Messages

286

Lenses / Re: Recommendations for my first prime (5DMK3 with 24-70 II and 70-200 2.8 II)

« on: March 23, 2012, 10:38:16 AM »

Let's not discuss incomes here.

What is important is the difference between a prime and a good zoom. If you already own a good zoom and then add a much cheaper prime, you are likely to end up in a situation, where you won't use that prime often enough to make the prime a valid investment in the first place. The 50mm f1.4 may be somewhat of an exception to this.

The price of your equipment does not matter once you have bought it. You will just want to use it or not and this decision will be guided by the selection of lenses you have available.

287

Lenses / Re: Recommendations for my first prime (5DMK3 with 24-70 II and 70-200 2.8 II)

« on: March 23, 2012, 10:16:25 AM »

I am with Axilrod here: Just go for one of those nice L primes with f1.4 or f1.2. I don't think it would make sense to switch into a different price segment for a prime, if you already own really good zooms.

288

Lenses / Re: Recommendations for my first prime (5DMK3 with 24-70 II and 70-200 2.8 II)

« on: March 23, 2012, 08:16:26 AM »

This depends mostly on what you are really interested in. I suggest to take a look at a wide angle prime. As an alternative you can also choose one of the primes suited for portrait photography, if this is more of an interest, such as a 85mm or 135mm L lens. I suggest to test some of those lenses to find out, if they suit your shooting style and interests.

289

Software & Accessories / Re: Best photog backpack??

« on: March 22, 2012, 08:23:20 AM »

Noting that there is a bit of a focus on trekking, hiking and such activities in comparison to just having a save storage that you can bring with you in form of a backpack I can also recommend the following:

www.thinktankphoto.com/
www.vanguardworld.com/

What I noted from my own experience about both company's products is that their backpacks offer very good protection of your gear.

If I want to pack almost my entire gear I use a rather large vanguard backpack.

290

Software & Accessories / Re: Best photog backpack??

« on: March 22, 2012, 08:10:16 AM »

There is one backpack I can highly recommend from a German company named Jack Wolfskin called ACS Photopack.

http://www.jack-wolfskin.com/equipment/backpacks/hike-backpacks/men/2001151-acs-photopack.aspx

In case your equipment is not too large this backpack offers one major advantage: It features a carrying system developed for trekking. For me this is a big feature, because I can carry this back for quite a while without breaking a sweat. It also is small enough to be accepted as cabin luggage.

It has two limitations:
1. It does not provide storage space for a laptop. The previous version did provide that, but unfortunately that feature is gone.
2. Your gear should be limited to something like the following:

• 5D or 7D with battery pack plus one lens attached.
  
• three more lenses such as the 14mm L, 50mm L or so plus a 70-200 f2.8 L or similarly sized lens.

291

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: will a hot car hurt my gear?

« on: March 21, 2012, 06:38:19 PM »

Using a cooler is an option as long as air humidity is extremely low. In case of humidity being present you do run a risk of foggy lenses.

292

Site Information / Re: Travel Photography thread...

« on: March 21, 2012, 06:17:13 PM »

Here's a little street scene from Venice.

293

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: will a hot car hurt my gear?

« on: March 21, 2012, 05:36:40 PM »

High temperatures cannot affect only batteries, as mentioned before in this thread. What has happened to me during a trip in the United Arab Emirates was that the electronics of my 40D began malfunctioning, messing up some of the menu functions.

It didn't keep me from taking more photos, but it still felt disturbing, because I was not sure, whether to keep shooting or to bring in the camera to the local dealer for repairs. Following my usual instincts I kept shooting.

Thankfully the camera went back to normal shortly after the trip, so there was no permanent damage, only a temporary malfunction.

My advise is to store your camera equipment safely away from the sun or anything that gets as hot as 40° Celsius or more. If you go for a trip to the desert or something similar it is best to be prepared, so that you have at least a good chance to protect your gear. Storing your camera back in a trunk is better than right behind a window, but it is even better to bring a large padded bag or similarly suitable storage device, which will not be likely to transfer heat quickly. Anything that presents a barrier to heat transfer is a good choice here.

I for one positioned my backpack right on the floor of my rented vehicle, so that it would benefit from the AC and would also be sitting in the shade.

294

Site Information / Re: Travel Photography thread...

« on: March 03, 2012, 05:56:15 PM »

Now this would make much sense to me, because I am often travelling abroad on business, taking my camera gear with me. There are quite a lot of issues and things to know, which we might discuss in such a thread and which would have real value for others travelling less often.

295

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon 5D Mark III preproduction models

« on: March 03, 2012, 05:25:50 PM »

@Hippoeater:
The answer to your initial question you will find to a certain extent as soon as the first firmware updates for the 5D Mark III are out, at least for the features, which have been delayed.

If for example a higher frames per second rate was being tested, I expect you will never find out, because this is not likely to be a feature that can be added with just a firmware update.

Looking at older models you will find that the firmware updates contain three kinds of things:
1) Fixes of some kind to issues not found in initial product testing
2) Additions due to some external cause such as new card types requiring different in-camera software
3) Adding features planned for the model, but which did not make it into the initial release

Since the firmware updates contain descriptions of the changes therein you will be able to identify the kind of feature left out and added later.

296

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon 5D Mark III preproduction models

« on: March 03, 2012, 05:10:02 PM »

Well, regarding getting any information about camera model release candidates, which where not chosen, Mt. Spokane Photography has made a really valid point.

Although you may speculate and it is certainly an interesting topic to speculate on, there is not going to be any information about features in the release candidate models for the 5D Mark III, which have been dropped.

What you can also safely forget is that any of those possibly very nice features tested with other release candidates, but having been dropped after review, will suddenly reappear later within the same model. If those features have been removed, they have been removed for a reason. If the features have not been removed, they will appear either with the initial release or as a firmware update or in a later model, but the choice has been made at a certain point and it is quite often final, at least being final for the current model.

As a consequence "It never is revealed because it doesn't matter" is simply true.

Let us therefore turn our attention to features in upcoming models, such as perhaps a 5D-X.

297

Lenses / Re: two new lenses vs 5D3 Kit

« on: March 03, 2012, 03:56:37 PM »

On a crop body I have found anything like a 24mm or similar focal length to be not exactly usable for wide angle shots. You may not be able to get sufficent distance between you and the people you shoot. Your only viable choice, if you need to be able to shoot wide-angle immediately, is an EF-S lens with reasonable wide angle coverage. I myself intentionally avoided buying an EF-S lens, because I want all my lenses to be usable on full-frame. So instead of using EF-S lenses I ended up purchasing a 17-40mm L and a 14mm L for wide angle shots. In my experience even 17mm is often not wide enough for what I want using a crop body.

In my opinion purchasing an EF-S lens, when you have a budget to buy a 5D in my opinion is no good choice. I recommend you purchase the body as soon as you have found out, whether the Mark III or the Mark II is the one you want. The 24-105mm L is a very useful lens and should make you happy in combination with a full-frame body. The better high ISO capabilities of the 5D compared to your current 30D should make for a good argument, why you would not require the fast 24mm prime for low-light capabilities.

298

EOS Bodies / Re: What to expect for a new high MP full-frame body?

« on: March 03, 2012, 02:01:51 PM »

What makes me wonder is that I don't expect Canon and Nikon to swap roles. Let's think about what we know about product development a bit:

Where Nikon uses a core component from a 3rd party (Sony), Canon creates its own sensors. In product development this certainly should give Canon the edge in being independent and more flexible, where Nikon suffers an additional overhead dealing with Sony, a rather large company more and more taking a bite out of the photography market itself. I know somebody having switched from Nikon to Sony, thinking that may be more economical. That cannot be really good for Nikon, given the usual dynamics between what in the end must be considered competitors. This leads me to the expectation that Canon should be able to counter Nikon's D800 with something of its own, provided of course that Canon would want to do so. I now wonder, what this may be?

299

EOS Bodies / Re: What to expect for a new high MP full-frame body?

« on: March 02, 2012, 05:20:11 PM »

  Thanks for giving me a good laugh.

I posted this question actually thinking about what may be next, like what would make a higher MP camera body a worthwhile investment, when it appears to me right now that up to 22 MP are quite enough for quite many uses. Like is there a niche market and what for? I expect at first glance that such a camera might be targeted towards what medium format cameras are used for right now, but is this all?

300

EOS Bodies / What to expect for a new high MP full-frame body?

« on: March 02, 2012, 04:47:58 PM »

With the current Canon lineup we have several DSLR bodies to choose from with 18-22 MP.

Given that Canon is building a well-earned reputation of actually listening to their users' wants and needs and even delivering on these requirements as shown in both 7D and (judging from existing previews) also 5D Mark III I wonder what people would look for in a new high MP camera?