Messages

16

Canon General / Re: Will you pay $125,000 for Canon's Mixed Reality headset?

« on: February 22, 2013, 05:47:11 AM »

Hi,
   Err... I don't think this is the same department that in-charge of the camera....

  Anyway, may be Canon use this technology to test their new camera handling... a virtual 7d2?? ha ha ha

  Have a nice day.

17

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS 7D Mark II Spec List [CR2]

« on: February 20, 2013, 12:25:47 AM »

Hi,

What strikes me odd is if Canon makes this camera, it would mean their highest MP camera would be an APS-C format body, not full frame. That just doesn't sound logical, why would they do that? This camera would have a pixel density equal to a 61mp full frame camera, that is far beyond the resolving power of most lenses. I doubt this camera would really come anywhere close to the IQ of the 5DmkIII, that is just wishful thinking, at any ISO.

    This DSLR is not aim at user who image quality is their highest priority... get FF DSLR for that.

    Basically, "Image Quality, Performance & Built and Price"... choose 2 of them:
1) If you want image quality and better price, performance & built will not be good -> Canon 6D
2) If you want image quality and performance & built, price will be high -> Canon 1Dx.
3) If you want performance & built and better price, image quality will not be as good -> Canon 7D.

Anyway, base on my "eyeball" compare, 6D is 2 stop better than 7D in noise performance, so if this DSLR can have 1 stop better than current 7D, I'll be happy.

    Have a nice day.

18

Software & Accessories / Re: Suggestions on how to organize all my years of photo's in LR 4.3?

« on: February 18, 2013, 12:15:10 AM »

Hi,
    Yes, learn to use the keywords and keyword hierarchies to organize your photo is the way to go. For example, my keyword hierarchies is something like the below:

- *NEW
- LOCATION
  - Country A
    - Location Name
- EVENT
  - Birding Trips
  - Birthday
  - Family Trips
- LANDSCAPE
- PEOPLE
  - Family
  - Friend
- WILDLIFE
  - Birds
    - Bird Family Name
      - Bird Name

   Every photo will have one or more keywords associate with it, so I can use the smart collection to find any photos or create virtual album quickly (for example, all  "Birding Trips" photo I took in "Country A"). Also, all photo that I just imported will have the "*New" tag, so I can use the smart collection to find all photo I haven't tag yet easily and take my time to tag them. Once finish tagging, I'll remove the "*New" tag from those photo.

   As you can see the keywords and keyword hierarchies are very powerful and how to organize it is basically depend on you.

   Have a nice day.

19

EOS Bodies / Re: EOS not good for NASA?

« on: February 13, 2013, 07:47:12 AM »

Hi,

Sorry if I ruined ur post but all I could see was that giant lenscap

    This is the HyperStar ( http://www.hyperstarimaging.com ) imaging configuration which made the 2350mm F10 telescope to a 540mm F2.3 imaging system.

    Have a nice day.

20

EOS Bodies / Re: EOS not good for NASA?

« on: February 13, 2013, 12:09:25 AM »

Hi,

But how does one explain some of the pictures taken from the space station with a 1200mm lens?

    May be they use a telescope... 

    Anyway, they recent install a modified Celestron CPC 9.25" telescope with Canon 7D DSLR for the ISERV (International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System) project.


(image source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/iserv.html )

   Have a nice day.

21

EOS Bodies / Re: *UPDATE* EOS 70D is Coming, The Future of Pro APS-C Will Change

« on: February 10, 2013, 01:34:44 AM »

What's "100% crop" video?
Daniel

There is a mode on the 60D where you can shoot 640x480 video taken from the 640x480 pixels at the center of the sensor. It's VERY usefull for image stacking in astrophotography....

   Also very good for taking video clip of small birds or birds that are far away...

   Have a nice day.

22

EOS Bodies / Re: *UPDATE* EOS 70D is Coming, The Future of Pro APS-C Will Change

« on: February 09, 2013, 09:07:56 PM »

Hi,
   For me, I'm not greedy:
   - Improve AF,
   - Improve low light AF
   - 1 stop improvement in noise over current 7D (but preserve all the noise information like all the current Canon DSLR)
   - 2nd SD card slot
   - 100% crop 1080p HD video
   - the rest can remain same as current 7D including price (hopefully)
   
   Have a nice day.

23

Canon General / Re: Cannon / Nikon Meme

« on: February 09, 2013, 12:40:51 AM »

Hi,
    Wrong colour scheme... it's should be WHITE with RED band... ha ha ha 

    Have a nice day.

24

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: First big job using FF - for all the FF nay-sayers

« on: February 04, 2013, 09:57:49 AM »

Hi,
    I also shoot birds and using the 400mm F5.6L on 60D... can't afford anything longer or better than that, so IMHO, for budget birder, APS-C is still very attractive.

    Anyway, I plan to wait till May or June and look at the review of the 5D3 F8 implementation, if it's really good, reliable and AF not slow down by too much, I might change to 5D3... 400mm + 1.4x on 22MP FF DSLR will had very similar reach to 400mm on 18MP APS-C DSLR.

   Have a nice day.

25

EOS Bodies / Re: EOS not good for NASA?

« on: January 15, 2013, 08:01:39 PM »

Hi,
    I think they do use Canon EOS, but just not in space.

http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2011/07/how-does-nasa-get-nikon-d2xs-ready-to-go-to-space

    Anyway, this photo ( http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/565184main_jsc2011e040349_hires.jpg ) you mention is taken with a EOS 5D II (So they may be use Nikon to take photo of space and Canon to took photo on Earth?? ha ha ha :-P ). If you look at NASA image archive ( http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/multimedia/preflight/Image_Gallery_Collection_archive_38.html ), you'll see quite a lot of them taken with Canon EOS (5D II, 7D & ID4).

    Have a nice day.
   

26

Technical Support / Re: Press shutter once to take picture, it stays closed, press again and it opens

« on: January 10, 2013, 05:06:28 AM »

Hi,

Good to hear the problem's solved.
This is now getting off topic, but I'd like some advice/comments please. I've never actually used LiveView in any real way. So here's what I need to know:
I want to go out and photograph star trails, you know the kind, several hundred shots stacked to make to final image. Now if I set my camera for 30second exposures, continuous shooting and lock my cable release, it'll obviously keep taking shots until a) I tell it not to or b) the battery runs out.
The question: If i use LiveView to focus and avoid all those nasty tremors and slaps, will the screen stay on all the time and drain my battery? Can I tell it not to stay on?
I'm shooting a 7D.

    What you should do is switch to manual focus, focus manually via life view and then turn off the LCD during actual shooting. You don't need life view or mirror lockup for long exposure, so off the LCD which will preserve battery power and reduce the heat generate by the LCD (improve noise performance).

As the 7D has a top display, so while taking the photo in live view, the rear screen will display nothing.

However, astro photographers normally uses stacking in combination with a motorised equatorial mount - that way each shot will be of the same bit of sky with no motion blur of the stars, and the stacking software puts the frames together to reduce noise and increase the detail of the stars.

Star trail photos are made with very long exposures - just put your camera in bulb mode for that type of shot.

    The ideal way of taking Star trail is to use a single long exposure via bulb mode, but using DSLR, we can take the digital way... by taking many part of the trail using shorter exposure and then combine them together to form a single trail... the different is not obvious if you plan it carefully, the lens is wide enough and you don't 100% pixel peek. The advantage of this method is that you can limit the noise and you still can take a long star trail if your sky is quite light polluted.

    Anyway, IMHO, 30s is still a bit too short for this type of shooting unless he don't have an external timer controller.

    Have a nice day.

27

Technical Support / Re: Press shutter once to take picture, it stays closed, press again and it opens

« on: January 09, 2013, 11:40:58 PM »

Hi,
    On more advantage for live view over mirror lockup is that with mirror lockup, you can't prevent or limit motion blur cause by subject moment, but with live view, since you can see the subject (at 10x), you can took the shot at the moment when the subject is perfectly stationary... good for birding at low light without flash... 

   Have a nice day.

28

Lenses / Re: Want 400mm reach (FF) - 70-200 2.8 IS II + 2x III or 400 5.6L?

« on: January 07, 2013, 05:03:25 AM »

Hi,
    IMHO, if you don't need very fast AF, the 70-200mm F2.8 IS II + 2xIII is a better option.

    Have a nice day.

29

EOS Bodies / Re: What will be the issue with the 6D

« on: November 24, 2012, 01:35:23 PM »

Hi,

Really, the only problems I have are 3 things. The wifi is small, and either won't work for long ranges, or will drain too mush battery. The gps will be like new apple maps, because, it's experimental. And lastly the buttons, the original 60d's buttons were horrible, so I'm a little upset they are throwing the 6d in a 60d body.

    I own a 60D and I actually prefer the 60D buttons (those beside the top LCD) compare to 7D buttons. One button, one function... clean and simple. 

   Have a nice day.

30

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D mark III or 7D and 5D mark II

« on: November 20, 2012, 12:38:30 PM »

Hi,
    I'm currently using a 400mm F5.6L and 60D for birds photography and I'm also consider changing to a FF (I'm thinking of 6D), so here is what I think at the moment.

     The advantage of FF is better image quality, better high ISO performance and better low light AF (both 5D3 and 6D had better low light AF than current crop sensor DSLR on paper), but the disadvantage is "lesser reach". Also, with a crop sensor, you are using the center "sweet spot" of the lens image circle, so your image is relatively sharper across the entire image compare using a FF.

    With a 1.4x TC on 5D3 or 6D (on paper, 6D had better low light AF at center AF point than 5D3, so hoping it'll get F8 AF), you get closer to the "reach" of a crop sensor, but with a 1.4x TC, your AF will be slower which is not good for birds photography... now, the question is how much slower?

    So I'm waiting for the 7DII specification to be out before I decide. Hopefully, the 7DII will have better low light AF and 1 to 2 stop better high ISO performance than current model... if not, I might change to a FF if F8 AF is not that slow.

    Just my $0.02.

    Have a nice day.