Messages

1816

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Which 5d/flash to get for a first wedding kit?

« on: June 15, 2012, 05:29:48 PM »

You can rent very cheaply these days.  Depending on the item, it takes between 20 - 30 rentals before you would have owned the item outright.  For professional purposes, everything you buy should be bringing you additional profit either by doing something you couldn't otherwise or saving you time, etc..

That's certainly true for added lenses like some primes or an ultrawide, but as far as I understand it and what my (now professional) approach would/will be, I have to get the basic gear for myself and use it a lot so I am accustomed to it - and that would include at least the camera body and flash I asked about as well as the basic zoom lens.

1817

Lenses / Re: Thinking of getting one of the older 20-35L or 17-35L

« on: June 15, 2012, 05:13:51 PM »

Shooting weddings I NEED the 2.8 (about the slowest that would be acceptable)

Could you please elaborate that? If f2.8 is the min. wedding aperture without IS for a 24-70 lens, isn't f4 ok for a 16mm focal length - esp. if it is for fewer, select shots only? Or is it because the af is better at f2.8?

1818

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 14-24 f/2.8L [CR2]

« on: June 15, 2012, 05:10:12 PM »

Hope this one becomes a reality.  If IQ is similar to the Nikon version, I'll drop my 16-35mm f/2.8L II like a hot potato.

Before reading this I just talked to a Nikon guy who has shot weddings & events for a long time, he's doing macro work now. He was using the Nikon 24-70 and - of course - the 14-24. This is the typical Canon-Nikon conversation:

"What, Canon doesn't have that?" - "Well, they've got a 16-35" - "I thought Nikon and Canon lenses were comparable" - "No, but Canon will follow eventually, but Canon is more expensive" - "I always thought Nikon was more expensive" - "No, It's been a couple of years since you looked, now it's the other way around". Doh.

1819

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Which 5d/flash to get for a first wedding kit?

« on: June 15, 2012, 05:07:47 PM »

So I've decided to get into the pro wedding business for real. I got to know a guy who - if my luck persists - will tell me the tricks of the local trade and coach me through my first contracts.

Until now, I shot purely for fun and learning, and now have a general idea where the shutter button is located. But in the future it'll business all over, at least that's the idea. And while it'll take a while to set me up, I'll have to get my new working gear now to become familiar with it, while keeping the cost-income relationship somewhat sane.

• Conditions: From what I'm hearing, the basic idea when starting out is to get the job done, capture the important moments, the atmosphere and to get shots of all guests and esp. the relatives, so everyone is happy. The clients I'll be acquiring when starting off won't be concerned with corner sharpness, complicated flash setups or life-size prints.
• My current gear: I've got the 60d as a backup body and the 100L for portraits, might be nice as a 160/2.8 on the crop body, too. I don't think the 70-300L is adequate for weddings, but from what I'm hearing, the local conditions don't necessarily call for a $2000+ 70-200 anyway. I'll have to get an uwa & some 24-70 lens and might ask about this in a separate thread - but with what body/flash?

BODY: I'll need a somewhat affordable high-iso ff body, so a 5d seems to make sense.

• 5d2. It's half the price of the successor, and if using focus/recompose people seem to have used this successfully for wedding occasions.
• 5d3. It's said to have higher iso performance, but looking at the raw samples I hardly can see an improvement? Is better awb, more fps (or quiet shutter), dual cards and the updated af system a noticeable improvement for weddings?

FLASH: For wedding run & gun, I guess I'll need one fast recycling flash with a battery pack, so my 430ex2 won't suffice. While shooting w/o flash might be preferable, as far as I understand it there's hardly any way around it.

• 580ex2. Isn't sold new anymore, and obsolete ir technology. Seems to have a bug when using hss extensively. But great if combined with 3rd party triggers, esp. since these can trigger dumb ttl flashes, too.
• 600rt. This is currently the must-have choice for the 5d3, but seems to be compatible with the 5d2 as well - and except the price there are no drawbacks (it can work with 3rd party triggers too)?

1820

Lenses / Re: What is you wedding kit?

« on: June 15, 2012, 05:05:32 PM »

16-35 II L

How often do you guys use the 16-35L?

I'm assembling a wedding kit, too, but if the uwa below 24mm is only used for close quarters I'd like to save some money here - and given the wide angle, isn't a 17-40L with f4 min. aperture sufficient for starters, too?

1821

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: New Canon Speedlites and ST-E3!

« on: June 15, 2012, 10:27:52 AM »

You're referring to the statement by an anonymous poster that 'a Canon rep told me...'  Not the most reliable of sources...

Yep, I know - that's why I was asking here. Waiting for a Canon legacy trigger wouldn't be a problem for many, but it would be bad if they *only* could trigger Canon flashes and not dumb, cheaper ttl ones. Do you think Canon would do that to its valued customers? Without this information, it's very hard what way to go - 3rd party or Canon.

1822

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: So Nikon D600 is real after all

« on: June 15, 2012, 10:25:00 AM »

ISO 50 -200   I think even the Rebel can be noise free. or am i not picky at all?

No, this iso range is fine with the 18mp sensor, unless you are trying to pull shadows and the dr limitations show.

Second the 5D2n as a direct competition to the D600, with let say just a 7D AF system and Metering, but that would upset a lot of 5D3 buyers, as the 7D system is very capable already

For many lenses, the 7d system is even more capable as the 1dx/5d3 one - I just learned that the af system of the latter doesn't degrade only with max. open aperture, but Canon specifically puts lenses in Groups, leaving only their top lenses to fully use the af system - see 5d3 manual, pp78.

On the other hand, the 7d system is at least up to par because it always uses cross type sensors on the edges, with my 70-300L and the 5d3 I'd only get horizontal and thus worse af performance in difficult situations!

1823

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Real world impact of 5d3/1dx af system with slower apertures than f4?

« on: June 15, 2012, 10:17:57 AM »

Realistically, I think the 70-300mm L will do fine with the horizontal line points - the DoF with an f/4-5.6 lens is pretty deep, the more accurate sensors are primarily beneficial with the thinner DoF of faster lenses.

The dof might be not razor thin at tele range, but that's no substitute for pattern detection as you know. But you don't have the 70-300L, so I guess you cannot tell how good it really is.

Thanks for telling me about the groups, just looked it up in the 5d3 manual an this isn't specified in any other 1dx/5d3 af reviews I looked at. Even the 180mm macro is a "Group G". Is this Canon marketing at work, or is this due to some real hardware considerations? 

* The 24-70 is Group B, while the older 28-70 is Group A???

* Both the oldest 100mm non-L *non-USM* macro and the new 100L macro are  listed as Group C, while the 100mm non-L *USM* is only "Group E" without cross-point sensors to the side. And why isn't the 100mm L macro "Group A" like the 70-200/2.8?

* What about 3rd party lenses like the Tamron 24-70: What group rating do they get?

* What about the Kenko extenders, do they impact the group rating like the Canon extenders do?

1824

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: New Canon Speedlites and ST-E3!

« on: June 15, 2012, 09:17:41 AM »

I will wait to see, whether or not Canon brings out RT-receivers to include existing Speedlites (especially 580/II and 430/II) as well as monolights in a wireless setup and updates  their wireless ETTL-protocol  to include 2nd curtain flash.

The only indication I've seen is a post here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/canon/announcements/new-canon-600ex-rt-speedlite-flash-powerhouse stating that Canon will release a legacy radio trigger add-on, I guess once everybody who is in a hurry bought multiple 600rt flashes.

Any news/schedule on the radio tigger add-ons, or if they'll be able to trigger non-Canon flashes as well?

If they are, except for 2nd curtain x-sync the 3rd party alternatives become obsolete, but on the other hand Canon might be hesitant to radio-trigger cheap Yongnuos cannibalizing their own expensiv flash sales. What do you think?

1825

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: 430EX II Price Drops

« on: June 15, 2012, 09:10:59 AM »

I've been noticing the recent price drops on the 430EX II.  Do you think this is a sign that the 440EX-RT is imminent?

What I'm seeing in Germany, the price didn't change, but even jumped a little due to a current rebate program. But I'm sure Canon will update the 430ex2 sooner or later, maybe photokina - the only question is if they'll introduce radio receivers for optical legacy flashes, too (430ex2, 580ex2).

1826

EOS Bodies / Re: 60D owners...help, i need reassurance before i pull the trigger

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:32:58 AM »

magic lanter runs in my 50D also, but i never installed; it's not a canon product, it's something that you use at your own risk

I was concerned at first about this, too. But at least the unified port nowadays is very stable, and it just sets a flag in camera to enable it to boot from the card - you can reverse this at any time. Given the features ml adds to still shooing, live view and video, I'd say it's worth the extremely tiny risk anytime.

1827

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D mk II still a viable option?

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:24:32 AM »

3rd: They crippled it on purpose. With a 17 times more powerful processor they could make it 7 or 8 fps.

Don't worry, in 3 years they might release a firmware upgrade like on the 7d enabling the faster fps :-p

1828

Lenses / Re: Upgrade 70-200 2.8 is to version II and add 2x TC, or get 100-400L?

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:21:54 AM »

For me, it would be much more annoying if I had to carry 70-200 II Plus a 300 or 400 mm lens.

Well, there is the 70-300L which is rather inexpensive in comparison to the 70-200+tc alternative and more suited for travel. But the 70-300L is a less frightening travel/walkaround lens with a native/fast af @300mm, and not designed for low-light shooting when the (max.) open aperture matters. For professional use and manual exposure, the way to go is a fixed aperture lens.

1829

EOS Bodies / Re: 60D owners...help, i need reassurance before i pull the trigger

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:09:26 AM »

well the co9mparison between 5dmk3 and d800 is a non-sense. the 5d is better in several areas than d800, the 60D is worst than k5/d7000 in everything (except lens selection, but this is not a feature of the camera)

... I don't think a 5d3/d800 discussion refresh is necessary, but to stay on topic while outclassed by the d7000 the 60d runs magic lantern while Nikon doesn't have any 3rd party firmware add-ons - this was the decisive reason back when I decided to go the Canon path.

1830

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Should wait for a new EOS body?

« on: June 15, 2012, 05:54:56 AM »

I like my 60D body but i would like a better one.

"Better" is relative - what exactly do you expect from a camera body upgrade, and how do you think it'll affect your shots?