues and the plane of focus topics.

Mine is great.  I have a 1D MK III for birding and sports.  Some people want the camera to do something other than what it was intended for, and complain when it doesn't.

642

EOS Bodies / Re: Ai Servo in low light

« on: January 14, 2011, 10:39:13 PM »

Can you provide a reference that says this? 

Sure, you can reference my post above, where I stated, "The AF assist lamp on external speedlites does not operate in AI Servo mode."

You are right, I tried it just now.  One Shot and AI Focus use the AF-Assist light, but AI Servo disables it.

I guess its never too late to learn something new. 

I'm going to be doing a lot of very low light photography at a upcoming theatre event, However, I'll be using my 5d MK II without flash, and its never failed to AF in low light using center point and one shot. 

643

EOS Bodies / Re: *UPDATE* More 5D Mark III / 1D Mark V & Lenses [CR2]

« on: January 14, 2011, 11:47:57 AM »

Nikon has the D3S and the D3X.  Two FF pro cameras one with low resolution but fast frame rate, and one with high resolution and slower frame rate. 

I would expect to see the same from Canon if the 1D is replaced with a FF version  and fast frame rate. 

Right now, the 1D MK IV has the same photosite density as a 27 mp FF camera, if they made the sensor FF and did not change the photosite density, it would be 27 mp.  This may be easiest to do, since the design is mostly done, it merely needs to be extended to cover a larger piece of silicone.  Undoubtedly, there are other challenges, like reading the data fast enough to get high frame rates.

It is likely the ability to move data fast enough that is a key piece of technology needed to move the 10 FPS 1D series to FF and 27 mp.

644

EOS Bodies / Re: Ai Servo in low light

« on: January 14, 2011, 11:31:46 AM »

Realise that focus assist will only work in one shot and AI Focus modes (and I'm not even sure about AI Focus, since I always use one shot in these situations).
[/quote]

Can you provide a reference that says this? 

When the external flash is enabled, AF Assist is automatic on the 1D MK IV.  It can be disabled by CFNIII-15, and it is not available in live view under certain conditions.

See pg 98, 119, 134, 216, 225 of the manual.

645

EOS Bodies / Re: Ai Servo in low light

« on: January 14, 2011, 10:18:53 AM »

The 1D MK IV is well known for its weak low light focusing.  The 5D MK II is about the best.  Attach a flash unit (580 EX II) which has a focus assist light.  That will be about the best solution.