Messages

1

Street & City / Re: San Jose Street Photography

« on: May 08, 2013, 08:43:00 PM »

Nice shots! Where were these? (I work in San Jose)

Lion Plaza off of Tully Road. People were out selling outside so I thought that I'd take my camera out and start shooting. I rarely go by that area so I'm not sure if things have changed or not. Happy shooting!

Haven't been there in a while, myself. Looks fun, though.

2

Street & City / Re: San Jose Street Photography

« on: May 08, 2013, 06:46:54 PM »

Nice shots! Where were these? (I work in San Jose)

3

Canon General / Re: Think I need a 12 step program

« on: April 23, 2013, 03:16:12 AM »

Oh, boy. In the last year I bought a T2i, 18-55, 50D, 50mm f/1.8, Tokina 12-24mm f/4, then took a break for a couple months before buying a Nikon D50, 18-55, 50mm f/1.4, D70s, 60mm macro, Canon AE-1, FD 50mm f/1.4, FD 28mm f/2.8, D600, Tamron 70-300, 24-85, 17-35, 80-200, then inherited a GF3, 14-42, XTi, 18-55, 50mm f/1.8.

Then I finally got a job.

Good thing I sold most of those along the way, or I would probably be living in a cardboard box by now.

4

PowerShot Cameras / Re: NAB 2013: Canon USA, All About 4K

« on: April 09, 2013, 01:06:38 PM »

A lot of people, including myself, don’t think 4K will even become a mainstream thing inside peoples homes.

Another big issue with 4K in your home is streaming content at that resolution.

Acquisition does have a lot of merit. Canon was very much pushing the idea of cropping, zooming and having more options when editing your film.

Beyond the cost of a 4K display, the workflow with 4K content needs improvement.

Will we see 4K in a DSLR camera other than Canon EOS-1D C? One day, though I don’t think it will be soon.

The 4K and 8K resolution is beautiful on the big screen, just don’t expect it to become mainstream in your home.

I wholeheartedly agree with bolded statements, and I love the way 4K looks at the movie theatre; it's truly a huge step up.

I think the italicized statements lack foresight. Yes, right now big-screen 4K TVs cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the fact that they are actually on the shelves now and not just a concept product virtually guarantees that they will fall in price until average consumers can afford them.

How recently was it that people were saying that digital cameras would never drop below $1000? Or more relevantly, that a full-frame compact couldn't be done? These things were science fiction a decade ago, not a century. Technology will continue to improve and saying that 4K won't become mainstream is incredibly shortsighted, because we're talking about technologies that are going to be mature in 5 years, not 50 or 500.

If you told me that teleporters will never exist, I would be skeptical. Never is a long time.

What the f--- does it costs to canon to offer a ProRes record ?

I don't know exactly how much it costs, but seeing as it's a proprietary format owned by Apple, I'd assume licensing it is not cheap. Canon has to gauge whether that cost will add to their bottom line or not, and I guess they determined that it wouldn't. If the number of additional customers who will buy it (and other factors like brand loyalty) doesn't cover the cost of adding it, then it doesn't make any sense to add.

5

Lenses / Re: best NON L long lens

« on: March 12, 2013, 07:47:08 PM »

I have the Tamron 70-300 f/4-5.6 VC on FF Nikon and it's quite nice... especially for less than $300. I agree with robbymack though that if you don't need IS the 70-200 f/4L is the way to go. I don't think any of the non-L tele zooms are very good past 200mm, anyway.

6

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: ISO 50

« on: January 21, 2013, 02:43:34 PM »

My test.
1. It is unscientific, do not pounce on me. Am learning!
2. Stats: 1dx. 24-70 II. Manual focus, exposure, WB (tungston). f5.6 1/4 and 1/8.

Its all for us to see, but to my eyes:
1. The tint at ISO 50 is truer. (This is next to my desk and I can make a visual comparison)
2. The blown whites between the statue and lamp is blown more on 50 ISO.
3. 50 ISO shows marginal noise and sharpness improvement. (This could of course be just my eyes playing games.) Or is there a shake? I did use a sturdy tripod.

Do you think I should make another test? If yes, how should I improve?

Thank you.

Sanjay

Thanks for the test sanj.

Personally, the blown highlights on the flower pattern and above the statue are more distracting to me than any marginal gain in sharpness from using ISO 50 offsets. If you are in a situation where no data exists near the saturation point, then you have lots of latitude to boost contrast anyway, and at that point it looks to me like the only difference between straight ETTR and ISO 50 is whether you apply the tone curve yourself or let the camera do it for you.

7

Contests / Re: Gura Gear Giveaway!

« on: December 06, 2012, 08:23:09 PM »

Awesome, count me in!

8

EOS Bodies / Re: !!!FIRST!!! - Full Frame Mirrorless Camera

« on: November 19, 2012, 01:02:23 PM »

1. When do you think the 1st FF mirrorless will arrive - for $3000 or less of course?

2. Which company will bring to the market first? Sony, Nikon, Samsung, Fujitsu etc….I will not bet on Canon

If I were to guess I would say Sony. But  I am not interested. My Canon system with many lenses and 2 FF cameras (5DMkII and 5DMkIII) is more than enough.

Tron,
I visit CMs in Asia 5-6 times per year. It's nice to have FF mirrorless for travel

?

According to Wikipedia, among other things CM could stand for Certified Midwife. 

9

EOS Bodies / Re: First 6D review up - does [KR] read [CR] ?

« on: November 15, 2012, 01:22:21 PM »

Aperture 1.2 @ISO 100 and sunlight anyone?

Assuming Sunny 16, 1.2 and ISO 100 should result in a shutter speed of 1/16000, if my calculations aren't completely off-base. And that's just a rule of thumb, it could be brighter.

Frankly, I think shooting at 1.2 in sunlight without an ND filter is risky anyway. Even with an available shutter speed of 1/8000 you will be bumping up against it constantly, which means no latitude (for underexposure, etc.). Relying on the camera's max shutter speed to cover that scenario for you seems like pretty poor value, if that's the only reason it's necessary and leaving it out would reduce the cost of the camera.

Now using it for other things is a different matter altogether. For example, I don't know what kind of shutter speed you need to freeze a hummingbird's wings (I've never tried). If 1/8000 does it but 1/4000 doesn't, and that's a subject you shoot regularly, then in my book that would be a good reason to stick with a camera that provides 1/8000.

10

Pricewatch Deals / Re: EF 24-70 f/4L IS & EF 35 f/2 IS Preorders

« on: November 05, 2012, 11:36:00 PM »

I like the lens cap.

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Lenses / Re: Owning the Canon 200-400 f/4L Vs 400 f/2.8L II

« on: October 07, 2012, 11:32:18 PM »

What's PF (on the AF/MF switch)?

12

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Rented a D600

« on: October 07, 2012, 11:24:14 PM »

Great to know. I've been thinking of getting a D600 once I have a paycheck, and expected the difference in control, but good to know that unfamiliarity with the interface isn't incompatible with getting the shot.

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EOS Bodies / Re: 46mp sensor useless for landscape?

« on: October 07, 2012, 03:22:59 PM »

The source article seems very in-depth and while I'd love to spend enough time reading it to understand everything it's saying, I have actual work to do today, so I will shamelessly ask the question on my mind instead: assuming that what's said in the article is correct, how does it affect lenses that can tilt? For example, if you have a TS-E 24mm, can you leave it wide open or nearly wide open to maximize the effective resolution, and use only tilt to gain the DoF you need? Put more directly, will tilting provide more absolute resolution than stopping down, or is there some other loss from tilt?

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EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS 3D Outed by B&H Photo [CR0]

« on: October 02, 2012, 06:32:57 PM »

And i found the '2D' !
 

$1,799? What a steal! That's just $0.000018 per pixel!

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Pricewatch Deals / Re: Big Canon EOS 5D Mark II Price Drop Coming

« on: September 29, 2012, 03:42:14 PM »

$100 off isn't exactly a "big" price drop...

$100? The current MSRP is $2200. That would be a $500 drop.