Messages

16

Lenses / Re: 24-70 IS ii v 70-200 IS ii

« on: March 21, 2013, 09:50:43 PM »

If your on a budget, you might want to go for the 200mm F/2.8 L.  It is light and autofocuses very quickly, I just got mine yesterday and already have fallen in love with it.  It is light weight so good for traveling and very very sharp. 
Here are some shots I got with mine, they are cropped in slightly and some of them were shot through window glass so it is very impressive how sharp they are. 

Like this second image ... very nice, beautiful colors. That looks like one tack sharp lens Congratulations on your purchase ... since 2009 I've considered getting the 200 f/2.8 L on several occasions but somehow never made up my mind and for better or worse I finally ended up buying the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II in 2010, but I still look at the 200 L prime with envy.

Thank you very much.  I tried to match the colors as much as possible as they were in real life because I was shooting through a tinted glass window that really skewed the colors.  I'm a little envious towards your 70-200, I've tried the 70-200 and the only thing it seems to be worse at is distortion and vignetting.

17

Lenses / Re: 24-70 IS ii v 70-200 IS ii

« on: March 20, 2013, 10:05:14 PM »

If your on a budget, you might want to go for the 200mm F/2.8 L.  It is light and autofocuses very quickly, I just got mine yesterday and already have fallen in love with it.  It is light weight so good for traveling and very very sharp. 
Here are some shots I got with mine, they are cropped in slightly and some of them were shot through window glass so it is very impressive how sharp they are. 







Edit
Also here is a shot of a brick wall wide open, you know, for if your interested in that kind of stuff

18

PowerShot / Trip to the zoo with the S100

« on: March 14, 2013, 10:27:31 PM »

Here are some shots I got with my S100 last summer at the St. Louis Zoo

19

Landscape / Re: Landscape From 36,000 Feet!

« on: March 14, 2013, 09:54:11 PM »

Here is a shot I got while flying out of Missouri.  Shot with Canon 5D MKII, 50mm 1.8 II at 1.8, iso 25,600 and shutter speed of 1/160.  Was my first time photographing out of a plane and wasn't sure what kind of shutter speed I needed. 

20

Lenses / Re: Need help with choosing a telephoto for $800 and under

« on: March 10, 2013, 12:00:17 AM »

If I'm interested in having the f/2.8, would the 80-200mm f/2.8 magic drain pipe be a good idea or is it to old of a len?

21

Lenses / Need help with choosing a telephoto for $800 and under

« on: March 09, 2013, 03:39:40 PM »

I recently upgraded from a Canon T1i to a Canon 5D MKII and have sold my longer lenses, my 75-300mm f4-5.6 III, which was a terrible lens, and a 28-135mm IS USM.  The only sort of telephoto lens I have right now is a Sigma 105mm macro.  I have a budget of about $800 US and I am not sure what lens to go for in Canons large range of telephotos.  I have manly been thinking about getting a 200mm f/2.8 II as I want to do portraits and I think that this would be a good length on full frame for portraits.  When I had my T1i, I would use my 50mm 1.8 II, but now this seems to be a bit too wide for portraits as it has more distortion then I would like.  When I do portraits, I do them outside so distance away from my subject wouldn't be much of an issue but I am a bit concerned about my control over dof, would there be to much when doing body shots?  Would I better off just using my 105mm for portraits? 

I'm going to Hawaii for spring break and would like to capture more shots of birds and stuff, would the 200mm be a good choice, also what is the difference between the 200mm f/2.8 i vs ii?

Here is some of my portrait work with my 50mm on my T1i








Here is some work I've done with my 105mm on my T1i






Here a shot with the 105mm on my 5D



Sorry for the randomness of my post, I'm just not sure what to go for.

22

EOS Bodies / Re: 6D or 5D Mk II

« on: March 03, 2013, 12:03:56 AM »

Go to Ken Rockwell's site for definitve info on all these. I will get the 6D based on his input, my first digital after a long velvia/zeiss marriage. Ken  was in the industry developing hardware and software for color digital, and now is a full time reviewer. If its not good enough, he tells us, if its superior, you get to know.

I really hope you are trolling or kidding.

23

Lenses / Sigma 105mm F/2.8 Macro EX DG Review

« on: February 26, 2013, 11:54:01 PM »

The Sigma 105mm F/2.8 Macro EX DG is one of the best deals I have ever come across in my short time in photography.  I think that the 90-180mm range of macro lenses are some of the most versatile lenses.  They are usable for a lot more then just macro, they can do great portraits, wildlife, action, and just anything where you need the most amount of detail.  With most macro lenses starting out at F/2.8, they are great for shallow depth of field, but also stop down to as far as F/45 so you can get as much of your subject in focus, an importent thing when doing macro photography.  I got my lens for only $300 in mint condition and I would recommend it to everyone, but not without warning.  The autofocus was alright when it was on my T1i, but when using my 5D MKII, a lot of my shots have been out of focus and I have had to check my focus with live view.  I don't know if it is an electronics problem or if it is that my 5D and lens are on oposite spectrums of the autofocus tolerance and I need to do some micro adjusting.  But while the autofocus is bad, this lens is great for video as it has a very smooth focus ring that is a joy to turn.  For portait this lens is great at around 3.5 this lens is great for portait as it give enough depth of field but still has pretty circular bokeh, it is importent to remember this lens only has eight straight apature blades rather than a nicer nine rounded.  Overall sharpness and performance of this lens is great and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to get into macro as this lens serves so many purposes, you will definitely get your moneys worth out of it.

Movie shot with lens in combination with 50mm 1.8

Nature	Small | Large

Wildlife shot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8276147216/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8210395424/#in/photostream

Portrait
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8107624722/#in/photostream

Macro
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8101755629/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8355912864/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8354838679/#in/photostream

Action
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8355902460/#in/photostream

24

Lenses / Re: What are Canon's sharpest lenses?

« on: February 25, 2013, 08:09:39 PM »

Might get some hate for this but my Sigma 105mm F/2.8 Macro EX DG is so sharp.  I got it used on ebay for $300 and way outperforms my 17-40 and my 50mm 1.8.  Here are some of the photos I've gotten out of the lens, well worth the $300, though I have to admit, the autofocus is pretty bad, it worked alright on my Canon T1i but when I upgraded to the Canon 5D MKII, the autofocus works even worse.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8276147216/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8210395424/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8107624722/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8101755629/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8355912864/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8354838679/#in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627224@N02/8355902460/#in/photostream

25

Landscape / Re: Post Your Best Landscapes

« on: January 27, 2013, 04:27:40 PM »

Two of my favorites

26

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Third Party Accessories - What to Buy, What to Avoid

« on: January 21, 2013, 09:58:25 PM »

Sigma 105mm EX DG Macro F/2.8 was a great lens on my Canon T1i, though I upgraded to a Canon 5D Mk II and it has been missing focus, I need to adjust the micro adjustments for it.  I also got a Yongnuo YN-560 II and just this week, about 90 days after I bought it, the flash went out, the flash made a loud pop sound and it started to smell really badly, so I guess the bulb broke or something.  The flash was amazing up till that moment but I was in the middle of a payed photo shoot and I was not able to get my best results because of this.  I use my flash with the Cowboy Studios FM radio trigger things and they work great, I don't need a system with ETTL because I shoot with a manual flash so they are great and really cheap.  I also got some Wasabi batteries for my new 5D MKII and while I have not had them for to long, I love them, very cheap and very good. 

         I do have a question for all of you on here, what is the best third party grip for the 5D MKII?  A lot of them seem not to have the rubber on the back which seems like something that would be a little annoying.  I've also read the you have to remove the grip when you put batteries in it and that the grips can easily get stuck to the camera.  I've also heard that the battery grips can suck a lot of energy from the batteries so if you leave the batteries in the camera, it will be out of charge in less then a week.  I've been thinking about getting the Pixel battery grip but I haven't heard much about it.

27

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: What photo/video gear did Santa bring you this year?

« on: December 27, 2012, 07:10:44 PM »

...Santa is thinking about getting me a 200mm F/2.8 L as a late gift but he needs to do a little more research on it.  What do you guys think of the 200mm F/2.8 L on a full frame DSLR, would it be good for outdoor portraits were space is not an issue?...

I just got that lens and all I can say is that you'll love it. Exceptional AF speed, very sharp, physically not very big as far as a 200 goes. I got a mint copy on eBay for $460.

Thanks, you have sent me over the edge, going to buy it when I see a good copy on Ebay.

28

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: What photo/video gear did Santa bring you this year?

« on: December 27, 2012, 12:03:13 AM »

Santa got me a Canon 5D MKII, and Santa is thinking about getting me a 200mm F/2.8 L as a late gift but he needs to do a little more research on it.  What do you guys think of the 200mm F/2.8 L on a full frame DSLR, would it be good for outdoor portraits were space is not an issue?


Me with my gift

29

Animal Kingdom / Re: Show your Bird Portraits

« on: December 20, 2012, 07:47:08 PM »

Bald Eagle shot with

Canon 5D MKII with Sigma 105mm EX DG F/2.8 Macro at F/3.5, 1/500th of a second, ISO 100.

30

Third Party Manufacturers / Best Third Party BG-E6 Battery Grip For Canon 5D MkII?

« on: December 19, 2012, 03:00:16 PM »

I recently got a Canon 5D MKII, I just sent it back to Amazon to get a new one because of the price difference now.  For some reason, when I called to see if I could get $270 off my purchase, they said send your camera in and order a new one, we will refund you the $1,799.  I told them it would be much easier to just deduct the $270 and that way they would not get a used camera back, I've only had it for six days but still it isn't in box, and have to resale it as used.  Anyways the important thing is that during my first photo shoot with the camera, it did not feel natural to me because of the lack of a battery grip, I usually shoot with a Canon T1i gripped.  I would like to buy a battery grip for the 5D but Canons is just way to much, I'm not looking to spend more then about $70 on a grip.  I was wondering what grip you guys would recommend.  I've seen stuff about having to remove the battery grip every time you put in the batteries and stuff about plastic gears breaking on the grip and them getting stuck on the body.  I would like to know is it really necessary to remove the grip every time you put in the batteries, I've never done that on my T1i and it works perfectly.  Also when looking at many of the grips for the 5D, I have seen that they dont have rubber on the back which to me seems like something that would be very annoying.  So CanonRumors, what do you think is the best grip for your money?